Dave Keating
Verified- Brussels Correspondent, France 24
- Contributor, Freelance
- Senior Writer, Energy Monitor
Brussels, Germany, London
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🇺🇸🇪🇺American by birth, European by choice 📘Read my book: www.TheOwnedContinent.eu ✍️Read my Substack: davekeating.substack.com/
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Articles by Dave Keating
Live from Strasbourg: MEPs react to youth riots across Europe
Yesterday, while on the train from Barcelona to Strasbourg, I wrote a post asking whether Europe is on the verge of an 1848 moment. After I published, I had a three hour stop to transfer trains in Lyon. While there, I saw the still-smouldering ruins of the 174-year old Bellecour Pavilion that was burned down by rioters on Saturday. People were gathered around staring at it – stunned, silent and scared.
The EU is the solution to, not the cause of, American occupation
CC photo by Timo Klostermeier This week someone pointed me to a recent speech in Istanbul by the socialist author Thomas Fazi entitled “Europe, an occupied continent”, published on his Substack. They pointed out that it bears a striking resemblance to the title of my book The Owned Continent. Whether that’s intentional or not, I don’t know. But I certainly agree with his title. Europe is indeed a continent that has been occupied by America, first just in the West and then spreading to the East.
Live from EU summit: Frugals try to slash EU resources
In this special video for my paid subscribers, I walk through what it is that the Northern European countries have come into this EU summit demanding – and why the other 21 member states, the Commission and the Parliament are all furious with them for it. Then I talk about the stupidity of the new “emergency break” on EU legislation proposed by Merz, Meloni and De Wever – which would cancel legislation they themselves designed and voted on just months earlier. Past posts mentioned in this video:
Brussels will feel the aftershocks of a Spanish election political earthquake
The centre-right European People's Party (EPP), the European political group that includes Spain's Partido Popular, has governed the European Union for two decades. The EPP has come first in every European Parliament election since 1999, and every European Commission president since 2004 has been from the group. It has also been the largest party in the European Council throughout this time.
El terremoto electoral español también sacudirá Bruselas
El Partido Popular Europeo (PPE), la familia política europea a la que pertenece el Partido Popular español, lleva dos décadas gobernando la Unión Europea. El PPE ha ganado todas las elecciones al Parlamento Europeo desde 1999 y todos los presidentes de la Comisión Europea desde 2004 han pertenecido a esta formación. Durante todo este tiempo, también ha sido el partido con mayor representación en el Consejo Europeo.
How has the European Union's major recovery plan benefited the 27 member states?
The 27 member states of the European Union agreed in July 2020 on a €750 billion post-Covid recovery plan called NextGenerationEU. Its main instrument is the Recovery and Resilience Facility, through which the European Commission has already disbursed €450 billion. The programme is due to come to an end in a few months, and countries must claim and account for the remaining funds.
How has the more than €600 billion recovery plan revitalised Europe? Original
Among the many projects funded by the EU's Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), one area has taken on particular significance in the wake of the scorching summer Europeans have just experienced: improving the energy efficiency of school buildings. In Belgium's Francophone community government, for example, 149 school sites have been selected for renovation, including the Athénée royal de Ganshoren.
Video: Europe still isn’t moving to liberate itself
This week I sat down with James Ker Lindsay, host of the wildly popular international relations YouTube channel, for a catch-up on how Europe’s quest for independence has been going since we last spoke in September 2025 (while I was still writing my book).
Is Montenegrin a language? We’re all about to pay to insist it is.
Podgorica wants Montenegrin, classified by linguists as a dialect of Serbo-Croatian, to become the EU’s 25th official language. It could open the floodgates for unnecessary translations. Imagine this scenario happening right now: Austria elects a nationalist government, and once in office they decide to change the constitution to make “Austrian” the country’s national language instead of German. The decision is controversial and unpopular, and most Austrians continue saying they speak “German”.
A Sanchez loss could topple von der Leyen’s centrist coalition
The loss of the EU left’s last defender in power may be the final nail in the coffin for the union’s longstanding governing centre. That could put the far right in control of the EU Parliament. Centre-left Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has long been a thorn in the side of Centre-right European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
What Brazil's election tells us about the road America didn't take
Unlike the US, Brazil prosecuted its former president who attempted a coup. Now his son is likely to be elected president and release him from prison. In 2023, Americans watched as Brazil’s legal system did what theirs had failed to do: prosecute a former president who had led an unsuccessful coup attempt. At the time, I noted that this was a result of Brazil’s governing institutions being much more modern and agile than America’s archaic structures. Brazil was functioning in a way America was not.
