As the European Union seeks to redefine a common, comprehensive, and consistent global strategy, it should look at its international economic relations beyond recognizing trade as an engine for growth and jobs, beyond the realization that there are tensions between trade and non-trade objectives, and beyond gloomy assumptions that “the EU’s declining economic dynamism, the high demands it makes of its trading partners, and what it is willing to offer may be hampering its leverage."

If the EU remains the world’s wealthiest and most integrated economic block — as consistently advocated by the European Commission — and if Europe’s capacity to project civilian power globally, including the tools of its economic and social prosperity, remains unmatched, then assumptions regarding a European decline are misplaced. 

Read full policy brief.