Europe says it is getting serious about China. This report suggests otherwise. Across trade, technology and security, the EU is still caught between recognition and reluctance. The risks are clearer than ever, but action remains cautious, uneven and heavily constrained by dependence and division.

A report entitled From Rupture to Relevance: Investing in Europe’s Southern Partnerships was published on the website of the Netherlands Institute of International Relations (Clingendael) on 3 February 2026. Its authors are Megan Price, head of the Conflict Research Unit, and Máté Szalai, a research fellow at the same unit.

Germany’s China policy has flipped from cosy commerce to uneasy competition, and this report explains why the old model finally broke. Berlin spent years selling the idea of win-win trade while piling up dependency and risk. Now reality has intruded. China is no longer just a market. It is a strategic challenger, and Germany is scrambling to adjust without wrecking its own economy.

Germany is tightening its belt, and Europe is about to feel it. This policy brief shows how Berlin’s medium-term fiscal plan prioritises domestic caution over continental leadership. The shift may please budget hawks at home, but it weakens Europe’s ability to invest, respond to shocks and act together when it matters.

A review made by Sophie Williams-Dunning for the RUSI and published in February 2026 deals with how dependence on Western technological platforms undermines Britain’s ability to counter foreign interference.

Europe is getting older, poorer in workers and heavier with promises it cannot easily pay. This working paper lays out the cold arithmetic behind ageing populations, migration policy and ballooning pension costs. The tone is technical, but the message is grim: demographic decline is already dragging on growth, and policy choices so far barely scratch the surface.

Europe likes to preach values. This report shows how hard it is to enforce them. When member states push back on democracy, rule of law and fundamental rights, the EU’s response is slow, legalistic and often ineffective. The problem is not lack of principles, but lack of power to defend them.

Europe’s green pride is under pressure, and this analysis shows why. China is closing the gap in wind power fast, undercutting prices, scaling production and eyeing global markets Europe once dominated. Denmark and its neighbours built the industry. Now they risk losing control of it.

Global politics has turned hostile, and Europe is paying the price. This report lays out how wars, great-power rivalry and economic fragmentation are colliding with Europe’s weak growth, high debt and fragile politics. The message is restrained but unforgiving: the shocks are real, the buffers are thin, and the room for error is shrinking.

Europe likes to talk about balance. This analysis shows a continent losing it. As rivalry between the United States and China hardens, Europe is being pulled apart by its own dependence, hesitation and fear of choosing sides. The space for comfortable neutrality is shrinking fast.

France is stuck in a political traffic jam, and nobody has a clear way out. This analysis shows how the fall of the government has tipped the country into a dangerous stalemate, with weak leadership, blocked institutions and urgent decisions kicked down the road. At a moment of budget strain, social tension and international pressure, Paris is burning time it no longer has.

The commentary takes stock of France’s position abroad and finds a country still desperate to look like a global power, but increasingly constrained by reality. Paris talks confidently about leadership, autonomy and influence.

The analysis argues that Germany’s relationship with China marks the quiet end of the post-Cold War world Berlin once thrived in. The old model – trade first, politics later, risks ignored – no longer works. What replaces it is confusion, hesitation and exposed dependence. The piece shows how Germany is struggling to adjust to a world where economic ties are no longer neutral and China is no longer just a market.