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Explaining the digital euro to public opinion is complicated by the fact that it comes in two versions – retail and wholesale. When and if a recent EU summit’s green light is confirmed by the European Parliament, this autumn should see the advent of the wholesale digital-euro for financial institutions. The retail version for general use isn’t expected for at least three years.

To succeed, the digital euro needs megaphone messaging

Giles Merritt looks at the undoubted benefits of the digital euro, and warns that greater public awareness will be vital to its introduction.

Britain’s electoral system is justified by the claim that only single‑party rule can deliver clarity and accountability. Coalition politics is caricatured as weakness, shared power as chaos, bargaining as betrayal.

Rethinking British Democracy

By: The Globalist | Wednesday, March 4, 2026

Britain’s voting system encourages the belief that complex social conflicts can be settled not by compromise, but by conquest.

Cyprus’ concerns extend beyond missile threats, with authorities warning of a heightened risk of terrorist activity linked to Iranians residing in the Turkish-occupied north.

Cyprus fears ‘chaotic’ terrorism from Turkey-occupied territory as EU help ramps up

By: Euractiv | Tuesday, March 3, 2026

Cyprus is on high alert over potential terrorist threats linked to Iranians in the Turkish-occupied north, while Germany is weighing the deployment of a frigate to shield the island from Hezbollah- and Iran-related risks

Unlike Kyiv, Bucharest operates without existential pressure. Unlike Warsaw, it is less politically polarised. Unlike certain Western capitals, it suffers no strategic fatigue on enlargement or Eastern policy even as it would turn it into a net European taxpayer.

Why Bucharest Is Emerging as the World’s New Strategic Listening Post

By: Radu Magdin | Tuesday, March 3, 2026

There is an uncomfortable truth some Western European capitals are slow to admit: the best political and geopolitical intelligence about Europe’s most volatile (and most opportunity-rich) frontiers no longer flows primarily through London, Paris, or Berlin.

The European Commission should appoint a senior Syria coordinator, tasked with aligning fragmented responses across EU development funds, diplomatic services, and the European Investment Bank. A dedicated Syria reconstruction working group with mandatory member state participation would prevent contradictory policies that undermine credibility.

Can EU Still Matter in Syria?

By: Carnegie - Strategic Europe | Tuesday, February 17, 2026

Europe’s interests in Syria extend beyond migration management, yet the EU trails behind other players in the country’s post-Assad reconstruction. To boost its influence in Damascus, the union must upgrade its commitment to ensuring regional stability.

Likeminded, capable, and willing member states can move forward on supercharging the EU’s economic firepower by deepening the single market, completing the capital markets union and banking union, and consolidating industry. The formation of specialized subgroups within the whole should no longer be seen as a negative to avoid, but rather as a necessary flexibility without which the European project cannot survive.

To Survive, the EU Must Split

By: Carnegie - Strategic Europe | Wednesday, February 11, 2026

Leaning into a multispeed Europe that includes the UK is the way Europeans don’t get relegated to suffering what they must, while the mighty United States and China do what they want.

It’s clear, meanwhile, that the idea of a hugely powerful BRICS bloc is a non-starter. Russia’s inclusion is only part of the problem; above all, there’s the challenge of finding common economic interests between Brazil, India, China and South Africa. The only real binding agent is shared political opposition to US or EU initiatives.

The EU must take the lead in a ’new world order’ of trade blocs

By: Giles Merritt | Tuesday, February 10, 2026

Giles Merritt looks at the EU’s leadership opportunities in a world to be transformed by massive demographic convulsions.

The American plutocrats support Europe’s autocrats so ardently because they hope that, following these proto-fascist parties‘ electoral victories, they will stand in the way of Europe sticking by its regulatory guns regarding the digital economy and digital media.

The True Meaning of “Civilizational Erasure”

By: The Globalist | Tuesday, February 3, 2026

Messrs. Vance, Musk and Thiel deliberately misdirect their claim of “civilizational erasure” solely on Europe. Their real goal is to distract from the universal challenges.

Long a supporter of a rules-based international order — one that has underpinned its rapid growth — New Delhi has found itself increasingly vulnerable under the revived “America First” agenda. The once-vaunted personal rapport between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump proved a fragile substitute for institutional trust, exposing the limits of personalised diplomacy.

The Mother of All Deals: EU’s FTA with India

By: Rajnish Singh | Wednesday, January 28, 2026

The EU–India free trade deal isn’t just about tariffs — it’s about Trump, China and the end of the rules based international order.

The under-35s averagely pay a greater proportion of their earnings in taxation than their elders, contend with sky-high housing costs, and according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) own only 5% of Europe’s net asset wealth in property or financial holdings.

Coming soon: an EU plan to combat youth poverty

By: Giles Merritt | Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Giles Merritt reports on an ambitious strategy for tackling the barriers that confront Europe’s under-35s, and highlights the obstacles to be overcome.

Yet the world is not as Trump imagines it, and the threat he now poses—and which Europeans are scrambling to respond to in Brussels and Davos this week—is principally one of chaos. Calling the challenge a new Monroe Doctrine is only partly the answer: It’s more like a Gone-Rogue Doctrine.

Europe Faces the Gone-Rogue Doctrine

By: Carnegie - Strategic Europe | Tuesday, January 20, 2026

The hyper-personalized new version of global sphere-of-influence politics that Donald Trump wants will fail, as it did for Russia. But, whether it fails or not, Europe must still deal with a disruptive former ally determined to break the rules.

