“There is life after this motion,” said Sorin Grindeanu, the interim leader of Romania’s Social Democratic Party, after Parliament voted to bring down Ilie Bolojan’s government. He meant it as reassurance. In Romania, reassurance often sounds like something said over a body that is still warm. The no-confidence motion, initiated by PSD together with the far-right AUR, passed with 281 votes, collapsing a government that had been built less than a year earlier to stabilise the

Inflation in the Eurozone has surpassed the ECB’s 2% target, reaching 2,5%. The increase was driven mainly by higher energy prices and was smaller than markets had expected. Still, trade disruptions caused by the closing of the Strait of Hormuz are pushing up fuel costs for European consumers. “The war in the Middle East is creating the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market”. This is how the International Energy Agency described the effects of

At the beginning of 2026 Space X applied to the Federal Communication Commission to introduce orbital data centers in the next years. This plan is estimated to lead to the launch of roughly one million satellites in a year. On April 1st, the NASA successfully sent four astronauts out of the Earth’s orbit on a trajectory that takes the crew around the Moon’s far side and returns them to their starting point. The question that arises spontaneously is: where does Europe stand

Context "For years, the European Union believed that its economic size, with 450 million consumers, brought with it geopolitical power and influence in international trade relations. This year will be remembered as the year in which this illusion evaporated." said Mario Draghi during the Rimini Meeting on 22nd August 2025. In order to grasp what Draghi was referring to, one should think about the international environment in which Europe operates nowadays. The Russian invasio

I was enjoying a typical Milanese afternoon with prosecco and (relevant to the story) non-Russian company. When completely unprompted, a fellow Gen Z participant said: “I wish I could go to Moscow, I really respect Russian values. They have traditional values, not like the West”. Needless to say, this derailed the conversation and made me think 2 things: first, that being a houseplant is underrated; and second, whether Russia’s “traditional values” brand amounts to anything m

As the European Union seeks to regulate artificial intelligence through the AI Act and related digital rules, it is shaping the global debate on how to balance technological progress with fundamental rights and social stability. This has far-reaching consequences for investment flows and Europe's own innovation capacity, creating a complex mix of opportunities and risks. EU regulatory leadership in AI The AI Act is the world's first comprehensive horizontal law on artificia

What Does It Mean To Be “Culturally” European? By Ilinca Nuta and Sofia Viganò Part I: Institutional Framework The European Union did not begin solely as an economic project: from its origin, it encompassed a strong social dimension. The Preamble of the Treaty of Rome sets out ambitions that go beyond mere market integration (1). The founding Member States declared: “Determined to lay the foundations of an ever-closer union among the peoples of Europe, resolved to ensure the

Europe’s paradox: rich in savings, short on investment Europe’s economic debate has entered a decisive phase. Almost ten years after the launch of the Capital Markets Union (CMU) and a year after Mario Draghi’s competitiveness report, the same structural paradox remains: Europe is a high-saving continent that invests too little in itself. Households across the EU hold more financial wealth than those in any other advanced economy, yet a disproportionate share remains in cash

This year marks forty-five years since the Roquette Frères v Council judgment: a foundational decision that helped define the European Parliament’s role in the Community’s legislative process. In 1980, the Court of Justice of the European Union established through its ruling that the European Parliament’s consultation was not a mere procedural formality established by the Treaty but an essential step in the legislative process in order to ensure democratic participation in th

Over the course of its war of independence against Russian aggression, Ukraine has defied all odds. In Vladimir Putin’s vision, Russian tanks were meant to enter Kyiv within days, “liberating” the population from their democratically elected president Volodymyr Zelensky, who, in 2019, had based his campaign, among other things, on finding a diplomatic solution to the conflict that Russia had sparked in the Donbas five years earlier. Yet, for all his willingness to negotiate,

In recent months, the so-called “Russian Hybrid Warfare” has become increasingly popular in the headlines of newspapers and in the speeches of European leaders, mostly due to the growing number of NATO airspace violations by Russia. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that, when it comes to Russia, “we are not at war, but we are no longer at peace either.” Eliza Manningham-Buller, the former head of British intelligence, reflected that it “may be right [to say] we’re alread

