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Labour’s base may want a closer relationship with Europe. But the voters who delivered its record breaking massive 166 seat majority, do not want the Brexit fight back on the table. They want competence, stability and delivery.

Labour’s Brexit Bind: Why Reopening the EU Question Will Not Help It Politically

Labour has only been in power for two years, and already it’s flirting with the one issue guaranteed to blow holes in its electoral support: Europe.

Although these two schools appear to oppose one another, both emphasize the fundamental uncertainty of reality and stand apart from the mainstream schools of economics, despite having many followers among entrepreneurs and non-academics. It is hardly surprising that this emphasis on fundamental uncertainty disturbs all those who fail in their predictions, as happened in Greece, during the global bubble of 2008, and during the coronavirus crisis in 2020.

The different faces of “Scientific Populism”

By: EBR | Tuesday, June 2, 2026

“If Ethics represents how we would like the world to be, economics represents how it actually is,” write S. Levitt and S. Dubner in their ingenious book Freakonomics

European leaders’ slow progress on these key policies contrasts with the speed of economic decline. Research by McKinsey analysts points to a dramatic widening between US and EU living standards unless there’s a decisive shift to boost productivity. They calculate that the present per capita GDP gap between Germany and the United States of $29,000 could increase to $48,000 by 2033 if Europe continues to stagnate economically.

The EU lacks the ’Big Idea’ to end its own policy chaos

By: Friends of Europe | Tuesday, June 2, 2026

Giles Merritt looks at the economic headaches vying for EU policy backing and calls for a far more strategic approach.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, most have pursued a policy of isolation and sanctions, and not all agree on the wisdom of initiating even limited contacts.

Can EU find a Russia whisperer to mediate an end to war in Ukraine?

By: BBC News | Wednesday, May 27, 2026

Ukraine is urging the EU to help negotiate an end to the war with Russia, a topic that will be discussed in detail at an informal meeting of European foreign ministers in Cyprus.

Today, EU enlargement no longer benefits from the permissive consensus that accompanied post–Cold War integration. Instead, it is the go-to scapegoat for all the ills of member states. What’s more, enlargement takes place amid geopolitical insecurity, migration anxieties, democratic backsliding, economic uncertainty, and declining trust in institutions.

EU Enlargement Forgets Europeans

By: Carnegie - Strategic Europe | Tuesday, May 26, 2026

Preparing candidate countries for EU membership is no longer enough. As the enlargement process becomes a reality, the union must also prepare its own societies.

Since his return to the White House, Trump has routinely derided NATO as an unfair organization. He has severely undermined the credibility of the alliance’s collective defense promise by stating countries shouldn’t own land they can’t defend, and, latterly, has threatened it outright, warning in an interview to the Financial Times that NATO faces a “very bad” future if U.S. allies fail to assist in opening up the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump Turns NATO into a Tool of Coercion

By: Carnegie - Strategic Europe | Wednesday, May 20, 2026

The full list of humiliations Europe has endured since Donald Trump returned to the White House makes for grim reading. But Washington’s adversarial approach to its allies undermines its own power base.

European leaders have indicated that the UK would be welcome back in principle, yet only on standard terms, reflecting a desire to protect the integrity of the bloc. There is goodwill—but little appetite for reopening bespoke British exceptions.

Britain and Europe: The Long Road Back

By: EBR | Tuesday, May 19, 2026

Wes Streeting’s call for Britain to rejoin the European Union, and Andy Burnham’s more cautious but still sympathetic noises, signal something important: the question of EU membership is no longer taboo in mainstream politics.

What if Europe’s industrial heat came from sustainable energy on-site? This is the potential of replacing industrial gas boilers with clean solutions in heating processes, like thermal battery energy storage, which releases heat instead of electricity, large heat pumps, and electric boilers—as well as geothermal heat from the earth.

How the EU Can Become Energy Independent

By: Carnegie - Strategic Europe | Tuesday, May 12, 2026

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has triggered a global energy crisis, but Europe is stuck in reaction mode. Without more strategic foresight, the EU will remain dependent on fossil fuels and will never be truly secure.

The fact that so many saw in Zack Polanski the answer to Britain’s most pressing questions tells us dark things about the changing heart of this country of ours.

The Greens have shockingly proved that anti-Semitism is a vote-winner

By: The Telegraph | Monday, May 11, 2026

Polanski’s party has become a seedbed for the political ambitions of every jihadist, Islamist and progressive fanatic in Britain

Europe is still a long way from being able to truly claim strategic autonomy, both because it lacks the physical means to do so, and because many of its leaders still lack the political will to fully lean into the concept. Europeans bear a sizeable part of the responsibility for having refused to see the reality of what the United States has been turning into over the past decade.

Europeans Are Quiet Quitting the United States

By: Carnegie - Strategic Europe | Wednesday, May 6, 2026

European leaders have now not only lost faith in Donald Trump’s U.S. presidency, but also in America’s hegemony as a whole. But short-term challenges make an immediate divorce unwise.

Over recent months the Prime Minister has taken an increasingly strident stance on Brexit in an apparent attempt to appeal to Labour MPs and members.

Starmer to lobby Macron for closer EU ties

By: The Telegraph | Monday, May 4, 2026

PM to use summit to gain access to £52bn of weapons contracts in exchange for helping cover interest on Ukraine loan scheme

The Iran shock is accelerating a reordering with a redistribution of hydrocarbon rents. The diffusion of EV’s is being forced via through price pain at the gas station. Trade and currency blocs may also be hardening.

