European policy analyst Federico O. Reho: The centre of politics needs renewal
Nationalist populism is a threat to the societies and institutions we have built over the last half century. Yet it is sending some vital signals: We cannot and should not centralise everything. People no longer feel masters of their own lives, Dr. Federico Ottavio Reho says. He serves as the Strategic Coordinator and Senior Research Officer at the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies.
In a time of historic turbulence, when the strength of democratic institutions is tested across the world, some people work hard to renew the very centre of European politics, to give voters across Europe a realistic hope for the future. One of them is Federico Ottavio Reho, a prominent European policy analyst and scholar with a background in the European Central Bank, the European Parliament, diplomacy and academia. His goal is to see centre-right, conservative and Christian democratic politics renewed in such a way that it continues to bring solutions that allow the citizens of the continent to live well and to flourish.
We meet in his office at the Wilfred Martens Centre for European Studies, the main centre-right think tank and political foundation in the EU, affiliated with the EPP, the biggest European party. Situated in the EU quarters of Brussels, amidst political institutions, offices of various regions and lobby groups, we´re at the heart of the European project. It started in 1950 with the Schuman Declaration on May 9th, 1950, proposing the European Coal and Steel Community. Its aim was primarily to unite the former enemies of France and Germany by binding them together in their use of their core resources: coal and steel. Today, in 2025, the unity of the Union and of Europe itself is tested by other, strong forces – both from inside and outside.
Increased respect for national autonomy is needed
- We have to strike a new balance between what we should preserve, what we can´t do alone and therefore should do together on an EU-level and how we, at the same time need to respect more national autonomy. This is the principle of subsidiarity, which we should implement much more rigorously. We have regulated way too much. We don´t need to have European standards on everything, Reho says.
He thinks this is also the case in the area of values, such as the challenging question of abortion. In comparison, the US allows decisions on such matters to be taken at the state level, while in Europe, there is a constant push to Europeanise them. Reho thinks Europe, too, should learn to tolerate different legislation across the European Union on issues like this.
Knowledgeable. Articulate. Passionate. Yet down-to-earth, pragmatic and realistic is what comes across when I hear his arguments. Despite the challenges, he sees hope for the future both for the EU and Europe as a continent.
Together with Klaus Welle, the former Secretary-General of the European Parliament (2009-2022) and chair of the Martens Centre Academic Council, Reho recently edited the book «Christian Democracy, Conservatism and The Challenge of The Extremes». In the book, the authors call for a renewal of Christian Democratic and Conservative parties in line with their core values to reconnect with voters in new ways. This is important in order to face the challenges of the growing wave of populist far-right parties across Europe. The authors also call for a new urgency in defending the postwar European order – a conservative project in itself.
There is a sense of urgency in the capital of the union these days. As one walks the streets of the European quarters, it feels almost tangible. The awakening may have come with the Brexit election in 2016, which hit Brussels like an invisible bomb. I happened to be in Brussels that spring morning, nine years ago. I saw eurocrats walking to work, perplexed and shocked by the result of the election, that Britain would want to leave the Union. Today, that shock is by far absorbed. But the growing wave of right-wing populism, coupled with political turmoil around the world and a growing realisation that Europe is losing out economically, is making its impact. The latest wake-up call arrived last autumn with the European Commission´s Draghi-report, pointing to Europe´s loss of competitive ability and thus our ability to create the jobs to sustain our very welfare models into the future. Something must be done.
We need to build new European champions
- My impression is that the discussions on the Draghi-report relate to his call for an 800 billion Euros per year investment to salvage Europe´s innovation capability. That´s the most divisive part of the report, as many don’t agree on the size of the monetary investments demanded by Draghi, or on the necessity for it to come from public money. Instead, a lower-hanging fruit that we have now started harvesting is regulatory simplification and de-bureaucratisation, which is very important, Reho says.
The new German Chancellor is strongly engaged on this front. Every time Friedrich Merz speaks at EPP gatherings, de-bureaucratisation of the EU is one of his central messages. In Reho´s opinion, increasing the depth of Europe´s capital markets is also a major matter of importance, if the goals outlined in the Draghi report are to be reached.
