Robbert

Energie en transitie @oram_amsterdam | Buitenlandcommissie @cdavandaag 💚 | Marshall Fellow @gmfus | Ex @WorldBank, @OECD | Be kind | RT ≠ steun

[Martien Visser @BM_Visser]

Het wil niet vlotten met het NL gasopslagvolume. De rest van de EU en (bijvoorbeeld) DE gaan sneller.

NL begon op zeer laag niveau tov. anderen vanwege de afspraak tussen de NL overheid en Shell/Exxon dat GasTerra haar gehuurde gasopslagen leeg zou opleveren.
#grafiekvandedag

[Alberto Alemanno 🇪🇺 @alemannoEU]

Now that Hungary drops its veto on enlargement, the majority of member countries will no longer be able to hide behind Orban…

[Clash Report @clashreport]

Hungary's PM Péter Magyar on EU:

We will not be sticks in the wheels. We know we are members of a club.

We know we will not agree on everything — but we will not veto just to veto.

Vetoing is a sovereign right — but it is only worth using when it is truly about a national interest and all negotiating methods have been exhausted.

I believe in negotiation. I worked nine years in Brussels as a diplomat and never once had to veto.

[Marcos Agustín @marcosagusstinn]

According to the OECD, Chinese firms received 3–8x more subsidies than Western competitors between 2005 and 2024, and around 60% of China’s global market-share gains since 2005 were driven by state support.

The United States does the same.

Its semiconductor strategy includes $52.7bn in CHIPS Act funding, plus major tax incentives.

Its defence, aerospace, AI and semiconductor ecosystems were built around decades of public procurement, DARPA, NASA, defence R&D, tax credits and federal industrial strategy.

Brussels must directly support European champions and focus on developing Europe’s strategic sectors: energy, defence, AI, semiconductors, batteries, aerospace, grids, robotics and advanced manufacturing.

Strategic public support creates global champions.

[Martien Visser @BM_Visser]

Gisteren luidden de Duitse gasnetbeheerders de noodklok over de (te) lage vulgraad van de gasopslagen aldaar; nauwelijks 30%.
#grafiekvandedag
"Germany's gas grids urge overhaul of storage filling incentives"

[Alberto Alemanno 🇪🇺 @alemannoEU]

EU looks more attractive in Donald Trump’s ‘crazy world’ - be it in Iceland or Norway.

I bet for new EU members by the end of 2027, but for this we need EU reforms - the ultimate taboo https://t.co/BCJ01hh0B1

[Walther Schoonenberg @WSchoonenberg]

Amsterdam zakt naar de 7de plaats van de belangrijkste ranglijst, namelijk die van de techsector. Felicitaties naar het Amsterdamse gemeentebestuur voor deze prestatie. Vandaag in Het Parool. https://t.co/LvUwUCiyDx

[Robbert @robbertvaneerd]

@FWoerden De gevel wordt eraf gehaald, en het gebouw gesloopt meen ik

[Sander Tordoir @SanderTordoir]

“The EU could well conclude that it can’t act (against China) because the short-term costs are too high. In which case it will have given in to coercion both now and later.”

Great piece by Soumaya Keynes. With a shoutout to Brad and my work.

1/

[Marcel @illnevercallitx]

This is insane. In a single year, China expanded its renewable energy infrastructure by literally one Germany.

Yup, you read that right. You can take every single gas plant, every single coal plant, every single biomass plant, every single solar panel and wind turbine that Germany possesses right now to China, and they will build more than that in 365 days.

I don't even know how I am supposed to put that into words.

