European Bureau
EU Legislation, Digital Markets Act, AI Act, EU-Gulf Relations, European Diplomacy
Germany's Hydrogen Pilgrimage to Tokyo Tells You Everything About Brussels' Energy Panic
Listen to Sophie Marchand's latest column.
Spent a decade inside the European Commission as a policy advisor before deciding the institution needed an honest critic more than another loyalist. Knows where every body is buried in the Berlaymont building.
8 articles · ~32 min total reading
A transport minister flying to Japan to talk green hydrogen is not a photo-op. It is a confession about where EU industrial policy actually stands.
The Pentagon's deployment cancellation is not a diplomatic squabble. It is the moment European capitals can no longer pretend transatlantic strategy is intact.
The Dutch AP appointment lands as the DMA and AI Act enter their most contested enforcement phase. Symbolism matters.
While Trump and Xi reset the world's most important bilateral, the EU is left rehearsing a strategic autonomy script no one in Washington or Beijing is reading.
Brussels wanted to make the internet safer with mandatory ID verification. The early evidence suggests it has done the opposite.
A hantavirus scare on a vessel bound for Tenerife is exposing the gaps the EU's health-security architecture was supposed to have closed.
As the US-Iran conflict reshapes global energy flows, the EU's institutional machinery faces a test it did not prepare for.
Brussels just created an emergency toolkit for the Gulf crisis. The real question is who gets to use it — and who pays the price.