The 44-state European Political Community (EPC), first convened in late 2022 to express unity and defiance against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, meets again on 1 June. In this post STG Executive Director Fabrizio Tassinari explains how this embryonic organisation might acquire real value.

In a look at recent initiatives to decolonialise the aid sector, humanitarian professional and STG Policy Leader Fellow Carla Vitantonio finds that big international agencies have something to learn from local organisations taking a collaborative, open approach towards language sensitivity.

Professor Jelena Dzankic, of the EUI’s Global Governance Programme, spells out how better data and research infrastructure can improve policymaking and empower civil society, ultimately smoothing Western Balkans countries’ path to joining the EU – a prospect recently on the agenda again.

The EU policy response to disinformation expands researchers’ involvement beyond data analysis to fostering accountability and public scrutiny. Lisa Ginsborg and Paula Gori, of the European Digital Media Observatory, point out key considerations for collaboration, infrastructure and capacity building, and data protection if this effort is to succeed.

The African Continental Free Trade Area could transform regional growth, with key focus on three policy dimensions, argue research fellows Sonali Chowdhry, Martina F. Ferracane and Rohit Ticku (Robert Schuman Centre). These dimensions are non-tariff barriers, the digital economy and improved government procurement policies.

The EU explicitly promotes bicycling for the sake of health, climate and jobs. But as Policy Leader Fellow Daiva Repečkaitė notes, poorly monitored funding schemes and incompetent route planning can do more harm than good.

Why did Germany approve provision of German-made tanks for Ukraine’s defence only after months of pressure and downright bashing of Chancellor Scholz and his party, both at home and abroad? This torment, explains PhD researcher Marius Ghincea, stems from a contest over elementary foreign-policy principles, combined with the rhetorical coercion that is customary practice in democracies.

This post introduces an exhibition at the EUI in February 2023 for Black History Month. History researcher and exhibition curator Daphné Budasz argues that learning about the diversity of Black life trajectories in Europe is a way to challenge White historical imagination.

In this post for Black History Month 2023, history researcher Amber Burbidge argues that understanding the presence of Black and mixed-heritage people in Renaissance Florence is an important step towards decolonisation, also for the EUI.

European policymakers will face four major challenges in 2023: stagflation and market fragmentation, and the green and digital transitions (in the face of the US Inflation Reduction Act). In this post, Marco Buti (European Commission) and Marcello Messori (Luiss) argue that increasing the supply of strategic European public goods is key to addressing these challenges.