Germany is rearming. How do its European partners feel about it? A new Böll EU Brief presents what is, to our knowledge, the first public survey of its kind, with more than 9,000 people in France, Poland, Italy, Greece, Lithuania and Czechia. Two thirds support German rearmament, but backing varies by country and does not always come with trust. The top concern is the rise of extremist forces in Germany. Asked who should lead the defence of Europe, the largest group wants the EU to share that role, with no single country in charge. Germany must rearm, but also reassure.
How can the EU safeguard its foreign policy capacity to act despite national vetoes? In his new IEP Policy Paper in cooperation with the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, Daniel Hegedüs explores how qualified majority voting could enable enhanced cooperation among member states without Treaty amendment.
A report prepared by the Institute of Public Affairs in cooperation with the Heinrich Böll Foundation presents key findings of a new public opinion survey conducted simultaneously in Poland, Germany, and France. The study explores how citizens in the three countries perceive the significance and role of the Weimar Triangle. The findings point to clear public support for further strengthening cooperation among the three countries. At the same time, they highlight its greatest weakness: the Weimar Triangle remains relatively little known and has yet to become a visible part of citizens’ everyday experience.
The Arctic is at a geopolitical crossroads. Russia's war on Ukraine has paralysed the Arctic Council, Trump's ambitions over Greenland are fracturing transatlantic trust, and the climate crisis risks being pushed off the political agenda. As the region's governance vacuum deepens, the EU faces a pivotal choice: seize the moment or be sidelined. This policy paper sets out how the EU can build a credible, legitimate role in a rapidly shifting Arctic.
Europe is more present in the Indo-Pacific than most people realise, and far less coordinated than it needs to be. A new dataset of 1,077 cooperation entries, spanning EU institutions and all 27 Member States, reveals that European security engagement in the region has accelerated sharply since 2021. But activity across defence industry, military deployments, and institutional frameworks remains fragmented, duplicated, and largely invisible at EU level. In this Böll EU Brief, Jacob Mardell maps the coordination deficit, and sets out six concrete steps to close it.
It is near consensual among Europeans that they need to strengthen the ‘European pillar in NATO’. This study traces the evolution of the concept of the European pillar, delineates potential meaning, and spells out what it would take to operationalize it.
