In Alpine villages with hardly any foreigners, red campaign flags and talk of “overcrowding” reveal how a distant 10‑million threshold has morphed into a national debate over house prices, cowbells and who still feels at home.
For several weeks now in Brussels, one question keeps coming up at European Commission press briefings: are Taliban representatives really going to come to Brussels to meet EU officials? When? And why?
Von der Leyen may be caving to Meloni, but on green investment, relaxing EU deficit limits is exactly right‘Ursula cannot say ‘no’ to Georgia’, as one commentator said of von der Leyen and Meloni. But investing too little in clean energy will only push up debt levels later.
Some of the highest visa rejection rates across the EU-27 are for applicants from countries with whom the bloc wants to partner on defence, security and migration.
As Crimea faces near total cut-off, panicked Russian tourists cancel plans (Ukraine Battlefield update, Day 1,565)Ukrainian drone strikes choking off fuel, bridges, and trains to Crimea, prompting pro-war Russian bloggers to turn on Putin, while tourists rush to cancel summer holidays on the peninsula.
Any such visas for Taliban officials would take up to at least four weeks to process, posing questions on whether the Taliban will actually come to Brussels this month.
Over the past decade, Albania has undergone undeniable modernisation, implemented crucial judicial reforms, and elevated its international standing. Yet, the current unrest exposes a widening gap between macro economic success and the daily realities of ordinary citizens. And for many, the focus on five-star luxury serves as a stark reminder of unfulfilled basic needs.
Incumbent PM Nikol Pashinyan built a campaign on stability and peace in the region. His win is a blow to Russian influence in the South Caucasus, but what happens next?
Germany and France believe that joining the European Union has become too slow, often taking decades. Their solution? A more gradual path to integration. But what do candidate countries think about it?
Ukraine, bleeding and battered, is not going to lose. Russia, complacent and brittle, is not going to win. Indeed, Russia now looks far more vulnerable: economically, military and most of all psychologically. Vladimir Putin told the Russians that victory would be quick and easy. His prestige, and that lie, are linked, probably fatally.
THIS WEEK: ECB set to hike rates, as capital markets union and climate top the EU agendaThis week, the European Central Bank is expected to raise interest rates amid inflation and energy-price pressures. EU finance ministers will discuss capital markets integration and energy investment rules. The EU Commission will present the 2027 EU budget, while climate talks, transport and telecom meetings, and an EU–South Korea summit also take place.
‘Have you eaten today?’ What an incident on an Italian train taught me about EU valuesAn Asian man was travelling without a ticket, but the conductor stopped asking for his ID and enquired instead: “Have you eaten today?”.
As Andrej Babiš rages against a supposed “deep state” while surrounding himself with pro-Russian and ultra‑conservative allies inside his own office, even long‑time insiders from his party ANO fear he is slipping further into paranoia and culture‑war politics.
Swedish MEP Abir Al-Sahlani is a loud and outspoken feminist in the rightwing and male-dominated corridors of the European Parliament. “The far-right is really funny because they will fight you for the right of Syrian women to wear lipstick, but then they will not allow women with a veil to work in this house,” she tells EUobserver.
The EU wants to reduce its trade deficit with China – but Beijing insists there is no problem. Bridging that gap is the challenge facing EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič.
Crimea residents were told there is no point waiting for petrol today because none will arrive (Ukraine Battlefield update, Day 1,562)As Russia burns through newly-built drones and missiles almost as fast as it can assemble them, Ukraine’s long-range strikes on ships and fuel depots are starting to reshape the strategic map from Crimea to the Baltic far more than Moscow’s modest advances on land.
Rejected asylum seekers unable to be returned home may end up in centres created outside the EU bloc. The UN agency is helping EU states stay clear of any possible future legal court cases.
By binding cloud services, AI and chips to Europe’s security and economic independence, the EU’s new tech sovereignty plan edges the bloc closer to a power struggle with Washington and Beijing.
Hungary remains the only EU country whose plan for SAFE rearmament loans hasn’t been approved. The new government now faces a mountain of challenges to access the €16bn, crucial for its armed forces.
When investigations describe fake personas, disguised information platforms, military-linked influence operations, or outsourced political targeting linked to Israeli actors, Europe usually reaches for a different vocabulary than it does when Russia or China do the same thing.