Commentaries

By changing the rules before the actual impact of the 2025 penalties could be assessed, the European Parliament has undermined the very mechanism the EU had in place to foster innovation and competitiveness within the EU auto industry. A commentary by Rachele Cavara, and Francesco Zirpoli

A peace-enforcement mission, complemented by security assistance, stockpile regeneration, and a dedicated financial framework, would provide the necessary deterrence and resilience against future Russian aggression. A commentary by Andrea Gilli, Mauro Gilli, and Niccolò Petrelli

The global financial system is at a crossroads of two related processes: post-crisis reform—the so-called Basel III—that is missing its final stage, and the new political course in the United States, where the incoming administration has declared war on all pre-existing rules.

A recently published report by the Institute for European Policymaking, written by a multidisciplinary team of researchers at Bocconi University and the Toulouse School of Economics, provides timely insights into these challenges and offers concrete policy recommendations across three critical areas

In a nutshell, we see that 80 years of prime partnership have created a solid base of mutual appreciation and similar sensitivities. Europeans and Americans still see in the other their most valuable ally, NATO is highly regarded and cooperation trumps competition. However, eight years of American hyper-polarisation at home and mixed messaging abroad have taken their toll. In 2024, 63 percent of Europeans agree that it is time for Europe to go its own way.

Reduced economic insecurity generates not only a direct increase in demand for populist commitments but also a change in culture in the direction of lower trust and prevalent exclusionary rhetoric, which in turn are further indirect channels through which populist movements thrive

“The Commission would like to be taking the lead on defense policy, but defense remains the domain of Member States”. Thomas Gomart is one of the most influential experts on foreign relations and geopolitics at the EU level: he has been director of the Ifri, Institute Francais de Relationes Internationales, since 2015. An expert in Russian geopolitics and the history of international relations, he has recently published the book L'accélération de l'histoire. Les noeuds géostratégiques d'un monde hors de contrôle ( Éditions Tallandier, 2024).

The first elected president of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy, discusses how to fix the decision-making process at the EU level

On 16 October 2024, Claudia Buch delivered a lecture titled Bank Profitability: A Mirror of the Past, Creating a Vision for the Future at Bocconi University. The event was co-organized by the Baffi Center on Economics, Finance, and Regulation and the Institute for European Policymaking @ Bocconi University (IEP@BU).


On September 19, mister Roth gave a lecture to Bocconi students titled “Europe at the Crossroads: Turning Today’s Poly-Crisis Into Tomorrow’s Poly-Opportunity”. Eleanor Spaventa, a professor of European Law at Bocconi and a member of the IEP@BU managing board, chaired the event co-hosted by IEP@BU and the Department of Legal Studies.

While the focus of the new Commission will be crystallizing over the months and years to come, this short analysis of the mission letters for the future Commissioners suggests that the recent intervention of Mario Draghi on Europe’s competitiveness has been agenda-setting for the policy priorities as defined by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.


The September 2024 state elections in Germany mark a low point in public support for the governing left-wing coalition and a high point for the populist right. Often overlooked, the elections might also mark the fading of the German socialist party Die Linke into political irrelevance. Its demise teaches us valuable lessons for modern European politics

The report on The Future of European Competitiveness presented by Mario Draghi provides a clarion call for economic reforms to stop Europe’s relative decline. This short comment cannot do justice to the report with over 300 pages of supporting material. We will concentrate just on two key messages regarding innovation and investment.

If Trump is elected in November 2024, the security outlook of Europe could deteriorate very fast as Russia may attempt to seek the opportunity of taking NATO off balance. It is therefore essential that the Commission and the forthcoming Defence Commissioner begin the policy planning and design well in advance and preferably as soon as they take office, as to move past preliminary negotiations and have blueprints ready for approval should the situation require it.

There are lessons to be learned by comparing the most recent elections in France and the UK. The French electoral system is characterized by two-turn constituency elections where several short-listed candidates qualify for a second round should no-one reach more than 50% of the votes in the first round. The British system, conversely, assigns a given constituency seat to whoever wins the plurality in a given constituency, regardless of whether or not the candidate reaches 50%.

While defense procurement and production remain fragmented across Europe and the EU and its member states invest less in their security and defense than the US, new EU and EU-sponsored initiatives demonstrate that Europeans are aware of this and attempt to reduce these shortcomings – political and fiscal obstacles notwithstanding.

A key area of frustration for voters on both the left and the right is the poor performance of the NHS. With ever-longer waiting lists for hospital appointments and declining local services, voters are deeply concerned about the state of their beloved health service.

European politics has become more fragmented which makes governing a tall task, but also makes the EU more political. After decades of being perceived as too technocratic and distant, the fight for the European Union’s top jobs became more highly anticipated and much more political.

The European Sovereign Bond market gyrations erupted in the wake of President Emmanuel Macron’s call for a snap parliamentary vote after his party’s defeat to Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in the European elections have sparked a debate on the opportunity of an activation of the Transmission Protection Mechanism (TPI).

It is therefore possible that even the election of the Commission President will not change the overall picture, with the real game taking place whenever the European Parliament is called to vote on the fundamental choices that Europe will face in the coming years, from managing the digital and green transitions to fundamental decisions on the common defense and security policies.

In our first forecast for the EP 2024 elections based on our model, in January 2024, we predicted a “sharp right turn”. In our latest forecast, and our final one before the election, we are still forecasting that the next EP will be considerably more right-leaning than the current one, and that the two groups to the right of the EPP will be considerably larger than they currently are.

ASML has a global monopoly on EUV, the most advanced lithography technology that is on the Wassenaar Arrangement list of dual-use technologies and requires an export license. The Dutch government approved the export license of EUV-technology to China in 2018. The US government was not pleased and tried to press its ally to consider the security issues.