Rob Jetten has invited opposition parties to help reshape the Netherlands’ 2027 budget. The invitation matters, but agreement will require more than adjustments to individual spending lines. Parties need a common view of the practical constraints, a genuine role in choosing priorities, and confidence that any settlement can survive both chambers and deliver results beyond 2027.
The Council of State offers a useful starting point. It says the Miljoenennota identifies the country’s long-term challenges clearly, but that the proposed budgets and tax measures do not yet fully reflect that analysis. The task is larger than finding enough votes for one year. It is to connect political agreement to a course the country can sustain.
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Perspective | Europe’s energy debate is often framed around what the continent lacks. Too little investment. Too little grid capacity. Too much dependence. Too many national differences. Yet the three Strategic Briefings in this series reveal another side of the European energy story.
Europe already possesses many of the foundations of an electro-powered economy. It has an extraordinarily diverse energy landscape. It has some of the world’s largest utilities and energy companies. And it has an electricity network that already connects countries and markets on a continental scale.
Europe’s diversity does not have to disappear. It has to become connected.
The challenge is not starting from zero. The challenge is making these strengths work together.
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SIGNAL | Five days ago, Altair Media argued that European semiconductor policy has a blind spot. Europe spends heavily on fabs, research and production capacity, but pays far less attention to the industrial demand that ultimately determines whether those investments become commercially viable.
This week, ASML turned that abstract problem into a remarkably concrete one. Speaking in Amsterdam, Frank Heemskerk, Executive Vice President Global Public Affairs & Countries at ASML, described the situation in unusually blunt terms:
“We’re not selling anything at all in Europe.”
That is the paradox. Europe is home to ASML — and to some of the world’s largest automotive, industrial, telecom and aerospace companies. The demand for chips is clearly there.
So why does so little of it translate into semiconductor investment at home?
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Michiel Scheffer wants Europe to do more than finance scientific discovery. His vision for the European Innovation Council connects research, patient capital, industrial demand and strategic procurement—turning breakthrough technologies into companies, production capacity and European power.
Under Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission has moved beyond regulation towards crisis management, industrial strategy and geopolitical coordination. Her vision is of a Europe capable of acting—but its growing executive ambition raises questions about power and accountability.
Europe has spent years demanding more engineers. At TU Eindhoven, interest in Electrical Engineering is growing just as educational capacity reaches its limits—exposing the widening gap between Europe’s industrial ambitions and its ability to train the people they require.
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