Europe’s night trains were hailed as a pillar of the EU’s green-mobility future, but the promised renaissance has stalled — leaving a handful of cash-strapped startups trying to keep the dream alive. The national rail giants best placed to invest see night services as money losers, while the newcomers hungry to run them can’t finance the expensive, highly specialized equipment. “The demand is there,” said Chris Engelsman, co‑founder of startup operator European Sleeper. “People like night trains. They think they’re better for the environment or more efficient — that’s not the issue. The problem is the limitations and bureaucracy of the railway system.” It’s a stalemate that has frozen the revival. “Those that could act don’t want to — and those that want to don’t have the means,” said railway expert Jon Worth. “Try booking a night train months ahead. You can’t. Demand is through the roof. But customer demand doesn’t drive railway behavior.” What does drive it are balance sheets — and most night services lose money. By definition, sleeper trains can run only once per night per trainset, need extra staff on board, and require rolling stock that is highly specific and very expensive. “A coach costs around €2 million, that’s pretty expensive,” said Thibault Constant, founder of French startup Nox Mobility. “Investors look at the history of night trains and say: ‘No way this can be profitable.’” European Sleeper, a Belgian-Dutch company, currently runs with carriages “basically saved from the scrap heap,” Worth noted. “You can’t scale up night trains without building more night trains,” he added. “But no one is making those orders.” Constant described the same chicken‑and‑egg problem. “There is no proof that night trains can be commercially successful right now, so investors don’t believe in the product. We have to show them that we can do better than existing operators — which is a challenge, but there is a way to do so.” Even Austrian state railway operator ÖBB — Europe’s most committed night‑train operator — acknowledged the crunch. “Long delivery times for new vehicles, high personnel costs, and increased night construction sites are major challenges,” an ÖBB spokesperson said. “Night trains are a good addition to daytime rail services … and there is sufficient demand for night trains, and there is a need for more night trains. [But] the costs of operation are limiting the service offering,” they added. German railway operator Deutsche Bahn sounded the same alarm. Even if someone finds the money for new trains, actually running them is another battle. | Alex Halada/Getty Images “Under current political conditions, operating night trains poses a major economic challenge,” said Marco Kampp, DB’s head of international long‑distance transport. “Passenger trains must no longer be disadvantaged compared to air travel and cars — the niche market of night trains is particularly affected by this.” And even if someone finds the money for new trains, actually running them is another battle. Engelsman described constant operational hurdles, including last‑minute messages from rail network managers that effectively say “sorry, your train can’t run for a month,” and a general reluctance from incumbents to help newcomers. Cross‑border bureaucracy makes things worse. “Timetabling is still national,” Engelsman said. When European Sleeper tried to plan its new Brussels–Milan service, it had to negotiate with each country separately. Belgium would first assign a border time that made the whole route commercially useless; then the process had to start again from scratch. “You can’t optimize the whole stretch — you’re stuck adjusting country by country. It’s very inefficient,” he said. Over time, he added, relationships with individual staff in these organizations improve — “they like trains, they like our projects” — but the structures they work within remain slow and rigid. “It’s not the individuals. It’s the bureaucracy.” According to Worth, the promised renaissance of night trains never materialized because it wasn’t grounded in rolling stock, financing or real coordination. “There was lots of hope, but not much planning,” he said. Even the flagship Paris–Vienna route run with ÖBB fell apart once French government subsidies vanished. “[French rail operator] SNCF didn’t want to run it. The moment the subsidy disappeared, they walked away,” he said. START-UP TIME Despite all this, a new wave of operators is still trying. Startups such as European Sleeper are expanding cautiously. Nox Mobility is experimenting with leased coaches to lower capital costs and redesign how a sleeper service works — from ticketing and pricing to onboard offerings. “We’re essentially rethinking the whole ecosystem,” Constant said. For European Sleeper, Worth noted, the key question is whether it can squeeze a break‑even operation out of its patched‑together, aging trains long enough to build the financial footing needed to buy new ones. For Nox, the equation is even starker: “How does Nox get the money?” Worth said. “That’s the most important question by quite some distance.” On paper, there is a list of potential routes and projects that could form the backbone of a real revival — if the money and the trains materialize. Worth pointed to plans in Central Europe as the most realistic starting point. “If they start by focusing in Central Europe, not France and Spain but Germany and its neighbors, then they have a real chance of success,” he said. Beyond that, the picture is hazier. A proposed overnight service by the Swiss Federal Railways from Basel to Malmö will not go ahead as planned after Swiss lawmakers scrapped the funding needed to support it. There are “odds and ends,” as Worth put it: some carriage renovations in Slovakia and Poland that may or may not turn into viable services. Rail Baltica, the new north-south line through the Baltics, is supposed to host night trains to Tallinn when it opens around 2030, but, Worth noted, “no one knows where those trains are going to come from,” and he was skeptical it will happen as advertised. Constant said “it will get easier” as more private players enter the market and infrastructure managers adapt. Worth said new projects “will happen” — but only in minimal form until someone funds large‑scale carriage production. Thijmen van Reijsen, an urban mobility researcher at Radbout University, summed it up: “There’s demand. People want night trains. But for now, the problems are structural — rolling stock, funding, cooperation, infrastructure.” Even ÖBB admitted to the limits: “Night trains are a niche market and will remain so.” All of these dysfunctions can be explained, Worth concluded, “but the question is: who’s going to step up and fix it?”

