In its research the IEP combines the analysis of current problems of European integration with a discussion of medium-term trends and scenarios of European politics.

Research activities of the IEP cover five major areas:


Key questions and institutional developments of the EU

Germany and Europe

Enlargement and deepening of the European Union

Common Foreign and Security Policy and European Security and Defence Policy

European economic policy and the internal market of the EU

The IEP directs special attention to the development and extension of forms and instruments of European governance as well as to the process of constitutionalisation of the European Union.

From the Single European Act to the reforms of the Treaties in Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice up to the Treaty on a European Constitution of June 2004 key issues like democratisation, legitimacy and efficiency of the EU and its institutions as well as flexibility and differentiation of the integration process are constantly covered in the research programme of the IEP. Currently, the debate on the Constitutional Treaty and ways out of the ratification crisis are at the centre of many of the IEP’s activities in terms of research, conferences, publications and briefings. Thus, the IEP monitors and actively contributes to the current debate on the future of Europe. It advances comments and proposals and initiates discussions on concrete policy options as well as strategic options. It tries to link these recommendations and observations to key concepts of European integration that will guide the EU over the next decades. Through these activities the IEP shapes the debate on European integration and the future architecture of the EU in Germany and beyond not in the least by making use of its transnational networks.

Research projects:

• “Citizens’ Europe – The European Constitution and efficient policies”
  
  
• “Key concepts for the European Union after enlargement”
  
  
• “What kind of constitution does Europe need?”
  
  
• Network of Excellence “EU-CONSENT – Constructing Europe Network: Wider Europe, deeper integration?”
  

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Since the foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany Germany’s striving for European integration is a constitutive element of Germany’s reasons of state. The partial shift of state sovereignty from the national to the European level contributed substantially to achieving and sustaining peace and prosperity as well as regaining international acceptance and sovereignty of Germany in international politics. Moreover, the embedding into the European context helped in reducing reservations of international partners vis-à-vis Germany that from the fifties onwards increased its centrality in European politics and that was finally re-united in 1990.

Due to the immediate neighbourhood to the Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC), the dependence of German industry on trade export, the traditional embedding into the European structures which is also a consequence of German history and because of Germany’s historical and moral obligation towards the Central and Eastern European countries, the deepening and widening of the European Union was and remains a key interest of German foreign policy.

Given the size of its population, its economic potential and its central geographic location Germany is of major importance for any further development of the process of European integration.

On this background, Germany’s European policy and Germany’s role in Europe are a major field of research of the IEP. Related research projects, publications and activities deal with the following aspects:

• historical background and conditions of German European policy;
• basic understandings and key concepts of European policy as seen from Germany and other EU member states;
• the constitutional framework conditions of German European policy;
• German federalism and European integration;
• the external framework conditions of German European policy;
• interests, strategies and prospects of German European policy in selected policy areas;
• Germany’s Council Presidencies in the EC/EU;
• long-term trends and the question of continuity and change of Germany’s European policy;
• perceptions of Germany’s European policy from the point of view of partner countries.

Research projects:

• “EU-25 Watch” (see report on Germany)
• “A new German European policy?”
• “Friedrich Carl von Oppenheim’s commitment to ‘Europe’”

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Enlargement of the European Union is a strategic challenge of our decade. Since 2007, the European Union counts 27 member states. Candidates like Turkey, Croatia, Macedonia and Iceland are preparing to join the European Union. Moreover, in the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy the EU tries to develop alternative concepts and arrangements for its relations with countries of Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean.

Since 1989 the IEP has analysed the re-ordering of relations between the EC/EU and countries of Central and Eastern Europe in the framework of several research projects and in cooperation with academic colleagues and policy-makers from accession and candidate countries. It continues with this research and related activities under the new conditions of an enlarged EU of 27. The following dimensions of deepening and widening are dealt with in theoretical and empirical terms:

• current accession negotiations: interests, strategies, problems and solutions;
• development of national debates in and interests of the 27 EU member states and in candidate countries on key questions of enlargement and consolidation of the EU;
• the formation of key concepts on European integration and political strategies in new member states of the EU and in candidate countries;
• implications of enlargement for the political system of the EU, the EU budget, EU policies as well as for the pan-European architecture;
• European Neighbourhood Policy: stabilisation – cooperation – integration;
• differentiation between Eastern Partnership and Union for the Mediterranean
• the development of political and economic relations between the EU and countries of Eastern Europe and South Eastern Europe (cooperation, association, etc.);
• interaction between transformation and EU integration in terms of politics, administration and economies (preparation for membership and EU pre-accession strategy).

Current research project:

• “The relations of the European Union to the eastern neighbours - between neighbourhood and enlargement policy”

Completed research projects:

• “Europeanisation of public administrations in Central and Eastern Europe in the process of transformation and integration”
• "Enlargement, European Neighbourhood Policy and Consolidation of the European Union"
• EU-Consent

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Since the early eighties the IEP has achieved considerable expertise on questions related to the EU's international role. Within a multinational framework of academics, diplomats and politicians from the EU member states and the applicant countries the installation and implementation of both the European Political Cooperation (EPC) and today's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) of the EU have been regularly discussed.

The evolution of the CFSP institutions, the efficiency and effectiveness of the CFSP instruments and the application of the treaty provisions have been among the priority fields of interest. The dynamism in the area of security and defence since 1999 has also found considerable interest. Also the reform debate of the nineties and most recently the proposals tabled in the European Convention and agreed upon in the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe have been closely followed. After the negative referenda in France and the Netherlands research, conferences and publishing activities of IEP focus on the question what can be saved from the Constitutional Treaty and be implemented without treaty revisions.
These issues are discussed in the IEP’s study group “European Foreign Policy-Making”.

As much of the CFSP takes place in diplomatic circles and remains intransparent the IEP has also the task to make the area of the CFSP better known to the wider European public e.g. through seminars at the universities and IEP's participation in FORNET (http://www.fornet.info), a project supported by the European Commission. FORNET aims at establishing an EU-wide network to enable communication among academics on current topics of the CFSP, including a homepage of its own and an online journal. Similarly IEP takes part in the Network of Excellence “EU-CONSENT – Constructing Europe Network: Wider Europe, deeper integration?” supported by the European Union.

Furthermore, IEP is a partner of a research and training programme ("Young Faces") initiated by three foundations in 2005 which offers young Europeans grants to analyse recent trends in the EU's foreign, security and defence policy, to develop policy options and discuss them regularly with CFSP officials.

In 2005 IEP also launched a new research project (supported by the Compagnia San Paolo, Turin) to exchange views on the potential of the EU as a global actor in a German-Italian context. CFSP institutional trends, civilian and military crisis management activities and EU policies towards key partners are among the research topics and will be regularly discussed in a series of conferences in 2006-2008.

Research projects:

• “Common Foreign and Security Policy of the EU – intergovernmental network or collective actor?”
• "Disarmament, Demobilisation & Reintegration (DDR) in Bosnien-Herzegowina“
• “Security policy implications of a potential EU membership of Turkey with a special view on the Black Sea”
• Network of Excellence “EU-CONSENT – Contructing Europe Network: Work package CFSP/ESDP”
• “The EU as a global player: strengths and weaknesses of the CFSP and ESDP as seen from an Italian-German angle”
• “European Foreign and Security Policy Studies Programme” (Young Faces).

Das Institut für Europäische Politik (IEP) ist ein strategischer Partner der Europäischen Kommission und wird von ihr finanziell unterstützt. Für die Inhalte zeichnet alleine das IEP verantwortlich.

With the support of the European Commission: Support for bodies active at European level in the field of active European citizenship.