Coordinated by Prof. L. Van Langenhove, the objective of the GR:EEN work package seven (WP7) is to design and execute a foresight exercise with the time horizon 2020, focusing on changing socio-economic and political relationships between the EU and the world in view of the emergence of significant transnational policy network activity.

Foresight is a systematic and participatory exercise that identifies possible futures and looks at how they can influence decision making. It helps participants to develop visions of the future and designs pathways towards these visions. The use of foresight techniques has the potential to improve regional and global cooperation policies, as well as their consequences. Indirect effects include better-informed decisions, generation of broader consensus, promotion of strategic and long-term thinking, and the accumulation of policy-relevant knowledge.

In detail, the objectives of WP7 are:

• Examine the key driving forces that influence future developments in multilateral governance and either the consolidation or weakening of multi-polarity
• Explore possible and desirable scenarios for EU external policy-making
• Actively involve various stakeholders of different types.

This exercise will build a bridge between all the other WPs and their potential implications for future global scenarios. It will also be the basis for developing a set of policy recommendations aimed at enhancing EU’s long-term decision-making. GR:EEN will run a scenario-building exercise from a participative perspective. The participatory methods of foresight analysis are interactive tools for engaging stakeholders in these processes, whereby the relevant actors can vary according to the specific issues being addressed. GREEN intends to involve EU officials, member States’ officials, academia, civil society representatives, NGOs working in the studied fields and other international organisations’ officials in these processes.

The results of WP7 could help the EU’s decision-making and development of its role in the world, and at best, critical for the development of EU’s strategy to be a relevant world player, an effective supporter of multilateralism and a competitive partner in bilateral relations in the growingly multi-polar international system.

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