By: Ioana Lungu
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is an exceptionally ambitious project of Pan-African integration. Currently, the conclusion of negotiations has been hindered by COVID-19, and the start of trade under the AfCFTA trade regime has been delayed. Against this background, the author of this Policy Brief analyses in which way the EU, historically one of the first supporters of the AfCFTA, can help to meet this target.

Paris Agreement, China und Russia, 5G and stability in the Middle East. Donald Trump or Joe Biden - how will the 2020 US-Election results impact Europe and the world?

A new report by the Slovak think tank GLOBSEC (www.globsec.org) provides comprehensive insight into public satisfaction with the functioning of democracy and governance, trust in political actors and the media and predispositions towards conspiracy theories and misinformation in ten Central and Eastern European countries. As the Austrian partner within the project, the Austrian Society for European Politics (Österreichische Gesellschaft für Europapolitik / ÖGfE) helped to analyse Austrian specific results and has compiled a country report that focuses on public opinion in the alpine country.

What impact does Euroscepticism have on European politics and the future of Europe? How do Eurosceptic parties shape the political debate about the future of the Union? Has the COVID-19 crisis impacted how Eurosceptic parties that are in power govern? Has Euroscepticism lost or gained ground during the COVID-19 crisis?

70 percent: Austria should remain an EU member, 14 percent: Austria should leave the EU

By: Dennis Lichtenstein
Plans for promoting European identity on social media start from crisis diagnoses, rightly stating that the European Union suffers from deficits in public communication and a lack of European identity. This Policy Brief argues that social media can compensate for the mass media’s deficits in transnational communication within the EU. It calls on the European public service media for coordinated social media engagement and recommends the establishment of a European network on the video-sharing platform YouTube.

The second volume of the book series "The Future of Europe: views from the Capitals" sheds light on how the increasing prominence of Eurosceptic and nationalist parties is having an impact on the thinking of mainstream parties, their representatives in the European Parliament, and the future of Europe.

What are the most important European challenges to date? Does the European Commission set the right priorities during the COVID-19 crisis? Can it count on the support of EU Member States and the European Parliament?

By: Leopold-Michael Marzi
The European health care systems were suddenly confronted with a new virus in February and subsequently with the global COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the fact that health care systems are in the responsibility of the EU member states it was soon obvious that the lack of harmonised standards would be an obstacle in the fight against a pandemic and this situation unveiled a gap in European cooperation. This policy brief discusses necessary measures in the health care system - taking into account legal aspects – that should be implemented by the EU and its member states in order to be better prepared in the future.