Launch: European Sentiment Compass 2025

It is backing like-minded allies across the EU, questioning Europe’s attachment to freedom and democracy, and eager to cast the continent as small, dependent, and immature. Ultimately, it seeks to remake Europe, and the West, in the MAGA image.

Europe has strong cards to play — but only if it is willing to leave its comfort zones.

This event marks the launch of the European Sentiment Compass 2025, an annual project by the European Cultural Foundation and the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). Following last year’s widely discussed Welcome to Barbieland, the 2025 edition examines European sentiment under Trump’s second presidency — and makes the case for why Europe must fight the culture war being waged against it.

Together with our guests, we will ask: what would it take for Europe not just to fight this war — but to win it.

Programme:
– Welcome remarks: Constanze Itzel, Director House of European History and André Wilkens, Director European Cultural Foundation
– Keynote: Sabine Verheyen, First Vice-President of the European Parliament
– Presentation of the European Sentiment Compass 2025 by Pawel Zerka, Senior Policy Fellow ECFR
– Panel discussion: Caroline de Gruyter, Journalist and Lecturer, André Wilkens, Director European Cultural Foundation, Pawel Zerka, Senior Policy Fellow ECFR
– Chaired by: Sarah Wheaton, Chief Policy Correspondent Politico.