Context On 8th September 2025, former Prime Minister of France François Bayrou asked the Assembly for a vote of confidence that resulted in a heavy defeat with 194 votes in favor of the government and 364 against. The motion was directly tied to the austerity budget for 2026, unveiled by Bayrou during the summer. In response, President Emmanuel Macron appointed Sébastien Lecornu, ex-Minister of the Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs, as Prime Minister on 9th September. Howeve

Cohesion Policy: an ever-present concern. Concerns regarding regional development, territorial cohesion and economic inclusiveness have always accompanied the process of European economic integration since the very first days of the European Communities. Following the downsizing of the coal and steel industries as a result of the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951 a special Fund for the Retraining and Resettlement of Workers was set up to minimi

At the beginning of January 2025, the Financial Times reported the difficulties faced by the Belgian-based multinational Umicore due to European bureaucracy. This firm operates in the recycling sector where it deals with critical raw materials, such as components of old electronics. The FT reported that a growing number of suppliers are exporting their waste outside Europe and are no longer working with Umicore. The reason behind this decision is their desire to avoid navig

Source: Benjamin Ashton; https://unsplash.com/s/photos/academic-research A new era for researchers In the 1930s, the draconian regimes of Nazism and Fascism provoked an unprecedented exodus of over 15,000 intellectuals to the United States. Among the Jew and non-Jew scientists and artists who found refuge there were Einstein, Fermi, Adorno and Marcuse. These bright minds enriched American history with scientific breakthroughs like the Manhattan Project, and cultural memorabil

Photo credits: Jane Barlow | PA Images via Getty Images My name is Margherita Elisia Ventriglia, I currently live in Ithaca, New York, a town best known for hosting Cornell University. I share a house with three fellow CEMS students: a German, a Norwegian, and a Hungarian. Seemed to me the best setting to reflect on how we each perceive the role of the European Union in international relations. To spark the conversation, I asked them to do what management students do best: a

Article written in collaboration with European Careers Association Maastricht Authors: Emma Guastone (EG) & Federico Fo (ECA Maastricht) In recent years, the world has witnessed a considerable increase in international tensions, becoming extremely dangerous from this point of view. In this regard, acts of terrorism have become a standardized tool to increase international instability. Thus, obliging countries to look for new solutions to support counterterrorism operations.

Article written in collaboration with European Careers Association Maastricht Authors: Kristoffer Saetre (ECA Maastricht) and Agnese Porro (EG) “The era of the peace dividend is long gone. (...) Europe is ready to step up.” With these words, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented the Commission’s White Paper on European Defence. In a paradigm shift, the EU responds to evolving threats in the contemporary European security environment. The following analysis of

On April 28, 2025, Spain and Portugal went dark. Not metaphorically. At 12:33 PM CEST, the lights went out in Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon,...

wirtten on May 6th 2025 The number of irregular border crossings into the European Union has decreased by 31% in the first quarter of the year, asserted the EU’s border agency Frontex. This decline was observed across all major migratory routes into the EU, with a drop ranging from 64% along the Western Balkan route (the one crossing Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, and North Macedonia) to 8% along the Eastern Land Border (covering Ukraine, Iraq, and Russia). While migration pat

Foto di Adrien Olichon da Pexels On the 18th of March 2025, the German Parliament passed a package of constitutional reforms, unleashing hundreds of billions of euros earmarked for defense, infrastructure, and projects. For decades, Germany has been considered the epitome of fiscal discipline. From the early days of the European Monetary Union, the Bundesbank has opted for tight budgetary controls and low inflation policies, resisting fiscal expansion. With this historic shi

Article produced in collaboration with Starting Finance Club Bocconi. “ Too quick, too fast to stick to last ” that’s what many of us...

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?, Paul Gaugin, 1897 “The security architecture that we relied on can no longer be...

In recent months, the European banking landscape has experienced a wave of mergers and acquisitions, with profound implications for the...