About the European Council on Foreign Relations

The European Council on Foreign Relations is a pan-European think-tank and advocacy group, co-chaired by Martti Ahtisaari, former Finnish President and Nobel Laureate, Joschka Fischer, former German Foreign Minister, and Mabel van Oranje, CEO of TheElders.org.

The organisation was launched in October 2007 to promote a more integrated European foreign policy in support of shared European interests and values.

ECFR's Council brings together over one hunded prominent Europeans, including serving and former heads of state, ministers and parliamentarians, business leaders, distinguished academics, journalists and public intellectuals. Their aim is to promote a new strategic culture at the heart of European foreign policy.

With offices in five EU capitals, ECFR’s in-house policy team brings together distinguished analysts and policy entrepreneurs to generate innovative policy recommendations on the EU’s global challenges;

ECFR is backed by the Soros Foundations Network, Sigrid Rausing, the Spanish foundation FRIDE (La Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior), the Italian UniCredit group, and the Bulgarian Communitas Foundation. ECFR works in partnerships with other organisations but does not make grants to individuals or institutions.

In its first year, ECFR published four major research reports and five policy briefs. Its foreign policy analysts have engaged in high-level advocacy work with EU institutions and national governments, and contributed to the policy dialogue within the foreign policy community. ECFR's analysts have appeared on leading broadcast channels and published op-eds in newspapers around the world. ECFR reports have generated over 400 news stories in newspapers including the Financial Times and The Economist.

By signing ECFR's Statement of Principles, anyone can join ECFR as an Associate.

For more information, please explore the links below.