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The Guardian
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Europe should be standing up to Trump and Putin – instead it is mirroring them
Donald Trump's 'America First' policies are undermining decades of transatlantic cooperation just as Putin's Russia destabilises Europe with direct military aggression. But these twin shocks have unintentionally accomplished something the EU institutions never could. They have made European integration feel not just important, but existential – a matter of democratic survival – for ordinary citizens. From Helsinki to Lisbon, people are suddenly experiencing the same existential unease. Trade wars, defence threats and military aggression don't respect borders. More and more Europeans now recognise that their small, individual nations cannot withstand simultaneous pressure from both Washington and Moscow. They find themselves caught between economic coercion and military intimidation. Recent Eurobarometer data confirm the shift: 74% of Europeans now view EU membership as a positive thing – the highest level of support ever recorded. This is a historic opportunity. And yet, EU and national leaders remain paralysed – unable, or unwilling, to convert this public support and shared urgency into political momentum for reducing Europe's dependence on US military guarantees and economic shelter. This is the real tragedy: Europe's governments no longer practise the very ideals they preach. Though the EU still speaks the language of multilateralism and climate leadership, its policy direction and that of most of its member states increasingly mirror Trump's. On migration, the EU's new pact on migration and asylum reframes asylum as a security risk, echoing Trump's immigration crackdown. On climate, Ursula von der Leyen's European Commission has quietly dismantled key green deal initiatives and delayed critical legislation, in a deregulatory shift reminiscent of Trump's EPA rollbacks. Civil society is also under mounting pressure. Just as Trump has targeted non-profits and dissenters, the conservative European People's party (EPP) – von der Leyen's political 'family' – has launched an unprecedented assault on NGOs, threatening their funding and legitimacy. Even fundamental rights are at risk. The EU's response to Hungary's ban on Pride marches and expansion of surveillance powers has been tepid at best – tacitly tolerating democratic backsliding within its own ranks. But perhaps the most dangerous convergence lies in how power is exercised. Trump governs by executive fiat, sidelining Congress with executive orders. Today's commission is drifting in a similar direction at the demand of a majority of its member states. It centralises power, pushing through complex 'omnibus' packages and bypassing the European parliament most recently in its proposal to rearm the EU. What we are witnessing is not just a rupture in the transatlantic alliance but something more insidious. There are signs of an ideological convergence between Trump's America and today's European political centre, where parties are increasingly stealing ideas from the far-right – as in Germany – or governing with those parties, directly or indirectly. That is not only the reality in many EU countries but in the EU system itself under von der Leyen. Despite pledges in her first term to stick to the centre of politics, the commission increasingly relies on the votes of a rightwing majority in the European parliament, formed by conservative and far-right groupings of all stripes. These include the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), which used to be considered mainstream conservative but which now brings together Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy party with more extreme far-right parties such as France's Reconquête and the Sweden Democrats. There is also the Patriots for Europe (PfE) group, co-led by Marine Le Pen and Viktor Orbán, and the even more extreme Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN), dominated by Germany's Alternative für Deutschland. The EPP has traditionally allied with socialist and liberal MEPs who as a bloc helped elect von der Leyen last year. But the EPP has recently voted with parties to the right of it, notably to delay a new deforestation law. The same happened on budgetary matters, the recognition of Edmundo González as Venezuela's president, and more recently in blocking an EU ethics body. There is also a growing presidentialisation of the commission. During the Covid pandemic, von der Leyen personally negotiated vaccine deals by text message – shielding those discussions from public and parliamentary scrutiny. The risk is that tolerance of such a shift towards personalised, opaque governance makes it easier to pass to the 'Trumpification' stage – where politicians increasingly borrow from the authoritarian playbook, preferring executive fiat over parliamentary democracy. Sign up to This is Europe The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans – from identity to economics to the environment after newsletter promotion This creeping phenomenon weakens Europe's ability to respond to the very threats that should be pushing it closer together. Just when European citizens are most willing to support joint action – on Ukraine, Gaza, big tech, or defence – their leaders are failing to respond. What's missing is the political courage to articulate a compelling alternative to far-right messaging – one that makes an affirmative case for EU-wide action on the issues that matter most to Europeans: common security, managed migration and shared prosperity. This means presenting European integration not as a threat to national identity, but as the means to protect and strengthen it. When European nations pool their defence capabilities, they don't surrender sovereignty – they multiply their capacity to defend their communities. When