EU Trade Deals Must Uphold The Due Diligence Rules Europe Passed
Only four EU trade agreements since 2022 allow any sanction for breaking labour and climate commitments.
Politics
Analysis and debate on European and national politics, democracy, the rule of law, parties and elections, and Europe’s place in the world.
Nobody Will Pull The Trigger When Humanity Loses Control Of AI
Around 1,200 OpenAI agents built themselves a messaging system, and every step towards it was individually rational.
Nativism Does Not Need Migrants — Or A Fixed Nation
In El Ejido a third of residents are foreign, and Vox still more than doubled its regional score.
Public Money Must Come With Public Obligations for Europe’s Industry
Steel and chemical plants cannot wait 10 years for cheap power, and the Industrial Accelerator Act needs teeth.
People Want Economic Change but Have Stopped Trusting Governments to Deliver It
While two-thirds say that democracy is the best way to govern, four in ten say a strong leader would serve their country better.
Services Now Outpace Manufacturing as the Engine of Development
In India, a worker who leaves the factory floor for services now adds more to national income.
Orbán’s Propaganda Machine Lost Because Fidesz Believed Its Own Story
Richard Demeny and Péter Krekó
Fear of war among Hungarians fell from 46 to 29 per cent as Peter Magyar reframed the election.
Europe’s AI Revolution Runs on Public Infrastructure
One planned German data centre will draw as much electricity as 600,000 households and employ around 120 people.
Europeans Are More Pragmatic About AI Than Their Prophets
Half of Americans say AI already harms society, against just 35 per cent across continental Europe.
California Rewrites the Welfare State While Europe Looks Away
Christophe Sente and Timothée Duverger
Trump and Sanders now converge on sovereign funds holding corporate shares, scrambling familiar ideological lines.
Tesla Outlasted the World’s Strongest Union Movement
After 1,027 days, severance deals with confidentiality clauses emptied the picket line at Sweden’s Tesla workshops.
Europe Promised to Protect Its Nurses From Hazardous Drugs and Has Not Delivered
Only two per cent of surveyed nurses have been tested for the hazardous drugs they handle at work.
Fascism Does Not Begin With Murder but With the Pleasure of Imagining It
Leo Löwenthal warned that far-right agitation turns psychoanalysis on its head, making followers paranoid rather than healing them.
Europe Needs a Plan for Russia After Putin
With 450,000 Russian dead and negotiation impossible, Europe’s only real leverage is patience backed by power.
Von der Leyen’s State of the Union Must Speak to Workers, Not CEOs
Europe spends €2 trillion a year on public contracts, most awarded to the lowest bidder, fuelling precarious work.
Isaiah Berlin’s Negative Liberty Now Fetters Progressive Politics
Two decades of bold reform followed the 1970s crisis; since 2008, next to none. Blame an idea.