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Europe is facing a significant demographic shift characterized by declining working-age populations and increasing old-age dependency, which is expected to create tighter labour markets and labour shortages by 2050. While this trend may stunt GDP growth and complicate investment, it provides an opportunity for trade unions to increase worker bargaining power and revitalize their membership, particularly by organizing the expanding care sector.

Latvia employs a "Comprehensive State Defence" model that integrates biosecurity into a whole-of-society resilience framework, led by the Ministry of Health. While the country possesses solid institutional foundations—including a BSL-3 national reference laboratory and a new Crisis Management Centre established in July 2025—it lacks a standalone national biosecurity strategy and does not explicitly identify biological weapons as a distinct threat in its security documentation. Latvia is heavily integrated into EU and NATO mechanisms, regularly conducting CBRN exercises such as RADEX 2025 and participating in ECDC preparedness assessments. Key areas for improvement include modernizing disease surveillance IT infrastructure, formalizing access to BSL-4 capabilities, and articulating a clearer posture against deliberate biological threats.

Ember's analysis reveals a significant gap between planned renewable energy expansion and available grid capacity in Europe, with at least 120 GW of projects at risk. While some distribution grids can support household electrification, transmission bottlenecks threaten large-scale wind and solar projects, particularly in countries like Austria, Bulgaria, and Poland. The report advocates for 'non-wire solutions' and administrative reforms to unlock capacity and ensure energy security.

The briefing critiques Sweden's Social Climate Plan for its limited focus on a single electric vehicle premium, arguing that it ignores 120,000 heating-poor households and fails to address the root causes of transport poverty. Using the Transitional Assistance Framework, the authors categorize the plan as 'adaptive' but 'narrow' because it provides financial aid without addressing structural barriers like charging infrastructure or public transport. The document contrasts Sweden's approach with more comprehensive proposals from Greece, Latvia, and Poland, and recommends that EU member states prioritize structural investments over short-term technology subsidies to ensure a truly just transition.

The document examines the 'greying' of Europe and the resulting political tensions, the failure of pronatalist policies in Hungary and Poland, the role of digital platforms in youth-led protests in Nepal and Africa, and the structural challenges of the kafala system in the Middle East. It advocates for institutional reforms to ensure intergenerational justice and a shift away from growth-oriented economics toward a model centered on care.

The research paper argues that hybrid threats—combining hostile state operations with extremist violence—require a 'whole-of-society' prevention approach. It suggests adopting a 'public health' model of prevention, categorised into primary (building resilience), secondary (targeted vulnerability efforts), and tertiary (minimising acute harm) interventions. The authors emphasize the need to break down government silos between domestic and foreign security, avoid the over-securitisation of communities, and integrate gender and intersectional analysis into threat assessments.

The report argues that high electricity prices, often inflated by policy-related levies, make heat pumps less cost-competitive than gas boilers despite their superior efficiency. It analyzes various policy levers—such as removing levies, reducing VAT, or implementing innovative tariffs—to lower the electricity-to-gas price ratio, which the European Heat Pump Association suggests should be no higher than 2 for competitiveness. The analysis highlights that the Netherlands, with the lowest price ratio (1.4), has significantly higher heat pump sales than countries like Germany, Poland, or Hungary, where ratios exceed 3.

The paper examines how Green parties in Europe use cultural policy to combat far-right narratives and promote core values. It highlights specific initiatives: Ireland's Basic Income for the Arts (BIA) to reduce precarity, Luxembourg's Kulturentwécklungsplang (KEP) to strengthen the legal and social status of artists, and Latvia's use of culture as 'social glue' for cohesion amid security threats. The author argues for a future green cultural policy that localises funding, integrates culture into the just transition of post-industrial areas, and establishes a clear stance on copyright and AI to protect creative autonomy.

The report identifies 27 factors across four themes—EU internal dynamics, expected effects of enlargement, attitudes/norms/perceptions, and external factors—that influence EU accession decisions. It argues that while the process is formally merit-based, EU actors exercise significant discretion, with normative factors dominating early candidacy and economic or political interests predominating during later negotiations. The analysis highlights how these factors varied across the 'Big Bang' (2004), 'Coda' (2007), and Croatia (2013) rounds, and provides forecasts for the 'Trio' of Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia.

The document outlines the views of TSOs from Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Slovakia regarding EU grid development. While generally supportive of the European Grids Package, these operators express low confidence in EU-level coordination, citing administrative burdens and a perception of Western European dominance in policy shaping. Key barriers identified include outdated infrastructure, regulatory fragmentation, and complex access to EU funding mechanisms like the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). The TSOs emphasize the need for more practical, inclusive reforms that respect national sovereignty and address specific security risks for countries on the EU's external borders.

