European Sentiment Compass 2025

On 23 September 2025, the European Sentiment Compass 2025: ‘Reality Show: Why Europe must not cave in to Trump’s culture war‘ was launched at the House of European History in Brussels and the event was livestreamed across Europe on our YouTube channel. Produced together with the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), this year’s edition asks how Europeans can define their politics, identity, and values in the face of growing turbulence in transatlantic relations.

In the fourth edition of the European Sentiment Compass Pawel Zerka, Senior Policy Fellow at ECFR argues that Europe is stuck in a Truman Show, and Trump’s America is in the director’s chair. This involves MAGA propping up its ideological allies in European politics. It also involves humiliating Europeans in their dealings with the US. The two parts intertwine to form the whole. Trumpists are exploiting loopholes in European public opinion and division and hesitation among the EU’s leaders.

Yet, it doesn’t have to be this way. A decade of crises has strengthened European sentiment among the public. Most member states have pro-European governments. This should actually give the EU’s politicians the courage to act— and defend a Europe that writes its own script.

As André Wilkens, Director of the European Cultural Foundation, adds: “It’s culture, stupid!” is a thought that urgently needs to enter the mindset of European leaders. Only then will national governments and EU institutions be able to respond effectively to Trump’s next provocation. Only then will leaders of political parties be able to frame their electoral strategies in ways that respond to people’s genuine attachment to Europe – thus limiting the appeal of Trump’s ideological allies in their countries.
The European Sentiment is not abstract utopianism. It’s about real feelings for Europe and Europeans’ readiness to fight for them. The next 7-year EU budget will be Europe’s litmus test. The EU must invest in culture’s multiple dimensions – including media and civil society – to make the bloc fit for the battle for Europe.”

That would help preserve a strong transatlantic alliance; one in which the EU and European countries are America’s peers, not its subordinates.

The European Sentiment Compass is our annual check-in on how Europeans see themselves and their place in the world. Last year’s edition, Welcome to Barbieland, captured wide attention for revealing Europe’s blind spots in a year of wars and elections.

The European Sentiment Compass 2025 is an invitation to reflect on Europe’s future at a moment of disruption. It reminds us that while pressures from abroad are real, Europe is not without direction — it is something we shape, together.