Christine Lagarde — The Euro Cannot Build Europe Alone
The ECB can preserve monetary stability, but it cannot compensate for Europe’s fragmented capital markets, incomplete investment architecture and political hesitation.
THE PEOPLE SHAPING EUROPE | Christine Lagarde has expanded the language of European central banking. Under her leadership, the ECB speaks not only about inflation and interest rates, but also about supply chains, capital fragmentation, digital payment rails and monetary sovereignty.
Europe possesses a common currency, a central bank and a monetary policy shared by twenty-one countries. Yet beneath that monetary unity lies an economy divided along national lines.
Savings accumulate in one part of Europe but do not necessarily reach companies elsewhere. Banks remain closely connected to domestic markets. Scale-ups encounter funding gaps. Everyday digital transactions depend heavily on infrastructure controlled by non-European companies.
Lagarde increasingly presents these weaknesses as more than economic inefficiencies. In a world of geopolitical rivalry, they have become strategic vulnerabilities.
“It is a mark of how much our world has changed that a central banker speaks at the Munich Security Conference on supply chains.”
Christine Lagarde, President, European Central Bank
Read MoreUrsula von der Leyen — Europe Must Learn to Act
Her vision is no longer simply of a greener or more integrated Europe, but of a Union capable of defending its interests, financing its industries and acting as a geopolitical power.
THE PEOPLE SHAPING EUROPE | Ursula von der Leyen has transformed the presidency of the European Commission. Under her leadership, the institution has moved beyond regulation and market integration towards an embryonic European executive authority—borrowing, procuring and coordinating on behalf of the Union.
When Ursula von der Leyen became President of the European Commission in 2019, her central project was the European Green Deal. Europe would use regulation, public investment and technological transformation to become the first climate-neutral continent. That ambition has not disappeared. But the world surrounding it has changed.
A pandemic exposed Europe’s dependence on external supply chains. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine turned energy, defence and industrial production into matters of security. Competition with China and the United States revealed how difficult it was for European companies to scale. Meanwhile, technological sovereignty moved from the margins of policy debate to the centre of European strategy.
“Europe must choose its best option: Union.”
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission
Von der Leyen adapted. Her second Commission is therefore not merely a continuation of the first. It represents a different understanding of what Europe must become.
Read MoreHero — From Preserving Fruit to Managing Nutrition
How a Swiss preserves company became an international house of food brands
COMPANY FILE | Hero began by preserving fruit beyond the harvest season. Today, the Swiss company manages a portfolio spanning spreads, baby food and snacks. Its transformation reveals how food companies moved from conserving ingredients to organising everyday nutrition through brands.
A jar of jam at breakfast, a toddler’s fruit pouch and a snack bar between meetings appear to belong to entirely different markets. Behind them, however, may stand the same company. What began as a solution to seasonality gradually became a much broader relationship with the consumer.
The Swiss company is still associated with jams and small preserve portions. But the wider Hero Group also stands behind Corny, Schwartau, Semper, Organix, Beech-Nut and Deliciously Ella. Together, these brands reach consumers from infancy into adulthood and from breakfast into the spaces between meals.
Read MoreHero began by extending the life of fruit. It grew by extending its presence across the life of the consumer.
Society & Culture
Europe Doesn’t Need Another Silicon Valley
Friday, July 31, 2026
Europe’s strength may not lie in replicating Silicon Valley, but in connecting its specialised innovation ecosystems. From Brainport and Dresden to Paris-Saclay and the Baltic States, Europe’s future competitiveness increasingly depends on collaboration across complementary centres of scientific and industrial excellence.
The Cost of Sovereignty
Thursday, July 30, 2026
Meta is investing hundreds of billions in AI infrastructure. China is making artificial intelligence increasingly affordable. As these two strategies collide, Europe may face its greatest technological challenge yet: can digital sovereignty survive the economics of everyday choice?
TU Eindhoven – The Brainport University
Wednesday, July 29, 2026
Innovation depends on more than scientific excellence. It depends on how effectively knowledge circulates between universities, industry and society. TU Eindhoven demonstrates how regional ecosystems can transform education into Europe’s long-term technological capacity.
Muzisch Centrum Antwerpen and the Art of Learning
Sunday, July 26, 2026
Children do not experience the world in separate subjects. Through the example of Muzisch Centrum Antwerpen, this article explores how theatre, music and movement help children learn through creativity, curiosity and embodied experience, showing that education is about becoming as much as it is about knowing.
