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The Ukraine funding option Europe fears	In today’s edition: Dutch voters head to the polls as Rob Jetten’s progressive D66 gains momentum, a probe reveals the EU kept paying a convicted neo-Nazi MEP, and Brussels and New Delhi inch closer to a trade deal after ‘constructive’ talks Welcome to Rapporteur. This is Eddy Wax, with Nicoletta Ionta. Got a story we should know about? Drop us a line – we read every message. Need-to-knows: Subscribe Today’s edition is powered by the European Free Alliance Direct regional funding is essential for the EU’s cohesion The renationalisation of European funds proposed in the MFF 2028-2034 would increase the economic gap between peripheral regions and the already wealthier European capital cities. In EFA, we believe in the EU’s role in mitigating territorial inequalities. We call EU leaders to draft a new proposal that protects direct funding for EU’s regions. Find out more. This is a political ad. More info at https://www.euractiv.com/political-ads/. For details relating to this campaign, more info at https://content.efaparty.eu/. The sheer commitment of the European civil service to find a way to keep Ukraine afloat in its perilous battle with Russia is on full display this week in Brussels, where everyone has gone on holiday. To be fair, Ursula von der Leyen is still on the job, spending Tuesday in the company of three Nordic EU leaders who agreed with her that the only workable option for sustaining Ukraine’s war effort is to (not) confiscate the €140 billion in frozen Russian sovereign assets held in Belgium. Her creative yet grammatically fraught interpretation of last week’s European Council conclusions is also the most politically realistic, despite resistance from Belgian premier Bart De Wever, who fears for the stability of Euroclear should Moscow come looking for its money. The so-called reparations loan is the most realistic option for financing Ukraine, not because it’s such a great idea, as De Wever’s exhaustive arguments made clear, but because it’s more plausible than the alternative: Eurobonds. Joint borrowing, a panacea that always returns to the conversation when the EU’s back is against the wall, would require unanimous consent from countries. Now – amid misleading speculation in the EU bubble media that the Commission is trying to ram Eurobonds down the throats of capitals and absurd suggestions Belgium would be against it (they’re the ones proposing it!) – it’s worth remembering why this won’t fly: Germany has no interest in carrying the can for the rest of Europe, and letting high-deficit countries like France benefit from its shinier credit rating. Indeed, the first experiment with joint borrowing has proved so cumbersome that around €30 billion a year needs to be earmarked to repay the post-Covid loans – and there’s even talk of pushing back the repayment schedule! The thing that both options have in common is that the EU will avoid paying up for Ukraine in the here and now. Most of the risk, supporters argue, can be safely passed on to the future. There is a third option: ask EU taxpayers to dig deep and make massive sacrifices. But politicians don’t even talk about this because it’s seen as taboo. What is presented as a fiscal impossibility is, in truth, a political failure by the EU’s elected leadership. Three years into the war, timorous politicians under pressure from populists who want to cut Ukraine loose are not coming clean with their populations about the need for sacrifice. The countries paying more will keep sniping at the under-spenders off the record. Meanwhile, Europe has no boots on the ground, its military aid is falling, and its best minds are working hard to prop up Ukraine using other people’s money. Peace through strength, the EU’s well-worn mantra, may well require taking fewer holidays. It’s time EU leaders were honest about that. D66 flies high as Dutch go to the polls The Netherlands votes today after a choppy week of last-minute campaigning that has seen far-right leader Geert Wilders lose momentum while Rob Jetten’s progressive D66 has gained ground in late polls. Could Jetten be in for a surprise victory tonight? Several polls on Tuesday put him roughly neck-and-neck with Wilders and left-wing chief Frans Timmermans. Wilders is all but guaranteed not to be in the government after the usual months of haggling, meaning whoever comes second could well become prime minister. A key question is whether Timmermans can do well enough to play a leading role in whatever centrist coalition emerges, or whether right-wing parties like the Christian Democrat CDA, liberal VVD and farmers’ party BBB can win enough seats to form a right-wing centre coalition. Exit polls are expected at 9 p.m. Convicted neo-Nazi MEP kept cashing EU pay cheques Ioannis Lagos, a former Greek MEP and senior figure in the defunct neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, continued to receive thousands of euros from the European Parliament months after being found guilty of leading a criminal organisation and illegal arms possession, an investigation by my colleague Elisa Braun shows. Despite his unprecedented sentence, Lagos enjoyed immunity privileges and received at least €30,000 in benefits until April 2021, according to new parliamentary documents. The case exposes how procedural loopholes allowed the MEP to remain on the EU payroll and highlights tensions over transparency and financial accountability in European institutions. Countries sceptical of budget revision While MEPs are confident that the Commission will amend its budget proposal before the 12 November deadline set by Parliament, three EU diplomats said there have been no indications the Berlaymont intends to do so. “They have narrow options and all of them [are] risky,” one diplomat told Jacob Wulff Wold, warning that any move could either slow down the Council’s work or challenge its prerogatives under the EU treaty. ‘Brothers’ Sefco and Goyal near EU-India deal Brussels and New Delhi are inching towards a trade pact – but not quite popping the champagne yet. After three days of talks in Brussels, EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič and his Indian counterpart Piyush Goyal called discussions “very constructive” and “positive,” even on the “most sensitive issues.” Still, though, there was no breakthrough, reports Sofía Sánchez Manzanaro. Šefčovič said Sabine Weyand, the EU’s top trade civil servant, will head to Delhi next week to advance tariff negotiations. Goyal – who called Šefčovič “a good friend and brother” – hinted that the pair could meet again in the next couple of weeks to bring the deal “to fruition.” Deep, but not that comprehensive The EU’s new “deep and comprehensive” trade deal with Ukraine takes effect today, replacing the wartime measures that let most Ukrainian farm goods enter the bloc duty-free – but which had to be renewed annually amid a farmers’ backlash. The new FTA is less generous than the earlier full liberalisation but still more open than pre-war tariffs. But there are strings attached. By 2028, Ukraine must align its pesticide and animal-welfare rules with EU standards – or risk suspension. Brussels also added a safeguard clause allowing imports to be curbed if they trigger “societal difficulties” (read: farmer protests). The agreement does little to resolve tensions with Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia, which have kept unilateral bans on Ukrainian agri-imports since 2023. The new framework didn’t sway them. “We’re engaging with all parties to find solutions,” a Commission spokesperson said on Tuesday. Time to pay, Beijing EU climate chief Wopke Hoekstra urged China to step up its financial contribution to global climate efforts. “Europe just simply doesn’t have the pockets to do that by itself,” Hoekstra said at Euractiv’s Energy & Environment Policy Conference on Tuesday. Despite being the world’s second-largest economy and accounting for 30% of global emissions, Beijing still claims developing-country status and has offered little beyond bilateral aid. As developing nations call for €1.3 trillion in climate funding, Hoekstra said wealthier emerging economies like China, Singapore, and the Gulf states must “put more money on the table.” BERLIN 🇩🇪 Friedrich Merz is in Ankara on Wednesday for his first talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, aiming to recalibrate a relationship defined by both necessity and unease. For Berlin, Turkey is both a vital NATO partner and a growing authoritarian challenge. Merz is expected