The new political realities in the Maghreb and Mashreq countries have required the EU to take a fresh look at the Union’s relationship with its Southern neighbors. In response, the recently reviewed European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) has put cooperation with civil society organizations (CSOs)...

Commission President Barroso has made it a point to regularly engage with think tanks (TTs), most notably in the preparation of his annual State of the Union speech in the European Parliament, but also by mandating the Bureau of European Policy Advisers (BEPA) to act as their main interlocutor....

With the operational launch of the European External Action Service (EEAS), exactly one year after the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, a key piece of the new EU external action puzzle falls into place. From now on, the game is likely to change, internally and externally. Yet change will...

Regarding the CFSP/ESDP domain, the Lisbon Treaty includes practically the same provisions as the ill-fated EU Constitutional Treaty: its key elements, in fact, have been preserved, a few terminological details and “interpretative” declarations apart.

The enlarged EU is confronted with a great variety of threats, risks and hazards potentially coming from its periphery. These, however, are quite different from the traditional ones of the past, and interact with one another in changeable and sometimes unpredictable ways. In turn, also the new...