Thu Nguyen, Acting Co-Director of the Jacques Delors Centre, joined the WDR Europaforum 2026 as a commentator on Europe between unity and the pressure to act.
At the WDR Europaforum 2026 at re:publica, Thu Nguyen appeared as a guest to comment on current developments in European politics.
The central question was whether the EU is holding together in the current geopolitical climate. Nguyen was broadly optimistic: member states need to act in unity in order to have an impact at the international level, and that unity is there when needed, as the European response to the Greenland episode demonstrated. The fact that member states hold different positions on certain issues does not mean the EU is drifting apart, Nguyen argued, as such processes simply take time.
Trade policy was another key topic. Asked whether EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič's impression that the EU is taking decisive steps towards greater independence was accurate, Nguyen emphasized that agreements such as Mercosur and the trade deal with India had been important economic and geopolitical steps. On the question of a common trade policy more broadly, Nguyen noted that while there is a shared analysis of where the problems lie, there remains significant disagreement, for instance on how protectionist the EU should be in its approach to China.
On the Draghi report, Nguyen observed that member states had cherry-picked individual measures while leaving aside many other aspects that are more difficult to implement.
Following a discussion round with various Members of the European Parliament, Thu returned to comment on the role of the EP. She noted that finding majorities in the centre has become considerably harder. Right-wing populist parties can block little when centrist parties unite, but the EPP is increasingly making decisions together with the far right.
Nguyen concluded by outlining three fundamental questions facing Europe: the development of a new growth model, the question of military sovereignty and independence, and the EU's institutional capacity to act, in particular, the abolition of the unanimity requirement.
The full programme (in German) is available here in the ARD media library.
Fotocredit WDR / Thomas Kierok