to defend democratic values while keeping channels open on migration, trade, and defence. Germany’s recent move to lift its Eurofighter veto may open the door to a lucrative arms deal, even as it invites scrutiny over human rights concerns. WARSAW 🇵🇱 Poland plans to reopen two crossings with Belarus as soon as November, Donald Tusk said, arguing that security along the frontier has reached unprecedented levels. “The border is now secured better than ever before,” the prime minister said, describing it as probably the “best-protected border in Europe right now.” The decision follows Lithuania’s move to shut its own crossings with Belarus and builds on Poland’s decision in September to reopen several rail and a single road crossing as tensions with Minsk eased. BUDAPEST 🇭🇺 Hungary’s ruling party is cosying up to Poland’s former leaders just as the two governments grow further apart. At an event in this capital, former Polish minister Zbigniew Ziobro was welcomed as a political ally by Viktor Orbán’s top aide, Gergely Gulyás. Their message – that Fidesz and Poland’s Law and Justice still stand together – risks deepening tensions with Warsaw, already angry over Hungary’s asylum for an ex-PiS minister facing criminal charges. ROME 🇮🇹 Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini met Orbán here on Tuesday for what the Italian transport ministry described as an “affectionate” exchange focused on peace, migration, and criticism of “the EU’s suicidal policies.” The encounter follows Orbán’s talks with Giorgia Meloni, which were overshadowed by his claim in La Repubblica that the bloc “counts for nothing” and by his call for Donald Trump to lift US sanctions on Russia. Meloni declined to respond publicly, while Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani sought to distance the government from Orbán’s remarks. BRATISLAVA 🇸🇰 Slovakia has suffered the EU’s steepest decline in the World Justice Project’s latest Rule of Law Index, falling 2.3% compared with last year. The country now ranks 36th of 143 globally, ahead only of Greece, Bulgaria, and Hungary within the bloc. The results come amid heightened concern in Brussels over Robert Fico’s government, which critics accuse of eroding judicial independence, media freedom, and civil society. COPENHAGEN 🇩🇰 Denmark is tightening its childcare screening regime, expanding background checks to include convictions for physical and psychological abuse as well as so-called “negative social control.” The børneattester, which has mainly listed sexual offences against minors under 15, will be overhauled as part of a wider campaign against domestic and child violence. Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard said the changes reflect the persistence of “very extensive violence” in Danish society. MADRID 🇪🇸 A year after floods killed 229 people in Valencia, Spain is still grappling with how to prevent a repeat disaster. Experts warn that despite billions in reconstruction spending, prevention and early-warning systems remain inadequate. The state funeral for victims on Wednesday comes amid public anger over official failures and growing scrutiny of Spain’s climate resilience strategy. “Navalny” mix-up: European Commission Chief Spokesperson Paula Pinho accidentally referred to Ukrainian journalist Vitaliy Sizov as “Navalny” during Tuesday’s daily press conference. Sizov took it in good humour, and Pinho quickly corrected herself. Alexei Navalny was killed in a Russian prison last year. Italian MEP boycotts Israel trip: Socialist MEP Lucia Annunciata said she won’t join her colleagues from the European Parliament’s delegation to Israel in a visit to the Knesset this week, citing the West Bank annexation law and “indiscriminate attacks” on the UN as proof that the Israeli Parliament “is not ready to talk about peace.” Leisterh quits: Brussels MR chair David Leisterh has stepped down from regional politics after failing to form a coalition to deliver the capital’s 2026 budget. Citing too many blockages and a political system that prevents action, he said he no longer wants to be complicit in a process that stalls reform – though he will remain mayor of Watermael-Boitsfort. Defence September came full of surprises: Nearly 20 Russian drones breached Polish airspace on 9 September,… 5 minutes Russian drone incursions in recent weeks have forced Europe to confront the fragility of its air defences. Brussels’ talk of a “drone wall” – once dismissed as rhetorical – is now gaining political traction as the nucleus of a wider European Air Shield. The project would link national systems under a single defensive architecture, but it faces the usual European obstacles: fragmented procurement, industrial rivalries, and uneven political will. The urgency is clear; the execution, far less so. 📍 Dutch parliamentary elections 📍 Metsola addresses students at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. 📍 Coreper I and II Contributors: Thomas Moller-Nielsen, Elisa Braun, Nikolaus J. Kurmayer, Sofía Sánchez Manzanaro, Jacob Wulff Wold, Jeremias Lin, Alessia Peretti, Charles Szumski, Aleksandra Krzysztoszek, Natália Silenská Editors: Christina Zhao, Sofia Mandilara	Eddy Wax	In today’s edition: Dutch voters head to the polls as Rob Jetten’s progressive D66 gains momentum, a probe reveals the EU kept paying a convicted neo-Nazi MEP, and Brussels and New Delhi inch closer to a trade deal after ‘constructive’ talks	[ "Politics", "Rapporteur" ]	Politics	2025-10-29T06:24:05+00:00		en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/rapporteur-the-ukraine-funding-option-europe-fears/
A New Chapter in Regional Financial Integration in Europe	Earlier this month, a piece of good news rippled through Southeast Europe: Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Moldova were admitted to the operations system of Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), the network that lets a transfer in Tirana zip to Tallinn—or almost anywhere else in Europe—as swiftly and cheaply as a domestic payment. Consider the plight of a small exporter in Podgorica or a coffee-shop owner in Skopje. Until now, sending or receiving payments across borders meant surrendering up to six times more in fees than a peer in Berlin or Paris. And for the millions who depend on remittances, the cost has hovered around seven percent—a sum exceeding the United Nations’ recommended three percent ceiling. Such obstacles have throttled growth, stifled entrepreneurship, and drained household incomes. SEPA membership changes that dynamic overnight. With 40 banks—32 from the Western Balkans and eight from Moldova—now live on the SEPA rails, transactions will clear in seconds rather than days, and at a fraction of the cost. Preliminary estimates suggest up to one billion euros in annual savings for businesses and consumers across the region, in both remittance and trade costs. That is real money staying in local pockets—fuel for job creation, investment, and innovation. This milestone did not happen in isolation. It flows from partnerships and collaborative efforts between national governments, the European Commission, the World Bank and other stakeholders to modernize payment infrastructures, harmonize regulatory frameworks and work towards increased gradual integration with the EU. By embracing European standards on instant payments, transparency and security, these countries are not merely adopting technology—they are signaling their intention to deepen integration with the Single Market. This achievement is more than a technical upgrade. It is a clear signal that the promise of closer ties with the EU can yield tangible dividends—richer small-business ecosystems, more fluid labor markets and stronger cross-border value chains. Yet SEPA entry is only the beginning. To sustain momentum, policymakers must continue dismantling bureaucratic bottlenecks, foster digital literacy, and support fintech innovation. Looking ahead, we hope to see both an increase in the number of enlargement countries joining SEPA and an expansion in the types of transactions that can be conducted through SEPA. This will broaden the benefits of membership —not only for businesses and citizens from the region, but also for the entire tourism industry. As countries step onto the SEPA stage, they illuminate a path forward for other aspirants. In a world defined by speed and connectivity, financial access is essential. Sometimes progress arrives with a smoother click of a “send” button. The Western Balkans and Moldova just pressed it—and their future may move a great deal faster as a result. By Antonella Bassani, Vice President for Europe and Central Asia at the World Bank, and Gert Jan Koopman, Director-General for Enlargement and Eastern Neighbourhood at the European Commission		Earlier this month, a piece of good news rippled through Southeast Europe: Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Moldova were admitted to the operations system of Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), the network that lets a transfer in Tirana zip to Tallinn—or almost anywhere else in Europe—as swiftly and cheaply as a domestic payment.	[ "Economy", "Connectivity", "Financial access", "Modernize payments", "Promoted content", "Security", "Speed", "Transparency" ]		2025-10-29T06:00:16+00:00		en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/opinion/a-new-chapter-in-regional-financial-integration-in-europe/
