Last week, Brussels gave the green light to Spain to invest 700 million euros in clean technologies “Made in Europe”. Despite the difficulties that the European project is going through, news like this is no longer exceptional, it is a sign of climate progress real, imperfect, gradual… but constant.
As Kevin Kelly reminds us, the worthwhile future is neither an unattainable paradise nor a paralyzing abyss: it is protopiathat space where the possible becomes attainable and collective action finds a common language. Neither naivety nor fatalism help guide strategic decisions on competitiveness, energy security or European autonomy. Protopia, on the other hand, does: it does not promise perfection, but it does promise direction.
Europe is going through a “geopolitical winter”as Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra warned. Democracies under pressure, authoritarian discourses on the rise, institutions overwhelmed by the speed of crises and, furthermore, a global climate leadership vacuum. Precisely for this reason, the energy transition can no longer be interpreted as an environmental policy; is the strategic opportunity to redefine European leadership.
To do this, Europe must build a own strategic capacity backed by a political leadership capable of providing public goods “made in Europe” that no country can guarantee independently: defense, energy, infrastructure, investment. This implies pool resources and commit to voluntary but binding mechanisms that allow us to act together. Rather than subtracting sovereignty, this approach would forge a flexible European sovereigntywhich multiplies the capacity of each country through shared action. It would be an example of construction oriented towards protopia.
But the strategic capacity It’s not just regulatory engineering; It is, above all, an exercise in vision. Europe cannot limit itself to reacting to the multipolar and unstable environment: need direction. Pro-European leaders must mark the courseeven if that means moving forward with a small number of member states. What if we applied the Schengen model to the green reindustrialization of Europe? It is a great example of European incremental progress that has demonstrated that what is born as differentiated integration can become the formal architecture of the Union.
Many of the geopolitical alliances have become history in recent months. Perhaps now it is time to re-imagine European leadership and dare to re-think the model of alliances that we create. Flexible alliances drive progress when unanimity blocks.
In cleantech, as in defense, the main obstacle now is not capital: is the lack of strategic coordination between national regulations, incentives and industrial deployment. Europe cannot aspire to lead the energy transition as the sum of sectors or national interests: must think industrially as a blockfrom the hydrogen value chain to battery manufacturing or recycling technologies.
This requires acting on multi-dimensional and simultaneous fronts: reinforce European budgetary power (including common debt), update tax rules, complete the capital markets union e invest in critical infrastructure. They are not technical adjustments: They are imperatives of European sovereignty.
To scale the climate industry, Europe also needs four specific conditions: demand with real commitment, mitigate risks to private investment, quick permissions y public procurement that rewards resilience. Without these pillars, industrial rhetoric will not translate into real capacity.
Europe does not need to look for light in the East or the West. You need to look at yourself and choose yourself. This act requires courage, because it implies accepting that the leadership we need is not the same as always. Europe requires a disruptive leadershipcapable of breaking inertia, acting in advance and imagining new industries instead of restoring old ones.
The geopolitical winter may be long, but it may also be the season in which Europe he recognises, repositions himself and leads again to choose your future.