European Union

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.

The European Commission’s Electrification Action Plan and a dedicated Heating & Cooling Strategy must help removing the many political and financial hurdles to renewable heating. Citizens in the EU still depend largely on fossil gas and other fossil fuels to keep their homes warm. After the massive increase of fossil gas prices in 2022, another global fossil fuel price crisis unfolds. There are clean and affordable domestic alternatives for heating, such as solar thermal energy, sustainable bioenergy and geothermal and ambient energy. Using renewable electricity for heating is the solution for cutting both emissions and households’ energy bills. The electric heat pump is the key technology, using electricity to pump up the temperature level of ambient or geothermal heat.

Five months into the new European Commission, the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union is releasing an updated European Green Deal Risk Radar, spotlighting critical risks to the EU’s climate, environmental, and sustainability laws in the 2024–2029 legislative term.

In a pivotal week for transatlantic trade relations, the new EU Böll Brief “Trading partners? Europe's options against Trump’s tariffs“ analyses the potential consequences of rising US tariffs on European trade and explores strategic responses available to the EU, highlighting the economic risks of a tariff war for each individual EU Member State and outlining alternative strategies for the EU to safeguard its economic interests.

2024 is a crucial year for Transatlantic relations, with EU and US elections at both sides of the pond. This web dossier compilates articles, podcasts and resources from the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung offices and partners on the future of EU-US relations.

Since the EU published its EU-China Strategic Outlook in 2019, half a dozen EU Member States have come out with relevant China-related strategies. A new study by Jacob Mardell highlights that with each newly published national strategy on China or the Indo-Pacific, the overall EU approach towards China is also evolving.

So far there has been no separate legal status for associations organised at European level. This not only makes transnational cooperation more difficult, but also makes civil society vulnerable.

The uneven distribution of Covid-19 vaccines is one of the main discussion points at EU-Africa Union summit on 17-18 February 2022. Two years into the pandemic, about 75% of the EU’s population has already received at least one vaccine dose, while on the African continent only 16% has been jabbed. The sustained pandemic not only affects the public health conditions but also African economies, societies and political stability. This dossier sheds light on the impacts of Covid-19 on African countries and offers ways forward for a green, inclusive and feminist recovery.