The European Union: A year of hope [What Think Tanks are thinking]

The self-confidence of the European Union improved markedly during the past year after the 'annus horribilis' of 2016 when the EU faced a 'poly-crisis' of a shaky euro-area economy, the Brexit vote, the election of Donald Trump as US President, migration pressures, growing Russian assertiveness and apparent foreign-policy drift.

The euro-area economy has since entered onto a clear recovery path, popular support for the EU has increased in many countries, Eurosceptic political parties have made smaller than expected gains in several elections, Brexit negotiations have made progress and, according to some analysts and politicians, EU foreign and security policy has developed a global strategy backed by moves towards an integrated defence.

'The wind is back in the European sails', said Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, in September. 2017, the year when the EU marked the 60th anniversary of the European Union's founding Treaty of Rome, generated much creative thinking on how to re-launch or strengthen both the EU-27 and the euro area.

This note offered links to selected recent commentaries, studies and reports from major international think tanks on the state of the EU in 2017 and its outlook in several important areas.

Compiler: Marcin Grajewski