Steven Everts

“We’re just not fast enough in the European Union.” EUISS Director Steven Everts called for faster decision-making, warning that Europe is left responding to other actors’ faits accomplis with what he called “track-change diplomacy,” trying to limit the damage.

"Europe needs the capacity to shape its own future away from coercion". Physical security is the foundation for everything else, argued @sbeverts.bsky.social at @politico.eu's European Resilience Summit.

🔴 Starting now at #WSF2026! Our discussion on rethinking EU enlargement, with: Montenegro President Jakov Milatović, Minister of Foreign Affairs: Kęstutis Budrys, Lithuania | Ararat Mirzoyan, Armenia | Oana-Silvia Țoiu, Romania Moderated by @sbeverts.bsky.social. www.youtube.com/live/xundt8_...

A timely discussion on the future of deterrence to kick off #TheBodrumRT, featuring our Director @sbeverts.bsky.social.

Our first panel at #TheBodrumRT was on the future of deterrence in Europe with @sbeverts.bsky.social @euiss.bsky.social, Levent Gümrükçü, Türkiye's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs & Carmen Romero, NATO's Director of Security Policy, chaired by Stefanie Bolzen @politico.com

🎙️🇪🇺 Can Europe widen its security options without weakening NATO? In the latest Language of Power, Paul Taylor, @almutm.bsky.social & @sbeverts.bsky.social discuss Europe’s ability to act in a more dangerous world. Listen here 👇 www.epc.eu/podcast/the-...

From SOTEU to Carney to UNGA. Speeches galore. But where does Europe stand now? Just fine words or also some action? Happy to have joined @almutm.bsky.social and Paul Taylor on the house podcast of @epc-official.bsky.social

Enough with always responding to the bullies. Very good initiative of @eucopresident.consilium.europa.eu. Lets go out and build an alliance for multilateral action. Watchwords are defend and reform. Need to do both. Joint push with 🇧🇷 🇨🇦 🇰🇪 and surely more to come. ↘️

Watch this. My three conclusions: 1. The AI you and me use is very different from the frontier models. 2. Because of recursive self-improvement, we are very close to loss of control. 3. We need to control the frontier, not just pace it. The mother of all collective action problems…

Today’s #SOTEU touched on several questions EUISS has been working on closely: Europe’s security architecture, how to sustain support for Ukraine & the strategic enablers Europe still lacks. Some of our proposals ↓

”we will establish a new European Corporation on Critical Raw Materials. It will help us obtain and stockpile what we need. For electric cars, chips and batteries, clean tech and defence. And so much more.” Ursula von der Leyen in #SOTEU

A European Security Council is an old idea, which has taken many forms. President von der Leyen is expected to revive it today, Back in 2024 I called for the version of making leaders responsible for protecting Europeans. First day of every EUCO just on security. www.iss.europa.eu/sites/defaul...

EU and Canada are clearly willing to do a major upgrade of their partnership. For obvious reasons. Intriguing is the report here of free movement of people. If true, it could put Canada closer to EU than UK…. A suivre when Carney comes to Strasbourg for SOTEU and own speech.

Europe spends too much time reacting to other people’s plans. How can it regain the strategic initiative? Director @sbeverts.bsky.social briefed the PSC yesterday, drawing on EUISS research to explore how Europe can take back the lead and shape events rather than respond to them.

China talks development and does geopolitics. Europe does development and talks geopolitics. A new season of #Intercomms on the Chinese external narratives and why the EU borrowing the same words does not have the same impact. @ecdpm.org intercomms.substack.com/p/the-tale-o...

Eens. Steun aan Oekraïne moet zelfs maximaal omhoog. Oekraïne in staat stellen zich te verdedigen en plekken te treffen vanwaar het bestookt wordt en waar ook de drones gemaakt worden die het EU luchtruim binnenvliegen, is het beste antwoord op Ruslands agressie. www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2026/...

This particular defence advisory group was stillborn. But the issues it was meant to address have not gone away. At @euiss.bsky.social, we have done a lot of work on how Europe can strengthen its deterrence — and we will continue to do so. For example: www.iss.europa.eu/publications...

"Het allerbelangrijkste om te doen is de steun voor Oekraïne blijven opschroeven, want het laten afbrokkelen van die steun is waar het de Russen om te doen is." - @sbeverts.bsky.social

"We moeten dit niet meer zien als een serie van incidenten", zegt Steven Everts, directeur van het EU-Instituut voor Veiligheidsstudies (EUISS) in Parijs. "Dit is een heel duidelijk patroon dat duidt op escalatie van Russische kant. Een door het Kremlin centraal aangestuurde campagne.”

Meanwhile in Ukraine

First France, now the Netherlands. Low key announcements, dressed up in soothing terms. But people don’t tend to lie with their money. Dutch central bank moves gold bars out of New York over ‘geopolitical unrest’

Lots of writing advice is about procrastination or writer’s block. We worry & develop routines to tackle it. But what if our problem is the opposite? What if we write too much? Too many emails, posts, essays, papers. We have become very good at making ourselves write, perhaps too good. 🧵

The debate on how the EU organises its foreign policy machinery is heating up. Important that the issue of how decisions are taken is included as that’s where the biggest issues are. EU accelerates plans to break up diplomatic service

Vooruitgang is helaas niet langer zeker. 'Wat overblijft is.. "Pessimisme van het intellect, optimisme van de wil." De werkelijkheid zonder illusies onder ogen zien en toch handelen. Juist omdat het niet vanzelf goed komt.' Heel herkenbaar, door @sbeverts.bsky.social www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2026/...

