Europe is Playing the Wrong Game: EuropeNight Essay Contest (Shortlist)

Picture a summer evening on a square somewhere in Europe. Terraces are packed. People are talking, glasses are clinking, children weave freely between the tables. Nobody seems to need to be anywhere else but here. We know this scene so well that we barely notice it anymore. But it is precisely here that an answer lies hidden to a question Europe rarely asks itself explicitly: what kind of continent do we actually want to be?
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The wrong benchmark

When European leaders talk about the future, the conversation quickly turns to competition. With the United States. With China. About technology, military strength, economic growth. Can we match Silicon Valley? Can we throw our geopolitical weight around? Can we keep pace in the race for artificial intelligence?

These are understandable questions. But they are also questions that measure Europe against others’ yardsticks. And that is precisely where the problem lies. Because those who constantly compare themselves to others unknowingly adopt others’ definitions of success as well. Power, scale, dominance. Yet it is worth asking whether that was ever really Europe’s project.
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What we already have

There is another story to be told. One that is less often told, precisely because it is less spectacular. European countries have topped the rankings of the world’s happiest societies for years. That is no coincidence. It is the result of deliberate political choices: public healthcare, social security, labor rights, education, public space. These are systems not primarily aimed at maximizing growth, but at building a liveable society.

Research into human wellbeing consistently points in the same direction: what makes people happy is not abstract measures like national power or economic dominance, but concrete experiences – security, trust, and above all: relationships with others. Seen through that lens, Europe has built something rare. Not a perfect system, but a model in which economic development and social stability go hand in hand. And yet we rarely treat that as a geopolitical achievement.
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A peace project that doubts itself

Europe was born as a peace project. Peace as its founding principle. After the devastation of two world wars, countries chose to interweave their interests so thoroughly that conflict would become unthinkable. That choice was radical. And fragile. Today, Europe seems less convinced of its own project. As if peace, wellbeing and equality are “soft” values – something to be proud of, but not something on which to base your strategy.

At the same time, external pressure is mounting. War on the continent. Economic rivalry. Political instability. It feeds an understandable reflex: become tougher, stronger, more assertive. But that reflex carries a risk. Because the moment Europe begins to understand itself exclusively in terms of power and competition, it is playing a game in which it is structurally behind. Not because it is weaker, but because it was never designed for that game.
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The temptation of imitation

The temptation to imitate other major powers is strong. It offers certainty in an uncertain world. But imitation comes at a price: it blurs what sets you apart. Europe is not a federal superstate. It is a mosaic of countries, languages, and political traditions. Its strength lies not in centralization but in cooperation. Not in uniformity, but in the capacity to organize difference. That makes Europe slow at times, frustrating at times. But it is also precisely what makes it suited to a different kind of project: not maximum power, but sustainable balance.
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Autonomy without illusions

That does not mean Europe can afford to be naive. Dependency on energy, technology, and defense has made clear in recent years how vulnerable the continent can be. Greater strategic autonomy is necessary. But autonomy is not the same as dominance. The goal of European cooperation should not be to become a new superpower, but to preserve the room to make its own choices. To keep organizing a society around values that are far from self-evident elsewhere in the world.
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Making peace with ourselves

Perhaps that is the core of the challenge Europe faces: not only to keep the peace with others, but to make peace with itself. With what it is – and with what it is not.That demands an uncomfortable shift. Away from the idea that success always means bigger, faster, and more powerful. And towards an understanding that a well-functioning society is itself a form of strength. Perhaps the greatest form.

On that square, on that summer evening, that strength is already visible. In the ease with which people live alongside one another. In the ability to slow down. In the confidence that this moment is allowed to exist. And that is no footnote to the European peace project. It is its very heart. 

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