In a bid to force Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas to step down after last week’s deadly funicular disaster, Portuguese lawmakers are using the politician’s own words against him. Sixteen people died when the iconic Glória Funicular’s suspension cable snapped last Wednesday, causing one of its tram cars to plummet down a steep slope and smash into a building. Following the catastrophe, leading politicians are claiming the city failed to adequately maintain its 140-year old railway system, and are evoking Moedas’ past statements in an attempt to push for his resignation. In 2021, Moedas’ predecessor Fernando Medina came under fire when his administration admitted to giving Russian authorities the personal information of at least three Lisbon-based Russian dissidents. Moedas — at the time a former European commissioner running as the center-right candidate in the local elections — had slammed the incumbent mayor, saying he had to take responsibility for the scandal. “City hall put these people in mortal danger,” he told POLITICO. “There have to be political consequences: Medina has to resign.” Now, with less than a month before Lisbon’s local elections, Moedas’ political opponents are citing his words from four years ago and demanding he take responsibility for the funicular disaster. “What would the Moedas of 2021 say to the Moedas of 2025?” asked André Ventura, leader of the far-right Chega party. “Serious politicians do not hide in times of crisis and do not shirk their responsibility: They assume it.” On the opposite side of the political spectrum, Secretary-General of the Portuguese Communist Party Paulo Raimundo also said Moedas’ own standards mean he’s no longer qualified to lead the city. The Socialist Party’s parliamentary leader Eurico Brilhante Dias similarly called for the mayor to be “coherent.” In an interview with POLITICO, Moedas insisted the funicular disaster couldn’t be compared to the scandal that embroiled his predecessor. While Medina had “direct responsibility” over the municipal employees who shared dissidents’ personal information, he argued last week’s accident wasn’t “attributable to a decision made by the mayor.” ASSIGNING BLAME A preliminary report released by Portugal’s transit safety authority this weekend attributes the crash to mechanical failure and rejects the possibility that human error played a role in the tragedy. Moedas’ critics say the findings raise serious questions about the historic funicular’s upkeep. In the aftermath of the disaster, employees of Lisbon’s Carris public transit authority said they spent years raising concerns about the funicular’s maintenance, which is subcontracted to private companies. They argued experienced in-house municipal engineers are better equipped to deal with the city’s aged infrastructure. Moedas told POLITICO the companies overseeing the maintenance have to “meet very strict specifications” and are monitored by Carris technicians who “reviewed and adapted all maintenance plans in accordance with necessary developments and changing realities.” He also declined to take responsibility for the outsourcing, which was decided in 2006, and insisted his administration hadn’t cut Carris’ operating budget. Moedas’ assertions don’t appear to have swayed Chega’s mayoral candidate Bruno Mascarenhas though, who is set to present a censure motion against the mayor on Tuesday. “The maximum representative of Carris, [the mayor] has to take responsibility,” Mascarenhas declared. Carlos Moedas insisted the funicular disaster couldn’t be compared to the scandal that embroiled his predecessor. | Horacio Villabos/Getty Images The mayor dismissed the censure motion as grandstanding ahead of the local elections. “This case has brought out the worst in politics and political exploitation,” he said, noting that the proposed motion would be nonbinding. Wary of being seen as playing politics with the tragedy, Socialist candidate Alexandra Leitão — who is polling neck and neck with Moedas — has yet to call for her rival’s resignation, insisting that it’s “premature” to make a political assessment. But on Monday, she urged Moedas to be more transparent about what went wrong. “The preliminary report shows that the safety system was insufficient, and that the technical inspections failed to detect the problems that eventually occurred,” she told supporters. “Something needs to change.”