Spain marks one year of devastating Valencia floods as experts warn lessons unlearned	Although the government has since launched a €16 billion reconstruction plan, experts say prevention remains Valencia’s weakest point MADRID – One year after the catastrophic floods that killed 229 people and devastated Spain’s eastern region of Valencia, experts and civil society groups warn the region remains ill-prepared for another disaster. A state funeral for the victims of the so-called DANA floods will take place in Valencia on Wednesday, following a weekend demonstration where more than 50,000 people marched through the city demanding political accountability for what they called a botched crisis response. Associations representing victims of the DANA floods opposed the attendance of Valencia regional president Carlos Mazón at the funeral, who reportedly decided to attend last-minute. You've reached your limit of free articles To continue reading, click the Subscribe button belowto choose a plan and unlock full access. Already have an account? Log in	Inés Fernández-Pontes	Although the government has since launched a €16 billion reconstruction plan, experts say prevention remains Valencia’s weakest point	[ "Politics", "Across Europe", "Flood", "Pedro Sanchez" ]	Politics	2025-10-29T05:05:26+00:00		en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/spain-marks-one-year-of-devastating-valencia-floods-as-experts-warn-lessons-unlearned/
Fidesz doubles down on Polish right-wing ties as state-to-state relations stay frosty	The European Commission has long accused Hungary and PiS's Poland of democratic backsliding and eroding judicial independence BUDAPEST – Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party is openly tightening its links with Poland’s main opposition party Law and Justice – even as official relations between the two governments sink to their worst point in years. On Monday evening, former Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro received a hero’s welcome at Budapest’s historic Uránia art cinema. Ziobro, a member of PiS currently under investigation in Poland, appeared on stage alongside Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyás, and before an applauding crowd of roughly 400 supporters of the prime minister’s party, Fidesz. The event was co-organised by the government-backed Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), a conservative academy and think tank, and its weekly outlet Mandiner. Officially, the evening centred on a screening of Taking Over, a documentary claiming that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government seized control of Polish state institutions through extra-legal means. You've reached your limit of free articles To continue reading, click the Subscribe button belowto choose a plan and unlock full access. Already have an account? Log in	Márton Sarkadi Nagy	The European Commission has long accused Hungary and PiS's Poland of democratic backsliding and eroding judicial independence	[ "Across Europe", "Fidesz", "Viktor Orbán" ]		2025-10-29T05:00:47+00:00		en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/fidesz-doubles-down-on-polish-right-wing-ties-as-state-to-state-relations-stay-frosty/?utm_source=euractiv&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_content=The capitals&utm_term=0-0&utm_campaign=EN_THE_CAPITALS
A Trump-Xi deal won’t save Europe from a superpower squeeze	To remain a pole in the new multipolar world, Europe will need to use whatever breathing space this week's US-China summit might provide to secure its own supply chains, reduce dependencies, and boost its global leverage When President Trump sits down with President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of this week’s summit in South Korea, no European will be at the table. Yet European interests hang decisively in the balance. The meeting comes at a moment when Europe’s vulnerability to superpower rivalry has never been more starkly exposed. Over recent months, Europeans have discovered just how painfully squeezed they are between Washington and Beijing. This summer’s one-sided trade deal with the US was a brutal reminder of Europe’s reliance on US security guarantees. An even bigger shock came with China’s recent restrictions on rare earth exports, which have sent panic rippling through European capitals. The threat is existential: These restrictions could bring European automaker production lines and defence manufacturing to a grinding halt. According to ECB calculations, a staggering 80% of large European firms are no more than three intermediaries away from a Chinese rare earth producer. Nor is China’s leverage over Europe limited to rare earths. A Chinese ban on exports of semiconductors by Nexperia, the world’s biggest manufacturer of mass market chips, has threatened to halt production at European carmakers. The Chinese move came in response to the Dutch government’s decision to seize control of Nexperia, which was acquired by China’s Wingtech in 2019. The Dutch government claimed it was acting on its own national security concerns, but its move came a day after Washington added subsidiaries of Wingtech to its “entity list,” which would have effectively shut it out of the US market. You've reached your limit of free articles To continue reading, click the Subscribe button belowto choose a plan and unlock full access. Already have an account? Log in		To remain a pole in the new multipolar world, Europe will need to use whatever breathing space this week's US-China summit might provide to secure its own supply chains, reduce dependencies, and boost its global leverage	[ "Economy", "Opinion", "China", "Donald Trump", "Rare Earths", "Trade War", "Xi Jinping" ]		2025-10-29T05:00:28+00:00		en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/opinion/a-trump-xi-deal-wont-save-europe-from-a-superpower-squeeze/
Europe's race to build its Air Shield	Faced with threats edging ever closer, Europe is scrambling to build up its defences fast and almost from scratch September came full of surprises: Nearly 20 Russian drones breached Polish airspace on 9 September, followed by more unidentified drone incursions in Denmark and Romania, and Russian fighter jets in Estonia. Poland and Estonia set NATO alarm bells ringing by invoking the alliance’s Article 4 in response. As EU leaders gathered in Copenhagen at the start of October, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stressed the urgent need for a European “drone wall” – a coordinated network of radars, jamming equipment, and counter-drone interceptors to neutralise threats before they reach sensitive airspace. The proposed project, rebranded as the European Drone Defence Initiative, doesn’t just cover the EU’s eastern flank as initially envisioned, but the whole of EU airspace. You've reached your limit of free articles To continue reading, click the Subscribe button belowto choose a plan and unlock full access. Already have an account? Log in	Miriam Saenz de Tejada	Faced with threats edging ever closer, Europe is scrambling to build up its defences fast and almost from scratch	[ "Defence", "Politics", "Air Defence", "Drones", "European Drone Defence Initiative (EDDI)" ]	Defence	2025-10-29T05:00:03+00:00		en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/europes-race-to-build-its-air-shield/
