‘Stunned, sidelined and disunited’: how war in the Middle East paralysed the EU

Amid fears the conflict will strengthen Russia, Ursula von der Leyen’s embrace of US-backed regime change already looks like a doomed strategy • Don’t get This Is Europe delivered to your inbox? Sign up here The message from Ursula von der Leyen was blunt. “Europe can no longer be a custodian for the old-world order” and needs a “more realistic and interest-driven foreign policy”.