Is Europe Ready for 2025?

Ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, lack of progress in the fight against climate change, uncertainty over the new US presidency: Europe will also face major challenges in 2025. So how to proceed?

Independence requires hard work

Europe must pick up the pace, Belgium’s Le Soir demands:

The Trump-Putin relationship will have enormous consequences for the geopolitical balance - from Ukraine to the Middle East, Africa and the global economy. And where does Europe stand? It faces a major challenge if it wants to avoid becoming a mere spectator. ... Europe must get to work to overcome the false political games, build a European defense, get the economy back on track, counter the increasingly devastating consequences of climate change, defend our democratic values and assert ourselves in a future world shaped by AI and Big Tech. ... If we want to avoid our fate depending (too much) on Trump and Putin, this is the only way forward.

Prepare for a new phase of war

In Poland’s Tygodnik Powszechny, Wojciech Konończuk from the state think tank OSW predicts:

After Trump takes office there will probably be an attempt at talks [aimed at ending the war in Ukraine] initiated by the US, but it will most likely fail. This will lead to a new stage of escalation in the war. What Trump will do then is an open question. It’s hard to imagine that he wants to hand over Ukraine to Putin. Either way, the future US president will certainly want to pass on a larger share of the costs of supporting Ukraine to the Europeans. The European countries, including Poland, will face a challenge for which they are not yet prepared.

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Increased pressure leads to more disunity

Greece’s Naftemporiki worries:

For the EU, the main risk under Trump 2.0 is that US pressure will increase fragmentation and division among member states. The dire domestic political situation in France and Germany, the two largest European economies, leaves the EU without strong political leadership. The situation will be exacerbated if Trump cuts aid for the war in Ukraine or withdraws from NATO. Europeans will have to bear a much larger share of their defense costs, which will further exacerbate their budgetary problems.

EU structures a major hindrance

The EU must reflect on its decision-making processes, demands Italy’s Corriere della Sera:

We all know by now that Europe can no longer count on the “Pax Americana” which guaranteed its export markets and protected it militarily. What does this mean for the future? ... The first thing to note is that despite the advantage we Europeans have in finding joint answers, this endeavor is hampered by the fact that we are not a federation but a union in which most competences lie with the states, which are often divided by conflicting interests.... Therefore, in spite of the awareness that the geopolitical shift requires a greater ability for joint initiative, it is unrealistic to believe that this can happen without a radical rethinking of European integration.”

EU needs its own platforms for public debate

The EU needs a broad-based public debate, Maria João Rodrigues of the think tank Foundation for European Progressive Studies explains in Portugal’s Público:

It’s not enough to find a new strategic consensus and strengthen the coalition of pro-European forces in EU institutions. It will be necessary to mobilize the support of European citizens on the basis of an in-depth democratic debate. And for such a European public debate to take place, it’s not enough to defend freedom of expression and pluralism. The EU cannot place itself in the hands of social networks like X (formerly Twitter) or TikTok; it will have to develop its own media infrastructure to reconquer the foundations of its sovereignty.

Von der Leyen will lead the way

Sweden’s Expressen comments:

The EU will have to become a defense union - both militarily and in defense of what we call “the European way of life,”’ i.e. trade for promoting prosperity, social reforms for distributing wealth, democracy and a constitutional state in which independent courts fight corruption, minorities receive the same treatment as majorities and everyone is equal before the law. In 2025, von der Leyen’s concrete proposals will show what EU governments have opted for in the face of a collapsing world order - a difficult readjustment or attempts to persuade Trump to take the right path.

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