they coordinate migration policies, they don't open floodgates – they create orderly, humane systems that serve both newcomers and existing communities. When they harmonise economic policies, they don't level down – they lift up regions and workers who have been left behind. This vision appeals to the same desire for security and belonging that populists exploit, but offers real solutions instead of scapegoats. This failure to articulate such a vision has real costs. Every month of delay in building European defence capabilities is another month of dependence on an unreliable US. Every compromise with authoritarians – whether in Budapest or Jerusalem – erodes the democratic credibility that makes European leadership possible. Trump and Putin have inadvertently given Europe a shared sense of purpose and a need for urgent action. The question is not whether Europeans are ready to respond – the polls show they are. The question is whether Europe's leaders will sleepwalk into irrelevance, or worse. Alberto Alemanno is the Jean Monnet professor of EU law at HEC Paris and the founder of The Good Lobby
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
A Very Different Anniversary Celebration
The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. As tanks roll through Washington today to mark the U.S. Army's 250th birthday—and the 79th birthday of President Donald Trump—Europe is commemorating a different anniversary, not with combat vehicles but with a passenger liner moored near a riverbank. Dignitaries from across Europe are gathering in Schengen, a riparian village in Luxembourg, to celebrate the creation of an international agreement to abolish controls at their countries' common borders. The agreement, signed on June 14, 1985, turned the little-known village into a landmark of European integration; today, Schengen is synonymous with the experiment the agreement spawned—an area of borderless travel that has grown to encompass 29 nations and more than 450 million people. The anniversary celebration in Schengen features artifacts of the treaty-making process, including the MS Princesse Marie-Astrid, the refurbished cruise ship where diplomats from the five original signatory states—France, West Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands—convened on the Moselle River to dismantle border controls. Their aims were practical: The Schengen Agreement was intended to make life more convenient for people—to send a message to workers and vacationers to 'pass, pass, pass,' as one of the signers told me during research for my book about Schengen. 'In principle, you can pass; and we presume that you're honest.' [Read: What Europe fears] But the agreement took on greater symbolic meaning. Schengen embodied the values of liberal internationalism that were ascendant at the so-called end of history, fulfilling the promise of a community of nations where people, goods, capital, and information all would circulate freely. If the Abrams tank is the key symbol of American military might on display today in Washington, the passenger ship anchored in Schengen showcases a very different vision of the international order, one premised on mobility, connection, and cross-border exchange—on the right 'to travel, to migrate, to circulate, to receive and be received,' as one Senegalese migrant in Paris put it in the years after Schengen's founding. Of course, both visions are legacies of the defeat of fascism and the end of the Cold War: a strong United States that vanquished enemies of freedom, a peaceful Europe where erstwhile adversaries worked to eradicate borders that once stood as battle lines. For a time, these visions coexisted. Now they seem to be coming apart. That's all too clear in the contempt that senior members of the Trump administration have expressed for longtime allies; the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, called Europe 'PATHETIC' in a private chat on the Signal messaging app. It's also clear in the administration's escalating crackdown on immigration, and in the deployment of Marines in response to protests in Los Angeles. The vision of free movement animating Schengen is not one shared by Stephen Miller, to say the least. But Schengen is a peculiar creation, in a way befitting our disorienting times. As I explore in my book, the agreement hardly envisioned unrestricted mobility. Instead, it paired the free movement of European citizens with the exclusion of unwanted outsiders, termed 'undesirable' and ranked according to the level of risk they posed to Europe. The agreement assigned participating nations new responsibilities to police the Schengen Area's borders. And it gave them the authority to reintroduce internal controls in the event of a serious threat to 'public policy' or national security. [T. H. Breen: Trump's un-American parade] Nations have done so repeatedly over the past decade, since Europe was jolted by the arrival of an estimated 1.3 million asylum seekers in 2015. A series of deadly terrorist attacks added to the impetus to crack down. Unrelenting emergencies over the past five years—the coronavirus pandemic, Russia's war in Ukraine, and spasms of violence in the Middle East—have put still more pressure on European states to step up border checks. Recently, Germany vowed to maintain controls at all nine of its land borders, citing 'high levels of irregular migration and migrant smuggling,' as well as the country's strained asylum system and the 'global security situation.' The Netherlands closed its borders in part because of the 'pressure on public services' from an influx of migrants and asylum seekers. Multiple Nordic countries, meanwhile, point to the threat of Russian sabotage, among other destabilizing cross-border activities, to justify renewed border checks. Yet 40 years on, the Schengen Agreement is so interwoven into the fabric of European life that nations no longer have the resources or