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Think Global - Act European IV. Thinking Strategically about the EU's External Action

30/04/2013

Within the context of reinforced global interdependence, the European Union needs to develop more strategic thinking in order to react to the tectonic changes occurring on the international scene. To anticipate the negative spillover of the euro crisis on the EU's international influence and avoid the progressive marginalisation of Europeans on the global scene, the EU needs to equip itself with an integrated strategy for the European external action. The fourth edition of the Think Global - Act European (TGAE) project, directed by Notre Europe-Jacques Delors Institute, brings together 16 European think tanks, to examine the new challenges faced by the EU's external action and formulate a number of key policy proposals on: the promotion of European economic interest worldwide, a sustainable management of strategic resources, the demographic and migration challenge, neighbourhood policy and defence capacities. These proposals, from over 40 experts from all over Europe, call for the EU to address its coordination problems and solicit the need for a new paradigm for EU's external action based on a strategic rethinking of the EU's interests, its means, and ultimately its raison d'être.

Recommendations of 16 European think tanks, elaborated in the framework of the Think Global - Act European (TGAE) IV project, coordinated by Notre Europe-Jacques Delors Institute. IAI contributions to the project: policy papers No. 67 (Darnis) and 68 (Comelli), and synthesis report (Comelli, p. 191-196) of Working Group IV's papers presented at the IAI seminar, Rome, 11 October 2012.

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