With the establishment of the permanent European Council presidency and the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the role of rotating presidencies has changed. This will have an impact on the role of the Trio Presidency in future. Does the rotating presidency still matter? In this new edition of Think Global – Act European (TGAE), launched by Notre Europe, 14 Europeans think tanks answer that question by scrutinizing the 18-month agenda of the Spanish, Belgian and Hungarian Trio Presidency. For each specific issue (structural reform, economic governance, energy, climate change, migration, internal security, global governance, foreign policy defence, enlargement, neighbourhood, EU institutions, European political space and budget) they analyse the global context, existing challenges and put forward concrete proposals concerning key initiatives that can be taken by the Trio Presidency during this period. In the sensitive context of the Lisbon Treaty implementation and complex management of the economic crisis, specific attention is given to the decisive coordination role that can be played by the Trio Presidency in defining more efficient – more integrated – European strategies.

Address by Bertrand de Largentaye, former researcher at Notre Europe and current Counsellor to the Permanent Delegation of the European Commission to the OECD and the UNESCO. He proposes an analysis of the Obama Adminsitration one year on.

This paper was published as a chapter in ‘unlocking a low-carbon Europe: perspectives on EU budget reform’, published by Green Alliance in February 2010 and available to download from Green Alliance Website.

After nine years of debate on institutional reform, the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty brings to a close a turbulent chapter of European integration. Many are of the opinion that the European Union should now focus its attention on other issues. Yet an important lesson can be learned from this saga: the current procedure for revising treaties is doomed to fail and could ultimately paralyze the Union because it increases the number of members who hold veto rights. This is why it is imperative that it be reformed. But how? And when? This study, which is the result of an expert group’s collective endeavour, presents several concrete proposals for achieving this goal.

Available in French only. The end of the year 2009 was marked by a series of good news concerning Serbia's European perspective. In this speech pronounced at the Belgrade Conference in December 2009, Pierre Mirel (Director, DG Enlargement) goes through the latest updates from the negotiations between the EU and the former Yugoslav countries. He also outlines the principal challenges that stand in the way of these countries' advancement towards EU accession.

How much do European Union (EU) interventions influence national public policies? Does the EU intervene in a “subsidiary” way, as asserted in the Community Treaties, or is it omnipresent and omnipotent as public opinion sometimes claims? For example, is 80% of national legislation of Community origin or, to the contrary, is it a much smaller share? At a time when EU citizens have just elected their representatives in the European Parliament for the next five years, it seems more necessary than ever to try to address these questions which are essential from a policy vantage point, but which have not yet generally given rise to very precise responses.

The third European Estates General will be held in Strasbourg on April 17th 2010. The European civilian society’s meeting. In commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration A Franco-German Edition “Europe’s heritage, what responsibilities?”