The death of at least 15 people following the derailment of one of Lisbon’s iconic funiculars on Wednesday threatens to upend knife-edge local elections scheduled for Oct. 12. Current polling has incumbent center-right Mayor and ex-European Commissioner Carlos Moedas narrowly ahead of Socialist Party candidate Alexandra Leitão. But the odds could change in the aftermath of the disaster, which is raising questions about the funding and maintenance of the Portuguese capital’s public transit system. In the immediate aftermath of Wednesday’s crash, employees belonging to Carris — Lisbon’s public transit authority — said they had repeatedly raised concerns about the safety of the city’s aged transport infrastructure, as well as the decision to subcontract maintenance of the funiculars to a private company in a bid to cut costs. “There were successive complaints from workers regarding the level of tension in the funiculars’ support cables,” said Manuel Leal, head of the union representing the capital’s public transit workers. “There needs to be a thorough investigation into this disaster.” Employees also linked the crash to wider budget cuts. Moedas was criticized by opposition politicians last year after it emerged that his administration had redirected millions of euros in public cash from Carris to finance the Web Summit technology conference. Municipal authorities later insisted that the public transit authority’s budget had not been altered because EU cash had been used to make up for redirected funds. The crash took place in the late afternoon, when one of the cables that tows tram cars up the steep Glória hill snapped. The vehicle, which was carrying several dozen passengers, sped down the incline before smashing into a building at the bottom. Authorities on Thursday said that nearly all the victims “have foreign last names” and are presumed to be tourists. In addition to the fatalities, the crash left 23 passengers seriously injured, five of whom are in critical condition. Following the disaster, Portugal’s government declared Thursday to be a day of national mourning, with two additional days of official mourning to be observed in the capital. The Glória Funicular, in operation since 1885, was originally built to carry residents from the low-lying Rossio Square to Bairro Alto neighborhood, but as Lisbon has turned into a tourist mecca, foreign visitors have become its primary customers. It’s common to see long lines of influencers waiting to snap photos on its railway cars, which have been recognized as national monuments since 2002. City authorities have provisionally suspended service on the capital’s five funicular lines while technicians review the infrastructure.

The Schuman roundabout, at the heart of the Brussels EU quarter, risks being completed without its showpiece steel canopy unless more money is allocated by mid-September. A spokesperson for Berilis, the city’s building authority, confirmed Friday there were “problems” with funding the canopy, adding, “We have been sending regular letters” to the Brussels government to “ask them to give us a decision on this.” If more cash isn’t allocated by Sep. 15, the works will have to continue “without the awning,” the spokesperson said, adding this was now the most likely scenario. “We are nearing this date, the point of no return really … and since we have not received a reply, we have to assume the funding has not been found,” said the Beliris spokesperson. The Schuman roundabout, which has been under renovation since fall 2023 and was expected to be completed by next summer, is facing ballooning costs. The canopy, which would serve as a stylish touch to a large pedestrian area dominated by greenery and bikes instead of cars, has increased the cost, leaving the government with a €3 million gap to fill. In a letter addressed to members of the Brussels government, and first reported by BRUZZ, Beliris stated that while they intend to proceed without a canopy, this could also entail additional costs. The caretaker government for the Brussels region had previously requested that the EU institutions finance the construction of the Schuman roundabout in a letter in June, stressing that it lacked sufficient funds for the canopy. Brussels city is grappling with a gaping hole in its budget and severe political paralysis, with government negotiations stuck in limbo since elections in June 2024. Brussels’ Minister-President Rudi Vervoort, Minister of European Relations and Urban Planning Ans Persoons, mobility and public works chief Elke Van den Brandt and Interior Minister Bernard Quintin, in charge of Beliris, did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication.

PARIS — To many Parisians, swimming in the Seine sounds icky. But starting Saturday, taking a dip in the famed river while enjoying a view of the Eiffel Tower will officially become possible. For years, the notoriously skeptical Parisian public was unconvinced that the estimated €1.4 billion project was worth it, especially as authorities struggled to keep the water clean during the Olympics last summer. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, however, is not one to let critics or pessimists get in the way of her plan to transform the French capital from a polluted megacity into an oasis of urban sustainability. Making the Seine swimmable is one of the final major projects Hidalgo will inaugurate before she leaves office next year. She will depart having overseen one of the most drastic makeovers Paris has undergone since the mid-19th century, when Napoleon III and Georges-Eugène Haussmann ripped up what was a fetid medieval city and laid the groundwork for Paris as it is today. A walk around the city makes clear just how much has changed since Hidalgo took office in 2014: The Seine riverbanks are no longer high-speed roads but instead pedestrian-friendly areas with parks, walkways and cultural spaces. Close to 130,000 trees have been planted on Paris’s streets since 2020 to help create new green spaces, like the 4,000-square-meter area in the formerly cement-heavy, car-centric Place de la Catalogne office district. The famed Place de la Concorde — once a busy intersection — now features palm trees and plenty of walking space. Hidalgo’s unabashed embrace of these policies has earned her glowing plaudits from left-leaning mayors across the globe. Former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti — now the C40 Cities network’s ambassador for Global Climate Diplomacy — calls Hidalgo the “Joan of Arc of climate change.” Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala says his Parisian counterpart “inspired” him to make his city greener during the pandemic. And Utrecht Mayor Sharon Dijksma, who spoke to POLITICO during a global summit of mayors to discuss the role of cities in fighting climate change, described Hidalgo’s work as the epitome of “political courage.” But Hidalgo’s zealous commitment to sustainability has made her a deeply divisive figure, and it played a large part in her dismal performance in the 2022 presidential election. She scored just 1.7 percent of the vote despite being the capital city’s mayor and representing the Socialists — one of the country’s historically most popular parties. A future in French politics looks bleak, as do any succession plans Hidalgo may have had. Opposition parties are gearing up for a shot at taking Paris back from the Socialists, and the party itself has chosen Emmanuel Grégoire — Hidalgo’s former heir-apparent with whom she had a falling out and now refuses to campaign for — as its candidate for the 2026 race. But while Hidalgo’s political legacy may be murky, her imprint on the city is set in stone. RED LIGHT FOR CARS Since the Parisian mayor was first elected in 2014, the core tenant of her politics has been to reduce — if not altogether remove — the presence of cars in the city. Authorities have closed off roads in front of schools; expanded sidewalks at the expense of street width; hiked parking fees for SUVs; banned through traffic to central portions of the city; and cut the speed limit on the French capital’s ring road, the Boulevard Périphérique, from 70 to 50 kilometers per hour. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo is not one to let critics or pessimists get in the way of her plan to transform the French capital from a polluted megacity into an oasis of urban sustainability. | Teresa Suarez/EPA-EFE Airparif, a nonprofit that monitors Paris’s air quality, said in an April report that “since 2005, the levels of the two main harmful air pollutants — fine particles (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) — have gone down by 55% and 50% respectively.” The city’s official figures also show that the reduced speed limits have made Paris quieter with fewer accidents. According to Canadian urbanist Brent Toderian, such policies can actually end up being a net positive for drivers — despite criticism that Hidalgo’s policies do not consider people living outside city limits, who traditionally earn lower incomes, commute daily and rely on their cars. “The transformations that Paris made work better for everyone, including drivers,” Toderian said. “When everyone was trying to drive … it was still a city where, if you made the mistake of getting into a vehicle anywhere near the center of the city, you were stuck … For people who still need their cars for some things, if they can do short trips without the car, that frees up a lot of space.” Paris-based urbanist Carlos Moreno, who worked with Hidalgo, underlined that the city’s transformation meant more than just making it eco-friendly, and that increasing proximity meant “developing the economy and reinforcing local social life.” THE FUTURE Hidalgo won her 2020 reelection campaign by doubling down on a green Paris and embracing Moreno’s concept of the “15-minute city,” where all daily amenities are accessible via a short walk or bike ride. As the campaign to succeed her heats up, Hidalgo’s changes to Paris appear safe, with more Parisians growing attached to them despite the green backlash making waves in national politics across Europe and in Brussels. She even took something of a victory lap via an exhibition at Paris City Hall marking the 10-year anniversary of the 2015 Paris climate accord, which effectively showed off the changes made during her tenure. On the political side, Hidalgo also spearheaded legislation that constrains her eventual successor from reversing her policies and long-term goals, such as the creation of 55 acres of new green areas by 2040, and requiring at least 65 percent on any piece of land bigger than 150 square meters remains soil or plants, with no building or paving allowed. Voters unhappy with the city’s changes are likely to coalesce around the center-right options that will be on the ballot next spring. On the other hand, progressive voters could opt for candidates further to the left, who embrace campaigning on the housing and cost-of-living concerns that dogged Hidalgo’s time in office — much like Zohran Mamdani did to win the Democratic primary for New York City mayor. For Hidalgo’s Socialists, meanwhile, the mayoral race will prove challenging. The party is deeply divided and prone to infighting, and a recent survey by pollster Elabe showed support for the Socialists has dipped. Hidalgo’s imprint on Paris is sure to last, as is her international reputation as a transformative politician. But when it comes to local politics, an era may be coming to an end.

The Brussels region’s caretaker government wants EU institutions to cough up extra money to cover the ballooning costs of renovating the Schuman roundabout. “It will not have escaped your notice that major works are underway on Schuman Square,” read a letter obtained by POLITICO, sent by top local politicians last week to the leaders of five European institutions: Ursula von der Leyen, António Costa, Kaja Kallas, Roberta Metsola and Kata Tüttö, the head of the European Committee of Regions.  “Your support would be a powerful signal of the European institutions’ commitment to the city that hosts them, and a tangible investment in strengthening the link between Europe and its capital,” wrote the city’s Minister President Rudi Vervoort, Minister of European Relations and Urban Planning Ans Persoons, and mobility and public works chief Elke Van den Brandt — all members of the Brussels’ caretaker government.  Renovating the famous roundabout — the epicenter of the steel and glass buildings housing the EU institutions — began in fall 2023 and was expected to conclude in the summer of 2026. But a proposed steel canopy in the middle of the square is threatening to blow up costs, leaving the government with a €3 million gap to fill. Brussels city is grappling with a gaping hole in its budget and severe political paralysis, with government negotiations stuck in limbo since elections in June 2024. “The ailing budgetary situation of the Brussels Capital Region, together with the fact that there is not yet a new Brussels Government in full power, means that the project will be  compromised if guarantees cannot be given quickly regarding the necessary additional financing,” the ministers wrote. The government hopes EU institutions will fork over the extra cash to approve a tender by June 30. Missing that deadline could entail “even further additional cost,” the officials warned. “Currently, the Brussels Government finds itself unable to make the necessary commitments to finance the additional costs for the realization of the canopy; a commitment to be made at the latest by 30 June, day on which the current tender must be subscribed to at the latest,” it adds.  Paula Pinho, the European Commission’s chief spokesperson, confirmed that the EU executive received the letter, the contents of which were first reported by Belgian daily De Standaard. She added that the Commission hadn’t responded yet. Spokespeople for Persoons, Vervoort and Van den Brandt declined to comment.

Over three-quarters of Europeans live in cities, but their quality of life varies wildly — especially when it comes to factors that have a big impact on health. A group of international researchers developed a new Healthy Urban Design Index (HUDI) to track and assess well-being in 917 European cities, using indicators ranging from access to sustainable public transport and green spaces to air pollution exposure and heat islands.  The tracking tool was developed by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health using data gathered for a study to be published in this month’s Lancet Planetary Health journal. According to its findings there is a clear continental divide in conditions that favor healthy urban living. Analyses reviewed by POLITICO’s Living Cities showed that municipalities in Western Europe — especially in the U.K., Spain and Sweden — received significantly higher scores than comparable cities in Eastern European countries like Romania, Bulgaria and Poland. Natalie Mueller, one of the study’s authors and a researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health and Pompeu Fabra University, said access to public funds plays a major role in this divide. “If there are financial constraints in cities, investing in sustainable and health-promoting urban forms and infrastructures, and defining environmental policies may be probably less of a priority than tackling other more pressing social and economic issues,” she said. Mueller also noted lingering cultural differences in environmental consciousness and the link between urban design and health. “Eastern European cities still have a strong car culture, where cars are still status symbols,” she said, adding that in some areas, active mobility options like cycling are frowned upon. “They still strongly cater to car traffic with necessary infrastructure, which leads to poor environmental quality and worse health outcomes.” By comparison, lower levels of air pollution, greater access to green spaces, and the reduced presence of urban heat islands enabled Europe’s smaller cities, with 50,000 to 200,000 inhabitants, to earn the highest HUDI scores. Topping the list is Pamplona — a regional capital in Spain that lies in a lush valley at the foot of the Pyrenees and that has used the considerable revenues from its annual “Running of the Bulls” festival to invest in active mobility infrastructure.  MADRID MAKES GOOD Earning the highest score among Europe’s urban areas with more than 1.5 million inhabitants was Madrid, another Spanish city. Like other big cities it ranked well on sustainable transport and housing density. However, Madrid’s placement was remarkable given that the Spanish capital routinely violated the EU’s air quality rules until 2023. Urbanism Councilor Borja Carabante told POLITICO this was precisely why the city had adopted aggressive measures to improve its expansive public transport system. “We’re the first EU capital to have a completely clean urban bus system,” he said, highlighting the number of electric or zero-emissions mass transport vehicles in the network. “We also have Europe’s largest low-emissions zone.” Carabante explained that the public transport initiatives accompanied subsidies for residents seeking to replace their cars or boilers with more sustainable models, or wanting to install e-charging stations in their buildings. Madrid is also taking on major infrastructure projects while building on the success of the Madrid Río regeneration project, which buried a major swathe of the capital’s ring road to recover the Manzanares River. | Jesus Hellin/Europa Press via Getty Images Madrid is also taking on major infrastructure projects while building on the success of the Madrid Río regeneration project, which buried a major swathe of the capital’s ring road to recover the Manzanares River. Work is currently underway on a scheme to redirect a major highway underground and to reconnect five neighborhoods that have been divided since 1968. The redeveloped 3-kilometer area will be a green axis with trees, playgrounds and space for pedestrians and cyclists.  Carabante said the project is emblematic of the city’s commitment to becoming a more desirable — and healthier — place to live. “While cities like Berlin, Rome, Paris and London continue to surpass the nitrogen-dioxide levels considered safe for humans, Madrid has drastically reduced it, complying with European standards, and has become a healthier, more pleasant and more sustainable city than ever before.” Citing examples from the study, Mueller emphasized there are plenty of low-cost measures that local authorities can implement to improve well-being within their municipalities. “You can open up streets and blocks to give people space to walk and cycle, as they’ve done in Barcelona’s superblocks, in London’s low-traffic neighborhoods or Berlin’s Kiezblocks,” she said. The researcher also recommended replacing parking spots with trees and other greenery to protect locals from deadly heat, or to prioritize public transport investments to boost connectivity and slash fares. Using the example of Amsterdam — which went from being a car-choked, smoggy port city in the 1970s to a global model for urban well-being — Mueller stressed that consistent long-term action is the key to making Europe’s cities healthier. Of course, the kind of measures that improve well-being in urban landscapes can be a challenge for municipal leaders, who are up for reelection every four years and are under pressure to prefer projects with immediate results. But Mueller urged them to think big.  “Building healthier urban infrastructure needs long-term, sustained investments,” she said. “Sometimes over many decades.”

A German regional court on Monday convicted four former Volkswagen executives of fraud in connection with the long-running Dieselgate emissions scandal. The court sentenced two of the former executives to prison for several years, while the remaining two received suspended sentences. The ruling concludes a major trial that spanned nearly four years. The scandal known as Dieselgate first came to light in September 2015, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency discovered that many diesel vehicles produced by German carmaker Volkswagen were equipped with illegal so-called defeat devices. These devices detected when a car was undergoing emissions testing and altered performance to meet environmental standards — while in real-world driving conditions, the cars emitted pollutants far above legal limits. In 2017, Volkswagen admitted to manipulating emissions data in the United States, sparking global backlash and triggering one of the biggest corporate scandals in automotive history. The fallout plunged the Wolfsburg-based carmaker into a deep crisis. In 2019, German prosecutors charged then-CEO Herbert Diess, Chair Hans Dieter Pötsch and former CEO Martin Winterkorn — who resigned shortly after the scandal broke in 2015 — with market manipulation related to the emissions deception. In 2020, a German court ended legal proceedings against Deiss and Pötsch as VW coughed up a €9 million fine over the scandal. Winterkorn was originally set to be part of this trial, but was removed for health reasons before it kicked off in September 2021. In his capacity as a witness and defendant, Winterkorn has continued to deny responsibility for the scandal. Since the scandal erupted, Volkswagen has faced a barrage of lawsuits and legal proceedings. In 2020, the company said that the crisis had cost it more than €30 billion in fines and settlements.

WHY TRUMP IS EUROPE’S ACCIDENTAL CITY-BUILDER Europe’s émigrés built America’s skylines, suburbs and strip malls. Will the U.S. brain drain do the same for the EU? By AITOR HERNÁNDEZ-MORALES in Brussels, Belgium Illustration by Tomato Košir for POLITICO At the height of World War II, Adolf Hitler dreamed of developing rockets that could destroy American cities. It’s an irony of history that he not only failed to achieve this, but inadvertently helped shape the modern-day U.S. metropolis. Like countless political leaders before him, Hitler considered the built environment a canvas for the projection of power. He recruited architects and urbanists who could reflect the Third Reich’s values, and punished innovators whose “degenerate” structures weren’t aligned with the regime. Many of those persecuted visionaries eventually sought refuge in the U.S. There, they were instrumental in redefining the American city, creating the urban landscapes we know today. Nearly a century later, President Donald Trump is poised to provoke a new exodus — this time, in reverse. URBANISM IN TRUMP’S HEADLIGHTS The U.S. administration’s recent moves to cancel environmentally sensitive urban development projects, impose an official style for federal buildings and target free speech on college campuses are setting the stage for America’s best and brightest city-builders to seek their fortunes across the Atlantic. Cruz García — founder of the WAI Architecture Think Tank and an associate professor at Columbia University — told POLITICO of the instability facing those working on publicly funded projects, and highlighted the administration’s decision to review 400 initiatives funded by the Environmental Protection Agency. Concerned that environmental resilience projects serving historically marginalized communities may be delayed, significantly altered or canceled, he noted that many people who had received grants for projects had already received termination notices. Federal cut-backs “definitely could, or would, potentially lead scholars to seek to continue their work abroad,” he said. According to Billy Fleming, an associate professor at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture,  the “focus on kidnapping and deporting” foreign students like Georgetown University fellow Badar Khan Suri or Tufts University researcher Rümeysa Öztürk — who were both detained for attending pro-Palestinian campus protests — is also likely to undermine the U.S. as a destination for promising architects. “American schools of architecture have long relied on international students,” he said. “Attacks on student visa holders could upend their financial models and force the closure of smaller programs or departments. In those with smaller endowments […] it could lead to the closure of entire schools of architecture.” But the impact of Trump’s measures extends beyond academia. Billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has ordered mass layoffs and budget cuts at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. It also terminated a $1 billion program to repair and climate-proof aging or damaged affordable homes, while jeopardizing a plan to build housing for thousands of low-income families. Harvard’s Graduate School of Design recruited Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius. | Wikipedia The Department of Transportation has similarly ordered a review of projects that “improve the condition for environmental justice communities or actively reduce greenhouse gas emissions” and is considering canceling federal funding for cycle lanes. Julie Deutschmann, spokesperson for the Architects’ Council of Europe — which represents the interests of over 500,000 architects from 36 countries — believes all this may “lead some architecture and urbanism professionals to relocate in search of environments where innovation, sustainability and academic openness are better supported.” “Political decisions can significantly influence the global flow of talent,” she said. “Europe’s foundation in these areas positions it well to attract talent.” TARGETED BY TOTALITARIANISM Historian Barbara Steiner, director of Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, which preserves the legacy of the revolutionary German art school, sees a clear parallel between the 1930s and the present “upheaval and uncertainty.” “We are on the way to a system of totalitarian coordination over all aspects of society from economy to the media, culture and education, of appearances, spaces and thinking in order to gain control over heterogeneous societies and critical discourse,” she said. The U.S. architectural community has been particularly jarred by Trump’s move to impose an official style on federal buildings, with an executive order requiring they “respect regional, traditional, and classical architectural heritage.” A revival of a widely condemned order he issued in 2020, it has reminded many of mandates imposed by authoritarian leaders of the past. Immediately after taking power, Hitler had targeted architects whose aesthetics weren’t aligned with his totalitarian regime. His particular bête noire was the Bauhaus school due to its promotion of minimalist and functional design. And though the Third Reich was yet to developed its signature style — the heavy, stripped classicism that survives in Berlin’s Olympiastadion or Nuremberg’s rally grounds — Bauhaus represented the distinctly internationalist outlook it detested. Steiner said Nazi leaders attacked Bauhaus buildings for their rejection of “regional traditions,” for being “architectural sins that were cold, repellent and unattractive.” The school’s embrace of Jewish, foreign and progressive students and faculty also led them to denounce it as a hotbed for communists. And when the “degenerate” institution was ultimately closed, with many of its members obliged to flee, America was waiting to receive them. THE EXILES THAT BUILT AMERICA U.S. universities tripped over themselves to take in Europe’s displaced visionaries. Harvard’s Graduate School of Design recruited Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius, who served as a “hub between displaced European modernists and American architects” and taught several generations of students to embed “the usefulness of sociology” into their designs, Steiner said. The sleek, modern “International Style” he promoted would come to define the aesthetics and layout of U.S. cities for decades to come. Many of that movement’s most iconic U.S. buildings would eventually be designed by the last Bauhaus director, Mies van der Rohe, who joined the Illinois Institute of Technology after leaving Germany. His steel-and-glass residential towers on Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive became an instant reference point for high-rise housing, while his Seagram Building in New York inspired countless knockoffs in business districts. “Mies reimagined downtowns,” said Timothy Welch, director of the University of Auckland’s Urban Planning Program. “His tower-in-a-park model created a new urban typology — open plazas surrounding minimalist skyscrapers.” But the impact wasn’t just on urban areas, it also seeped into America’s sprawl, cementing the aesthetic of the standardized suburban single-family home. Hitler’s particular bête noire was the Bauhaus school due to its promotion of minimalist and functional design. | Alexander Savin via Wikipedia Many who made their way to the U.S. had been involved in the progressive city-building projects of 1920’s “Red Vienna,” and their socially minded outlook helped shape California’s postwar suburbs, explained architectural historian Volker M. Welter. Leopold Fischer’s well-known Los Angeles neighborhood of detached houses, for example, were a “translation” of the social housing estates he built with Gropius in 1920’s Dessau — a reflection of the European vision of “architectural modernism as a social commitment.” But the exiled European architect who perhaps had the most profound impact on U.S. cities was Austria’s relatively unknown Victor Gruen. Both Jewish and a committed socialist, he was forced to flee after the Anschluss and eventually settled in California, where he was repulsed by the period’s car-centric culture. “Gruen internalized a vision of urbanism centered on human-scaled, socially integrated spaces,” Welch said. And in a bid to recreate “Vienna’s café culture and walkable streets,” he invented the shopping mall — a space meant to shield consumers from traffic by combining housing, civic facilities, public amenities and shops. “The irony, of course, is that his solutions were ultimately coopted by the very forces of commercialization and automobility he fought against,” Welch commented. But while most malls became, in Gruen’s own words, “avenues of horror,” the faithful adaptation of his concept in Kalamazoo inspired the creation of pedestrian zones in dozens of cities. Gruen introduced “ideas about pedestrian priority, mixed-use development and public space that would later become central to […] contemporary urban design.” AMERICA’S BRAIN DRAIN While the full impact of Trump’s ongoing MAGA measures remains to be seen, Europe already stands out as a potential haven for U.S. architects and urbanists. Tania Gutiérrez-Monroy, an architectural historian and assistant professor at the University of British Columbia, said the administration’s budget cuts meant it is no longer “far-fetched” to imagine researchers working on urban climate resilience or equity projects leaving the country. “At what point does continuing this work abroad become the more viable — or ethical — choice?,” asked architect Cruz García. The EU’s universities and governments are keen to welcome modern-day intellectual émigrés and have set up recruitment drives to compliment existing research schemes like Erasmus+, Horizon Europe and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. Deutschmann emphasized that Europe offers forward-thinking émigré architects plenty of professional opportunities too. The EU’s “robust investment in urban resilience, sustainable mobility, green infrastructure and affordable housing,” with legislative packages like the Green Deal and programs like the New European Bauhaus, means there’s a strong “demand for innovative, socially engaged, and environmentally conscious design,” she said. “Europe’s commitment to these goals [show] that architecture and urban planning are not just technical challenges — they are acts of leadership,” Deutschmann added. “They are about building the future we believe in — one that reflects European values and aspirations.”