[World of Statistics @stats_feed]

🇪🇺 EU Countries by Population (2026 Projections)

1. 🇩🇪 Germany – 83.78 million
2. 🇫🇷 France – 68.82 million
3. 🇮🇹 Italy – 58.88 million
4. 🇪🇸 Spain – 50.31 million
5. 🇵🇱 Poland – 36.21 million
6. 🇷🇴 Romania – 18.72 million
7. 🇳🇱 Netherlands – 18.14 million
8. 🇧🇪 Belgium – 11.91 million
9. 🇨🇿 Czech Republic – 10.87 million
10. 🇸🇪 Sweden – 10.76 million
11. 🇵🇹 Portugal – 10.73 million
12. 🇬🇷 Greece – 10.36 million
13. 🇭🇺 Hungary – 9.54 million
14. 🇦🇹 Austria – 9.21 million
15. 🇧🇬 Bulgaria – 6.21 million
16. 🇩🇰 Denmark – 6.05 million
17. 🇫🇮 Finland – 5.62 million
18. 🇮🇪 Ireland – 5.55 million
19. 🇸🇰 Slovak Republic – 5.41 million
20. 🇭🇷 Croatia – 3.85 million
21. 🇱🇹 Lithuania – 2.89 million
22. 🇸🇮 Slovenia – 2.14 million
23. 🇱🇻 Latvia – 1.86 million
24. 🇪🇪 Estonia – 1.37 million
25. 🇨🇾 Cyprus – 1.26 million
26. 🇱🇺 Luxembourg – 699,000
27. 🇲🇹 Malta – 573,000

Total EU population ≈ 448 million

The European Union continues to be one of the world’s largest economic and cultural communities. 🇪🇺

Which country’s position surprises you the most?

Source: European Commission (Eurostat) – 2026 Population Projections

[Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil @ivan_8848]

How China Built the World’s Biggest Train Station on Top of a Mountain

Welcome to Chongqing East Station: China's $7.8 billion high-speed rail megaproject. 1.22 million square metres. 40,000 peak workers. A 16,500-tonne steel tube truss roof assembled on the ground and hydraulically slid 57 metres upward onto 41-metre tree-shaped "Huangjue" columns.

• How 40,000 workers built a 1.22M m² station in just 38 months on a mountain
• The sliding assembly method — why the 16,500-tonne roof was built on the ground first
• The Huangjue tree columns — 41-metre branching steel structures designed for earthquake resistance
• Stainless steel cladding installation at 57 metres above a mountain slope
• Why Chongqing East Station is now the largest railway hub in the world
• The high-speed rail network connecting Southwest China to 14 major cities

[Narendra Modi @narendramodi]

An area in which the Netherlands has done pioneering work is water resources. There is a lot the entire global community can learn from them.

This morning, I had the opportunity to visit the Afsluitdijk and understand the salient features of this project. I am thankful to PM Rob Jetten for accompanying me here.

We are working to bring modern technology to India aimed at helping in irrigation, flood control and expanding the inland waterway network.

@MinPres

[Narendra Modi @narendramodi]

My Netherlands visit has added new momentum to India-Netherlands ties. From elevating our relationship to a Strategic Partnership to expanding cooperation in water resources, semiconductors, innovation, defence, sustainability and mobility, we have charted an ambitious roadmap for the future.

I express my gratitude to PM Rob Jetten for the warm hospitality and for personally coming to the airport to bid farewell.

I am confident that the friendship between India and the Netherlands will continue to grow stronger in the years to come.

@MinPres

[Kyle Chan @kyleichan]

This is the piece of the moment.

“This is why China believes that the surest path to international power is not through a direct confrontation but through patience.”

From my Brookings colleague @ryanl_hass https://t.co/4OCBstRYoc

[Pedro Sánchez @sanchezcastejon]

España lidera por primera vez el Rainbow Map de derechos y libertades LGTBI en Europa.

Un reconocimiento a los avances sociales y legislativos de nuestro país, y a todas las personas que se dejaron la piel para vivir con igualdad y sin miedo.

Frente a quienes se esfuerzan por llevarnos al pasado, seguimos adelante con fuerza, dignidad y alegría.

Orgullo de país. 🌈

[Bart Groothuis @bgroothuis]

Voor het eerst sinds veertig jaar wordt er weer een nieuwe chipsfabriek gebouwd in Nederland. Dankzij de EU Chips Act. In Eindhoven werken ze de weekends en in de bouwvak door om photonica chips te kunnen ontwerpen en maken. Voor AI data centres, maar ook voor sensoren en medische apparaten. We werken in Brussel nu aan een nieuwe, ambitieuzere EU Chips Act. Voor meer nieuwe en ambitieuzere fabrieken. Wordt vervolgd

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

The MAGA crowd in Washington has decided that since Europeans don’t sufficiently appreciate Trump, the American bases on the continent must go. This is the strategic reasoning of a man who burns down his own kitchen.

