The Europe Debate

Aug 29, 2026

Iceland votes on reopening EU talks with the country split down the middle

Icelanders decide on Saturday whether to restart accession negotiations frozen since 2013. A Gallup poll puts both camps on 46 per cent, and the EU's enlargement commissioner has already said the talks could be done in two years.

The Europe Debate

Aug 28, 2026

One Draghi chapter has an implementation score of exactly zero

EPIC's Draghi Implementation Index ranked the Commission's directorates-general for the first time in July 2026. DG Employment scored 0.0 per cent — the only department in the ranking that has turned none of its Draghi recommendations into binding law.

The Europe Debate

Aug 28, 2026

What Europe's enlargement scores actually measure

Ten candidate countries, one score each, built entirely from the European Commission's own progress reports. Understanding what the five underlying indicators do and do not capture changes how the headline numbers should be read.

The Europe Debate

Aug 21, 2026

Georgia's EU readiness has a number now, and it is 3.26 out of 10

The European Commission calls Georgia a candidate country in name only. An index built entirely from the Commission's own progress reports puts an arithmetic value on that phrase — and shows the slide began before the accession process was frozen.

The Europe Debate

Aug 18, 2026

Orbán Is Gone and Poland's Right Is Splitting: Europe's Nationalists, One Year On

A year ago the story was a movement on the rise. Since then Hungary's government fell to a challenger using its own constitutional playbook, and Poland's opposition has broken in two.

The Europe Debate

Aug 18, 2026

Europe Knows What Its Single Market Is Worth. It Isn't Counting the Losses

EPIC's fragmentation report says the EU has priced what the single market delivers but never what completing it would gain. With eight countries checking their internal borders into December, there is a second uncounted number.