Giles Merritt
Defuse this explosive migration summit with a strategic EU study
If ever an EU summit seemed doomed, it's this week's immigration showdown. Governments like to imply that the 'migrant crisis' is at an end but in truth, it's just starting, and Europe needs a strategy and a common EU-wide approach, writes Gilles Merritt.
EU should revive TTIP, retaliation only helps Trump’s re-election
The EU's Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström has made a cardinal error in opting to play US President Donald Trump at his own game and introducing tariffs on American products, argues Giles Merrit.
It’s not too early for Barnier to throw his hat in the ring
Not to beat about the bushes, Michel Barnier should succeed Jean-Claude Juncker. Not just because his handling of the Brexit process has enlarged his stature, but for a number of other cogent reasons, writes Gilles Merritt.
The bigger EU problems hidden by Brexit
Brexit's focus on minutiae is an unnecessary distraction from the more pressing challenges Europe must meet. Unity is crucial to Europe's security and well-being, writes Giles Merritt.
Why not hold all of Europe’s elections on the same day?
Here's a sharp knife to cut through the tangled knot of Europe's politics ‒ let's hold all national parliamentary elections on the same day as voting for the European Parliament, writes Giles Merritt.
What the EU must do to be loved and admired
The European Union is in need of a rebranding. Giles Merritt suggests ways the European Commission can go about doing that while helping save the European project.
Brussels must bite the bullet on a common EU migration policy
The EU Commission is soon to re-enter the conflict over immigration. Whether it will do so timidly or in a blaze of political courage remains to be seen when it unveils ideas for a 'European Labour Authority," writes Giles Merritt.
Let’s end our pygmy politics so we can have a proper EU foreign policy
The next "foreign minister" at the head of the EEAS, must be a heavy-hitter with the authority and courage to rally EU governments behind a recognisable foreign policy on global challenges, writes Giles Merritt.
Tens of millions of Africans will try to come to Europe. What’s the EU policy?
Demographics suggest that Africans taking the perilous journey to Europe will be in their millions, and perhaps their tens of millions, writes Giles Merritt.
‘Last chance’: Juncker has only 2018 to deliver the goods
This is the year when Jean-Claude Juncker's ‘Last Chance’ Commission must chalk up worthwhile achievements and shake off the sense of inertia that already risks turning into full retreat, argue Giles Merritt and Shada Islam.
Wishful thinking underpins the EU’s new Africa plan
There has been a significant mood change among European policymakers. Far from seeing Africa as a charity case, they have come to recognise it as a security threat: doing more to develop Africa's ailing economies is rising fast up the EU agenda, writes Giles Merritt.
Give the regions more EU power to save the euro and defeat populism
Elections across Europe show Europe's political parties to be increasingly defined by how nationalistic they are. Confronting this and reinstating progressive politics is essential, and can best be done by giving more power to Europe's regions, urges Giles Merritt.
Brexit clinches ‘mission impossible’ by highlighting EU’s value
This summer has seen the ‘Brexit effect’ quietly gathering momentum, so much so that it's shaping into one of the most spectacular own-goals of European history, on a par with Germany's Third Reich or the Russian Revolution, writes Giles Merritt.
Thanks, Trump, for forcing Europe to rethink its own security
It’s time to look on the bright side of Donald Trump’s presidency, with Europeans being forced to reconsider policy assumptions that have gone unchallenged for far too long, writes Giles Merritt.
Trump will be a gift to Europe’s lost unity
The presidency of Donald J. Trump is going to be a gift to Europe’s troubled and divided policymakers, even though it comes in a package labelled ‘Handle with Care’ and ‘Danger’, writes Giles Merritt.
Why the EU must craft a tough pre-Trump agenda
Lulled by the opinion polls and its own wishful thinking, Europe expected US foreign policy continuity following a Hillary Clinton victory. Now, Europeans must awaken to the unpredictable change and volatility a Donald Trump presidency will bring, warns Giles Merritt.