logistical capabilities necessary to seal their borders. There are border checks, at least in some places, but moves to reintroduce controls on a large scale have been mostly symbolic. And for all the opposition to mass migration, which has fueled far-right politics on both sides of the Atlantic, the free movement of people and goods remains one of the European Union's most popular policies. Perhaps that reflects Schengen's origins as an innovation designed to improve everyday life, not a show of force or revolutionary transformation. Or perhaps it reveals that values of peace and pluralism are still deeply held by large parts of Western society. Both, in fact, define the view of Robert Goebbels, who, as Luxembourg's delegate to the negotiations 40 years ago, helped draft the agreement and chose Schengen as the site of the signing ceremony. I wrote to Goebbels, who has since gone on to serve as a government minister and then a member of the European Parliament, on the eve of today's twin anniversary celebrations. Schengen, he told me, is a 'peace project,' binding nations once engaged in bloody conflict and 'offering liberties and well-being to 450 million Europeans.' Trump, meanwhile, 'celebrates himself.' Article originally published at The Atlantic
The Independent
13-06-2025
- Business
- The Independent
The euro will get a new member next year – and not everyone is pleased
The EU has given the green light for Bulgaria to join the euro from January 1 2026. This huge step towards European integration comes just six months after Bulgaria became a full member of the Schengen area, within which people can move freely across borders. However, while rapprochement moves apace at the top level, euroscepticism shows little sign of abating at the grassroots level in Bulgaria or in national party politics. Protests calling for Bulgaria to stick with its national currency have sprung up in both the capital city, Sofia, and in several towns around the country. A May poll showed that 38 per cent of Bulgarians were against the euro and only 21 per cent agreed that the switch should go ahead in January. Others wanted to wait a few years. In a similar poll in January, 40 per cent of respondents said they never wanted Bulgaria to join the euro. Anti-euro protests tend to be associated with the Bulgarian nationalist political parties. The most influential of these, Vazrazhdane, has become increasingly popular and won 13.63 per cent in the most recent parliamentary elections in October 2024. It had won just 2.45 per cent in elections held in April 2021. Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007. When, in December 2021, I interviewed a former spokesman for the political party NDSV (National Movement Simeon II), which was in government from 2001 to 2009, they said Bulgarians had very high expectations ahead of becoming part of the bloc. They had thought it would take just a few years for Bulgaria to be as economically developed as Switzerland, and that their standard of living would soar. The dream was for Bulgaria to become the so-called 'Switzerland of the Balkans', as both countries have a similar population size and a similar tourist appeal. The EU has channelled €16.3 billion into Bulgaria since the country joined the EU, particularly for infrastructure development. However, a year of fieldwork has shown me that Sofia has been the main benefactor of this investment. Small municipalities and rural communities have not felt the benefit as clearly. Among the €16.3 billion, Sofia received €3.1 billion and Plovdiv received €0.8 billion. Whereas Sofia gets new metro lines in recent years, citizens in some municipalities still struggle with basic public services for survival. Nearly 15 per cent of the country's population struggles with a regular quality water supply. The imagined 'European' standard of life has not yet reached small municipalities and rural areas. Europe still feels far away. Becoming part of the EU has given opportunities to Bulgarian citizens to work and live abroad in European countries. Official figures show 861,054 Bulgarian citizens lived in other EU countries in 2022. Recently, a total of 74 per cent of young people in Bulgaria are considering more or less seriously the idea of emigrating abroad. However, the trend of young people working abroad in Europe has caused brain drain and has partially contributed to the decreasing population of Bulgaria, which fell from 7.68 million before it joined the EU in 2006 to 6.44 million in 2024. According to a research analyst at a Sofia-based non-governmental organisation whom I interviewed recently, many Bulgarian parents hope that their children working abroad in Europe will return to work in Bulgaria, because jobs for migrants abroad tend not be for high-skilled workers. Accession to the eurozone is more likely to benefit Sofia-based people who do business abroad rather than older people living local lives in small municipalities or rural areas. Younger and working people have already been shown to be the ones who benefited most from European integration in Bulgaria and Romania in the first place. That said, support for EU membership has been rising recently. Holding a coalition together Despite euroscepticism, European integration is one of the few issues that unites Bulgaria's fragile coalition government, although not all political parties agree with joining the eurozone. Bulgaria held seven parliamentary elections between April 2021 and October 2024. It therefore has been a surprise that amid the political turmoil, the coalition government that was formed in October 2024 has survived. A very important motivational source here is unity on the question of Europe. But with mixed results so far and with meaningful levels of opposition the joining the euro, Bulgaria's government will have to be careful about the potential for eurosceptic movements to grow as they have in several other EU nations.
