FEPS Newsletter 19 December 2025 – 🎄 FEPS wishes you a happy and progressive 2026!

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Dear Friends,

At the end of 2025, we look forward to the holiday season with “the optimism of the will”. This is certainly a time to reflect on the dramatic year behind us, with the hope that 2026 brings consolidation for the European Union, peace for our continent and a recovery for our economies and societies.

Year 2025 will be recorded in yearbooks as a time of tectonic shifts in global geopolitics and international relations. But it was also a year when the central spectrum of European politics lost its cohesion due to the eagerness of the centre-right to build a policy axis with more extreme right-wing forces.

Our political family has not only been resisting the sinister changes but also launched a progressive mobilisation and built a new strategic orientation. This is not only about defending social cohesion and democracy inside the EU, but also about upholding solidarity with Ukraine, condemning the genocidal war in Gaza and continuing collective efforts for global sustainability.

FEPS’s role in this turbulent time was to strengthen the intellectual foundations and help identify the essential points of progressive EU policy. We take pride in our contributions to the debates on the new MFF, the emerging housing policy of the EU, but also in what concerns getting a grip on the Artificial Intelligence revolution.

We have been working hand in hand with progressive office holders in Brussels, but also the member foundations across EU countries, with an ever stronger commitment to engaging and cultivating the young generation of socialists and democrats, ready to fight for social rights, the rule of law, gender equality, as well as climate justice.

When we wish our members and readers a warm and peaceful holiday season and a productive New Year, we also pay tribute to our outgoing president, Maria João Rodrigues, who has served for eight and a half years and who will be replaced by Nicolas Schmit in January.

Maria João Rodrigues, FEPS President
László Andor, FEPS Secretary General

PRESS RELEASE

FEPS elects Nicolas Schmit as new President

On 12 December, the FEPS General Assembly elected Nicolas Schmit as the new FEPS President. After eight years in the role, outgoing President Maria João Rodrigues requested to be replaced, considering her mission accomplished. 

FEPS’ General Assembly also saw the election of Kaisa Vatanen, Chief Officer at Datapraxis, as Vice-President following Maria Maltschnig’s departure. 

The handover ceremony will take place on 29 January, coinciding with FEPS’ traditional New Year Reception.

29 JANUARY 2026 – FEPS HQ

FEPS’ New Year Reception & Progressive Yearbook launch

Join us at the launch of the seventh edition of one of our most unique publications, the Progressive Yearbook. We will also reveal FEPS Progressive Person of the Year.

With the mission of bringing forward analysis of the key political developments of the year, the Progressive Yearbook focuses on transversal European issues that have left a mark on 2025. It brings insightful future-looking analysis and symbolises FEPS’ readiness to put it into perspective.

Read the latest issue of the Progressive Post magazine!

From the war in Ukraine to the devastation of Gaza since 2023, the words ‘war’ and ‘peace’ dominate the headlines. But what kind of peace can be built in the future? Our Special Coverage Does peace still have a chance? steers the debate from topics of war and defence towards the urgent necessity of peace. The decision on the defence funds is part of a broader debate on the next EU budget – the Focus The next MFF: turning the glue into solvent critically examines the European Commission’s budget proposal, particularly the fate of the cohesion funds. 

The Dossier Benefits for all? The EU’s international partnerships asks whether the EU can pursue its strategic interests while simultaneously promoting its partners’ genuine development? And the last Dossier is dedicated to COP30: looking past the elephant in the room, where the elephant is the issue of fossil fuels, which was intentionally ignored during the negotiations held in Brazil.

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