By Jorge Liboreiro
Industrial decline. Disruptive technologies. Sluggish investment. Regulatory barriers. Punitive tariffs. Unfair competition. Climate change. Demographic crisis.
The formidable challenges besetting the European Union have triggered a desperate search for daring solutions that can deliver the much-needed big bang. But just how big are we willing to go?
“Our ambition should always be to reach an agreement among all 27 member states,” Ursula von der Leyen wrote this week in a letter to EU leaders ahead of an informal summit. “However, where a lack of progress or ambition risks undermining Europe's competitiveness or capacity to act, we should not shy away from using the possibilities foreseen in the Treaties on enhanced cooperation.”
The suggestion was striking for a president of the European Commission, whose job consists of setting a common policy direction for the whole bloc and ensuring the uniform application of EU rules among all member states.
However, it did not come out of nowhere.
Two weeks earlier, the finance ministers of Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain launched a new coalition, dubbed the E6, to push for “decisive action and swift progress” in four strategic economic areas. “We are providing the impetus, and other countries are welcome to join us,” said German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil, extending an open invitation.
Back in December, EU leaders agreed to issue €90 billion in joint debt to meet Ukraine’s financial and military needs for 2026 and 2027. The decision was hailed as a feat of European unity – except for the fact that Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic completely opted out of the scheme. The backdoor agreement to provide Kyiv with life-saving support was only possible thanks to enhanced cooperation, the very tool referenced by von der Leyen in her letter.
Now, as EU leaders turn inwards to devise urgent ways to revive the bloc’s stagnant economy and prevent the United States and China from wiping their domestic industries out of existence, the prospect of a two-speed Europe has inevitably come to the fore.
“The first try always needs to involve the 27 member states, but we're not going to tie our hands down,” said a senior EU official, using the Ukraine loan as an example. “If we see there's a critical mass of countries willing to move forward, I think that should be looked at in the same pragmatic way.”
In many ways, a two-speed Europe is already underway. Take the eurozone: 21 member states, most recently Bulgaria, have adopted the single currency while six remain outside. The Schengen Area, another tangible achievement of integration, began on an intergovernmental basis and gradually expanded until it was absorbed into the EU framework.
Before the Ukraine loan, enhanced cooperation had been used for very specific cases: the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), the unitary patent and the harmonisation of divorce law. Hardly the inception of a wider trend.
Besides these structures, which are underpinned by legal statutes, European countries regularly team up in informal groupings to defend common interests, such as the “Frugal Four” and the “Friends of Cohesion” during budget talks. The Weimar Triangle, the MED9, the Visegrád group and the Nordic-Baltic Eight are other examples. The E6 alliance is the latest addition.
All these formations answer to the desire to overcome the EU's notoriously complex decision-making – often bound by the “shackles of unanimity”, as von der Leyen once said – and move forward with greater speed, ambition and scope. The idea is particularly enticing in this bleak environment of multiplying challenges, where groundbreaking solutions are in high demand.
Mario Draghi, the former president of the European Central Bank, who authored a highly influential and much-quoted report on competitiveness, recently introduced the concept of “pragmatic federalism” to advance integration among member states who are willing and able.
“This approach breaks the impasse we face today, and it does so without subordinating anyone. Member states opt in. The door remains open to others, but not to those who would undermine common purpose,” Draghi said.
“We do not have to sacrifice our values to achieve power.”
Still, a two-speed Europe can be costly and risky.
After all, the EU is a project designed to bring nation-states together under the same laws and principles. It is a union that is shared. If some capitals begin to advance while others stay behind, the gap could widen to the point that the foundational objective, its raison d'être, is rendered obsolete.
Editor’s note: The Briefing is sent exceptionally on Wednesday due to the special coverage of the informal EU summit on Thursday.
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