Ten Inconvenient Truths About the Energy Implications of the Iran Crisis

By: The Globalist | Tuesday, April 28, 2026

Yes, the Iran crisis is a matter of global security. But it is also an event redistributing market shares in a declining hydrocarbon system.

The EU’s ambivalence on Turkey is a long-standing theme. For a long time, the main intellectual cleavage was about the country’s eventual union membership. Despite being a candidate country and having started formal accession negotiations in 2005, the prospect of Turkish membership remained a controversial issue.

The EU Equivocating on Turkey Is Bad Geopolitics

By: Carnegie - Strategic Europe | Tuesday, April 28, 2026

Following Ursula von der Leyen’s gaffe equating Turkey to Russia and China, relations with Ankara risk deteriorating even further. Without better, more consistent diplomatic messaging, how can the EU pretend to be a geopolitical power?

The case for a more muscular posture in Lebanon is self-evident. This would neither be a mandate against Israel nor against the Shia Lebanese. It would be a mandate in favor of international law, and in support of an imperfect and flawed democracy that, in the region, most embodies European values of plurality, liberty, and freedom of speech.

France, Italy, and Spain Should Use Force in Lebanon

By: Carnegie - Strategic Europe | Tuesday, April 21, 2026

Europe has been standing by while its Southern neighborhood is being redrawn by force. To establish a path to peace between Israel and Lebanon, it’s time for Europeans to get involved with hard power.

The reforms strategy stems from hard-hitting analyses by two former Italian prime ministers, Enrico Letta and Mario Draghi, of the EU Single Market’s fragmented nature 35 years after its ‘completion’ in 1992. Both have repeatedly voiced concerns that progress is far too slow.

The oh-so-slow Draghi/Letta plan to ’save Europe’

By: Giles Merritt | Tuesday, April 21, 2026

Giles Merritt looks back at the fate of earlier Single Market initiatives, and complains of déjà vu and lessons unlearned.

AI accelerates the targeting cycle to a tempo at which meaningful human oversight is too often procedurally present but substantively empty. Meaningful judgment would mean reviewing target identification, assessing proportionality, and deciding whether to strike. Now, the human remains present—but without real time to contest the machine.

The Fog of AI War

By: Carnegie - Strategic Europe | Thursday, April 16, 2026

In Ukraine, Gaza, and Iran, AI warfare has come to dominate, with barely any oversight or accountability. Europe must lead the charge on the responsible use of new military technologies.

Candidate countries can and should be involved in Europe’s ongoing rearmament and force-modernization drive. These three NATO members have committed to scale up core defense spending from around 2 percent to 3.5 percent of their GDP, a target they could reach by the mid-2030s. They have signed security partnerships with the EU, paving the way for participation in union-wide schemes such as the European defense industry program.

How to Join the EU in Three Easy Steps

By: Carnegie - Strategic Europe | Tuesday, April 14, 2026

Montenegro and Albania are frontrunners for EU enlargement in the Western Balkans, but they can’t just sit back and wait. To meet their 2030 accession ambitions, they must make a strong positive case.

Some analysts argue that, just as parts of the far right mobilise identity politics to appeal to specific constituencies, segments of the left may be seeking to consolidate support among Muslim voters. Critics warn these risks oversimplifying complex issues and deepening divisions.

Antisemitism in Europe Rises After 7 October: Far Left and Greens Under Scrutiny

By: Rajnish Singh | Wednesday, April 8, 2026

Antisemitism is increasing sharply across Europe since the Hamas attacks, the war in Gaza, and the Iranian conflict, with rhetoric from parts of the far left and the Greens increasingly blamed for deepening divisions.

Nowadays, Cyprus is a member of the EU but not of NATO, due to Turkish occupation of the north of the island. The recent Hezbollah drone attack against Cyprus-based UK sovereign military bases resurfaced discussions on the matter.

Cyprus wants British sovereign bases deal modelled on return of Chagos Islands

By: Euractiv | Tuesday, April 7, 2026

‘We are calling for a reassessment of the relationship and a renegotiation of the status on the terms of 2026,’ said lawmaker Chrisis Pantelides

With Macron constitutionally unable to run for a third term of office, the alliance of center parties—Renaissance, Horizon, Modem—struggled to impose themes or a narrative ahead of the election. The president has also gone out of his way to block the emergence of a successor figure who might solidify his legacy once his term expires. The void is glaring.

Is France Shifting Rightward?

By: Carnegie - Strategic Europe | Tuesday, March 31, 2026

The far right failed to win big in France’s municipal elections. But that’s not good news for the country’s left wing, which remained disunited while the broader right consolidated its momentum ahead of the 2027 presidential race.

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EU Actually

An as usual divided EU is looking for a more assertive China strategy

By: N. Peter Kramer

In his weekly column, N. Peter Kramer writes about the laborious efforts of the EU member states to find a more assertive China strategy.

Europe

EU hails Hungary’s ’wind of change’ and unlocks €16.4bn for new PM Magyar

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has told Hungary’s new prime minister that billions of euros in EU funding are to be unlocked subject to his government pushing through a raft of "long-overdue reforms".

Business

Hotpot, bubble tea and sportswear: China’s new exports take on the world

Step into pretty much any shopping mall in Singapore and you’re likely to find queues snaking outside shops with catchy names and bright-coloured branding.