THINK, Belt and Road Initiative: opportunities and challenges for Europe

CASE within THINK Initiative drafting recommendations for European stakeholders on Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Based on a grassroots approach to strategy development, THINK Initiative involves the most influential European stakeholders from the business, government, civil society and research sectors via the online THINK Platform and regular round tables across Europe.

Objectives:

• Exchange information, conduct joint analysis and develop a common situational picture to better understand the Chinese actions in Europe and the neighboring regions.
• Develop comprehensive strategies for groups of actors in Europe and the neighboring regions to further their interests when positioning themselves in relation to the Chinese strategy towards the regions.
• Learn from the Chinese approach to inspire actors in Europe and the neighboring regions to improve their own institutional strategies, and develop joint comprehensive strategies.
• Develop operational projects to implement these strategies.

The first research strategy development phase takes place from May to October 2018. Strategy development questions focus on Economy and Foreign and Security Policy. The goal is to develop strategy recommendations for EU and Western Balkans state and non-state actors to better address the challenges and opportunities created by the Chinese actions in the context of the BRI. Recommendations are developed in a final Strategy Paper which is presented to the Austrian EU Presidency in October 2018.

CASE is responsible for the following research questions:

How can European companies benefit from new market opportunities opened by BRI-induced change in global value chains and trade flows?

What can European countries and companies do to benefit more from BRI-related infrastructure investments in the Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC)?

Partners:

Centre for European Perspective (Slovenia)

European Policy Center (Serbia)

We Build Europe (Austria)

United Europe (Germany)