Strategic Affairs Forecasting LLC

Despite having no background in science, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn is about to become one of the most powerful people in European research. This week, she begins work as Europe’s research commissioner, replacing Janez Potočnik, and faces the mammoth task of revamping the programmes that fund scientists across the European Union (EU).

While the EU is as beset as ever by internal divisions,
European elites’ ambitions for strengthening integration now
revolve around greater foreign policy engagement and
effectiveness. This is the central paradox of the Lisbon
Treaty: an arrangement supposed to legitimize further
integration through foreign policy success at a time when
Europe is sorely divided over domestic as well as foreign
policy.