Europe's climate vibe has shifted. Now what?

It hasn’t been a Good Week for the climate since, er, 1820-something? And it wasn’t last week, either. But it is a good week for The Europeans, because we’re joined by Luisa Neubauer, one of Germany’s best-known climate activists. Luisa recently wrote a terrific piece for The Economist about Europe’s climate “vibe shift”. We got her insights on what has caused the greenlash and what we ought to be doing about it. It’s a thoughtful, self-reflective, heartening conversation we think you’ll enjoy. 

We’re also talking about Brussels’ proposed “military Schengen” agreement, which would allow EU member states to move troops and equipment across borders relatively swiftly. (You don’t want to know how sluggish things are now.) And we’re taking a look at Slovenia’s troubling new “Šutar Law”, a security bill that is widely understood to target the Roma minority.

In other news… The Europeans are launching a newsletter! If you want to hear more about what happened in Europe over the past week and find out what we left on the podcast-cutting-room floor, subscribe to GOOD WEEK BAD WEEK over on Substack. New issues hit inboxes on Friday mornings.

And someone else has a new newsletter, too. Our very own Katy Lee has just published the first issue of Millefeuille, an English-language newsletter “for Parisians who are bad at local news”. If you fall in the middle of the Europeans podcast–Francophile Venn diagram, subscribe here.

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Inspiration Station recommendations:

• Two newly resurfaced works by Johann Sebastian Bach (here and here)

• Carlo Rovelli’s book about the physics of time, The Order of Time

• And if you, too, are in the market for a novella to help you knock out your 2025 reading goals, Dominic likes Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These

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Other resources for this episode:

• “The surreal 45-day trek at the heart of Nato’s defence” - Financial Times, 17 November, 2025 

• “Commission moves towards ‘Military Schengen' and transformation of defence industry” - European Commission press release, 19 November, 2025 

• “Why you probably should not re-gauge railways in Europe” - Jon Worth, 30 September, 2025

• “Slovenia’s ‘Šutar Law’ Sets a Dangerous Precedent for Europe” - Roma Foundation for Europe, 18 November, 2025

• “Romani Activists Fear Collective Punishment & Discrimination as Slovenia Passes New Security Bill" - European Roma Rights Centre, 7 November, 2025

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Producer

Morgan Childs

Mixing and mastering

Wojciech Oleksiak

EDITORIAL SUPPORT

Katz Laszlo

Music

Jim Barne and Mariska Martina

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We don't often have sponsors on this podcast but this week, we do: Patagonia. Three years ago, Patagonia named Earth as its only shareholder. But moving more profits to environmental causes hasn’t made them a perfect company—let alone a sustainable one. Out now is Patagonia's 2025 Work-in-Progress report: the raw truth about where they’re messing up, but also, the latest ways they’re rethinking business as usual. You can check out the report here.

This podcast was brought to you in cooperation with Euranet Plus, the leading radio network for EU news.

Thumbnail image of Luisa (c) Lena Faye