Turbocharging Europe’s lagging zero-emission vehicle market	European industry actors are warning that the uptake in Zero-Emission Vehicles (ZEV) is moving more slowly than predicted in the EU, prompting calls for fresh thinking in Brussels Europe’s adoption of Zero-Emission Vehicles (ZEV) is moving more slowly than anticipated, with debates now emerging about whether more can be done by policymakers in Brussels to turbocharge the market. The market share of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) is less than 16% percent, and for vans, it’s less than 9%, raising the question of how to get to 100% in less than nine years as mandated by EU targets. “The pace set by the regulator in the first place was probably over ambitious, over optimistic, and the current market realities and geopolitical and economic realities just do not match this pace”, said Maria Linkova-Nijs, executive head of policy and strategy at the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, ACEA. She was speaking at an event held at Euractiv on October 16, 2025. Many industry players point towards improving the so-called “enabling conditions” in order to support mass-market uptake, one of them being charging infrastructure. But the European Commission celebrated meeting its 2025 target of one million public charging points across the bloc as part of the EU Mobility Strategy. Edoardo Turano, a head of unit at the European Commission’s climate action directorate, also participated in the event and blamed an initial lack of supply of ZEVs from carmakers for the slower uptake. “It was really a lack of supply because the zero-emission vehicle models were concentrated in the very upper segment, which, of course, comes with a price tag that not everyone can afford. And what is happening now is that this is shifting towards also the medium and smaller segments,” said Turano. He believes that the effects of the EU’s CO2 emissions reduction targets, which started to apply in 2020, have created momentum in the right direction. “When it comes to stimulating demand, it’s about making sure that these vehicles become more affordable, and this is what the industry needs,” said Turano. “The volumes are what determine the profit margins that are also needed for investments.” Norway is not in the European Union, but as a closely aligned neighbour, it has had huge success in ZEV adoption. The country is on track to hit its 2025 target of 100% of all new car purchases being ZEVs – it was 98% in September. Sveinung Kvalø, senior advisor at the Norwegian EV Association, told the audience, “We have a two-part policy. One is a revenue part, which is to tax fossil cars – you put taxes on what you don’t want, which is fossil cars.” “And the other is the subsidy part, which is costly for the government, which is a VAT exemption (for ZEVs) here in Norway.” The Norwegian government is now planning to phase out that VAT exemption, but the country can already claim the world’s fastest uptake of ZEVs. One of the main concerns for the industry is the unfair geographical adoption of ZEVs across the EU. Countries like Finland, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, have a market share of battery electric vehicles from 30-90%, while France, Germany, Portugal, and Austria have an electrification rate between 18-23%, and then countries in Central and Eastern Europe see uptake below 10%. “What we see is a ‘Europe of three speeds’—uptake mirrors GDP, with wealthier nations leading,” said Maria Linkova-Nijs from ACEA. One of the big sticking points is the interplay between EU laws and national policies. For Stefan van Zyl, international policy coordinator for sustainable logistics at the Dutch ministry of infrastructure and water management, the blend of EU direction and national action is crucial. “European measures set the bar – but it is national initiatives that make the transition possible,” explained van Zyl. “In the Netherlands, we combine zero-emission zones and toll schemes with a refund system that channels funds directly back to logistics for ZEV investments.” He also flagged bottlenecks: “You need to plan early on infrastructure, because grid congestion isn’t just a transport problem, it’s the result of wider electrification.” The discussion isn’t only about cars, however, and that’s why Christoph Wolff, CEO of the Smart Freight Center provided an additional angle to the debate. “Carriers only invest if the total cost of ownership (TCO) works for them. It’s a numbers game for trucks,” said Wolf. “20-30% of the market is close to TCO parity,” he said, meaning buying a ZEV works out to be the same price as a fossil fuel equivalent over the course of the vehicle’s lifespan. “This isn’t uniform,” continued Wolff. “You have to be nimble and data-driven, focus on clusters and specific use cases. Decarbonising freight is a team sport—aggregating demand creates critical mass and confidence to invest.” The European Commission is set to revise CO2 standards this year, with stakeholders eager for clarity on what new targets, timelines, and technology options will be in place for carmakers after 2030. Until then, the focus for all concerned will be speeding up the adoption of ZEVs across the whole of the EU. This article follows the policy debate “Zero-Emission Vehicles – Accelerating demand across Europe”, supported by ACEA. (BM)	Jack Parrock	European industry actors are warning that the uptake in Zero-Emission Vehicles (ZEV) is moving more slowly than predicted in the EU, prompting calls for fresh thinking in Brussels	[ "Energy, Environment & Transport", "batteries", "EV Electric Vehicles", "Mobility", "Sustainable Transport", "Zero-Emission Vehicles (ZEV)" ]	Energy, Environment & Transport	2025-10-28T21:21:05+00:00	2025-10-28T21:22:11+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/turbocharging-europes-lagging-zero-emission-vehicle-market/
Green or blue? Fertilisers face two routes to decarbonisation	New technologies are available to produce low-carbon fertilisers, but the industry says they are not getting the financial or policy support to develop them Fertilisers are essential to European agriculture, but they also contribute to climate change. For this reason, they are subject to payments under the EU’s Emissions Trading System. To reduce those emissions payments, producers can either change the way fertilisers are made or they can capture and store the carbon they emit. Euractiv spoke with Leo Alders, CEO of the Belgian fertiliser company LAT Nitrogen – a company which recently had to abandon a project to green its fertiliser production process because of a lack of financial and policy support. We asked him what’s holding back fertiliser decarbonisation. EV: What kind of low-carbon fertilisers are possible to produce, and what are the roadblocks to producing them at a large scale? LA: If we talk about decarbonising our industry, then we have not only the green route, but also the blue route. Both options are good, valid options for us as an industry. For the blue route, we’re talking about still producing fertilisers with natural gas but capturing the CO2 and storing that somewhere. It started with an idea to do that below the sea, but today, there are also more and more thoughts around storing CO2 on land in Europe. In the beginning, legislators were not really fans of storing CO2 on land, but that has changed. For our industry, it’s really easy to capture CO2 – we’re actually already doing that. For us, what is needed to go into such projects is: first, a pipeline transport capacity to bring the CO2 out of the production location and into the storage location; and second, the production facility needs to be prepared to send it. So, the main condition for us to work with blue ammonia is to have these pipeline connections and storage locations. That’s infrastructure work that needs to be done. That’s not a piece of cake; we need national legislators to help us. Then there is green ammonia, in which technology plays an important role. In our current production process in the ammonia plant, we have a process where we crack the natural gas and transfer that into hydrogen. We can build electrolysers to produce green hydrogen by injecting that into our processes, but you can only do that to a maximum of 10-15% in a unit because there is a chemical balance that needs to be respected. It’s the first step toward green fertilisers. But if you were to go to full decarbonisation of our plants, to capture the remaining 85-90% of CO2 production, then you would need to feed green hydrogen into the plant. That would create a big technological change, because it means you don’t need the first section of your production facility [using natural gas], you would just need to synthesise hydrogen and nitrogen into ammonia. So, from a technology perspective, this would take more time than the blue ammonia route, and it would require a long lead time to introduce new plants where there would only be a synthesis loop involved. So, we see that as a second phase, it’s