Yet again, Europe has surrendered to Trump
Yesterday leaders caved to Trump’s demand that they release Europe’s oil reserves ahead of a risky winter, to lower US energy prices before the midterm election. Early this week reports swirled that President Trump was threatening European countries with a diesel export ban unless they release their reserves – in an effort to quickly lower energy prices ahead of the US midterm election.
Brussels reacts to Burnham’s EU rejoin gambit
The assessment in the EU has not changed over the past five years; in order to start rejoin talks, they would need to see overwhelming cross-party support in the UK. Andy Burnham, who took over as British prime minister two months ago after ousting Keir Starmer, has this week tried to find a solution to the Brexit poison chalice that has felled seven of his predecessors over the past ten years.
“We can do that to any country we want. We can do that here.”
Nice government you’ve got here. Would be a shame if something happened to it. That’s essentially what US Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle reportedly told a Greek government minister, according to an explosive new report in the Wall Street Journal about her recent activities. Believe it or not, this isn’t even the focus of the article.
Want to fix EU bureaucracy? Give more power to Brussels
The EU is facing unprecedented threats from its West and East. But unfortunately, in the current period of European leadership vacuum, national governments have no real ideas for how to deal with this enormous danger. So they are instead reaching for an easy and familiar lever: Brussels-bashing. This week 13 EU governments (half the total) came out with a joint paper calling for a one-year pause on EU lawmaking. The solution to the EU’s woes, apparently, is to do less.
Gabriel Attal is running as France’s federalist presidential candidate
“I don’t want my generation to witness Europe becoming the 51st US state or the 24th Chinese province,” former French prime minister Gabriel Attal said in a landmark speech on Friday about his candidacy to become the next president of France.
With Carney’s speech, Europe is importing inspiration
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney just finished his speech to the European Parliament, and he spelled out exactly what he wants in a new EU-Canada alliance. He noted President von der Leyen called it an “associate membership” in her State of the Union speech yesterday, but it was an acknowledgement rather than full-throated approval. He notably did not use the term in his press conference after his speech, and downplayed it when asked about it.
State of the Union: von der Leyen once again pulls her punches
“Thank you very much for your patience.” That was the rather uninspiring (and unscripted) line the EU president ended her State of the Union speech to parliament with this morning. And after seven of these annual speeches from President Ursula von der Leyen, which have contained grand words without serious attempts to accomplish them, you can understand why MEPs may have been feeling impatient.
Canada will never join the EU. But the two should form a defensive alliance against the US
Image from Scientists for EU For the past two weeks, I’ve been getting a sense of how Canadians are feeling about the US and EU while visiting Toronto, Quebec, Montreal and Vancouver. I wrote already about their attitude toward the US and how it is much more realistic and courageous than the way Europeans are approaching the situation. Now, I will turn my attention to how Canadians are feeling about the EU and the current hype around whether they could join it.
Half of Swedish voters said OK to having the far right in government
Early sticker used by Sweden Democrats with the slogan "Keep Sweden Swedish" On the face of it, the narrow victory for the Social Democrats in yesterday’s Swedish election might seem good news for Europe’s flagging left, which has only three seats left in the 27-seat European Council governing the EU. It looks like they got 176 seats compared to 173 for the right-wing bloc. But look closer, and the result is not very encouraging for the centre-left or indeed centrists as a whole.
25 years since 9/11, what lessons for Europe?
I don’t talk about it much, but I was in downtown New York City on 9/11. It was the first day of class for that year at NYU, and I was living in a dorm downtown. After I saw the second plane hit the tower I knew something major was happening. So I grabbed my video camera and took the video above. Most of it records the hours and days after the attack, including attacks on Muslim businesses, one of which you can see in the video.
Canadians are ready to sacrifice for the trade war with America
Niagara Falls is split between the United States and Canada, with boats leaving from each side of the river to sail close to the falls. The American boat passengers wear blue plastic ponchos and the Canadian boat passengers wear red. Last week I came to the falls from the Canadian side. I’ve visited before from the American side in 2002, back when you could easily cross over the border by foot.
The German far right is coming to power – with US and Russian support
Saxony-Anhalt AfD leader Ulrich Siegmund, who may become the länder’s next premier, has used social media to appeal to young Germans. The far-right Alternative for Germany party scored a landmark victory in yesterday’s state election in the East German länder of Saxony-Anhalt. With all votes counted, AfD got 43.8% of the vote – coming in the lead but falling short of the majority that would have enabled them to govern on their own.
