The European Council on Foreign Relations

On this page you will find material connected to ECFR’s Germany in Europe project, which aims to promote a broad discussion, in Germany and beyond, about the German role in Europe, and is intended to generate ideas about how to reintegrate Germany into the process of developing a globally assertive and responsible Europe.

Germany in Europe is led by Ulrike Guérot, senior policy fellow and head of ECFR’s Berlin Office. The material on these pages includes a policy brief and a discussion paper, commentary pieces, blog posts and links to wider media coverage. The Germany in Europe project is supported by Stiftung Mercator.

Events and publications

In April 2011, ECFR published The New German Question: How Europe can get the Germany it needs, a policy brief by Ulrike Guérot and Mark Leonard. This was followed in June by the publication of What does Germany think about Europe? a collection of essays by German experts on politics, law, sociology, philosophy and the media, edited by Ulrike Guérot and Jacqueline Hénard.

The project was launched in late 2010 with a discussion paper by Dr Guérot, How European is the new Germany? The paper is also available in German and Italian. On October 27th 2010, the first in a row of events on the topic of "Germany in Europe“ took place in the Hotel Adlon, Berlin. Joschka Fischer, former German Foreign Minister and Co-Chair of ECFR discussed Germany´s role in Europe with Sylvie Goulard (MEP), John Kornblum (former U.S. Ambassador to Germany), Quentin Peel (Financial Times) and Philipp Mißfelder (MP & Foreign Policy Spokesperson of CDU/CSU fraction).

In April 2011, ECFR Berlin and Mercator hosted a panel discussion on "Europe and the re-discovery of the German nation-state". Among the panelists were German philosopher Jürgen Habermas and former foreign minister Joschka Fischer. Read more about the event here.

In May 2011, ECFR Berlin in cooperation with Stiftung Mercator hosted a conference entitled: “From a European Germany to a German Europe? Germany's way into the 21st Century: 1949 – 1989 – 2009".

On Tuesday 28^th June ECFR and Stiftung Mercator launched ‘Was denkt Deutschland?’ (and the English translation ‘What does Germany think about Europe?’) in the French embassy in Berlin accompanied by a lively panel discussion with Cem Özdemir, federal chairman of the German Green Party, Thomas Silberhorn, CSU MP active on EU affairs, publisher Jacob Augstein (Der Freitag), historian and publicist Prof. Dr. Michael Stürmer as well as the Polish ambassador Dr. Marek Prawda

The Germany in Europe programme will continue with a series of further publications and events, including seminars, panel discussions and ginger groups.

Since its launch, Ulrike has been widely quoted by major media outlets in Europe and beyond, including The Financial Times, The Economist, Newsweek, Spiegel, Le Monde and the BBC. Click here for a podcast interview with Ulrike by The Economist, looking at the issue of Germany in Europe. An analysis piece in the Financial Times on April 12th extensively quoted a late draft of the Germany in Europe brief. Please see our In the Press section for more details.

Click here to listen to an audio podcast discussion on the new German question with Ulrike Guerot and Mark Leonard, from 18th April 2011.