much more logical for our industry to first pursue the blue route. EV: You recently had a green ammonia project that you decided not to move forward with after five years of feasibility studies. Why was that project discontinued? LA: It was a project that would have fitted into that [electrolyser] category of 5-10%. We worked on it for a long time together with Verbund in Austria. The authorities were quite cooperative. Since we started to work on that project, we have gained much more clarity on how you can subsidise such a unit, because there are different subsidy schemes at the European and national levels. We had to look for a way to obtain these subsidies, but after testing the different options, it was clear we could only obtain about half of the subsidies we needed. And in order to make the project profitable and have a positive business case, you need to find other ways, on top of the subsidy, to fund these projects. We’ve tried to do that through a reduction in the electricity price. Currently in Europe, whether you are a private consumer or a business consumer, you work with commercial energy prices. There is a change coming, Ursula von der Leyen said in her State of the Union speech, that electricity for decarbonisation projects should be offered more or less around the production cost price. But that’s today, not yet the case; the margin taken by the energy provider is currently not contributing to the profitability of a project like this. On the other side, the consumer demand for green products is not yet developed, so we cannot count on certainty that there will be a margin. We had hoped that the combination of subsidies with a reasonable green electricity price and a demand downstream would lead to a positive business case. That did not work out, but I’m hopeful that one day the conditions will be favourable for such an investment. And if indeed electricity can be offered at around production cost price, like the EU is thinking about, and if also schemes can be developed for green products, then we will immediately decide to execute that project. The design was far evolved, and the commercial contracts were ready. We were getting to the final investment decision. EV: You mentioned that the demand isn’t there right now for these green products downstream, and these are expensive investments. So, in the end, who should pay for these efforts? The consumer, the retailers, the farmers or the producers? LA: It’s important to point out that although the investments for us as an industry are very high – for an electrolyser project you talk about around €300 million – if you calculate the cost of the green fertilizer used by the farmers and taken up by the food producers, in the end the green fertilizers would cost between half a percent and one percent in the final product [for consumers]. So, I think in the end, if we want to avoid the warming of the climate, then we will all as consumers need to pay that price. It’s not such a hurdle to pay half a per cent; we all as consumers have to do that. The point is, how do you install a scheme that implements this principle? You could have a concentrated use in the whole value chain with a labelling or obligation system with a limited number of parties, where it’s not too complex to implement, but where you have a massive effect on the whole downstream chain. EV: One area of EU policy that the fertilisers sector will be very impacted by is the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), the incoming carbon border levy for imports of products from countries without strict climate legislation like the EU. How is this going to impact your sector? LA: Yesterday, I talked with our internal expert on CBAM calculations. He told me that the benchmark data has not been aligned yet. So actually, before the publishing of all the guidelines around CBAM has been done, nobody really knows what it will look like. I heard numbers yesterday on CBAM costs for importers between €40 and €200 per tonne of ammonia. That’s a huge difference. As long as we don’t have more certainty on these numbers and the benchmarking system, then nobody knows what CBAM is going to mean. They say it will be implemented from 1 January, and it will then be fine-tuned during the running of the implementation, and after two years, the final calculation will be available on what actually needs to be paid. That creates a very strange situation where if you do not import products from outside Europe into Europe, when we have our contacts with potential suppliers they tend to say, ‘well, we will deliver you the product for a certain price without the CBAM, and the CBAM will need to be paid by the receiving party in Europe, whatever it may be.’ So, anyone in Europe who needs to buy something next year is brought into a big uncertainty. The buyers say CBAM costs in the future should be the exporters’ responsibility, and that’s currently unclear. It’s a risk in the system that nobody wants to take. The principle is that the CBAM cost would be balanced with the decrease of free allowances in the EU Emissions Trading System. But nobody’s really sure that that balance is going to be there. The expert I talked to yesterday said that it looks like the way the CBAM would be calculated is actually putting a higher burden on the imported products compared to the decrease in certificates in Europe. I can’t confirm or deny that, because all the information isn’t available. So as long as the texts aren’t released, everybody is walking in the dark. (BM)		New technologies are available to produce low-carbon fertilisers, but the industry says they are not getting the financial or policy support to develop them	[ "Agrifood", "Agriculture", "Farming", "Fertilisers", "Industrial Decarbonisation", "Innovation" ]	Agrifood	2025-10-28T21:06:03+00:00		en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/interview/green-or-blue-fertilisers-face-two-routes-to-decarbonisation/
The Brief – Europe’s public health for sale	France is turning to highly addictive tobacco products in a bid to fill budget gaps. But what about wine? France decided in February to ban nicotine pouches. Eight months later – and amid a desperate hunt for cash to fill budget gaps – centrist politicians now want them back, hoping the highly addictive products will generate around €200 million through taxes in the coming years. Selective protection of public health is a risky game. Nicotine pouches can’t have become safer overnight. Together with the Netherlands, France has led EU efforts to raise tobacco taxes, while Belgium has gone further – accusing some member states in closed-door diplomats’ meetings of echoing industry talking points. Don’t look for France to be as rigid on the question of an alcohol tax, which hasn’t been revised since 1992. Since then, evidence proving the detrimental effects of alcohol on health has only grown – even if wine producers celebrate the alleged benefits of their beverages. The World Health Organization now says there is no safe level of alcohol consumption, which in a world without double standards would compel France to also back higher EU taxes on wine, and Belgium and the Netherlands for beer. This won’t happen, of course, because economic interests take priority. And when cash drives health policy, integrity dies first. China’s climate responsibility – The EU Climate Commissioner told Euractiv on Tuesday that China must contribute much more to global climate finance, given the heft of its economy. He said that developing countries are pushing for €1.3 trillion in support for dealing with climate-related issues, but noted that “Europe just simply doesn’t have the pockets to do that by itself.” Doubling down on the Ukraine loan – The Commission isn’t giving up on the plan to assign €140 billion of frozen Russian assets to Ukraine, despite steadfast opposition from Belgium, where the funds are held. Other member countries backed the current plan, with Danish PM Mette saying there is “no alternative”. Cigarette filter disputes – A proposed ban on cigarette filters has received a mixed reception among EU members, with some doubtful and others confused. Banning filters could make cigarettes less enjoyable for habitual smokers, but eliminating them entirely could expose smokers to even higher levels of toxins And it would have to sustain attacks from the powerful tobacco industry. Gay rights comment throws Dutch election campaign – Surprise momentum behind Henri Botenbal, an outside candidate for tomorrow’s Dutch parliamentary election, has been stalled after comments made on television about gay pupils attending publicly-funded Christian schools. Parliament paid thousands to convicted neo-Nazi MEP – A senior figure of Greece’s Golden Dawn party, which was convicted for illegal possession of weapons and the fatal stabbing of a left-wing rapper (among other assaults), continued to enjoy immunity privileges and received at least €30,000 in benefits from the Parliament via legal loopholes. Finland blocks property deals over security concerns – The Finnish Defence Ministry blocked 11 real-estate purchases from non-EU nationals – some of them Russian – saying the authorisations were strategically insensitive. The properties are located along key corridors near the Baltic Sea shipping lanes.		France is turning to highly addictive tobacco products in a bid to fill budget gaps. But what about wine?	[ "Health", "Opinion", "Alcohol", "Nicotine", "Smoking" ]		2025-10-28T17:34:18+00:00		en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/opinion/the-brief-europes-public-health-for-sale/
