Europe’s Strategic Dependencies (ESP Series 1)
The post-Cold War order is over. In this inaugural series, the European Strategic Policy Unit maps ten of Europe’s most critical strategic dependencies across energy, defence, digital infrastructure, trade, and space.
Only a Fully Backed IRIS² Can Deliver Europe’s Sovereign Alternative to Starlink
Satellite connectivity has moved, in the span of three years, from a niche industrial concern to a core aspect of European security. Yet the continent’s response has been to build a shared constellation while quietly hedging with national ones. IRIS² cannot deliver sovereignty if Member States do not unreservedly back it.
To Secure 5G Hardware, Europe Needs a Transparent Sovereignty-First Procurement Policy
China creates, the US innovates, and the EU regulates; the infamous motto which has instilled Europeans in a ‘catch up’ race in global tech. What if this did not have to be the case? How do we begin remedying our strategic dependencies in tech?
Without Stabilisers, Europe’s Ammunition Stockpiles Are Just Years Away From Failure
At a moment where EU defence policies aim to produce two million 155mm rounds a year, the need to secure a supply of stabilisers cannot be understated.
How Digital Product Passports Can Map Europe’s Supply Chain Dependencies
The EU’s supply chain policy will remain reactive unless it builds a clearer system for seeing where product-level dependencies actually sit.
To Close Its Military Tech Gap, Europe Needs a Binding Defence Technology Union
In an increasingly unpredictable geopolitical context, Europe can still develop the defence tech it needs for the 21st century and ensure that European defence decisions remain in European hands.
Only a Region-Wide Strategy Can Solve the EU’s Pipeline Chokepoint In the Caucasus
In actively diversifying its energy and infrastructure since 2022, the EU has, in effect, pooled its operational risk into three partners in the South Caucasus, even as their political paths head in starkly different directions. What is at stake is not only regional connectivity but the structural coherence of the EU’s post-2022 energy security agenda.
Reshaping the EU’s Trade and Industrial Policy To Protect Emerging Critical Industries
The EU has identified the critical industries it needs for economic security, but not how to effectively protect those that are being established. Its trade defence instruments were designed to protect industries in decline, not the developing and not-yet-established industries its strategy now prioritises.
Green Electrification Diplomacy: A Credibility Test for the EU
The EU’s external energy partnerships will be credible only if they create tangible benefits for partner countries, rather than new dependencies.
Towards A Coordinated Framework Out of Europe’s Gas Dependency
Europe’s grid system cannot function without gas-fired plants that are becoming commercially unviable. Having shifted from Russian pipelines to diversified LNG supply, the EU now faces a deep gas dependency — one it has built into its own grid architecture.
Beyond Trade Defence: Europe Needs a Strategy Against Chinese Overcapacity
China’s industrial overcapacity is creating a competitiveness trap for the EU. Cheap supply lowers costs today, but weakens the industrial capacity and political room Europe needs to de-risk tomorrow.
Migration Alone Won’t Solve Europe’s Labour Problem
Migration has long been framed as the solution to Europe’s labour shortages and demographic challenge. Yet why do millions of jobs across the EU remain unfilled even as many working-age migrants remain underemployed or excluded from the labour market? Europe’s labour problem is becoming less about labour supply and more about its ability to absorb and integrate workers effectively.
