The snag is that EU countries are ever more reluctant to give up their right to block collective actions.
Meanwhile, rivalry between the United States and China – and a green subsidy race between the world's two largest economies – is undermining the world trading system.
The response of EU countries to the Gaza conflict has also been shambolic, both individually and collectively.
Yet EU countries are also grappling with nationalistic currents, the latest demonstration of which is last week’s election victory by Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician who has long campaigned on an anti-immigrant and anti-EU ticket.
But it is not clear that EU countries want to find a way to speed up collective decision-making.
Persons:
Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Geert Wilders, Olivier Costa, Jan Zielonka, Erik Jones, keener, Annalena, Shahin Vallée, Peter Thal Larsen, Streisand Neto, Thomas Shum
Organizations:
Reuters, European, NATO, EU, United Nations General Assembly, Franco, Britain, IF, College of Europe, Oxford University, European University Institute, Thomson
Locations:
Ukraine, United States, China, EU, People's Republic, Gaza, Dutch, Washington, Beijing, Germany, France, Denmark, United Kingdom, Berlin, Franco, Russia