I won’t bore you with platitudes about what a momentous year this has been, you’ll probably have enough of those conversations tomorrow at your New Year’s Eve.
But what a year this has been. From the first whiffs of lockdown lifting straight into an all out war on the European mainland, slipping into a historic energy and cost-of-living crisis, fuelled by inflation, etcetera, etcetera.
And that’s just skimming the surface. We ended the year with what might have been the biggest corruption case ever for the European Parliament, saw Hungary and Poland slip further down the apparently slippery rule-of-law slide, Sweden and Italy vote in far-right parties, Frontex migrant abuses uncovered, an unintended boost for renewables, big tech taking a beating and honestly, too much to list.
Some part of me hopes that next year turns out to be slightly more laid back. Give us a little time to breathe and reflect on decisions made over the past few years. But rationally, I don’t think any of us sees that happening.
As the Russian war against Ukraine draws out, and fiscal and monetary policy aimed at suppressing inflation start biting regular consumers, tensions over what to do next are all but certain to rise — money being expensive at a time when more money is needed is never a recipe for success.
These tensions will not only be visible in next year’s national elections (in Czechia, Finland, Spain and Poland, most notably) but also in the run-up to the 2024 European Parliament elections, as groups and parties gear up for their campaigns in the shadow of the Qatar graft scandal.
Even though support for supporting Ukraine remains high among Europeans, I’m willing to bet that political parties are ready to exploit the ‘supporting Ukraine versus supporting businesses and households’ dichotomy to split electorates for electoral gain. Mark my words.
And as inflation remains high (and don’t forget, prices don’t tend to fall — so what we’re paying now is the new norm, even if inflation drops) workers across the bloc will demand wages to match as their only way to maintain the standard of living they’re used to. Which is incidentally why we’ll be devoting more attention in labour coverage in Europe next year.
We’ll also continue our coverage of the issues that fall between the cracks of commercial media and more national-focused publications, scrutinising EU institutions and policy on topics like migration, rule of law, foreign policy and the green economy. On top of that we’ll be doing a number of themed weeks on topics ranging from shifting demographics to space regulation to influence.
So even as next year looks to be at least as torrid as this past one, our whole team and I are looking forward to keep on doing the reporting that matters, uncovering the stories that others might ignore and hopefully, being of service to you, our reader.
Finally, to cap off the year, our reporters shared their favourite stories of year, for you to peruse at your convenience. And so here goes, in no particular order, the stories you should not have missed this year:
See you next year, thanks for reading and, if you can miss it, consider a membership.
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