Policy areas

The promise of economic prosperity lies at the heart of the European project. Yet, the global financial crisis hit the Union heavily, seriously endangering citizens’ trust in the common currency. While European economies still grapple with its consequences of the crisis, the root causes of the Euro crisis are far from being abolished. In this policy field crucial for the future of the European Union as a whole, we enrich various dimensions of the debate. Grounded in our expertise on the institutional architecture of the Economic and Monetary Union, we deliver concrete proposals for reforms of the Eurozone. Furthermore, we focus on economic integration and the Single Market as well as rising inequalities within the EU.

The EU’s neighbourhood is characterised by turmoil and fragility whilst the pillars of the multilateral rules-based order are under attack. External and internal expectations on the EU to bundle its weight to wield influence on the international stage are high. Yet, EU foreign and security policy tends to be characterised by a gap between expectations and ambitions on the one hand, and actual delivery on the other. In our think tank work, we analyse these challenges and constraints, assess how the EU has dealt with concrete international dossiers, and develop forward-looking recommendations for its international role in a world increasingly driven by geopolitics. Our work places special emphasis on the role and contribution of the Franco-German couple.

The political system of the EU is based on functioning institutions and on the principle of democracy. In the triangle of Commission, Council and Parliament, the roles of each institution are clearly defined. Increasingly, the involvement of national parliaments and direct participation of citizens play a role in strengthening democracy at the EU-level. In this dynamic policy field, we at the Jacques Delors Centre put forward innovative proposals for institutional reforms and stronger democratic procedures. We also analyse the development and implications of broader political trends such as differentiated integration and Eurosceptic populism. We participate in transnational projects, like the H2020 project EU IDEA (EU Integration and Differentiation for Effectiveness and Accountability) and the “Observatoire politique du Parlement européen” of the Jacques Delors Institute in Paris.

Following the spike in arrival numbers throughout 2015 and 2016, migration has moved to the top of the European political agenda. Since then, internal controversies challenge the political cohesion of the Union, member states are struggling to find a common understanding of solidarity, while reforming the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) has proven to be especially difficult. In addition, migration policies are becoming more and more interlinked with questions of internal security and foreign affairs, which broadens the number of relevant actors. In this protracted policy field, our proposals contribute to finding new ideas for reforming the CEAS and our policy analyses closely follow the externalisation of EU asylum and migration policies. We provide insights into the narratives and discourses on migration and explore the link between migration, border management and foreign- as well as security policies.

The ongoing digital transformation creates some of the largest economic, political and social challenges for the European Union. Economic question about the competitiveness of Europe's start-up ecosystem and capabilities in new technologies like Artificial Intelligence are linked to political questions about the EU's place in the world amid the two digital superpowers, the US and China. At the same time, the digital transformation also forces the EU to reflect how it can protect and transfer its core values of humanism, the rule of law and the protection of civil liberties into the age of algorithmic decision-making and ubiquitous data generation and analysis. We at the Jacques Delors Centre approach the key policy challenges of the digital transformation from a distinctly European angle. On the one hand, we focus on economic challenges such as the digital Single Market and taxation of digital value creation. On the other hand, we analyse the political and societal dimension of the digital transformation as action against disinformation online and rules on the ethical use of algorithms.