Hardly any year has made Europe's dependence on global developments and circumstances as clear as 2020. Covid-19 brushed the living world against the grain.
It cannot be repeated often enough that even the 'big' EU countries are just dwarves in the global environment in which they find themselves. It would be wise to recognise that this is the case - and to draw the consequences from it, namely to strengthen the Union. This must be accompanied by more democratisation, otherwise democracy in Europe would suffer itself.