The thoughts of a European on social and political issues across Europe.
Why Europe Needs the Digital Euro.
Every time you tap your card, Visa or Mastercard takes a cut: around €9 billion a year from the euro area alone. When Washington sanctioned a European judge, the same two companies cut him off. The digital euro is how Europe takes back control of its own money, and the deal is being decided right now.
The Country They Want Back Never Existed
One speech, one product, many languages: a past that never existed, sold to a people that everyone and no one belongs to.
Zero for 27: the veto of delay
The EU's platform work directive must be national law everywhere by 2 December 2026. Two months out, it is fully in force nowhere. The problem is not gig work. It is a method that lets any capital undo a shared decision by doing nothing — and it can be fixed.
Schengen Isn't Dead. It's Being Quietly Dismantled.
"Temporary" is the most dangerous word in EU law. Germany's border controls were introduced in September 2024 as a six-month emergency measure. When the current extension lapses in March 2027, they will have run, unbroken, for two and a half years at all nine land borders — long after irregular crossings fell by more than a third, long after the Commission told Germany to phase them out, long after a German court declared them unlawful. This is how free movement dies: not with a treaty torn up, but with one renewal notice after another.
GDPR Doesn't Need Weakening. It Needs Enforcing
Today, showing you personalised ads without your consent is illegal in the EU. Under a draft now circulating among EU governments, it could become legal, as long as an AI does the personalising.
The Privacy We're Trading for a Child-Safety Fairy Tale
Protecting children — or quietly eroding the rights that define a liberal democracy? On the EU KIDS Act, the ends do not justify the means.