The world is riskier than ever – and the EU is underequipped
20 January 2025
Ahead of its annual gathering of the who's who of global politics, business, and entertainment in Davos, the World Economic Forum (WEF) released its latest Global Risk Report – and it's a dark one. The WEF used "bleak" to describe the outlook that more than 900 surveyed experts have on the state of the world in the immediate, two-year, and 10-year terms.
Politicians, academics, business leaders, and activists see state-based armed conflict, extreme weather events resulting from the climate crisis, and geoeconomic competition as the biggest threats facing the world today, with misinformation, disinformation and social polarisation rounding out the top five.
Indeed, one need only look back on the past 12 months to see how these risks materialised, including in Europe. At the start of the second von der Leyen Commission, wars raged in Ukraine, the Middle East, and Sudan. Meanwhile, the global average temperature in 2024 breached the threshold of 1.5°C of warming for the first time.
The 'super election' year 2024 also saw the consolidation of the extreme right in Europe, and the Romanian elections were overturned due to suspected foreign interference. And, as Donald Trump returns to office today – and the chaos that follows him everywhere – the threat of his tariffs risks pushing European industry into an even deeper hole. All of these risks beg the question – is the EU prepared to tackle them?
 | Anton Koninckx On paper, the Union has some of the strongest tools to brave the storms ahead. The Green Deal boosts renewable energy to fight the climate crisis and enhance our energy security, while the Digital Services Act increases online transparency to counter misinformation, and the upcoming Clean Industrial Deal is hoped to offer a lifeline to our struggling industries. Yet, as is always the case in European politics, the Union is only as strong as its most recalcitrant member. Just look at the bloc's disjointed response to Israel's war in Gaza, where members like Germany, Czechia, and Hungary offered their unconditional support to Israel, while countries like Spain and Ireland were staunchly against Israel's attacks. Or at the EU's half-hearted attempts to counter Elon Musk's election interfering to see how disunity within its ranks saps its power on the global stage. Europe, however, has arguably always been able to offer a stronger response when it acted together – from its joint borrowing programme to get through the COVID-19 pandemic to buying gas collectively to survive the energy crisis. With the world on fire – literally and figuratively – Europe would do well to remember that cooperation and multilateralism might just be the key to tackling the challenges to come. |
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