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Politico (26 February 2026)

Gabriel Gavin

From dealing with U.S. President Donald Trump to turning around industrial decline, the Coreper II “bunker” has come into its own.

When the EU faces a crisis, the lights go on in an ultra-secure room deep in a building in Brussels that hosts the European Council. Over the past year, they’ve been switched on more frequently than ever as the bloc’s 27 government envoys take the rudder. 

The suite of rooms, including a “bunker” in the basement designed to prevent surveillance, is the meeting place for EU ambassadors who are playing a greater role than they’ve done before in deciding the bloc’s response to the biggest challenges of our time. From Donald Trump’s threats to take over Greenland and his imposition of import tariffs to the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, the possibility of strikes on Iran and broader concerns about Europe’s economy, this formation of the most powerful national representatives permanently in Brussels is coming into its own.

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