Europe is facing growing security threats, but its institutions remain too divided and cumbersome to respond quickly. Russia’s war against Ukraine, intensifying hybrid attacks and uncertainty over American commitments have pushed European governments into temporary coalitions that bypass Brussels’ slow decision-making.

The EU was built to manage markets, not defend a continent. Now Russia’s war against Ukraine, American unpredictability and growing pressure from China are forcing Brussels into security decisions its institutions were never designed to handle.

Germany’s political establishment is losing voters while Washington risks misreading the war in Ukraine. Holger Friedrich, writing in The National Interest, argues that both crises spring from the same dangerous failure – political elites increasingly trust their own assumptions rather than confront evidence that contradicts them.

Germany is trying to rebuild its intelligence capabilities just as a scandal involving a former spy chief threatens to derail the effort. The arrest of August Hanning, former president of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), has exposed serious questions about the protection of classified information and the agency's internal safeguards.

France is running out of room to escape its public-finance crisis. With the deficit reaching 5.4% of GDP and public debt approaching 120%, rising borrowing costs are turning years of fiscal complacency into an increasingly dangerous liability.

Europe faces a new border-security dilemma after around 72,000 people crossed from Morocco into Spain’s Ceuta enclave in just two days. An EPC discussion paper warns that social media can accelerate mass migration movements faster than authorities can establish who is responsible.

Europe’s political establishment keeps warning younger voters about the horrors of fascism, but those warnings are losing their force. In a sharp CIDOB commentary, Francis Ghilès argues that the growing appeal of radical-right parties in France, Germany and Italy cannot simply be blamed on fading memories of the Second World War.