In December 2023, Hungary blocked agreement on a revision of the European Union’s long-term budget that included €50 billion in support for Ukraine. On 1 February 2024, EU leaders reached an agreement, with Hungary joining the other member states. Europe eventually acted, but only after another summit and weeks of uncertainty.
The episode captures the tension behind Ursula von der Leyen’s call to extend qualified majority voting to certain policy areas. A national veto can force governments to negotiate and accommodate objections. It can also leave a collective commitment dependent on a single capital.
A national veto can force governments to negotiate and accommodate objections.
For Europe, the question is how much protection individual governments need, and what happens when that protection limits the security, resources or choices of everyone else.
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Europe needs roughly €560 billion in additional research and development investment to reach its 2030 spending target, according to a new European Commission report. The figure captures the scale of financial effort. It leaves a harder question open: how will greater research spending translate into stronger European industry, wider technological adoption and lasting economic value?
Published on 1 October 2026, the Science, Research and Innovation Performance of the EU report places investment, fragmentation and scale at the centre of Europe’s innovation challenge. It reinforces a concern raised by the Draghi report: promising innovation still faces barriers to commercialisation and growth.
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Europe’s financing gap becomes most visible when technological progress must become industrial scale. Capital requirements rise before production generates reliable cash flow. Equity investors must commit larger sums; lenders need a credible route to repayment.
ECB analysis published in 2026 identifies precisely this weakness: insufficient later-stage funding, a narrow institutional investor base and limited cross-border investment within the EU.[1]
Euronext’s IPOready programme shows the businesses seeking a route forward. Its 2026 cohort included more than 160 companies with €29 billion in combined annual revenue.[2] Preparing them for public markets addresses one part of the problem. Financing them on workable terms addresses another.
The issue is whether Europe’s separate financial institutions can share the work—and the risks—of industrial expansion.
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Europe’s old pilgrimage routes preserve more than religious heritage. They offer another relationship with time. Through walking, hospitality and unexpected encounters, they reveal what modern societies risk losing when every journey — and even rest — must deliver measurable results.
Years after leaving telecom journalism, Siu Lie Tan reappears in Tuscany—working across circular innovation, European regulation and natural cosmetics. In this Coffee Talk, she reflects on curiosity, changing direction and learning that not everything needs to follow the plan.
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.