Happy New Year from all of us at Euranet Plus! This seems a good moment to take a look at some of the key events and challenges ahead in 2026.
Well, it’s certainly not all change in Bulgaria, which welcomed in the New Year with yet another caretaker government and no regular budget for 2026. However, it also became the 21st member of the eurozone.
Bulgaria joins the club
Emotions in advance of the currency change ranged from excitement to fear – with some people worrying it would be confusing and chaotic, but many others ready to roll with it. However, on 1 January, Bulgarians simply got down to business, with long queues of people waiting to exchange their levs for packets of euro coins sporting Bulgarian symbols.
For a limited period, shops will be obliged to accept levs from customers and give them change in euros.
A sharp eye is being kept out for any signs of euro-induced inflation, as fears of this contributed at least in some part to the downfall of the latest Bulgarian government just last month. As such, the prices of a number of everyday consumer products are being monitored on a daily basis to allay public concerns.
In an interview with BNR on Monday (5 January), EPP member Eva Maydell acknowledged that the country’s ongoing political instability may to some extent delay some of the benefits of eurozone membership, but that this does not alter the fact that this is something to celebrate.
Eva Maydell, Member of the European Parliament – EPP, Bulgaria (in Bulgarian):
“For me, the greatest benefit and achievement for our country is that we are now fully integrated into the European Union. From now on, there is no important policy in the European Union in which our country does not participate in the way decisions are made and implemented. […] Until now, the governor of the Bulgarian National Bank had to comply with the decisions taken by the European Central Bank, but now he will be one of those involved in making these decisions.”
Fellow EPP member Andrey Novakov agrees that this is a positive development.
Andrey Novakov, Member of the European Parliament – EPP, Bulgaria (in Bulgarian):
“Ultimately, this makes Bulgaria more attractive to investors. It makes Bulgaria a more favourable environment for doing business. It has freed us up. Bulgaria is finally coming out of the emergency lane.”
Defence at all costs?
So, what else does 2026 have in store?
Our colleagues at esRadio ask Juan Ignacio Zoido, an EPP MEP and former Spanish interior minister, what he thinks the bloc’s priorities should be as we enter this new year.
Juan Ignacio Zoido Alvarez, Member of the European Parliament – EPP, Spain (in Spanish):
“We must not only work to maintain and improve – undoubtedly, modernise – our security and defence policy, we must also continue working to improve our economic competitiveness. And we must do this by supporting our defence industry. I also believe that, in this coming year, we must strengthen negotiations with China and the United States to eliminate trade barriers. China, with its subsidised protection of its companies, and the US, with its harsh tariff policies, are limiting our economic growth and, above all, the activity of our companies.”
And he believes that we are already well on our way.
Juan Ignacio Zoido Alvarez, Member of the European Parliament – EPP, Spain (in Spanish):
“Although the machinery is a bit slow, in defence matters we are increasing budgets, on the one hand, and also enacting legislation to facilitate and expedite the contracting of new defence technology developments. And I think that both the European Union and most member states have understood this message perfectly. Significant resources are being mobilised – resources at the EU level, resources at the member state level, and also at the level of companies and private capital, which are pooling investments on a scale never seen before.”
But in neighbouring Portugal, academic and former secretary of state for defence Ana Santos Pinto is concerned that we do not go down the road of ‘defence at all costs’. She was taking part in a Rádio Renascença debate on the challenges facing the next Portuguese president, ahead of voters going to the polls on 18 January.
Ana Santos Pinto, Portugal’s Former Secretary of State for Defence (in Portuguese):
“The worst option is to build on the idea that we have to choose between having defence capabilities or a European social model. We have no defence if we do not have social cohesion. And we have no social cohesion if we do not have the ability to defend what we believe in.”
Venezuela first, Greenland next?
It has to be said that the US president is certainly not doing anything to encourage the bloc to take its collective foot off the proverbial gas in terms of defence preparedness.
Donald Trump, President of the United States (in English):
“Right now, Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships […] We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and the European Union needs us to have it – and they know that.”
Cue much scoffing on this side of the Atlantic. But… really? What if…?
Alberto Alemanno, Professor of EU law at HEC Paris (in English):
“I think regardless of whether these threats will materialise, the very fact that a NATO country like the US is currently challenging another NATO country member like Denmark, and by ricochet, the entire European Union, per se represents a red line being crossed. Obviously, the NATO agreement and alliance would fall immediately because there would no longer be the trust needed to make it work – with enormous repercussions.”
That was Alberto Alemanno, professor of EU law at HEC business school in Paris, speaking in a wide-ranging interview with The Europeans this week. He began, though, by giving his take on Europe’s understated reaction to the extraordinary events that have been unfolding in Venezuela.
Alberto Alemanno, Professor of EU law at HEC Paris (in English):
“I think never in modern history has Europe confronted a threat quite like this one. We were told that Brexit was existential, then the euro crisis, then the migration wave. But if anything truly deserves that word ‘existential’, it is what Europe faces in 2026. In 2025, Europe became the enemy. And despite this incredible opportunity which is given to us, which is stemming from the Venezuela operation and the ensuing renewed threat to invade or seize Greenland, our national political leaders, they cannot speak with one voice. […] I think it’s very difficult to understand how it is possible that when those red lines are clearly crossed from both a European and international law perspective, our European leaders don’t stand up […] We are basically compromising on basic principles on the basis of an illusion that the US is still there to defend us.”