Though some in Brussels argue that Trump’s rhetoric occasionally sounds sympathetic to Putin, his actions consistently undermine Russian and Chinese interests. Ultimately, Trump’s early 2026 agenda reveal a deeper reality: despite the noise, Europe and the US continue to share many of the same strategic objectives.

Trump’s Turbulent 2026: Why Europe Fears Him But Still Needs Him

By: Rajnish Singh | Wednesday, January 14, 2026

From Greenland to Iran, Gaza and Venezuela, Trump’s start to 2026 may terrify Brussels — but behind the headlines, his aims echo Europe’s own strategic priorities.

Europe’s Eastern flank, with the Black Sea at its core, has become an active war zone and a decisive hinge in the continent’s security order. At the same time, the unpredictability of the United States is forcing Europeans to design its own more credible security architecture.

France, Turkey, and a Reset in the Black Sea

By: Carnegie - Strategic Europe | Tuesday, January 13, 2026

A renewal of relations between France and Turkey is vital to strengthen European strategic autonomy. To make this détente a reality, Paris and Ankara should move beyond personal friction and jointly engage with questions of Black Sea security.

Europe’s global decline leads policy experts to lean increasingly towards extreme solutions. Awareness that already in this century Europe has gone from level-pegging with the US to only two-thirds of its GDP has sparked calls for radical policies. Progressive europhiles thus join populist europhobes in their exasperation with the EU.

Unpalatable choices for an EU with shrinking options

By: Giles Merritt | Tuesday, January 13, 2026

Giles Merritt urges a rigorous re-think of Europe’s strengths and weaknesses to fuel debate on a streamlined EU suited to the new ‘Age of Disruption’.

It is the NATO alliance that enables the American presence on Greenland, and it is the NATO alliance that the United States threatens when it threatens its ally Denmark. So long as the United States and Denmark are promised to defend one another from attack, Greenland is defended by both of them, and indeed by all of the other NATO allies. If the NATO alliance ceases to exist, then Greenland immediately becomes much less secure -- and, for that matter, so does every other member of the alliance, including the United States. Nothing could strengthen Russia and China more than the end of NATO.

The mad Stamp collector

By: EBR | Monday, January 12, 2026

Our foreign policy as fable

In the 1990s, it was thought that, both domestically and internationally, greater financialization would make individuals and countries grow faster. It was presented as a substitute for economic equality: Everybody who wanted to study or had a good idea could easily borrow and supposedly become rich.

Was the World of the 1990s Better Than Today’s?

By: The Globalist | Monday, January 12, 2026

Revisiting the illusions of the 1990s and how that era’s ideals led to today’s realities.

The muted European responses reflect the overbearing shadow of Washington’s influence on the continent, triggered by fears that Greenland will be the next stop for Trump’s adventurism or of the dire consequences of U.S. abandonment of Ukraine.

The Cost of Europe’s Weak Venezuela Response

By: Carnegie - Strategic Europe | Wednesday, January 7, 2026

International rules are only as strong as the democratic states supporting them. In the wake of the U.S. military operation in Venezuela, Europeans have a vested interest in making a compelling case for international law but shy away from doing so.

The Bondi Beach massacre and the Manchester attacks are stark reminders that antisemitism is not confined to online rhetoric or political debate. It manifests in real-world violence. Treating it as a fringe problem, or dismissing it as mere “political criticism”, is dangerously complacent. European governments must recognise antisemitism as a national security concern.

Bondi Beach shootings: Antisemitism the Canary in the Mine for Europe

By: Rajnish Singh | Wednesday, December 17, 2025

Growing violence against Jews, chants of “global intifada”, bias at the BBC, and Eurovision boycotts all highlight a broader erosion of European liberal values.

As of the latest published results (Q2 2025), the euro area’s general government gross debt-to-GDP ratio reached 88.2%, up from 87.7% in the previous quarter. A similar movement was observed across the EU, where the ratio rose from 81.5% to 81.9%, indicating a continued, albeit modest, increase in sovereign debt levels.

Decoding Europe’s Debt Puzzle

By: EBR | Tuesday, December 16, 2025

As we approach the final days of 2025, we find ourselves closer to 2050 than to the year 2000 - a realisation that, from a time perspective, feels both unsettling and fascinating!

The NSS calls on Europe to take “primary responsibility for its own defense, without being dominated by any adversarial power.” That possible adversarial power is not stated.

Europe Needs to Hear What America is Saying

By: Carnegie - Strategic Europe | Wednesday, December 10, 2025

The Trump administration has slammed the EU’s political and social policies, which it claims are undermining Europe’s identity. The stark language of the new U.S. security strategy helps Europeans to recognize new realities and to devise their own response.

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EU Actually

President Ursula von der Leyen has seen better days

By: N. Peter Kramer

EU leaders, member states, MEPs, EP political groups have had it with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Europe

The EU Needs a Third Way in Iran

European reactions to the war in Iran have lost sight of wider political dynamics. The EU must position itself for the next phase of the crisis without giving up on its principles.

Business

The EU’s zig-zag road towards stronger financial markets

Giles Merritt delves into the confusing welter of efforts to streamline Europe’s national financial players into a more dynamic single capital market