Iceland’s no: lessons for EU democracy
Icelanders voted by a slim majority this weekend to reject the government’s request to start accession talks with the European Union. The result percentage was a familiar one to people in the UK: 52.8% no to 47.2% yes, with voters in the capital wanting to be in the EU while rural voters did not. Brexit’s instigators felt vindicated by the result. “Congratulations to Iceland on voting to keep their independence,” posted Nigel Farage.
Europeans should learn from Canadian courage
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told his citizens yesterday that they are now at “war” with the United States over trade. “You’re at war when you’re attacked, and we got attacked,” he said. The language might seem dramatic, but it accurately describes the seismic event that occurred yesterday. Carney was preparing his country for the considerable medium-term economic pain that this trade war will bring.
The EU is a democracy, and it has a government
Playback speed × Share post Share post at current time Share from 0:00 0:00 / The EU is a democracy, and it has a government My response to Daniel Hannan telling Icelanders that being a non-voting part of the EU is better than being a member state. On 29 August, Iceland will hold a referendum on whether to start talks on joining the European Union.
New Eurovision rule would block Israel from hosting after a win
For three years, the final minutes of the Eurovision Song Contest have been nail-biting moments. Dedicated fans of the contest sat with their hearts in their stomachs in 2025 and 2026 as they watched a split screen with the Israeli contestant and another country’s contestant to find out who won, and who would therefor be hosting the contest the following year. The anxiety was palpable because there is a feeling that the contest would not survive Israel hosting during the conflict in Gaza.
Unprecedented euro sell-off signals new front in US threats to EU
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claims the euro selloff was simply about helping Japan. But there is more going on here than meets the eye. For eight decades, the US dollar has stood as the bedrock of the world’s financial architecture – devised at Bretton Woods following World War II. It is a system that inherently advantages the US at the expense of others.
Schengen is unravelling. Where is von der Leyen?
I’m in Rome today – last night I flew here from Barcelona. Just before boarding the flight, we received news that the Spanish government was demanding Italy end its passport controls on people coming from Spain within three days or they would take “proportionate measures”.
Antwerp's 'human zoo': Belgium confronts shame of colonial past
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Live from Spain and Brussels: Dave and Julien discuss why EU leaders don't want to know what's behind the Ceuta crisis
EU home affairs ministers held an emergency video summit yesterday to discuss the Ceuta crisis. By the time they met, almost all of the estimated 72,000 people who crossed into the Spanish territory last Thursday had been returned to Morocco. None were able to leave Africa and make it to the EU mainland. Logically then, the question should have turned to establishing why and how 72,000 people were allowed by Moroccan authorities to stream into the Spanish enclave.
Ceuta exposes Europe's chronic lack of unity
Thursday was a dark day for the European Union, and not for the reasons that Europe’s far right and their backers in Washington would have you believe. 60,000 migrants invaded the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, located on the African coast and surrounded by Morocco, in the largest single-surge border violation in EU history.
Burnham is right: less people should go to university
New UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced a major break with decades-old British higher education policy this week when he announced an end to the country’s preference for university over vocational training. It’s a policy that was established by Tony Blair three decades ago when he set the target of sending at least half of high school graduates to university - emulating a long-standing policy in the United States.
The five name changes that would make the EU more honest
A frequent topic of conversation among Brussels journalists is lamenting how difficult it is for us to explain EU news to a public that has not been educated in even the basics of what the EU is and how it works. Over the years I’ve noticed that correspondents in this town try to overcome this challenge using one of two strategies: oversimplify it, or needlessly complicate it.
American democracy may die in four months
Last week, in a much-hyped but little-watched speech, President Trump gave a primetime speech alleging that US elections are rigged. The White House and their allies set expectations high ahead of the speech, with Ohio Republican Senator Bernie Moreno claiming, “This could be the most important Oval Office speech since the Cuban Missile Crisis.” But in the end Trump did not announce any action. There was no announcement that he is suspending elections as some had feared.
EU issues rash of anti-competition fines against US tech giants
EU Commission Vice President for Tech Sovereignty Henna Virkkunen The European Commission announced today it has fined Google €890 million ($1.02 billion) for breaches of online competition laws by giving priority to its own services in search results and down-ranking results for those of its rivals. That is a violation of the EU Digital Markets Act, adopted in 2022 to deal specifically with anti-competitive practices by tech companies.
Can Burnham avoid the Trump trap that ensnared his predecessor?
