The European Union (EU) does not only manage sudden crises, such as COVID-19 or the Russian invasion of Ukraine; it also responds to long-term changes such as climate change and demographic change. These policy areas are subject to much scaremongering but also have real, and high, stakes: even if birthrates soared and carbon emissions were to drop to zero tomorrow, the financing of welfare states and the temperature of the planet would remain on their current trajectories for decades.

The first challenge is therefore to understand the real problems and actions that can be taken now. The second is not just what to do about challenges such as demographic change and climate change, but also how to build resilience so that the EU can identify new challenges and start to act on them, ideally before they manifest as crises.