And these are not the only principles on which we are compromising, Alemanno goes on.
Alberto Alemanno, Professor of EU law at HEC Paris (in English):
“We have been witnessing, in the past few months, a major departure from major public interest objectives. The European Union has presented over 10 omnibus regulation packages. So they are basically simplifying standards when it comes to climate, when it comes to chemicals, when it comes to pesticides… And they are basically relaxing those standards in an incredible rollback in order to satisfy both the internal demand to unleash European competitiveness, but also to satisfy the demand of the United States to enter the European market by complying with a less cumbersome standard. And this is basically self-defeating because Europe is giving away the only power it really has: acting together by having common standards, common policies that are working.”
Speaking at a press conference on Monday (5 January), Jan van Aken, co-chair of German socialist party Die Linke, slammed Chancellor Merz for what he considers his own mealy-mouthed response to Trump’s actions in Venezuela. In a clip shared by AMS, van Aken claims we are misguided if we think we need to keep the US on side for Ukraine’s benefit.
Jan van Aken, Co-Chair of Die Linke in Germany (in German):
“Firstly, when I look at how the discussions about Ukraine have gone over the last few months, Trump has often been more Team Putin than Team Europe. And there are reasons for that according to his world view – one in which he has his own backyard; his own sphere of influence. The message is: ‘Russia can have Ukraine as long as I get Venezuela and Greenland’. That could be the reasoning behind it. But the second reason why I think this line of thinking is wrong is that we have to nip this [behaviour] in the bud.”
https://www.euranetplus.de/2026/01/06/groenland-ist-autonom/
Yet Renew Europe MEP Dainius Žalimas, previously a Lithuanian Constitutional Court judge, considers the EU’s response to Trump’s actions in Venezuela “balanced”, given the wider political context, as he tells Žinių Radijas.
Dainius Žalimas, Member of the European Parliament – Renew Europe, Lithuania (in Lithuanian):
“I believe that this balance stems from an understanding that, while the actions of the US were clearly unlawful, without US involvement it would unfortunately be very difficult to manage international security issues related to the aggression against Ukraine. Some form of US involvement is better than no involvement, or indeed open involvement on the side of the aggressor.”
Meanwhile, Estonia’s Kuku Raadio has kicked off the new year with a high-profile interview – namely with Kaja Kallas, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy. The Estonian politician underscores that the historical rules‑based world order is clearly crumbling. Something that puts small states all over the world in a very difficult position.
Kaja Kallas, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (in Estonian):
“For the last two days, I have been talking with various Latin American countries, all of whom are very concerned about what has been said. I’ve spoken with Asian countries that are worried about whether China will make a move on Taiwan and everything that would bring with it. And of course, Russia has consistently flouted international law.”
As far as Russia is concerned, the high representative goes on to note that we are not dealing with a democracy here, so normal decision-making rules simply do not apply. Sanctions have not had an immediate effect because the suffering of the Russian people will never be enough to persuade the Kremlin to back down. Yet, Kallas stresses, this does not mean that the sanctions are not working. Indeed, from the economic evidence available, she says, they are having a real impact, and this could come to fruition in 2026.
Kaja Kallas, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (in Estonian):
“Now we are dealing with the shadow fleet not by waiting for big sanction packages. Instead, each time new ships appear, we just add them – one by one. When we did this the first time, within one week Russia’s income from oil exports through the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea dropped by 30 per cent. And that was within a single week, so this has a big impact. We see that Russia now has to make difficult choices and raise taxes. Of course, we might question who in Russia actually pays taxes, but some people definitely do, and they need to. They have a problem regarding people returning from the front. They have a problem because they have promised very high compensation to soldiers’ widows and they are not actually able to find that money. They also cannot raise capital, or borrow from elsewhere, because of the sanctions in place. […] The reason I mention this is that wars also end when the aggressor runs out of money. In the case of Russia, for example, the war in Afghanistan ended when Russia was no longer able to finance it.”
Becoming a ‘thing’
Despite all the challenges we are facing, there are silver linings to be found in every cloud, of course – so let’s return to European law professor Alberto Alemanno to sign off on a truly upbeat note.
Alberto Alemanno, Professor of EU law at HEC Paris (in English):
“There’s never been a better time to be a European, because I really feel genuinely that this is probably the first time in the past 50, 60, 70 years in which the world is looking at us as one political entity; as one political actor. They’re treating us as Europeans, not as Germans, Poles, Swedes, Slovenians, Spaniards or Portuguese… But because we are European, we are a thing. Suddenly, Europe has become a thing. It has become a thing because it represents an alternative model to systems that are so different to ours.”
https://www.europeanspodcast.com/all-episodes/2026-the-year-europe-gets-its-act-together
So, let’s pull together and soldier on… no pun intended.
