What event triggers the final seven years of prophecy?
The event is the Antichrist's treaty with Israel. Emerging from the ten-nation consortium, this man makes a covenant with Israel, and that agreement triggers God's prophetic time clock. At that point the final seven years of prophecy begin and click off.
Les explains that even though Europe may unite politically and economically, latent hatreds make the whole thing fragile, pictured by iron mixed with clay. Out of this consortium of ten nations will come the man, the Antichrist. He will make a treaty with Israel, and that treaty will trigger God's time clock of prophecy once again, so the final seven years click off. Les adds that the fragile unity makes it ripe for one man to appear and says we are getting close to the Antichrist's appearance, though he is not a date setter.