In this interview excerpt, Álvaro de Vasconcelos, co-founder and Director of the Institute for Strategic and International Studies (IEEI) in Lisbon from 1981 to 2007 and Director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) from 2007 to 2012, explains how Western European Union was gradually dismantled until its dissolution in 2011.

In this interview excerpt, Álvaro de Vasconcelos, co-founder and Director of the Institute for Strategic and International Studies (IEEI) in Lisbon from 1981 to 2007 and Director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) from 2007 to 2012, explains how Western European Union established a dialogue on security questions with the Mediterranean countries and regrets the fact that this forum has not been replaced by a similar instrument for dialogue within the European Union.

In this interview excerpt, Álvaro de Vasconcelos, co-founder and Director of the Institute for Strategic and International Studies (IEEI) in Lisbon from 1981 to 2007 and Director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) from 2007 to 2012, shares his thoughts on a possible European energy policy, particularly referring to the debates on this subject within the Assembly of Western European Union when the first oil shock hit in 1971. He also emphasises the difficulties of developing a European energy policy given the differing approaches to energy supply in France and Germany.

In this interview excerpt, Álvaro de Vasconcelos, co-founder and Director of the Institute for Strategic and International Studies (IEEI) in Lisbon from 1981 to 2007 and Director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) from 2007 to 2012, explains the issues surrounding the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, also known as the Barcelona Process, which was launched in 1995 in Barcelona. He discusses the development of this process towards a Union for the Mediterranean and the relevance of a ‘Euro-Mediterranean regional community’, which he proposed in 2005 following the political upheavals in the countries of North Africa.

At the conference EMU at the crossroads held in Luxembourg City on 6 March 2013, Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister of Luxembourg and outgoing President of the Eurogroup, gives an address entitled ‘Europe beyond the euro’.

In this interview excerpt, Álvaro de Vasconcelos, co-founder and Director of the Institute for Strategic and International Studies (IEEI) in Lisbon from 1981 to 2007 and Director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) from 2007 to 2012, discusses the establishment and aims of the Euro-Latin American Forum, which was set up during the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Communities in 1992 with the aim of boosting relations between the European Union and the ‘Common Market of the South’ (Mercosur or Mercosul).

In this interview excerpt, Álvaro de Vasconcelos, co-founder and Director of the Institute for Strategic and International Studies (IEEI) in Lisbon from 1981 to 2007 and Director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) from 2007 to 2012, emphasises the role that France and the United Kingdom could play in ensuring the efficacy and credibility of a European defence policy.

In this interview excerpt, Álvaro de Vasconcelos, co-founder and Director of the Institute for Strategic and International Studies (IEEI) in Lisbon from 1981 to 2007 and Director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) from 2007 to 2012, describes the differing views of France and the United Kingdom on the definition of a European defence policy and a common European position within the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

In this interview excerpt, Álvaro de Vasconcelos, co-founder and Director of the Institute for Strategic and International Studies (IEEI) in Lisbon from 1981 to 2007 and Director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) from 2007 to 2012, describes the convergence of France and the United Kingdom on the definition of a European defence policy.

In this interview excerpt, Álvaro de Vasconcelos, co-founder and Director of the Institute for Strategic and International Studies (IEEI) in Lisbon from 1981 to 2007 and Director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) from 2007 to 2012, emphasises the successes of the European security and defence policy, especially the stabilisation missions in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Kosovo and the more humanitarian-oriented missions. He also points out the shortcomings of the European security and defence policy, particularly owing to defence budget cuts in most European Union Member States since the early 2000s.