Infection of new wild bird species is driving Europe’s soaring avian flu	The World Organisation for Animal Health called on Europe to avoid alarmism Changes in bird migration patterns are reinforcing seasonal outbreaks of avian flu, with more species affected and risks for poultry farms growing. Avian influenza is a highly contagious disease that causes high mortality rates in both wild and domestic bird populations. Faced with a growing number of outbreaks of the disease in recent weeks, several European countries, including Belgium and France, have tightened their biosecurity measures, banning poultry from coming into contact with wild birds and implementing stricter rules during transport. In Germany and Spain, millions of birds have been culled. With avian flu present in Europe for 20 years, countries regularly observe an increase in cases in the autumn due to the annual bird migration. The current increase is “typical for the season,” said a spokesperson at the EU food safety watchdog (EFSA), which monitors the situation through its bird flu radar. But this time, more species are affected. “The large-scale mortality in common cranes” observed this autumn is “a special event,” the agency said. In Brandenburg, in Eastern Germany, over a thousand cranes were found dead infected with the virus in just a few days, Die Zeit reported. The German Agriculture Minister, Alois Rainer, brought the matter to the attention of his European counterparts at a Council meeting on Monday. Unlike in previous years, Germany observed a “shift with regard to the species affected” by the avian flu, Rainer confirmed. Due to “a change in flight times or migration routes,” cranes, which “previously had no exposure to the avian influenza virus,” got in close contact with other infected migratory birds, he added. This phenomenon “increases the risk” of introducing the virus into Europe during winter migration, an EFSA’s spokesperson explained. The crisis is already having an economic impact, Spanish Agriculture Minister Luis Planas warned during the Council meeting. The culling of “more than 2.3 million laying hens” in Spain has had “serious economic consequences, including repercussions for the distribution of eggs for human consumption,” he said. But the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) called for avoiding alarmism. “It is too early in the avian flu season to judge whether this rise is abnormal,” an organisation spokesman told Euractiv. (adm, cm)	Alice Bergoënd	The World Organisation for Animal Health called on Europe to avoid alarmism	[ "Agrifood", "Animal Disease", "Animal Health", "Animal Welfare", "Avian Flu", "European Commission" ]	Agrifood	2025-10-28T16:50:01+00:00		en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/infection-of-new-wild-bird-species-is-driving-europes-soaring-avian-flu/
Ireland preps new drugs strategy, unveils pharmacy pricing rules	Ireland targets greater transparency in healthcare as consultations shape new drugs strategy and pharmacy pricing rules, despite funding concerns Concerns have emerged over the sustainability of medicine management services under Ireland’s new Community Pharmacy Agreement, with pharmacists warning that the exclusion of reimbursement for blister packs and restrictions on phased dispensing could compromise patient safety. In the Irish parliament, Deputy Johnny Guirke told the assembly that the agreement, which sets out service provisions and funding models, fails to cover monitored dosage systems (MDS) despite their role in helping vulnerable patients manage complex medication regimes. Pharmacies currently absorb the cost of preparing blister packs, including staff time and materials, a practice Guirke said was “not sustainable in the long term”. “These omissions undermine safe medicines management for vulnerable patients and place additional strain on pharmacies,” he said, urging the government to reinstate reimbursement for blister packs and amend the agreement to support phased dispensing. Irish Prime Minister, Micheál Martin, acknowledged the concerns, noting that negotiations between the Department of Health and the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) are ongoing. “These agreements are hard-negotiated,” he said, adding that he would ask the health minister to respond directly to the deputy. The dispute highlights tensions over funding priorities as Ireland seeks to expand the role of community pharmacies in primary care while maintaining cost controls. Industry representatives have warned that without reimbursement, services designed to reduce medication errors and hospital admissions could be at risk. In addition to the new pharmacy agreement, Ireland is introducing measures to improve transparency in healthcare costs while advancing plans for a new national drugs strategy, as ministers signal a commitment to accountability and patient empowerment. Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has welcomed the publication of new guidance supporting the transparency of medicine pricing and fees for pharmacy services. The guidance, developed by the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland (PSI), aims to assist pharmacists in providing clear and accessible pricing information to the public. “Community pharmacies are at the heart of our healthcare system; they are among the most trusted and accessible healthcare professionals,” Carroll MacNeill said. “This guidance will strengthen that trust even further, with access to information about the cost of services pharmacists deliver being made available to the public for the first time.” Under the new rules, pharmacies will be required to display information about the cost of all professional services on a clear notice in a conspicuous location, visible to patients from 1 December 2025. From 2026, patients will receive a detailed receipt for any transaction outlining the costs of the medicine dispensing fee (where applicable), the cost of any other professional service. Carroll MacNeill said the initiative aligns with broader reforms to expand the role pharmacists play in Irish communities. She explained that the recent Community Pharmacy Agreement and the new guidance on pricing transparency will help people better understand exactly what they’re paying for their medication and associated services. In a parallel development, public health minister Jennifer Murnane O’Connor, has published a summary report of stakeholder consultations, which will inform the development of the next national drugs strategy. The consultations involved 241 people, including members of the national drugs strategy’s National Oversight Committee and Strategic Implementation Groups, the Drug and Alcohol Task Forces, Health Service Executive (HSE) Addiction Managers, individuals and families with lived and living experience, civil society representatives and service providers, along with prevention and education stakeholders. “These consultations were designed to identify learnings from the current national drugs strategy and to collect insights to help shape the successor strategy, ensuring that it is reflective of and responsive to the needs of those with direct and indirect experience of problematic drug and alcohol use,” the Department of Health said. The consultations covered “strategic priorities for the new strategy, the planning and delivery of drug services in the HSE health regions, the lived and living experience of people who use drugs and their families, the development of the drugs workforce, and drug prevention.” Several areas of progress were noted, including “the increase in bed numbers in residential centres and the positive role of the drugs workforce, who are viewed as client-focused, experienced and skilled, with strong HSE clinical governance.” The report also praised “the operationalisation of Ireland’s first medically supervised injecting facility” and work on emerging drug trends. However, participants highlighted concerns such as “a perceived insufficient focus on prevention and a lack of appropriately skilled prevention workers in each Task Force to deliver prevention initiatives,” as well as “gaps in services in certain areas, financial barriers to accessing some treatment centres and clinics, long waiting lists, as well as gaps in services for children and young people.” (VA)	Brian Maguire	Ireland targets greater transparency in healthcare as consultations shape new drugs strategy and pharmacy pricing rules, despite funding concerns	[ "Health", "Community Pharmacy Agreement", "Drugs Strategy", "Ireland", "Medicines Pricing", "Michael Martin" ]	Health	2025-10-28T16:11:35+00:00	2025-10-28T16:29:50+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/ireland-preps-new-drugs-strategy-unveils-pharmacy-pricing-rules/