The National
30-05-2025
- Business
- The National
'Gulf citizenship' is a powerful idea that can bolster GCC states' national identities
The Gulf Co-operation Council member states recently agreed to jointly introduce a special part on Gulf citizenship into their educational curriculums. This timely and far-sighted step will improve the bloc's internal cohesion, ultimately contributing to the six countries' security and economic prosperity. The 1980s and 1990s were a time of great economic and political integration in the EU. They witnessed the launch of the common market, allowing EU citizens to freely move throughout the bloc while guaranteeing equal status to the citizens of the country they decide to settle in. In 1999, the single currency – the euro – was formally launched, creating a unified monetary system for 300 million Europeans. During this era of European amalgamation, I was growing up in the UK – the EU's reluctant adopted child. Owing to its unique history and island geography, the UK always retained a schizophrenic relationship towards the continent, with the public simultaneously being anxious about committing to the EU and fearing being left out. Overall, however, the sentiment was definitely Eurosceptic compared to the UK's long-standing French and German rivals across the channel, ultimately spawning the Brexit referendum decision in 2016. I clearly remember visiting the EU capital, Brussels, in December 1999 to experience the millennium transition. At that time, even though the procedural elements of European integration were very advanced, Brussels was still very much a Belgian city, full of Belgians speaking French. This helped reinforce my British-inspired impression that the EU project was very much a top-down affair, with ordinary citizens a long way from developing a European identity. Almost 20 years later, I returned to Brussels, this time as a resident of Bahrain who had conducted a lot of research on integration within both the EU and the GCC. I was pleasantly surprised to see a European identity everywhere I walked: the city had transformed into a home for people from every corner of the now enlarged bloc, and every group of people I encountered seemed to be speaking a different one of Europe's main tongues. The bank notes in my wallet were covered in European-themed images celebrating the continent's history. While the EU's capital city is not necessarily representative of the rest of the Union, it was evident to me that imbuing children with a set of European values – and teaching them to be proud of European history – played a central role in the development of European identity. As the EU has demonstrated, cultivating a bloc-level identity need not come at the expense of a national one In 2025, while the EU continues to face significant challenges of internal cohesion, on the whole, it is in a much better position economically and militarily than it would have been had each country continued to go it alone. The chastening speech delivered by US Vice President JD Vance in Munich earlier this year has further assured Europeans that they need to stick together, amplifying the value of educational curriculums that emphasise the notion of a European identity. For this reason, the GCC's decision to integrate a Gulf identity into their educational curriculums is a sage one. The evolving geopolitical constellation is creating a pressing need for the six countries to further strengthen their ties. As the EU example shows, it is critical that the top-down procedural steps be mirrored by a change in the mindset of ordinary citizens. Moreover, as the EU has demonstrated, cultivating a bloc-level identity need not come at the expense of a national one – in fact, it can reinforce the national identity. Germans today are proud to be both German and European, in the same way that Bahrainis are proud to be citizens of Bahrain and the Gulf. Educational reforms are an accelerant in this regard. Having a unified perspective throughout the population about what it means to be a Gulf citizen plays an important supporting role in striving for higher levels of economic and security co-operation between the six GCC member states. Reforming educational curriculums is the natural first step.
Al Jazeera
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Chancellor Friedrich Merz calls for renewed Franco-German cooperation
Friedrich Merz says a reset in relations is vital to help Europe overcome its security and economic 'challenges'. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has called for a renewed partnership with France to help Europe confront its 'enormous' security and economic challenges. At a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Wednesday, Merz outlined a joint vision for deeper European integration, calling for a 'new push for Europe' grounded in closer Franco-German cooperation. 'We will only be able to meet these challenges if France and Germany stand even more closely together than in the past,' Merz said. 'That is why Emmanuel Macron and I have agreed on a new Franco-German push for Europe.' Among the initiatives discussed was the strengthening of the Franco-German Defence and Security Council, Merz said. 'We want to better coordinate our support for Ukraine within this framework, align our national defence planning and procurement projects even more closely, and also find new answers to strategic questions of security and defence policy,' Merz added. The meeting comes at a time of mounting concern across Europe about the reliability of US security guarantees amid Russia's war in Ukraine. Advertisement In a joint op-ed published in Le Figaro, Merz and Macron affirmed their shared commitment to 'contribute to a just and lasting peace [in Ukraine], with the support of the United States on security, and strong security guarantees'. Sign up for Al Jazeera Breaking News Alert Get real-time breaking news alerts and stay up-to-date with the most important headlines from around the globe. Subscribe Your subscription failed. Please try again. Please check your email to confirm your subscription By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy protected by reCAPTCHA Macron said the two countries would fast-track new defence capabilities. The visit to Paris follows a rocky start to Merz's chancellorship after he needed an unprecedented two rounds of voting in the Bundestag to be elected Chancellor, suggesting underlying divisions within the new governing coalition between his centre-right CDU/CSU alliance and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD). But in a potential shift towards a more unified German foreign policy, Merz now presides over a government in which both the chancellery and foreign ministry are held by the same party for the first time in years. He has also pledged to establish a national security council within the chancellery, aimed at improving coordination across foreign, development, and defence policy. Later on Wednesday, Merz is due to travel to Poland. Speaking to German state broadcaster ZDF, Merz added that he intended to work with Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to shape a tougher EU-wide migration framework.
