CEPS in focus

The European Political Community (EPC) meets on 18 July for the fourth time. Hosted by the UK at Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Winston Churchill, echoes of his ‘blood, toil, tears and sweat’ speech in May 1940 cannot be ignored. Facing an existential battle on the continent, Keir Starmer, the UK’s freshly elected prime minister, will have a baptism of fire at the first major international gathering he’ll host. 

Due to the EPC’s origins and aims – namely to show a united front against Russia and provide a forum for strategic intimacy amongst leaders of 47 European countries (plus the EU) on equal footing – the format is a high-stakes gamble in diplomacy. 

The previous underwhelming summit in Spain was boycotted by Türkiye’s strongman Erdoğan and his Azeri counterpart Aliyev, and even the photo-op was mishandled. The UK must get this summit right to keep the EPC on track.

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Why does the EU fail to produce its own Google, Amazon or Facebook? Is Europe lacking entrepreneurship, technical savvy or simply imagination? Contrary to what many think, the EU does even better than the US at creating high-tech start-ups; however, many European firms whither on the vine due to a lack of finance.

Yet a simple solution has been lying in plain sight for decades – we simply need to grasp it. The answer, as with a great many questions, is money. In each of the past five years, the EU has created more high-tech start-ups than the US. Nonetheless, many of them fail to scale up, while some move to greener pastures on the other side of the Atlantic.

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