Climate activists lose human rights case over Norway oil and gas drilling	NGOs relieved at recognition of need to assess climate impact of new projects The European Court of Human Rights has cleared Norway of violating its citizens’ constitutional rights in a case dating back to the award of oil and gas exploration licences in 2016. The ruling on Tuesday, brings to a close nearly a decade of litigation by Greenpeace Nordic, Young Friends of the Earth Norway, and a group of Norwegian youths, who turned to the Strasbourg court after having their legal challenge rejected by Norway’s supreme court. They had argued that the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy had violated their right to private and family life under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). You've reached your limit of free articles To continue reading, click the Subscribe button belowto choose a plan and unlock full access. Already have an account? Log in	Robert Hodgson	NGOs relieved at recognition of need to assess climate impact of new projects	[ "Energy, Environment & Transport", "climate", "Energy", "European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)", "Gas", "Norway", "Oil" ]	Energy, Environment & Transport	2025-10-28T15:58:01+00:00		en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/climate-activists-lose-human-rights-case-over-norway-oil-and-gas-drilling/
Startup commissioner says 28th regime should be open for all	Limiting the EU-wide company entity to “innovative” companies could slow the project down by years, Zaharieva warned on Tuesday The 28th regime – a planned EU-wide company entity to reduce barriers for startups – should be available to all companies, not limited to “innovative” ones, Startup Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva said in Brussels on Tuesday. So far, the Commission has pitched the project as aimed at making life simpler for “innovative companies”, including in its competitiveness compass in January. But supporters are worried that the criteria would make it all but impossible to decide which businesses are in-scope. Speaking at the European Angel Investment Summit, Zaharieva argued that trying to politically nail down a definition for “innovative” could delay the reform for “years”. “I believe it should be open,” she said. You've reached your limit of free articles To continue reading, click the Subscribe button belowto choose a plan and unlock full access. Already have an account? Log in	Maximilian Henning	Limiting the EU-wide company entity to “innovative” companies could slow the project down by years, Zaharieva warned on Tuesday	[ "Tech", "28th regime", "Ekaterina Zaharieva", "European Commission", "Startups" ]	Tech	2025-10-28T15:55:52+00:00	2025-10-28T16:09:16+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/startup-commissioner-says-28th-regime-should-be-open-for-all/
EXCLUSIVE: EU Parliament paid thousands to Greek neo-Nazi MEP after criminal conviction	Legal loopholes allowed Ioannis Lagos to remain on Parliament payroll for years after his conviction When neo-Nazi leaders of Greece’s Golden Dawn party were convicted of criminal organisation, illegal possession of weapons, involvement in the fatal stabbing of a left-wing rapper and brutal assaults, the verdict sent shivers through Europe’s far right and beyond. Some of its members fled and went into hiding. But not Ioannis Lagos, one of its senior figures. Elected to the European Parliament in 2019, Lagos continued attending legislative sessions, voting, speaking, and travelling between Greece and Belgium for six months as any other MEP would. You've reached your limit of free articles To continue reading, click the Subscribe button belowto choose a plan and unlock full access. Already have an account? Log in	Elisa Braun	Legal loopholes allowed Ioannis Lagos to remain on Parliament payroll for years after his conviction	[ "Politics", "European Court of Justice (ECJ)", "European Parliament", "Golden Dawn", "Greece", "Ioannis Lagos", "Transparency" ]	Politics	2025-10-28T15:03:01+00:00	2025-10-28T16:02:11+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/exclusive-eu-parliament-paid-thousands-to-greek-neo-nazi-mep-after-criminal-conviction/?utm_source=euractiv&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_content=In the capital continued.&utm_term=0-0&utm_campaign=EN_THE_CAPITALS
Georgia's ruling party seeks to ban main opposition forces	In power since 2012, Georgian Dream has faced accusations of democratic backsliding, drifting toward Russia and derailing Georgia's EU bid Georgia’s ruling party said on Tuesday it has asked the constitutional court to ban the three main opposition forces, a move critics condemned as a final step toward authoritarian rule. The Black Sea nation has been mired in political crisis since last year’s parliamentary elections, which the opposition says were rigged. It has refused to recognise the new parliament and government. Tensions deepened after the government shelved EU-membership talks with Brussels, triggering months of street protests that have dwindled recently amid a clampdown on opposition politicians, critical journalists and activists. Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili, of the governing Georgian Dream party, said it has asked the constitutional court to outlaw the United National Movement of jailed ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili, the Ahali-Coalition for Change, and Strong Georgia-Lelo. He accused them of “repeatedly undermining the legitimacy of the government and acting against the state’s constitutional order.” Papuashvili said other smaller groups “closely related” to the three could also face action. Georgian Dream alleges the opposition has “systematically attempted to overthrow or forcibly change Georgia’s constitutional order” and “supported foreign forces” in undermining the country’s independence. The constitutional court, widely seen as controlled by the ruling party, has nine months to decide on the request. Politics Georgia’s decision to shut down its information office for Euro-Atlantic ties is “another step in… 3 minutes Former president Salome Zurabishvili called the move “the ultimate step in Georgia’s reign of terror,” saying it aimed to turn the country into a “Russian-style authoritarian regime.” Opposition figures also denounced the appeal. “It doesn’t matter which parties Ivanishvili’s kangaroo court bans – the only thing that will be truly banned are Papuashvili and Ivanishvili’s accomplices,” said Tina Bokuchava, head of the United National Movement, referring to the ruling party’s billionnaire chief Bidzina Ivanishvili. She urged pro-democracy forces to unite against what she called the “betrayal of Georgia’s European future”. In power since 2012, Georgian Dream has faced accusations of democratic backsliding, drifting toward Russia and derailing Georgia’s EU bid. The party rejects this, saying it is safeguarding stability while a Western “deep state” seeks to drag Georgia into the Ukraine war with the help of opposition parties. (vib)	AFP	In power since 2012, Georgian Dream has faced accusations of democratic backsliding, drifting toward Russia and derailing Georgia's EU bid	[ "Politics", "EU", "Georgia", "Opposition", "Russia" ]	Politics	2025-10-28T14:54:36+00:00		en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/georgias-ruling-party-seeks-to-ban-main-opposition-forces/