American bases in Europe were never a favour. They are the logistical spine of every war the United States fights east of Gibraltar. Ramstein moves the cargo, Aviano launches the jets, Rota services the ships. Without them the Pentagon does not project power into the Middle East. It projects PowerPoint.

The fantasy assumes the alternative is aircraft carriers gliding majestically into the Persian Gulf. That era is ending. A modern carrier is a thirteen-billion-dollar trophy that can be reduced to scrap by a couple of hundred cheap missiles fired from the Iranian coast. China noticed.

The other fantasy is that America simply fights from home. Picture the alternative: twenty thousand transatlantic sorties shuttling spare parts, munitions, fuel bladders, mechanics and replacement pilots from Norfolk and Dover to wherever the war happens to be. A C-17 burns through roughly 35,000 dollars of fuel every hour it flies, and the round trip from the American east coast to the Gulf is the better part of a day. Multiply that by every bolt, every missile, every spare engine. The war becomes a sustained airborne traffic jam with the bill arriving by the second.

So you need land, specifically land near the war. Modern combat aircraft are not Spitfires you fuel up and send off with a wave. An F-35 demands an entire Walmart of spare parts, a small city of technicians, climate-controlled hangars and a supply chain stretching halfway round the planet. Drones need operators, networks, satellites and a steady diet of components no carrier can store. Modern war arrives by container ship and lives in a warehouse.

Close the bases, and Washington loses the warehouses. Lose the warehouses, and the next confrontation with Iran is either fought by phone or fought from Kansas with a flight schedule that bankrupts the Treasury before the first missile lands.

MAGA thinks shutting Ramstein punishes Europe. It punishes America. Europe will be inconvenienced. America will be unarmed.

And so, after a thousand insults, a thousand sneers, a thousand late-night posts about freeloading allies, Europe is quietly drafting the politest letter in diplomatic history. It thanks America for its service. It wishes the troops a safe journey home. It suggests, with great warmth, that Washington might now turn its attention to its neighbours in Latin America, where a fading superpower can busy itself with whatever a fading superpower busies itself with.

Spain had its century. Britain had its empire. The Soviets had their parades. Each ended the same way: as a shadow of itself, with the historians left to argue, volume after volume, about precisely when the rot set in and why nobody noticed in time. America is welcome to join them on the shelf.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

If you like what you read, please follow Gandalv on Substack:
https://t.co/2TO5x2O8nI

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

Germany is not hosting American troops. It is hosting American power. Amplifying it. Projecting it across three continents. And now, for the first time with real legal and political weight behind it, voices inside Germany are beginning to say out loud: Berlin could shut down every American base on German soil.

A fiber-optic cable runs beneath Ramstein Air Base. It carries a signal from a drone pilot in Nevada to an armed aircraft over Yemen. Fraction of a second. Precision. Control. That cable sits on German soil. Cut it, and the strikes do not miss. They simply cannot happen.

This week Washington punished Berlin for telling the truth about the Iran war. Five thousand troops withdrawn. A presidential post calling Germany a failure.
The language of a tenant who has forgotten whose name is on the deed.

Because Berlin can end all of it. Not the 5,000. All 36,436. Every soldier, every satellite dish, every signal passing through German soil on its way to a target over Africa or the Middle East.

Spain tore it up. Italy said no. Germany has not moved yet.

But it is thinking about it. And what it is thinking about is this: Germany holds the one thing that separates America from every other country on earth. The ability to project military force across three continents simultaneously. Take away the European staging ground and the United States becomes what every other nation in the Western Hemisphere already is. Large. Armed. And unable to reach anyone who does not live next door.

https://t.co/WNPeoGJ5oM

[Bart Groothuis @bgroothuis]

China’s GPL (government procurement) law has effectively been pushing out European vendors from the Chinese market for years