Dear Ursula von der Leyen,
We welcome your appointment as President of the European Commission. The European Union and its institutions have been at the centre of collective action to deliver social and economic progress.
But the world is now politically precarious, with unprecedented pulls away from multilateralism and once-prominent champions retreating from formal structures for international cooperation.
Against this backdrop, we have witnessed pressing issues such as migration come to the forefront of political debate – amidst claims that political debate and democracy itself is failing.
Meanwhile, climate change has mobilised citizens across the continent. Many of the commitments agreed by the international community under the Sustainable Development Goals, including to end extreme poverty, are off-track.
In short, we are at a crossroads and how your Commission responds will be crucial.
Your initial steps as President-elect are welcome: from streamlining delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals across all commissioners and shifting the narrative on Europe’s relationship with Africa from development to partnership, to elevating the profile of the climate portfolio. Securing progress across these issues, however, will depend on the effective implementation of innovative policies.
In the true spirit of European solidarity, together with partners in the European Think Tanks Group, we have developed An agenda for Europe in the world, which sets out concrete proposals for areas where your Commission can make a lasting difference globally.
Here we set out how the EU can show global leadership on four key challenges.
Dan Sharp
