Over the years, journalists have helped steer the EU, one question, one leaked report and one tenacious investigation at a time <a target="_blank">(Photo: Shada Islam)</a>
Over the years, journalists have helped steer the EU, one question, one leaked report and one tenacious investigation at a time (Photo: Shada Islam)

EU and the World

US and Gaza are elephants in the room, as EU courts Global South

By Shada Islam,
Brussels
,

As US president Donald Trump downgrades America’s ties with Europe and sidelines the EU on the future of Ukraine and Gaza, the 27-nation bloc has been finding solace with other partners. 

Just last month, EU leaders were at the G20 summit hosted by South Africa, held a high-level meeting with the African Union in Angola, and convened with Latin American and Caribbean leaders in Colombia.

Brussels also hosted ASEAN foreign ministers, the Indo-Pacific Forum, and tried to inject new life into the long-tired Union for the Mediterranean.

There was a flurry of bilateral meetings too numerous to list.

Such breathless diplomatic outreach is welcome. A reset in EU external relations, especially with countries in the Global South, is long overdue. 

But beware: these new/old geopolitical initiatives will only succeed if the EU is brutally honest about its place in today’s messy, rough-and-tumble, multipolar world.

As Trump hammers home his jaundiced view of Europe as a spent force facing “civilisational erasure” and economic decline, being honest about the EU’s future is more urgent than ever.

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Over the years, journalists have helped steer the EU, one question, one leaked report and one tenacious investigation at a time (Photo: Shada Islam)

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Author Bio

Shada Islam Shada Islam  is an EUobserver columnist, and independent EU analyst and commentator who runs her own strategy and advisory company New Horizons Project. She has recently won the European Woman in Media award and the Media Career Award 2023 for her outstanding work and powerful voice on EU affairs and focus on building an inclusive Union of Equality.