In February 2025, the British media were obsessed with the upcoming first meeting between Keir Starmer and Donald Trump, who had just started his second term. The visit had to go perfectly, they opined, in order to avoid the US president’s wrath. Starmer dutifully showed up with gifts and over-the-top flattery in hand. It seemed for a moment that he had bought Trump’s affection - trading dignity for momentary safety. The British media gushed over Starmer’s grand success.
Faced with US hostility, EU hits the brakes on its climate plans
For decades, the European Union has been the world leader in policies to fight climate change. The EU Green Deal package in European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s first term is the largest climate law in the history of the world (despite President Biden’s ridiculous claims that the IRA was). But it now appears that the EU’s climate warrior era is over.
Can Europe regain cognitive sovereignty?
There’s a word Brussels loves right now: sovereignty. Digital sovereignty, energy sovereignty, defence sovereignty – pick a noun, staple “sovereignty” to it, and you have a European Commission work programme. And yet there’s one form of sovereignty few in Brussels seem willing to name, let alone pursue. It’s the ability of Europeans to think their own thoughts, rather than unconsciously borrowing the mental furniture of a country across the Atlantic.
Keynote speech: how to achieve a sovereign Europe
Last week I gave the keynote speech at the European Economic and Social Committee conference in Sofia, Bulgaria. The EESC is the consultative body that, since 1958, has been representing employers and workers in advising EU lawmakers on legislation (it sits alongside the Committee of the Regions, which represents states and municipalities). In my speech I laid out the reasons why Europe is not currently free and sovereign and the things that need to be done to get us there.
Farage's failed Trump card shows Europe is politically safer than America
Yesterday I wrote about the three big developments that took place on the same day for the French, British and German far right – all three of whom are currently polling first in their respective countries. I wrote that for all three, it was hard to tell if these were setbacks or rocket fuel for them. For Le Pen and the AfD, the jury’s still out. But for Nigel Farage, 48 hours after his dramatic press conference on Tuesday it is already clear that his gambit is failing.
Gulf Stream Blues
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Ireland is caught between America and Europe
I’ve been in Ireland the past days on the press trip for the start of Ireland’s presidency of the EU Council - the upper chamber of the union’s legislature representing national governments with a rotating chairmanship. It’s always a delight to be in Ireland. I make no secret of the fact that this is my favourite EU country, and not just because of my ancestry. Nevertheless, the article is going to dish out some harsh truths about the emerald isle that some will not like to hear.
Video: My journey as an American emigrant
Ireland took over the rotating presidency of the EU Council this week, and while here covering the launch I stopped by the Port of Cork in Cobh, formerly known as Queenstown. From here at “Heartbreak Pier”, where I’m standing in the video, my great great great grandfather Daniel Keating Jr immigrated to New York in 1860. This was the last thing in Europe he ever saw.
Victims of sexual assault in Belgium find support in a pioneering, centralized initiative
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Non-EU-citizen flying in or out of Europe this summer? Get ready to wait.
I’m in Ireland this week for the launch of the country’s time at the helm of the EU Council presidency, which was marked yesterday by an opening ceremony at Dublin Castle with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. I’ll write more about the content of this press trip tomorrow, but what I wanted to write about today is what I encountered on the journey here. For logistical reasons, I had to fly to Dublin from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (90 minutes from Brussels by train).
From Moscow to Mar-a-Lago
✍️ This is a special guest post by Brussels-based American-European journalist Dave Keating For 80 years, Europe has allowed itself to become dependent on the United States in many different areas, from military defence to economic infrastructure to cultural consumption. But there was one area in which Europe was not US-dependent: energy.
Book Review: The Rise and Fall of American Europe
Several of my Substack readers have reached out over the past weeks to tell me about a new book that explores many of the same themes as mine - Glyn Morgan’s The Rise and Fall of American Europe. One person told me that it’s much more negative about Europe’s future than mine - and I thought ‘wow it must be absolutely despondent!’ I’ve spent the past few days reading it and indeed, it is a grim read.
Sunday's Trump Party in Brussels is everything that's wrong with this town
This weekend, the US embassy will close down the large Cinquantenaire Parc next to Brussels’ EU quarter to host a massive party celebrating America’s 250th anniversary. While Politico has called the invite-only event “the hottest ticket in Brussels”, other reports have noted that the embassy seems to be having trouble attracting guests (sending repeated reminders to those who haven’t confirmed).
The Trump-Meloni Feud is More Than About Who 'Begged' For a Photo
At first, it seemed like a feud out of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. Speaking to an Italian television channel after last week’s G7 Summit, U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni “begged” him for a photo.
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