𝑇𝑒𝑛 𝑧𝑒𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑡𝑒 𝑎𝑎𝑛𝑏𝑒𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑛

Mooie beschouwing. Kado-artikel: "Het verlies van een wereldbeeld": www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2026/...

In 1983 stond ik met mijn vader op het Malieveld tegen Amerikaanse kruisraketten. Veertig jaar later pleit ik voor een Europa dat zich sneller moet bewapenen. Voor @nrc.nl schreef ik over die omslag. En over wat je je kinderen meegeeft als je weet dat het niet vanzelf goed komt.

Remember the US pivot to Asia? Now Trump moves last US carrier group to the Gulf and scales back exercises with South Korea because he has ‘a great relationship’ with Kim Jung Un…. Allies also nervous because of serious delays in deliveries of weapons they’ve already paid for. Sounds familiar.

The Western Balkans hold many of the critical raw materials Europe needs. They could bolster the EU's economic security & accelerate enlargement. But Europe must show that it is not just interested in extracting raw commodities, argue @ditrych.bsky.social & Bojana Zorić. ➡️ shorturl.at/mzYdS

De Europese tegenpool van de techbros: Arthur Mensch. De Franse wiskundige (34) werkte kort voor Google maar is nu ceo van AI-bedrijf Mistral, dat hij met 2 oud-studiegenoten oprichtte. "Als we de ontwikkeling van kunstmatige intelligentie overlaten aan de VS en China wordt Europa een vazalstaat."

Six million Europeans have already voted on the design for the new Euro banknotes. Impressive numbers for the summer holidays: Al 6 miljoen Europeanen stemden over toekomstige eurobiljetten vrtnws.be/p.5wjNZ9pjJ (link to vote is at end of article, I can’t view it as I’ve already voted #teamCulture)

Finally you can votes to get some real Europeans on the euro notes! I always found the fictional bridges a cop out for a continent that’s so rich in real heritage.

Am sure Iran will ‘love’ this deal… Trump says Saudi nuclear deal depends on relations with Israel

It’s 500 days since Ukraine was told it had ‘no cards’…. Now is the moment to go all in on Empowering Ukraine and unpowering Russia. What’s needed is more creativity, not more money. Here 10 concrete ideas to do just that. ↘️

The shared EU threat assessment has come out. Should set the stage for the new European Security Strategy. This is where the 27 MS are right now in how they see the threat landscape. @fbermingham.bsky.social went through it and has some interesting bits on China. ↘️

Het was een opmerkelijk hoopgevend gesprek met @ajboekestijn.bsky.social en @robdewijk.bsky.social olv @hugoreitsma.bsky.social Europa moet nu investeren in eigen kracht - en doet dat ook. Met Oekraïne houden we Russen buiten de deur. Nu nog meer snelheid en lef…

Circus Trump dwingt Europa tot actie. @ajboekestijn.bsky.social en @robdewijk.bsky.social in gesprek met @sbeverts.bsky.social, directeur van het EU-Instituut voor Veiligheidsstudies: nu op de radio en daarna als podcast hier: plus.bnr.nl/boekestijn-e...

Staat de NAVO na Ankara nog overeind? @ajboekestijn.bsky.social en @robdewijk.bsky.social bespreken het met @sbeverts.bsky.social, directeur van het EU-Instituut voor Veiligheidsstudies. Vragen stellen kan hier! www.bnr.nl/podcast/boek...

🇨🇳 Europe must stop postponing the China debate. As Beijing increasingly uses trade, technology and critical raw materials as tools of power, reducing strategic dependencies is no longer just an economic imperative: it's a security one, writes @sbeverts.bsky.social. shorturl.at/Ss1mL

⚠️ Europe doesn't lack trade weapons. It lacks the will to use them. @ruehlig.bsky.social argues the EU doesn't need new trade defence instruments. It needs to close the structural gaps that weaken the effectiveness of its existing ones and undermine its deterrence. www.iss.europa.eu/publications...

Good thread with clear conclusions.

Europe can no longer afford to postpone the #China debate. Beijing is not just an economic challenge but a strategic one, weaponising trade, tech & dependencies. The choice is simple: act now or pay a far higher price later, warns @sbeverts.bsky.social. shorturl.at/Ss1mL

#Europe must really confront #China now: delay is no longer an option, @sbeverts.bsky.social writes. www.iss.europa.eu/publications... #EU

Happy to see "The EU Semiconductor Geopolitical Risk Survey: Outlook for 2026-2031", our new CHIPDIPLO-foresight tool, extensively covered by @reuters.com Full survey results here: www.institutmontaigne.org/en/publicati... @sbeverts.bsky.social / @csds.bsky.social / @mtdtl.bsky.social

For Europe, China is always important but never urgent. That must change. The EU needs to stop procrastinating & take actions to defend its interests against a power that increasingly weaponises trade, technology & interdependence, writes @sbeverts.bsky.social. ➡️ shorturl.at/Ss1mL

Are you working on hybrid threats? Do you want to help shape the EU's agenda on this top policy priority? Come and join us. We need a sharp mind with a great pen and outstanding network to lead our work on hybrid threats. Deadline is 3 July. Details below.