Final Word from Monday, February 16, 2026

Foreign Min. Petr Macinka gave both sides of the political divide what they wanted in a panel discussion at the Munich Security Conference on Sat. with Polish Foreign Min. Radoslaw Sikorski and ex-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. It was an ideal platform for evoking either agreement or mockery in terms of Macinka's assessment of the differences between the new Trump world order and the old one. However, the much-cited part about whether there's a democratic deficit in the EU overshadowed what EU Commission Pres. Ursula von der Leyen had said half a day earlier about the need to "bring Europe's mutual defense clause to life." What we need to do now, she said, is to formalize the ad hoc beginnings of new security collaborations: "And this may mean relying on the result of a qualified majority rather than unanimity." Macinka, Clinton and Sikorski's debate was philosophical and theoretic; von der Leyen signaled in practical terms how Europe will be "creative" in constituting its army. [ Czech Republic Motorists European Union Moto United States ]