What do European citizens want from EU Foreign Policy?

The Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) and the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) are hosting an internal seminar to discuss and share insights on what progressive voters across generational and geographic divides want from the EU’s role in the world.

In the light of a new EU leadership team taking over, and based on ECFR’s polling with YouGov of 60,000 individuals across 14 EU member states, this is an exciting moment for European progressives to come together in an open and fresh debate to generate new thinking on how to advance the EU’s foreign policy over the next five years based on what their voters really want.

In a dangerous, competitive world, citizens made clear at the recent European elections that they want the EU to ‘come of age’ as a geopolitical actor. This has been reflected in the FEPS Millennial Dialogue survey. Over 56% of Millennials believe that the EU should have more powers to represent Europe with a single voice on the world stage.

From the EU’s relations with Russia, the US and China, to sanctions, migration flows trade and climate change – what can European Progressives learn from the recent elections? How can they deliver on the mandate for change – including in the sphere of foreign policy – that EU citizens gave them?

With the EU election results now known, the pertinent questions are: how will these influence the composition of the new European Parliament and how will they affect the EU’s political system, especially in terms of the balance of powers? Against this backdrop, what should be the new progressive agenda be in order to make Europe deliver in the next 5 years?

With Josep Borrell likely to take over as High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Progressives have a clear opportunity to advance a strategic agenda for the EU’s role in the world aligned with what European citizens want.

With this internal seminar, FEPS and ECFR offer room for debating these issues in the frame of the latest ECFR publication, Give the people what they want: Popular demand for a strong European foreign policy, which is part of the Unlock Europe’s Majority project that aims at pushing back against the rise of anti-Europeanism that threatens to weaken the EU and its influence in the world.

Check the agenda