In both cases, the EU's bureaucratic elite around Ursula von der Leyen failed—paralyzed by its own dysfunction and ultimately by a lack of real power.

What had been grandly announced as a "summit of decisions" ended in a fiasco for Brussels. Neither was the Mercosur agreement approved, nor did the EU manage to convert the Russian central bank assets held at Euroclear into a substantial loan to extend Ukraine financing.

Let us first examine the Euroclear affair. That the EU bowed to growing pressure from several member states such as Belgium, Hungary, and Slovakia—as well as from the U.S. government—is telling. Despite all its ambitions, the EU remains a paper tiger in the global power struggle.