Liberal Europe Blog

Albania’s “Flamingo Revolution” began as a protest against a luxury resort in the Vjosa-Narta Protected Landscape, but has grown into a broader civic movement demanding transparency, accountability, and a genuine voice in public decision-making. As EU accession talks advance, this wave of mobilisation shows that Albania’s European future depends not only on technical reforms, but on citizens who believe their voices matter.

It’s time for liberals to reclaim national symbols. For too long, liberals have shied away from expressions of national pride, leaving a gap for the far right to fill. Yet every four years, the World Cup shows us a different kind of national identity, joyful, civic, and inclusive. One that should not be feared.

Western Europe is melting under its second heat dome in two months, with temperatures spiking above 40°C and heat alerts posted across 26 countries, from Ireland to Greece. Records are being broken by shocking margins. Europe remains the world’s fastest-warming continent, heating at roughly twice the speed of the global average since the 1980s.

Armenia is standing at a historic crossroads. The upcoming parliamentary election essentially is a fundamental referendum on the country’s strategic and geopolitical alignment.

The challenge in front of us is to rebuild the social foundations that allow people to trust one another, form relationships, and find a path for a shared future together.

The European Commission has published three interconnected proposals that aim to enable Europeans to book and travel by train more easily. These regulations tackle fragmentation in the railway market whilst promoting competition and sustainability. Together, they represent a distinctly liberal approach: removing barriers, empowering consumers, and tackling market gatekeeping.  

Europe’s unanimity rule is increasingly turning strategic decision-making into political paralysis. The concept of a “pooled veto” offers an alternative approach, preserving safeguards for national interests while preventing single governments from obstructing decisions that affect the entire Union

Key pillars EU policymaking should uphold in the coming years: competitiveness, strategic autonomy, and security. But it is difficult to talk about European competitiveness if it is primarily driven by non-EU companies.

Iranian society today is wounded, frightened, yet politically alive and hopeful. Europe’s task is not to speak over it, contain it, or reduce it to a security problem. It is to recognize that the Iranian people are the real democratic actors in this story.  

Europe Shouldn’t Miss the Next Tech Wave

Politicians should take actual responsibility and ban addictive social media platform use for young minors.

We spoke with young people at the American University on Armenia’s future prospect of EU membership, with civil society on the role of the EU and reforms still to be made, and with women leaders on how to build inclusive organisations.