If the EU is losing weight on the world stage, it is not because democracy is obsolete or values outdated; it is because ambition has outpaced ability. Brussels’ problem isn’t geography, ideology, or even democracy. It’s fatigue. The EU has become the world’s most sophisticated paperwork generator, a system that confuses regulation with resolve and performance indicators with progress. The European Union loves words the way Rome loved marble. It builds cathedrals of them: directives, communications, zero-effect “own-initiative resolutions,” strategic roadmaps—monuments for emotion rather than movement. Every crisis spawns another five-year plan, thick with benchmarks and comfortably detached from delivery. It’s the old reflex in Brussels/EU and the capitals: when in doubt, set up a committee and spreadsheet it. The comparison with the five-year plans of the old Eastern Bloc is, of course, rhetorical but not entirely unfair. Both measured success by inputs, not outcomes. I can attest to this, having grown up with five-year plans as a teenager in the former GDR. The EU doesn’t command production; it commands PDFs. When progress is counted in “initiatives on track,” inertia starts looking like excellence.
