Many reasons for Europe to regain its smile in 2024

Along with ongoing cultural, social, and political changes, let’s welcome the Paris Olympics and a standardised charger, writes María Ramírez

The Olympic Aquatic Center in Saint-Denis, Paris, which will host the artistic swimming, water polo, and diving events at the 2024 Olympic Games. Picture: Lewis Joly/AP

José Manuel Barroso, the former prime minister of Portugal and former head of the European Commission, used to say that Europeans were in love with “the intellectual glamour of pessimism”.

When I first heard him say that in 2005, I had just started as a correspondent in Brussels after a few years living in the US, and his words rang especially true. There was a stark contrast between the deeply rooted American cultural belief that things could only get better, and the routinely bleak view that prevailed in many European countries, even the wealthiest and most privileged ones. France, Belgium, Spain, and Italy consistently rank high in global surveys of pessimism.