European Policy Centre

The European Policy Centre (EPC) is a Brussels-based not-for-profit think tank on European Union affairs, founded in 1997.

EPC logo

EPC conference centre

The premises of the European Policy Centre on Rue du Trône 14–16 in Brussels (Belgium).

Activities

Under the presidency of Brigid Laffan, the EPC's Chief Executive is Fabian Zuleeg, a German economist. Its Director of Studies is Janis A. Emmanouilidis, a German-Greek political scientist and economist. The EPC's 33 analysts carry out research and analysis, organise expert meetings and events with the main stakeholders concerned with EU and global affairs and produce policy analysis online and in print. The EPC also works with 28 senior advisers and 14 academic fellows.

The EPC's policy work is organised under six main programmes:

• Europe's Political Economy (led by Georg Riekeles, Associate Director)
• Europe in the World (led by Ricardo Borges de Castro, Associate Director)
• Social Europe and Well-Being (led by Elizabeth Kuiper, Associate Director)
• European Politics and Institutions (led by Corina Stratulat, Associate Director)
• European Migration and Diversity (led by Alberto Horst-Neidhardt, Senior Policy Analyst)
• Sustainable Prosperity for Europe (led by Stefan Sipka, Senior Policy Analyst)

In addition, the EPC runs the Connecting Europe project (supported by the Mercator Foundation), which promotes sustainable exchanges between civil society initiatives throughout Europe and the policy community in Brussels.

Funding

The EPC's funding comes from a number of sources, including its strategic partners: the King Baudouin Foundation, based in Belgium and Stiftung Mercator, based in Germany, and the European Union 's CERV Programme. It also comes from membership fees, and grants from the EU and other organisations. Details of these are published in its annual reports.^[1]

Governance

Brigid Laffan is President of the European Policy Centre and chairs its Strategic Council, which includes Jean-Claude Juncker, Frederica Mogherini, Joaquin Almunia, Maria Joào Rodrigues, Lord Kerr of Kinlochard, Janez Potočnik, André Sapir, Wolfgang Schüssel, Rita Süssmuth, Marta Dassù, Catherine Day, Monica Frassoni, and Nathalie Tocci among others.

The EPC's General Assembly and Governing Board are chaired by Declan Kelleher, Former Irish Ambassador to the EU and to China.

Former Presidents of the European Policy Centre include Herman Van Rompuy, Peter Sutherland (1998–2011) and Philippe Maystadt (2011–2014). Former Chairs of the Governing Board include David O'Sullivan, former EU Ambassador to the US, Hywel Ceri Jones, founder of the Erasmus Programme; António Vitorino, former European Commissioner; and Meglena Kuneva, former European Commissioner.

Membership

The EPC has a membership of around 350 organisations, which include diplomatic embassies, companies, non-governmental organisations, and regional and local authorities.^[2]

Tobacco companies

In January 2010, research was published alleging that in the 1990s EPC helped tobacco companies, as well as other industry groups, lobby "to ensure that the EU framework for evaluating policy options emphasised business interests at the expense of public health".^[3][4][5]