One day before the informal retreat of the EU leaders, the Acting Co-Director of the Jacques Delors Centre published an op-ed together with his colleagues from Bertelsmann Stiftung and the Centre for European Reform, recommending three areas to focus on for stable growth in a shifting global economy.
“A credible growth strategy must start with a more honest evaluation”, Nils Redeker, Lucas Guttenberg and Sander Tordoir write in their op-ed for Politico published on 11 February 2026. Ahead of the informal retreat of the EU leaders, the three economic experts take a detailed look at the causes for stagnation: “Europe’s economic weakness doesn’t originate in Brussels, it reflects a fundamental shift in the global economy.”
According to the authors, the growth plan of the European Union relies on two strategies: De-regulation and new trade agreements with external partners. Based on their calculation, however, neither regulatory simplification nor securing future growth markets will help the European economy in its current state. Similarly, the push for a Europe-wide corporate structure in the shape of a 28th regime will not be as effective as a genuine cross-border regulatory harmonization.
Instead, Nils Redeker, Lucas Guttenberg and Sander Tordoir recommend three key areas to focus on for future economic growth: Finding national solutions for stagnation rather than blaming Brussels, protecting the EU’s industrial base through trade defense and rigorous industrial policy and earnestly deepening the single market, for instance in areas such as capital markets supervision or the regulation of services.
The full op-ed “Europe is chasing the wrong fix for its growth crisis” by Nils Redeker (Acting Co-Director of the Jacques Delors Centre), Lucas Guttenberg (Director of the Europe Programme at Bertelsmann Stiftung) and Sander Tordoir (Chief Economist at the Centre for European Reform) is available via Politico Europe.