EU leaders pressed for urgent action to cut energy costs and fix the bloc’s border-free single market, warning that European industry risks falling further behind the United States and China if the 27 member states fail to move from rhetoric to results.
Gathering at Alden Biesen Castle in Belgium’s Limburg province, heads of government acknowledged a shared “sense of urgency” but arrived with divergent prescriptions. “We share a sense of urgency that our Europe needs to act,” French President Emmanuel Macron said alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, signaling unity of purpose but not yet of policy.
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With few concrete decisions expected from the retreat, the session was designed to test whether countries are ready to compromise on energy, investment and market reforms that business leaders say are essential to restore EU competitiveness.
Frustration with years of incremental talks spilled into the open. “There’s so much talk and so little action, and this is a chance to at least reverse that trend,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said. Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis was blunter: “Only words, conferences and no action.”
At the top of the agenda: how to deepen the EU single market; advance a long-stalled union of capital markets to finance innovation at scale; and bring down Europe’s stubbornly high power prices. “We have to have a unified energy market, that is the only solution,” Babis said, a view echoed by several leaders. According to EU data, European industries face electricity costs more than double those in the U.S. and China.
Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever underlined what is at stake for core sectors. “The main issue for European industry right now is energy costs,” he said. “We are not competitive and we risk losing the petrochemical industry, the steel industry, metals, and of course, this is the base of all prosperity.”
Disagreements over how to respond remain stark. Macron has renewed calls for common EU borrowing to fund large-scale investment and reduce reliance on the U.S. dollar. Paris is also pushing a “Made in Europe” approach that would set minimum European-content thresholds for goods bought with public money.
Berlin opposes new joint debt and favors boosting productivity through structural reforms. Germany also stresses the need to conclude trade agreements, including the long-discussed deal with South American bloc Mercosur — a pact France continues to resist on environmental and market-access grounds.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda urged decisions after years of delay. “We have been discussing so long time and I think this is a time to take the decisions, because … time is running out,” he said.
Macron proposed June as a deadline to convert ideas into policy. “We need to act fast and we need concrete decisions by June,” he said, adding that if unanimity proves elusive, some countries should proceed via “reinforced cooperation” to move faster.
The leaders invited former Italian prime ministers Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta, whose 2024 reports on competitiveness and the single market have shaped the debate, to share recommendations. Draghi warned the EU faced “slow agony” without urgent, coordinated reforms across energy, finance and technology.
While no sweeping breakthroughs were expected from the castle retreat, the tone underscored a narrowing window for the EU to align on an energy strategy, unlock deeper capital pools for industry and streamline its internal market. The choices made — or again deferred — by June will signal whether Europe can close the competitiveness gap with the U.S. and China, or continue to cede ground in the industries that underpin its prosperity.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
