The EU's Survival Depends on Delivering Tangible Improvements to Citizens, Not Just Preserving Institutions
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/catherine-de-vries. "Could Europe’s autumn of discontent threaten the survival of the EU? | Catherine De Vries | The Guardian." October 26, 2026. www.theguardian.com
The Gist
Europe is angry about housing, wages and living costs, and that anger could eventually be aimed at the EU. The EU is built to survive crises and gives its countries real power they couldn't have alone. But it will only stay safe if people can see that it improves their daily lives, rather than just protecting its own institutions.
Conclusion
The EU is structurally resilient and will likely survive political crises, but its long-term survival depends on showing citizens that cooperation improves their lives; if it fails, current domestic discontent could turn against the EU itself.
Premises
- European publics are angry about housing, wages, cost of living and schools, and this discontent is already producing electoral consequences across member states.
- External pressures such as Ukraine, uncertain US security guarantees and competition with China require more European cooperation, even as national governments' ability to act alone is shrinking.
- The EU gives its members scale (450 million people, a roughly €19tn economy) and 'effective sovereignty' that no single member state could achieve alone, so there is a strong rationale for cooperation.
- The EU has proved durable through past crises because its dispersed power, slow negotiation and compromises make it hard to capture and make deals stick, and because it adapts (for example through the participation of non-members such as Norway and Switzerland).
- Domestic instability can spur EU action rather than paralysis, but budget disputes and political forces such as Le Pen's 'Europe of Nations' platform show that resilience cannot be taken for granted.
- Young Europeans, the group most anxious about their prospects, remain strong EU supporters (90% favour greater unity, 78% want the EU to have more resources), which gives the EU an opportunity and responsibility to turn that support into concrete improvements.
Assumptions
- Public anger at governments can be redirected toward the EU if the EU is seen as part of the failure to deliver.
- Current high support among young people will erode if the EU fails to deliver tangible benefits.
- The EU can influence housing, wages, public services and security enough to make a visible difference to citizens' lives.
- Past resilience through crises is a reasonable guide to future resilience.
- 'Effective sovereignty' is a more meaningful measure of national autonomy than nominal sovereignty.
- Survival of the EU is best understood as sustained political legitimacy, not merely institutional continuity.