Carnicero Urabayen, Carlos

For years, Europe could treat China’s rise as a distant story: impressive, sometimes unsettling, but ultimately manageable through trade, investment and careful diplomacy. That era is giving way to something more complex. In a new episode of Future is Blue, Lourdes Casanova, Gail and Rob Cañizares Director at The Cañizares Center for Emerging Markets, Cornell University, and Raymond Torres, Funcas Europe Director, discuss how China’s economic ascent has matured into a systemic power with formidable industrial scale.

Trade sits at the intersection of Europe’s economic risks and its strategic opportunities. That was the starting point of the latest Future is Blue episode, where we spoke with Ignacio García Bercero, Bruegel Senior Fellow and former EU chief trade negotiator with the United States, and Miguel Ángel González-Simón, economist at Funcas.

As 2025 draws to a close, Europe is confronting an uncomfortable reality: the external environment has changed faster than the EU’s ability to adapt.

Europe’s productivity performance is often explained by technology, skills or firms’ behaviour.