Belt and Road Initiative in Europe: Between Shapes of Cooperation and Shades of Pressure

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a global infrastructure development strategy launched by the Chinese government in 2013 to invest in 70 countries (World Bank, 2018) to promote economic development and enhance connectivity between China and Central-East Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Africa. Around 150 countries have joined BRI so far, including 18 EU members (BRI Center, 2021). What recently happened in Montenegro raised several concerns within the EU about Beijing’s approach, labelled by some observers as a sinocentric international trade network potentially harmful to the independence of some countries at the EU’s doorsteps. What then is the standpoint of both BRI and EU members? Can different attitudes towards the Chinese projects cause a fracture within an already diverse EU in terms of policies, paces to reach goals, and economic indicators? To what extent is BRI a tool in the hands of Beijing to leverage European countries by proposing offers of development that, at first glance, cannot be declined?

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Read more about the article EU Defence in the Covid World
Medical Staff and Military Staff, 2020 Slovakia [https://pixabay.com/it/photos/paramedico-soldato-coronavirus-5716757/]

EU Defence in the Covid World

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a strong impact on most of the world, and Europe is no exception. The European economy was deeply affected in several sectors. Business-related to defence, security, and European defence cooperation was one of the hardest-hit sectors.

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Read more about the article Towards a New EU Quantum Communication Infrastructure
https://www.airbus.com/newsroom/press-releases/en/2021/05/a-consortium-of-european-digital-players-to-design-the-future-eu-quantum-internet.html#media-list-image-image-all_ml_0)

Towards a New EU Quantum Communication Infrastructure

In the era of the information revolution and the dominance of big data, ensuring full communication security is not an easy task. The major world powers have therefore begun to invest more resources in the field of quantum physics, exploiting its enormous potential to make unprecedented progress in several strategic areas, including cybersecurity, logistics, communication, healthcare, and others. The European Union also decided to row in the same direction. Indeed, on 31 May 2021, the European Commission finally selected a consortium led by Airbus and composed of several companies and research institutes, including Leonardo, PwC France and Maghreb, Orange, Telespazio, the Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica (Inrim) and the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) to study and design the future EU quantum communication network (Airbus, 2021). Through the new European Quantum Communication Infrastructure (EuroQCI), the EU aims to ensure ultra-secure communication between government institutions and critical infrastructures across the Union.

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Read more about the article The End of the Operation Barkhane, New Perspectives on the Territory
French soldiers during the Operation Barkhane (Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Opération_Barkhane.jpg)

The End of the Operation Barkhane, New Perspectives on the Territory

On 10 June, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the withdrawal of the French forces from the Sahel region. Operation Barkhane started back in August 2014 after Operation Serval, which was deployed to support the Malian government in 2013. Operation Barkhane was based on the partnership between France and the countries of the Sahel G5, namely Burkina-Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, to address the rising presence of Islamist terrorism in the territory. The main strategy was to give the possibility and the means to the Sahel G5 countries to develop both national and regional strategies to fight terrorism autonomously (Ministère des Armées, 2019). The French approach was based not only on security in a strict way but also on politics and development in a broader sense.

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Read more about the article EU-UK Defence Cooperation After Brexit
Figure 1 Paper image: EU flag shooting star, Trayko Popov, June 14, 2017 [Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/euronews/35260603406/]

EU-UK Defence Cooperation After Brexit

Written by Paolo d'AlesioMaster of its own fate, the British nation, in the exercise of its exclusive sovereign powers, decided through the vote of its people, to withdraw from the…

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