Eliza Lockhart

The EU’s economic security strategy should not get bogged down in one-dimensional discussions, a new report argues. “A lack of clarity of what economic security really is, will keep the discussions siloed by trade and security,” explained Eliza Lockhart, the author of the report, on a video call. The Commission hopes to follow a three-pillared structure of promote, partner and protect. The last has received the most attention as it is the most acute and concrete, for instance with a reform of the EU’s fragmented foreign direct investment screening landscape. Lockhart, working together with Director Tom Keatinge, set up a taskforce in RUSI’s Center for Finance and Security made up of national EU civil servants, Commission experts, NATO reps and diplomats from Australia, Japan and the U.K. Together, these 40-odd participants were invited to simply brainstorm on the international workability of economic security.

The EU’s economic security strategy should not get bogged down in one-dimensional discussions, a new report by the world’s oldest think tank RUSI argues. “A lack of clarity of what economic security really is, will keep the discussions siloed by trade and security,” explained Eliza Lockhart, the author of the report, on a video call. The Commission hopes to follow a three-pillared structure of promote, partner and protect. The last has received the most attention as it is the most acute and concrete, for instance with a reform of the EU’s fragmented foreign direct investment screening landscape.