"they are also mindful of needing to balance between the competing interests of the constituent members, each on its own journey with China" [each on its own journey with China]
This phrase directly names the mechanism—divergent member-state trajectories with China—that prevents the EU from forming a unified front, supporting the signal's claim about structural paralysis in bloc-level strategy.
Reasoning from this article
The article illustrates a recurring dynamic in multilateral blocs: the larger and more economically heterogeneous the membership, the harder it is to coordinate a coherent posture toward a major external power. The EU's deliberate omission of 'China' from the agenda is not an anomaly but a symptom of this structural constraint, which similarly affects ASEAN, G7, and NATO when economic interdependence with China varies sharply across members. The 'first meaningful debate in three years' framing suggests this paralysis has persisted across multiple political cycles, indicating it is structural rather than contingent.