The rules-based international system has fundamentally altered. André Sapir, Jacob Funk Kirkegaard and Jeromin Zettelmeyer examine the short-term risks, medium-term scenarios and policy choices and discuss how Europe can hold its own in a multipolar world

What progress have EU candidate countries made?
EU candidate countries remain far from EU averages in terms of GDP per capita and their demographic and labour market characteristics. Marek Dabrowski and Maria Catarina Louro examine selected income, demographic and labour market indicators to assess progress

The struggle against hesitation
The EU is engaged in an unprecedented struggle for independence, values and democracy in a world shaped by the re-emergence of imperial ambitions. Simone Tagliapietra says Ursula von der Leyen is right to say Europe is in a ‘fight’ around competitiveness and values, but it may lack the right pugilistic attitude

The EU is still caught in an AI copyright bind
For frontier AI models, more training data improves performance. Tweaks to EU copyright requirements in the AI Act Code of Practice will maintain the AI growth momentum, for now – but will also create new challenges. Bertin Martens discusses

Strategic autonomy for Europe requires economic growth
The US willingness to weaponise trade makes clear that transatlantic economic relations have become entirely transactional. Luis Garicano argues that Europe must respond to US tariffs with economic strength: faster productivity growth, cheaper energy, a genuine continental market, and tech leadership

Building trust and supporting innovation in the multi-moneyverse
Innovation in money and payments is happening at pace. Sarah Breeden sets out her vision for a ‘multi-money’ system where different forms of money including traditional and tokenised commercial bank deposits, stablecoins and central bank money are freely exchangeable
Finance
Tax

The pricing of profit shifting
MNEs routinely allocate profits across jurisdictions with differing tax regimes. Fotis Delis, Manthos Delis, Sotirios Kokas, Luc Laeven and Steven Ongena examine how stock markets price profit shifting and consider the economic effects

Tariffs cannot fund the government
In the past most government spending was funded from import tariffs. Simon Evenett and Marc-Andreas Muendler discuss whether this practice could work today, paying attention to the displacement effect on revenues

Tariffs and digital services
EU targeting of digital services in tariff retaliation would present challenges. Bertin Martens argues that the European Union lacks an instrument to unpick crossborder transactions on US digital platforms