Category: Blogs

Reforming asylum in Europe: Lessons from local actors in Greece
ECDPM / ETTG / Blogs

Reforming asylum in Europe: Lessons from local actors in Greece

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an additional layer of difficulty for refugees and asylum seekers, with frontline states like Greece facing unprecedented pressure in dealing simultaneously with a  humanitarian crisis and the health crisis. The situation calls for EU states to speed up the reform of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) since the current impasse is exacerbating the life conditions of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers.

ETTG Director's piece
ETTG / Blogs

ETTG Director’s piece: Towards a new Africa-Europe partnership after the Corona crisis

European Think Tanks Group (ETTG) calls on the EU to look beyond its own economic recovery and to work with Africa as our ‘twin continent’ and ‘closest ally’ to avert the worst effects of the crisis and to craft a new partnership for the longer-term. History has taught us that major crises create opportunities for accelerating social, economic and political reforms. The coronavirus crisis provides an opportunity to finally transform the old paradigm of donor-recipient aid relations towards a model of genuine international cooperation between Europe and Africa.

Europe-Africa relations after Corona
ECDPM / ETTG / Blogs / Partnerships

Europe-Africa relations after Corona

Twenty-twenty should have been the year of a fundamentally new Africa-Europe partnership, culminating in the sixth EU-AU summit in October in Brussels. Ursula von der Leyen, with a delegation of some 20 European commissioners in her wake, recently traveled to Addis Ababa for meetings with their African Union counterparts.

ETTG-UNDP Agenda Setting Event on Africa-EU relations
ETTG / Blogs / SDGs / Partnerships

ETTG-UNDP Agenda Setting Event on Africa-EU relations Addis Ababa, 9-10 March 2020

On 9-10 March, ETTG and UNDP Africa organised an Agenda setting workshop in Addis Ababa, aimed at discussing issues that would need further analysis and reflections in the run up to the African Union- European Union (AU-EU) Summit, slated for October  2020 in Brussels. This event coincided with the launch of the EU Communication towards a Comprehensive Strategy with Africa.

Walking the talk: Leveraging the Green Deal to boost climate ambition through EU external action
DIE / Blogs / SDGs

Walking the talk: Leveraging the Green Deal to boost climate ambition through EU external action

As a follow up to the ETTG Policy Brief “Harnessing EU external cooperation to boost ambitious and coherent climate action” and one month before the ETTG roundtable event ’How to walk the Green Deal talk in EU external cooperation? Harnessing development cooperation to foster European climate leadership‘ (18th March in Brussels) the DIE researchers from Steffen Bauer and Gabriela Iacobuta are putting together the pieces of the “Green Deal” puzzle in our new ETTG blog.

DIE / Blogs / EU MFF

EU Budget negotiations: the ‘frugal five’ and development policy

In December 2018, the ETTG published a paper comparing emerging Member State positions for the financing of the EU’s external action under its next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), covering the period 2021-2027. Its first observation that negotiations are moving slowly unfortunately still holds today. 

ETTG publication
ETTG / Blogs

Presentation of the ETTG Agenda for Europe in the world: an animated debate

Put together the European Commission, European Parliament, African Embassies, the Overseas Development Institute and the European Council on Refugees and Exiles and you will get a very animated debate – like the one European Think Tanks Group organised in Brussels on the 31st of October.