The report identifies a significant global health and economic toll from red and processed meat consumption, which is linked to type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. It highlights a 'treatment-over-prevention' trend in wealthy nations, particularly in Europe, where robust healthcare systems mitigate disease outcomes at a high financial cost. The authors argue that implementing fiscal policies and dietary interventions to reduce meat intake could save billions in healthcare spending and significantly reduce premature mortality and disability.

The report argues that interconnectors are critical for European energy security, having prevented three major blackouts in the last five years and providing a lifeline to Ukraine and Moldova during Russian aggression. It highlights that 55% of Europe's power system remains at risk due to limited import options, with Spain, Ireland, and Finland being particularly exposed. The document also details the vulnerability of infrastructure to sabotage, citing nine incidents in the Baltic Sea, and calls for accelerated deployment of new capacity and strengthened security measures to protect the grid from hybrid warfare.

The policy brief examines the energy landscape of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, highlighting the region's struggle to balance immediate energy affordability with long-term decarbonisation. It identifies new security risks, specifically China's dominance in clean energy supply chains and conflicting policy signals from the US and EU. The author advocates for a technology-neutral approach—integrating nuclear, renewables, and emerging technologies like CCS—and suggests that CEE can become a clean-tech manufacturing hub. Furthermore, it emphasizes the strategic importance of integrating Ukraine, Moldova, and the Western Balkans into the EU energy grid to enhance regional resilience.

The document explores the ideological battle over the concept of 'freedom,' contrasting the right-wing's individualistic, consumer-driven 'freedom from constraint' with a proposed 'Green freedom' based on interdependence and ecological limits. It analyzes how this struggle manifests across various domains: the gig economy's algorithmic management, the impact of immersive technologies (XR) on cognitive autonomy, the targeting of gender studies by illiberal regimes, and the need for 'comprehensive security' in the Baltic states that integrates social welfare with military defense. The text argues that for the Green movement to succeed, it must move beyond technical expertise and reclaim freedom as a collective, emancipatory value that decouples wellbeing from economic growth.

Ember's response to the ERAA 2025 consultation highlights significant discrepancies between ENTSO-E's proposed commodity prices and market futures, noting that fossil fuel prices are underestimated while CO2 prices are overestimated. The document argues that the ERAA underestimates battery storage and demand flexibility potential, fails to account for battery CAPEX reductions, and underestimates wind and solar capacities in several European countries compared to National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) and industry forecasts.

The briefing assesses the energy transition of the Three Seas Initiative (3SI) region, noting that while some countries have reduced gas demand and integrated grids, Russian gas imports rose in 2024 for several members. It warns that planned expansions of LNG and pipeline capacity by 2030 risk creating stranded assets due to declining demand. The author recommends that the 10th Three Seas Summit focus on a 2027 Russian gas phase-out, the creation of a 'Transmission Highway' for clean power, and the development of regional energy hubs.

The document explores the intersection of culture, politics, and ecology, highlighting how neoliberalism, far-right nationalism, and generative AI threaten artistic freedom and worker security. It advocates for 'green cultural policymaking' that prioritises accessibility, rural inclusion, and the protection of creators. Through various case studies—including Spain's Cultural Rights Plan, the impact of AI on indigenous knowledge, and the use of culture as resistance in Ukraine—it argues that arts and culture should be viewed as essential social infrastructure rather than mere drivers of GDP growth.

Climate change is significantly increasing the number of winter days with minimum temperatures above 0°C across the Northern Hemisphere. Analysis of the decade 2014-2023 shows that over one-third of analyzed countries and 44% of analyzed cities experienced at least one additional week of above-freezing days annually. Europe is the most affected region, with some countries like Lithuania and Latvia seeing over 20 additional above-freezing days per year. These shifts impact snowfall, the USD 12.5 billion winter sports industry, water supplies, and ecosystem health.

The report examines how emerging technologies are being integrated into the civil nuclear sector to support the goal of tripling nuclear capacity by 2050. It highlights US-led diplomatic initiatives like the FIRST program, which promotes the export of next-generation reactors to counter Russian and Chinese influence. The text details technical advancements in neutron detection by the Bay Area Neutron Group and the IAEA's use of AI and satellite imagery for safeguards. It further explores the symbiotic relationship between AI and nuclear energy, where advanced reactors provide stable power for AI data centers while AI optimizes reactor design and safety through physics-informed machine learning and digital twins.

The report finds a positive trend in European pension funds' commitment to sustainable investing, with significant growth in the adoption of mitigation targets and climate risk management. However, a persistent gap remains between these commitments and actual real-economy impact, as pension funds rarely invest directly in projects and often hold fragmented indirect ownership. The analysis highlights that larger funds, those in net-zero coalitions, and funds in countries with strong regulatory frameworks—such as the Nordic countries, the Netherlands, and France—are leading the transition. Key challenges include the gap between asset ownership and management, the difficulty of transitioning passive investments, and limited capital flow to emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs).