Which Country Really Leads Europe? (Hint: It's Not Germany)

This video explores which EU country holds the most power by examining economic, military, and soft power criteria. While Germany's economic dominance and France's military strength are significant, there are also smaller EU countries that have a significant voice on the world stage.

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[EUMadeSimple]

***Correction: Througout the whole video: Norway and UK obviously aren't part of the EU. And Cyprus is. Used our wrong map throughout. Sorry

[albevanhanoy]

As a French, it's important to be aware of our influence and use it sparsely. Europe is not a game about dominating the others, but about cooperating to reach new heights together.

[Antoraf]

As a Frenchman, I believe we'd better keep the union by associating our forces. It's not about who is the best in the EU as you said at then end. it's about giving the best for the Union to make us stronger and happier. Big Love to all my fellow Europeans.

[xornxenophon]

No single country can "lead the EU". Even France and Germany together cannot force their ideas on the rest of the EU, even though those two may effectively veto the idea of others together. That is the whole point of the EU.

Larger countries, like Italy, Spain or Poland cannot be ignored as well. And even small countries, like Hungary, can cause a lot of trouble, as many decisions can only be made if all member-states agree.

[intersezioni]

Italy is a leader in production, but they don't know that it is the second industrial manufacturing power in Europe after Germany and the fourth largest exporter in the world after China, the United States and Germany and ahead of Japan!

[Aquilifer]

Our greatest strength is being underestimated .
Viva l Italia 🇮🇹❤️

[Morzo]

It may be France, but while everyone blames Italy or Spain for their debt and lack of discipline with Government's money, the real sick of Europe is France (big debt, unrealistic low age of retirement, extremely high weight of the State in the economy, etc).
On the other hand, the fact of being a nuclear power and also a nuclear hub in terms of energy exploitation makes France very independent and unique within Europe

[eternallearner]

Without finishing this video, I know it is going to be France.

[The_Minute_History]

A few honorable mentions.

1. Spain does have an aircraft carrier contrary to what was listed
2. Italy does have two carriers, but it is generally accepted that since France's carrier is powered by nuclear energy that it has a technological edge (though obviously debatable given different military doctrines)
3. It might not be a smart idea to just put on paper figures without taking into consideration things like an arms industry. For example, a country like Poland has a large amount of equipment and is buying even more, but a lot of what equipment is purchased from countries like the US, meaning that the spending does not stay at home. Countries like Italy, France, Germany, UK, Spain, and Sweden do better in this regard.
4. Not all equipment is equivalent. For example, a country might only have 10 fighter jets. But if those ten fighter jets are F-16s and they go up against 25 F-5s, the F-16s will definitely win
5. While I get that this is an analysis of the EU member states, I still do feel as though it might have been interesting to throw the UK in there for good measure given that in many matters it is arguable that the UK and France go blow for blow
6. Spain's immense soft power influence in the world (especially Latin America) was never mentioned
7. Italy's immense soft power influence in Europe and around the world through its large Italian ancestry links abroad was not mentioned

Definitely a good video though. Covers all the basics for sure.

[quentinp]

As a French, I can definitely assure that Germany is more powerful within the EU than France (may be not on global stage but only bz Germany has not built a strong independant foreign policy).
EU has been built last decades around German's industry and they well lobbied and succeed !

For instance, the EU energy market puts Germany in equal position toward France even though the comparative advantage of nuclear - and, not long ago, EU directives pushed against nuclear.

[imcbocian]

To say that some country leads EU imply that others follow. And thats clearly not the case.
At best we can talk about the strongest pusher, not leader.

[wojciechp]

Actually Poland has the biggest army personnel in UE and 3rd in NATO, after USA and Turkey.

[thierryf]

EU is not an Olympic competition that one country should lead. Thinking that means you didn't understood what is the E.U. It's a cooperation and an union that would give every member more strength then the sum of every member.

[Jiyu]

Short answer, France.
Long answer, France, because Germany doesn´t care too much about it.

[hjvdd]

What the most important is in my opinion is that europe should work together and unite more. So not 1 country can rise to the top

[eternallearner]

France:
Largest military
Permanent member of the US security council
Nuclear force
Founding member of EU
French language dominance in Belgium (the capital of EU and headquarters of NATO)
Besides English, French is the second working language of NATO
2nd largest population
2nd strongest economy

[InfectedSquid]

When mentioning militaries, why didn't you mention Poland? It has at least 216K active personnel in it's army.

[infrared]

Being Belgian I know well enough that if we want to have any saying in the world, the EU is our only hope. That is the same for every small country.

So cooperating more is they only way forward for all of us.

[gijbuis]

'Force de frappe' is the name of the game!

[Carthodon]

It would seem to me that the country which leads the EU is the one where its internal politics define the EU's politics as a whole. I'm not sure there is a European country that truly does that but if I was to guess it would still be Germany.