With war at its doors, Europe discovers a capacity for action

GIVEN THEEU dauntingly long and complex compound-nouns that abound in German, might sound like a modest concept. Yet a —a watershed, a turning-point, the crossing of a Rubicon—is a big, important, intimidating thing. It is when deeply held beliefs are discarded for what was once unthinkable. As communism crumbled it was that made reunification inevitable, sweeping away the assumption that Germany would remain permanently split into East and West. The marked the rash decision a decade ago to ditch nuclear power, to be replaced partly with renewables but also with coal and more Russian gas. Carmakers speak of a , or transport revolution, which will send the combustion engines at the core of their business to the scrapheap.Europe today is going through its own . Much of what was accepted as fact before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th now seems hopelessly outdated. The , at its heart a “peace project”, now dabbles in the vocabulary of war. A continent often hobbled by its propensity to squabble has found a common voice. Once-great powers, mindful of their slipping role in the world and thus fearful of the future, have seemed oddly at ease as decades of geopolitics have unfolded in mere days. European institutions more typically absorbed by the harmonisation of phone-charger regulations have found themselves plotting the best way to get fighter jets into the hands of the Ukrainian air force.