Ukraine

Of course you default to ad hominem.

I can simplify the reasoning, maybe it helps. I should be more inclusive in my writing, it was a bit ableist.

Growth is stumbling because, within a range, lack of competitive energy prices, decrease in industrial output, inflationary pressure and of course, diversion of money from investment and stability into a proxy war effort. That has lead to instability in the heart of the EU, the two countries that usually represent the leadership of the bloc, France and Germany. This has left the cohesion of the EU severely limited with foreign actors adding to the instability. Denmark, the baltics and Poland are basically running interference for the US (and profiting from that), Hungary, Slovakia and Austria are running interference for Russia (and profiting from that) and the rest of the countries have yet to show a unified vision that transpires from a lack of leadership. To make matters worse, Macron continued veto of the iberian pipeline junction up to Germany has created friction at the core of Europe. (That's before even mentioning the findings of the Ombudsman on transparency and lack of accountability)

Now, of course you're going to not even read a line of the comment because you're likely interested in black and white stories. Sadly, the EU is in shambles and the discussions we should be having to restructure and increase competitiveness are not happening because we're too busy trying to breathe with Russian and US boots stomping on our neck.