Leaders from across the European Union are meeting in a Belgian fortress on Thursday (Feb 12, 2026) as the 27-nation bloc faces opposition from US President Donald Trump, powerful economic strategies from China and hybrid threats from Russia – challenges that have prompted a rethinking of Europe’s diplomacy and diplomatic approach.
“We all know we have to change course and we all know the direction,” Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever said on Wednesday (Feb 11, 2026) at a meeting with some European leaders. “Yet sometimes it feels like we’re on the bridge of a ship looking at the horizon without being able to touch the helm.” But there are competing visions of how the EU should change. Thursday’s (February 12, 2026) meeting is to formulate proposals for another summit in late March.
As leaders prepare to walk across the drawbridge to the 16th-century Alden Baisen castle, the fault lines in Europe’s future war are becoming clearer.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni call for deregulation, rebooting Europe’s relationship with Washington and forging trade deals like the one recently struck with South America’s Mercosur nations.
“We have to deregulate every sector,” said Mr. Merz said on Wednesday (February 11, 2026).
But he is at odds with France.
A key issue is how much the EU’s defense spending should be restricted to purchases by EU arms companies. French President Emmanuel Macron argues that priority should be given to EU companies, but Mr Merz and Ms. Meloni says they should buy from foreign and European firms.
Mr Macron urged the EU to protect its industries as a whole by applying “European priority” in key areas such as cleantech, chemicals, steel, the car industry and defence.
“We have to protect our industry. The Chinese do it, the Americans do it too,” Macron said in an interview with several newspapers, including. The World And Financial Times Published on Tuesday (February 10, 2026).
Without some European priorities in strategic sectors, “Europeans will step aside. It is defensive, but it is essential, because we are facing unfair competitors who do not respect the rules of the World Trade Organization,” Mr Macron said.
EU leaders will discuss new financial tools to protect the bloc in a global trading system rocked by Mr Trump’s blitzkrieg of tariffs and China’s ban on crucial mineral exports.
Mr. Macron is renewing his call for the EU to be able to borrow money, which he described as “Eurobonds for the future”, which would provide an opportunity to “challenge the hegemony of the dollar”. Mr. Merz and Ms. Meloni is eschewing the economic revival and modernization strategy called for by former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi: deregulation, diversification of trade ties, deep investment in infrastructure, and regulatory integration and simplification across the bloc.
On Thursday (February 12, 2026), Germany and Italy will call on leaders to act by cutting EU red tape, strengthening the single market and “ensuring an ambitious trade policy based on cut rules and a level playing field.” It echoes the economic security focus of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who Mr Merz is a key figure in the European People’s Party. It is the largest bloc in Parliament and has 13 EU heads of state as members.
In speeches at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France on Wednesday (February 11, 2026) and at the European Industry Summit in Antwerp, Belgium, Ms. Van der Leyen said economic power underlies everything.
“Our strength on the global stage depends on our strength on the economic front,” he said.
Citizens across the bloc are hungry for a stronger EU and more unified, strong and ambitious leadership amid military threats, economic pressures and climate instability, according to the official EU survey, Eurobarometer.
“There has never been a better time for European leaders, national political leaders, to actually harness the demand of these European citizens for more European action,” said Alberto Alemanno, professor of EU law at HEC Paris business school.
