Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship

The recent ruling of the German Constitutional Court on the ECB was an economic and political bombshell. The deep controversy that resulted – within Germany and on a European scale – illustrates that the ambiguity surrounding the euro area’s legal order and architecture may have reached its limit.

The judgment on 5 May by the German Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht or BVerfG) killed three pigeons with one stone. It ruled illegal the quantitative easing pursued by the European Central Bank (ECB), starting from 2015, with the Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP), casting a shadow over its current anti-pandemic programme.

History is replete with irony, but rarely more poignantly than in the summer of 2016 when, on 23 June, the UK voted to leave the European Union and the next day, 24 June, the EU published its Global Strategy document asserting its ambition of “strategic autonomy.” Whither Franco-British defense cooperation in such chaotic circumstances? This paper attempts to provide the outline of an answer to that question.

Members of the Transatlantic Strategy Group in Harvard Kennedy School's Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship and the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) tell us how they see the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the U.S.-Europe relationship. Their answers highlight implications for a range of issues — trade, health, security, governance, Brexit, climate change and China — and what actions can be taken to enhance transatlantic cooperation in this moment of crisis.

A discussion with Dr. Michael Carpenter, Managing Director of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, Nicholas Burns, Faculty Chair of the Project on Europe, and  Torrey Taussig, Research Director in the Project on Europe, on how the U.S. can work with European partners to develop a new approach toward Russia.

A discussion between Sergey Lagodinsky, Member of the European Parliament, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance, and André Sapir, Senior Fellow at Bruegel and Professor at the Université libre de Bruxelles,  about how the European Central Bank, European Council, European Commission, and European Parliament are responding to the existential challenges facing the European Union during the coronavirus pandemic. Vivien Schmidt, Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration at Boston University, chaired the discussion.

This seminar was part of a series of events which explored COVID-19 from a transatlantic perspective. It was co-sponsored by the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard.

A discussion between Project on Europe Fellow, Dr. Amanda Sloat, and Project on Europe Executive Director, Cathryn Cluver Ashbrook, on how people in different countries are weathering this crisis and the different policy questions that have been raised as a result. 

Coronavirus is a shared human experience, but people are coping differently around the world. Amanda Sloat has insights from 68 countries.

Democratic governments need digital tools and personal data to combat the crisis, but too much sharing can be dangerous to individuals. How can they strike the right balance?

Ever since the World Health Organization declared Europe the new epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic on March 13, China has seized the opportunity to provide relief to some of the worst-hit European countries as part of a concerted PR offensive aiming at polishing up the Communist Party’s image internationally and — above all — domestically. Although China’s aid offers have generally been welcomed by those leaders struggling to contain the outbreak, it is still far too early to conclude that Beijing is actually winning over any European hearts and minds.