A World in Crisis: How to Strengthen Europe’s Capacity to Act

This publication draws on the discussions held during a retreat bringing together European researchers, economists, policy experts and senior figures from the financial and business sectors to reflect on Europe’s capacity to navigate a rapidly changing international environment. The exchanges focused on three interconnected challenges: Europe’s economy and trade, security and defence, and the resilience of liberal democracy and European institutions.

Across the sessions, a common diagnosis emerged. Europe is not facing a sequence of isolated shocks, but a structural transformation of the international order. The primacy of rules, markets and open interdependence is increasingly being challenged by the primacy of power, security, coercion and strategic competition. In this new environment, Europe’s ability to act depends on its capacity to convert its economic scale, institutional model, democratic values, social cohesion and technological assets into concrete instruments of influence, protection and strategic autonomy.

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