Research


Overview

At a time when the EU-Australia relationship has reached a new level of engagement, it is important to assess and critically examine the key challenges and opportunities facing this engagement, especially in light such developments as Brexit, the shifting focus of the US under President Donald Trump, rising regional and international instability and conflict.

The project will assess:

  1. The ambition and drive to liberalise markets, to negotiate free trade agreements and to achieve enhanced competitiveness within national and regional economies
  2. The need to understand ideational factors and values in the relationship; the implications of Brexit for EU-Australia, EU-UK and UK-Australia relations
  3. The search for multilateral and regional approaches to global challenges such as terrorism; climate change; refugee flows; energy security; food security; natural disasters; pandemics and the need for crisis-management mechanisms
  4. The search for progress towards a consolidated bilateral cooperation between the EU and Australia
  5. The need for a comprehensive analysis of the Framework Agreement, and how that Framework Agreement will shape the contours of the future relationship
  6. How the EU-Australia relationship can be utilised within the Asia-Pacific/Indo-Pacific region to strengthen the position of both the EU and Australia within that region, and to develop collaborative solutions to shared concerns
  7. Prospects for future cooperation and increased mutual understanding of both ideational challenges and policy strategies

The final report for the project is now available. Download Australia's Relationship with the European Union: From Tensions to New Paradigms dissemination report (650kb pdf).

Download the final report