A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmental organizations, but some are semi-autonomous agencies within government, and some are associated with particular political parties, businesses or the military. Think tanks are often funded by individual donations, with many also accepting government grants.
Wolfgang Schüssel is an Austrian politician. He was Chancellor of Austria for two consecutive terms from February 2000 to January 2007. While being recognised as a rare example of an active reformer in contemporary Austrian politics, his governments were also highly controversial from the beginning, starting with the fact that he formed a coalition government with Jörg Haider's Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) on both occasions. In 2011, he retired from being an active member of parliament due to a multitude of charges of corruption against members of his governments.
Wilfried Achiel Emma Martens was a Belgian politician who served as prime minister of Belgium from 1979 to 1981 and from 1981 to 1992. A member of the Flemish Christian People's Party, during his premiership he oversaw the transformation of Belgium into a federal state. He was one of the founders of the European People's Party.
James Edmund Moncrieff Elles is a former Conservative Party Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South East England.
The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian-democratic, liberal-conservative, and conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other political parties. Founded by primarily Christian-democratic parties in 1976, it has since broadened its membership to include liberal-conservative parties and parties with other centre-right political perspectives. On 31 May 2022, the party elected as its President Manfred Weber, who was also EPP's Spitzenkandidat in 2019.
Hans-Gert Pöttering is a German lawyer, historian and conservative politician, who served as President of the European Parliament from January 2007 to July 2009 and as Chairman of the CDU-affiliated Konrad Adenauer Foundation from 2010 to 2017.
Giannis Valinakis is a Greek politician and university professor. He is the former Greek Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. He is currently President of the Jean Monnet European Centre of Excellence at the University of Athens, Jean Monnet Professor ad Personam, and a member of the Executive Board of the Centre for European Studies in Brussels.
The European Policy Institutes Network (EPIN) is a network of 31 think tanks from most EU member states and beyond. Its main focus is on current EU and European political and policy debates. EPIN aims to contribute to the debate on the future of Europe through up to the minute, expert analysis and commentary and through providing easy access to understanding the different national debates. EPIN is coordinated by the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels, Belgium.
The International Centre for Policy Studies (ICPS) is an independent NGO, founded in 1994 which aims to promote public policy concepts and practice and apply them to influential policy research that affects both the public and private sectors in Ukraine.
The European Ideas Network is an open centre-right think tank sponsored by the EPP Group and based in the European Parliament in Brussels. The EIN works as a pan-European policy framework designed to promote new thinking on the key challenges facing the countries of the European Union. With an active membership of around 3,000 policy-makers and opinion-shapers across the European Union, the EIN brings together foremost MEPs - as these represent the views of the European population, and then politicians, who coming from EU member states are confirmed to be democratically elected, hereafter businessman, academics, policy advisers, think-tankers, journalists and representatives of civil society who share a common outlook Europe-wide, as well as non-party experts and commentators interested in public issues being addressed.
The Casimir Pulaski Foundation is an independent, non-profit, and non-partisan think tank based in Warsaw, Poland specializing in foreign policy and security research. The foundation is named after Casimir Pulaski.
EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy is a non-profit, non-partisan, and independent think-tank focusing on European integration and cohesion. EUROPEUM contributes to policy related to democracy, security, stability, freedom, and solidarity across Europe as well as to active engagement of the Czech Republic in the European Union. EUROPEUM undertakes original research, organizes public events and educational activities, and formulates new ideas and recommendations to improve European and Czech policy-making.
Günter Burghardt, a senior European civil servant and former European Union ambassador to the United States, is a European lawyer and academic.
The Union of the Robert Schuman Institute for Developing Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe is the European level training institution of the European People’s Party political family, based in Budapest, Hungary. It was founded in 1995 as the successor of the Christian Democratic Academy for Central and Eastern Europe. The members of the union of RSI are political parties, organisations and foundations and its main activity comprises political and civic education.
GLOBSEC is a non-partisan, non-governmental organisation based in Bratislava, Slovakia. One of its main activities is the annual GLOBSEC Bratislava Global Security Forum, in existence since 2005. Other projects include the Tatra Summit conference on European affairs or Chateau Béla Central European Strategic Forum. Its think-tank called GLOBSEC Policy Institute boasts a wide research area based on four pillars. Its main outputs are policy papers and analyses on different topics in the area of international politics and security issues. Since 2016, GLOBSEC is not only the name of one of the top forums on international security worldwide, but also of the legal entity and organiser of the Forum.
The Prague European Summit is a platform for a regular high-level strategic debate on the future of the European Union and other European issues. It is the only platform of this kind focused on the European Union in Central and Eastern Europe. It offers space for an informal dialogue among political representatives, high-ranking state officials, representatives of interest groups, businessmen, academicians and journalists.
The Latvian Institute of International Affairs is a think tank in Latvia. Founded on May 20, 1992, the organization seeks to provide “Latvia's decision-makers, experts, and the wider public with analysis, recommendations, and information about international developments, regional security issues, and foreign policy strategy and choices”. They achieve this by publishing original research, hosting conferences, and partnering with other institutions in these tasks. Their research focuses on important topics such as Latvian foreign policy; transatlantic relations; European Union policies, including its neighborhood policy and Eastern Partnership; and multilateral and bilateral relations with Russia. The LIIA is a nonprofit and does not receive regular government funding. Its funding primarily comes from its partners for individual projects. While the LIIA is a non-governmental organization, they do advise the Latvian Parliament, as well as other decision-making bodies within and outside of Latvia. The current director (2011) of LIIA is Andris Sprūds.
The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw) is a non-partisan, non-profit economic research institute specialised in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, based in Vienna, Austria. It was founded in 1972 and is currently headed by Mario Holzner.
