Belonging, Identity, and the Battle for Europe: The European Sentiment Compass 2025

Europe is not just navigating tariffs or defence budgets. It is facing a deeper question: who gets to define its values, its identity, and its future. That is the picture drawn by the new European Sentiment Compass 2025, produced by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) and the European Cultural Foundation (ECF).

The Compass shows that while Trump’s America is exporting its culture wars to Europe, Europeans are not passive. Trust in the Union is at its highest since 2007. In nearly every member state, people feel attached to Europe, and many – especially younger generations – see collective action not as lofty rhetoric but as a practical response to a volatile world. As Pawel Zerka, Senior Policy Fellow at ECFR and author of the Compass, put it: “Trump’s America offers Europe a foil – a contrast that helps us better understand who we are and what we stand for.”

For ECF, the Compass matters because it connects directly to the spaces where we are active. It reminds us why libraries are vital: not only as shelves of books, but as places where neighbours negotiate belonging and imagine their futures together. It shows that solidarity is never abstract, but renewed whenever Europeans stand together in times of crisis. And it underlines how Europe’s digital spaces, where culture wars and misinformation unfold, are shaping whether people continue to trust democracy itself. These findings affirm that our focus areas, from Libraries for Europe to the Culture of Solidarity and Display Europe, are not side projects but part of one European story.

As André Wilkens, Director of the European Cultural Foundation, wrote in the Compass itself: ‘‘It’s culture, stupid!’ urgently needs to enter the mindset of European leaders. European sentiment is not abstract utopianism. It’s about real feelings for Europe and Europeans’ readiness to fight for them.”

At the same event, Sabine Verheyen, First Vice-President of the European Parliament, underlined the importance of listening to how people feel: “The Compass gives us a view into the predominant European mood and helps us bring the soul of Europe closer to the people.”

The findings have already sparked wide debate. As The Guardian reported: “Trump is waging a culture war on Europe by promoting rightwing allies.” In Volkskrant, André Wilkens himself argued that Europe cannot shy away from this fight: “Het gaat om de cultuur, domkop!” (“It’s about culture, fool!”). As Público noted, the report uses The Truman Show as an analogy for Europe’s political situation, describing it as forced to react to crises created or aggravated by the Trump Administration. Coverage in Le Figaro, Euractiv, and Al Jazeera echoed the same conclusion: the Compass speaks to Europe’s most pressing questions of identity and belonging. Online explainers and commentary from EU Made Simple, eu_&_u, and Olivialori.eu, show how conversations about Europe’s future are happening not only in institutions but in digital public spheres.

The European Sentiment Compass is our annual check-in on how Europeans see themselves and their place in the world. It maps Europe’s mood in turbulent times and reminds us that while pressures from abroad are real, Europe is not without direction. It is something we shape together.