Report: National Perspectives on Europe’s de-risking from China
The “de-risking” of relations with China has become an organizing principle for the European Union since it was first put forward by President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen in March 2023. As is often the case with the EU, however, what is said in Brussels is not always understood in the same way across the continent.
The new report of the European Think-tank Network on China (ETNC) analyzes how 21 EU member states and the United Kingdom view de-risking from a national context. Each chapter is written by China experts who set out to address the same set of questions with respect to their own country:
- How is the EU’s approach to de-risking seen?
- Which China-related risks are causing the most concern?
- Have de-risking debates resulted in any concrete measures?
- How does the debate over de-risking affect approaches to China?
The report finds that while de-risking is debated publicly in some countries, it is either a non-topic or discussed behind the scenes in other countries. The interpretation of the concept varies and so do the measures taken to take a risk-informed approach to China.
MERICS experts Bernhard Bartsch, Francois Chimits, Alexander Davey and Claudia Wessling contributed the chapters on the EU, Germany and Ireland.