In the early morning hours of March 8, 2020, the lives of Milan’s more than 1 million residents were radically upended. Just three weeks earlier, a 38-year-old man had become the first resident of Italy’s northern Lombardy region to test positive for Covid-19. And after more locals developed symptoms, authorities placed a handful of towns under quarantine, with red zones declared to keep residents from spreading the mysterious new respiratory virus. During those first days of the crisis, few thought that Milan, the country’s economic powerhouse, would ever face similar restrictions. But the unthinkable became inevitable as the number of confirmed cases spiked, and on that Sunday in March, then-Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte held an emergency press conference to announce that Italy’s second-largest city was locked down. It was the beginning of an extraordinary period that would see Milan be transformed by measures that would ultimately endure far beyond the crisis. Pierfrancesco Maran — at the time a municipal councilor in charge of the city’s powerful urbanism portfolio — recalls feeling shocked when he heard the decision. “It all seemed incredible,” Maran, now a lawmaker in the European Parliament, told Living Cities in an interview. “We couldn’t believe that such dramatic measures were being adopted.” Leading up to lockdown, Milan was experiencing a “fantastic moment” in its history, Maran explained, with the city’s fortunes trending up since hosting the 2015 World Expo. Its shift from industrial capital to a global hub of innovation, tourism and prosperity was finally being consolidated. “As a city councilor, it was difficult for me to accept the that the lockdown was the only way forward,” he said. “But it was also clear that all other attempts to contain the pandemic weren’t working.” LA NUOVA NORMALITÀ Milan’s lockdown was the first to affect a major European city. But within days, the rest of the continent’s metropolitan regions would find themselves under similar conditions. The entirety of Italy was declared a red zone just 48 hours after the harsh restrictions were imposed on the capital of Lombardy. Countries like Spain, Belgium and France would follow suit just days later, and by the end of the month, every European country — and, indeed, much of the world — had quarantine rules in place. Maran said that by virtue of being one of the first cities to be subject to a lockdown, Milan was among the first to start working on “a gradual, post-pandemic reopening” — an ambitious plan that reimagined the urban landscape to prioritize access to public spaces. “Our strategy had the reconquest of public space at its core,” he explained, emphasizing that the outdoors was “the safest space from the point of view of contagion.” But, he added, the city’s approach aimed to make the most of the “extraordinary opportunity” provided by a lockdown that was, at the time, keeping everyone at home. “That made it possible to do things that would have otherwise been very difficult, if not impossible,” he said. “We created cycle paths on the main city arteries to manage the reduced capacity of public transport, promoted smart working, and substantially liberalized the possibility for bars and restaurants to place tables outside.” The city’s tactical Strade Aperte urbanism plan capped speed limits on roads at 30 kilometers per hour, widened sidewalks, and saw the installation of low-cost temporary cycle lanes throughout the city. And Milan’s approach to la nuova normalità — “the new normal” — quickly became an example for other cities across Europe. In Brussels, authorities similarly rolled out temporary cycling infrastructure and set 20 kilometer per hour speed limits within the Pentagon zone — the area encircled by the city’s inner ring road — where pedestrians and bikers were given priority. Meanwhile, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo moved to make pandemic terraces permanent and put French-Colombian academic Carlos Moreno’s 15-minute city model at the heart of her successful reelection campaign. The impact of these Milan-inspired measures were far-reaching, with air quality improving in urban areas throughout Europe. They were also enthusiastically embraced by city dwellers, who overwhelmingly supported making many of the temporary changes permanent. LASTING IMPACT Today, five years after the crisis began, Maran said he’s proud to see so many of “the most drastic changes adopted during the pandemic now consolidated as integral elements” in cities that are no longer threatened by Covid-19. The temporary cycle paths installed during Milan’s lockdown have blossomed into over 100 kilometers of new bike lanes, and smart working schemes have become standard in the countless businesses based in the capital of Lombardy. But Maran also noted that some of the other omnipresent lockdown practices — like public hand sanitizer dispensers or the use of face masks — were shunted as soon as the pandemic was brought under control with the roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccine. “I don’t think we’ve left these things behind for economic reasons or anything like that, but rather because they remind us too much of that period,” he said. This modern desire to forget the pandemic isn’t unusual — our ancestors had the same reaction to the similarly devastating Spanish Flu pandemic of 1919. Once its impact subsided, the world rushed to move on, and just five years after the disease claimed between 50 million and 100 million lives, the 1924 Encyclopedia Britannica failed to even mention it in its review of the 20th century’s most significant events. “I think most people want to erase anything that makes them think about it explicitly,” Maran observed. “It’s only been five years since it happened, but nobody wants to talk about it.” But while the general public can try to forget the trauma, local authorities don’t have that luxury, Maran said. And in its aftermath, municipal governments now have specific plans to put into action for the future pandemics experts say our cities will inevitably face. “We now all have pandemic management plans that are regularly updated, and our administrations have developed structures that allow us to work in even the most daunting emergency situations,” he said. “This experience has left us prepared to face a similar emergency, whenever it might arise.”