The European Union enters 2025 facing a set of challenges: maintaining unity amid geopolitical tensions, improving its economic competitiveness and grappling with political uncertainty in key member states. With political turmoil in Germany and France, a new European Commission and Donald Trump returning to the White House, the year will likely put the EU’s resilience under serious strain.
Poland takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union with a focus on security and defence. Will this increase the country’s weight on the international stage?
For the first time, the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine has been completely stopped. Despite Moscow’s war of aggression, Kiev has long kept the gas flowing to the EU. Now the era has ended.
Romania and Bulgaria became full members of the EU’s Schengen travel-free zone, bringing the total number of countries in the borderless area to 29.