Reho outlines his criticism of European bureaucracy: First, new startups face severe regulations much worse than those in the USA, and secondly, they don´t find enough funding on the market to scale up. We need to significantly deepen the density of capital and bank markets. With defence planning and spending becoming much more serious, it is all the more important to make available cheap investment funding for countries that don’t have fiscal space for this increase in their budgets. Increasingly, the EU’s traditional ordo-liberal consumer focus is complemented by a desire to build new, European champion businesses, Reho says.
-To do this, AI needs to be included in the action plan. Without substantial revision of the Digital Markets Act of the European Union, many experts seem to believe that we will regulate ourselves out of the AI race. Should we leave it to China and the US to churn out AI? Is that smart?, Reho asks
One thing is for sure: The European ecosystem simply has to change. In reality, we can only get our economy up and running if we scale up Europe as a whole. It is not enough that individual countries step up.
- I think some of the things the European Commission is suggesting are already happening. Concrete measures are still at a proposal level. We don´t see momentous change yet – more needs to be done. However, some national plans are ambitious, for example in the area of defense spending. We will see how strong they are. We don´t know how robust the various countries plans are – yet, says Reho.
Politics not connected to the population
The democratic institutions found in Europe today, now being attacked by populists – not only in Hungary and Poland, but also in Slovakia and through new political movements across Europe- were basically created to solve the issues of yesterday. Coming out of two gruesome world wars, the population and voters across the spectrum from left to right, both in Europe and in the US, were ready to secure peace and stability by pledging allegiance to a renewed institutional buildup, including that of the EU. For decades, these gave a growing middle-class aspiration for an increasingly better life.
Not anymore. A loss of real buying power is the case for many since the financial crisis in 2008. A growing loss of hope is fueling new populist parties, primarily on the right.
- There is a link between the Draghi report and populism. Socio-economic matters play a huge part in the growth of populist parties. Basically, if we look at the growth from that perspective, it is a rebellion of the lower middle classes. Many of them don’t have strong economic buffers, and they have not gained from globalism. Many of them also do not benefit from immigrants, who are direct competitors for low-paying jobs. In order to counter populism, we have to provide real and new economic answers, Reho says.
But there is also a huge cultural dimension to populism. Many Europeans sense a cultural transformation which goes way too fast. They experience wave after wave of new rights introduced through legislation.
- Their response, therefore is to take conservative positions on many issues, Reho says.
From a Christian Democratic perspective of subsidiarity (making the decisions at the lowest possible level), the current political system is not connected enough with civil society. There is a strong divide between the political scene and society at large.
- I think this is the most important issue. There is a feeling of us and them, and of detachment. This is serious. We need to reconstruct a system where the parties are connected to people again, where there is interaction with associations and organizations, trade unions, startups and religious communities. How to do this? We don´t have an answer for that yet, Reho says.
Hope for Europe´s future
Sitting at an office desk, minutes walking distance from the European Parliament, may create distance from the daily lives of Europeans. This is indeed a core issue if the European Union is to grow its legitimacy among European citizens from southern Greece to the north of Finland. Soon, even Iceland may join the club.
- I hope that maybe one or two legislatures down the line, we will see that we managed this crisis well. That we see a more solid EU and a more balanced union. We are an upside-down federal entity. The EU does too much in some areas, but also too little in some areas like for example defense. I hope it becomes at the same time more federal and more respectful of its internal diversity. I hope that it will be less intrusive in people’s daily lives and that Europeans will more clearly see the benefits of the common project, and even feel allegiance to it. A European patriotism of sorts should not be incompatible with national patriotisms and identities, Reho says.
He points out that the kids of the 80s just wanted to get rich. But Generation Z are different. There is a strong desire to find belonging, to find meaning. It does not necessarily take a religious form, but community forming is important to them. In some way, we have seen environmentalism substitute religion. We also see different forms of Christian and non-Christian faith expressed. It is not institutional in the way it was before, but young people are more than ever looking for meaning and religious understanding.
There may be hope, after all. Time will tell if the European Union succeeds in reforming itself and counteracting the manifold challenges the continent now faces. For the sake of our children and our children´s children, that would not be a bad outcome at all.
As I walk away, up the streets of Brussels, I feel uplifted. Despite a newfound alertness and urgency to renew the vision of a united Europe, of keeping the peace, I sense hope. That is a good start.
