2026: European Leadership wanted!

Where is European leadership when you need it? Photo: Wikimedia, barzdonas, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
Where is European leadership when you need it? Photo: Wikimedia, barzdonas, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0

LinkedIn blog post, 29/12/2025, by Sven Franck (en français , in Deutsch)

TL;DR - Any EU aficionado doom-scrolling down to 2026 likely stumbled over the EU Commission self-congratulating itself on its major achievement of the year: the USB-C plug - making the EU greener (!), simpler and brighter 🙄. At this make or break moment of the European Union, one would hope, that our Commission President would boldly aim for the stars to at least land us on the moon of treaty change. Not happening, because national governments are keeping the aim so low, they risk shooting ourselves in the foot instead.

No treaty update in 20 years?

A lot has happened since the 2007 Lisbon treaty: the financial crisis, Covid and climate change, but also digital platforms reshaping public opinion and now neo-imperialism. The EU treaties? Remain unchanged. While geopolitical blocks are adapting, Europe is paralyzed - blocked by member state governments clinging to their relevance or already under foreign influence.

It's now or never for a federal Union. Hungary will have elections soon and with the possible end of Orban's reign, Russia may loose its main ally and the extreme-right across Europe their principal backer. Treaty changes will not happen overnight. They will take time. Time during which democratic forces must make the case to electors why advancing the European project is preferably over, say, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin picking our future governments. Renewing the European project under these conditions will be an open heart surgery - the price to pay for kicking reforms down the road for two decades.

Where is European leadership when you need it?

The momentum is there. Open any newspaper these days and the probability is high that civil society and former elected representatives plead for advancing the European project - from Europe's declaration of independence to stopping to make declarations and starting to act to set the EU on a path similar to the ascent of China.

I'm in the camp who calls for action. We must shape our future rather than it being shaped by external forces. We need to find one government willing to propose treaty changes and convince enough heads of state to reach a qualified majority supporting the idea of a jumpstart.

Whether it's Macron in France or Rob Jetten in the Netherlands - many national leaders claim to be European leaders. 2026 has to be the year they have to take a stand. It's up to us, the European civil society, to build the necessary momentum and pressure to elect different leaders should they continue to talk the talk only. Let's make the next year count.