Evelyn · March 9, 2026
In 2024, 93.3 million people — 21% of the EU population — lived at risk of poverty or social exclusion. The gender pay gap stood at 11.1% and the gender pension gap at 25%. Against this backdrop, the EU has deployed its most expansive social toolkit in history: €142.7 billion in ESF+ funding, a binding [...]
Evelyn · March 9, 2026
In 2024, renewable sources generated 47.5% of EU electricity — up from 34% in 2019 when the European Green Deal was launched. The EU Emissions Trading System has cut power and industry emissions by 50% from 2005 levels and raised €245 billion in cumulative revenue. Yet reaching net-zero by 2050 requires an annual investment gap [...]
Evelyn · March 9, 2026
Between 2020 and 2026, the European Commission enacted the most concentrated burst of strategic industrial legislation in its history. Three shocks drove the shift: COVID-19’s supply chain exposure, Russia’s weaponisation of energy dependency, and the US IRA’s $370 billion subsidy challenge. Brussels moved from market-liberal orthodoxy to what von der Leyen calls ‘open strategic autonomy.’ [...]
Jenny · March 9, 2026
On 22 October 2014, Christophe de Margérie — Pouyané’s predecessor and mentor — died when his jet struck a snow plough on a Moscow runway. Within days, Pouyané was named CEO of one of the world’s largest energy companies, at the moment the oil industry was entering its most disruptive decade since the 1970s. Over [...]
Jenny · March 8, 2026
When Oliver Blume became CEO of Volkswagen Group in September 2022, he inherited 12 brands, 120 factories and 650,000 employees. Within two years, Chinese EV competition and German structural costs had combined into an existential financial crisis. By December 2024, Blume had agreed to cut 35,000 jobs, close two SAIC plants and commit to €4 [...]
Jenny · March 8, 2026
In 1988, Larry Fink co-founded BlackRock with eight partners and $5 million in seed capital. By end-2025, BlackRock managed $14.04 trillion in assets — more than the GDP of every nation except the US and China — and reported a record $698 billion in annual net inflows. That 37-year journey is inseparable from one conviction: [...]