Berlin says Rosneft subsidiaries not impacted by US sanctions	The German operations of the Russian energy giant are decoupled from their parent company US sanctions targeting Rosneft will not impact the Russian oil giant’s German subsidiaries, which were placed under state administration after Moscow invaded Ukraine, the German government told AFP on Tuesday. The economy ministry “has received assurances from the relevant US authorities that the sanctions are not intended to target Rosneft’s German subsidiaries”, a spokesman said. “Business transactions with the subsidiaries can continue.” You've reached your limit of free articles To continue reading, click the Subscribe button belowto choose a plan and unlock full access. Already have an account? Log in		The German operations of the Russian energy giant are decoupled from their parent company	[ "Economy", "Energy, Environment & Transport", "Politics", "Across Europe", "Moscow", "Oil", "Rosneft", "Russia", "Sanctions", "US", "Vladimir Putin" ]	Economy	2025-10-28T14:43:45+00:00		en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/berlin-says-rosneft-subsidiaries-not-impacted-by-us-sanctions/
Dutch dark horse trips up over gay rights comments before election	The centre-right's remarkable comeback in the Netherlands might have stalled due to controversial comments The centre-right’s remarkable comeback ahead of Wednesday’s Dutch parliamentary election might have stalled due to controversial comments its party leader made about the rights of a gay pupil. Henri Bontenbal, a 42-year-old former energy consultant, has resurrected his Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party from the doldrums, and polls have shown him tied in second place with former European Commissioner Frans Timmermans, who leads a Green-Left alliance. But Bontenbal came unstuck on a television programme last week, when he suggested that a gay pupil at a publicly funded Christian school could choose to attend another school if he felt uncomfortable about his sexual identity. The comments went down badly in a country that is proud of its liberal values. Bontenbal apologised, saying he was human, but polls suggest he lost five out of a healthy 25-seat projection after his comments. “If he hadn’t made this mistake last week, he very likely would have been on top of all the polls at this point,” said Tom-Jan Meeus, a political reporter at the Dutch newspaper NRC. A campaign poster of Bontenbal in the European Parliament, Brussels \| Photo: Eddy Wax/Euractiv It was a rare moment in which Bontenbal made news for the wrong reasons. His low-key campaign has been characterised by quiet decency and unity, an explicit attempt to frame himself as the man to close the chapter on the turbulent, highly polarised recent years of Dutch politics. CDA European Parliament member Jeroen Lenaers suggested the intense focus on the incident showed that their campaign is “actively working.” Pro-European footing Bontenbal has shifted the Dutch centre-right onto a more pro-EU footing. After years in which upstart centre-right parties such as the Farmer-Citizen Movement and New Social Contract ate into the CDA’s vote, promoting more soft eurosceptic policies, Bontenbal’s party has now made an explicit shift toward a more pragmatic relationship with Brussels. Remco de Boer, a researcher who ran a podcast about energy policy with Bontenbal for two years, said the CDA leader believes “we really have to look at Europe, at European legislation” and do whatever work is needed. The CDA has also opened up to the idea of allowing pan-EU debt for defence spending, something the frugal Netherlands has often opposed. “We say [that] as a crisis instrument within a very dedicated framework, we’re not against [it], we’re open to talk about it. For example in defence,” said Tom Berendsen, another CDA MEP. At a time when the EU is struggling to find ways to finance Ukraine for the next two years, this could be music to the ears of many. (cm)	Eddy Wax	The centre-right's remarkable comeback in the Netherlands might have stalled due to controversial comments	[ "Politics", "Across Europe", "Elections", "The Netherlands" ]	Politics	2025-10-28T13:29:38+00:00	2025-10-28T15:22:10+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/dutch-dark-horse-trips-up-over-gay-rights-comments-before-election/
EU doubles down on Ukraine reparation loan after Belgian pushback	Ursula von der Leyen refused to even mention an alternative option, floated by Belgium's Bart De Wever, of using common EU debt to plug Kyiv's colossal budget needs EU leaders reiterated on Tuesday their support for a €140 billion loan plan for Ukraine based on immobilised Russian assets, just days after Belgium refused to back it and floated common EU debt as an alternative. Speaking to journalists in Stockholm following a meeting of Nordic European leaders, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the plan, which would draw on Russian sovereign assets held by Brussels-based clearinghouse Euroclear, remains “legally sound”. However, she admitted that “technical questions” need to be answered to assuage Belgium’s fears about potential legal and financial risks to Euroclear, and the stability of the euro area. You've reached your limit of free articles To continue reading, click the Subscribe button belowto choose a plan and unlock full access. Already have an account? Log in	Thomas Moller-Nielsen	Ursula von der Leyen refused to even mention an alternative option, floated by Belgium's Bart De Wever, of using common EU debt to plug Kyiv's colossal budget needs	[ "Economy", "Politics", "Bart De Wever", "Belgium", "Denmark", "Euroclear", "European Central Bank (ECB)", "Finland", "Frozen Assets", "Sweden", "Ursula von der Leyen" ]	Economy	2025-10-28T13:25:41+00:00	2025-10-28T15:52:51+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/eu-doubles-down-on-ukraine-reparation-loan-after-belgium-pushback/
Bulgaria is losing childhood obesity battle	Bulgaria spends the highest share of GDP in the world on obesity-related costs, but poor data is causing a weak obesity strategy Bulgaria is struggling to fight obesity because its institutions fail to collect reliable data. Insufficient data is masking the scale of the problem, says paediatrician and child rheumatologist Dr Tanya Andreeva. Andreeva, an obesity researcher, told Euractiv that according to a World Health Organisation (WHO) report on school-age children’s health behaviour, Bulgarian children rank among the top in Europe for overweight and obesity, following North Macedonia, Malta and Portugal. The rates are particularly alarming among those aged 11 to 13. In Bulgaria, 37% of boys and 24% of girls are obese at the age of 11. By age 13, the share of obese girls drops to 17%, while the proportion among boys remains unchanged. “A worrying finding in the WHO report is that more than 30% of Bulgaria’s data is missing,” Andreeva said. In October, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) released a special report titled “A Blueprint for Action to Address Obesity in the EU”, which urges the European Commission to encourage the exchange of obesity-related data between Member States. The report advises the Commission to “introduce timely, routine and systematic data collection of the number of people living with obesity and monitor the progress and effectiveness of public health, clinical and health services policy interventions.” Even if the European Commission were to follow this advice by financing obesity research through national health and research programmes under EU4Health and Horizon Europe, Bulgaria currently has little to contribute. “The prevalence of childhood obesity in Bulgaria varies significantly, between 4% and 32%, due to the lack of a unified measurement methodology,” says Dr Andreeva, criticising local institutions for their near-total lack of engagement with the issue. She explains that the significant variation in official data makes it impossible to draw reliable conclusions, identify trends, make projections or plan evidence-based interventions to curb overweight and obesity. “Early identification of children at risk of [being] overweight and obesity is key to prevention and management and helps avert the development of many socially significant diseases in adulthood,” she says. Controlling obesity is a major preventive measure against chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, liver steatosis, and increased cardiovascular risk. The report “(Un)Defeated Pandemics – Obesity” estimates Bulgaria’s total economic costs linked to obesity at over €3.25 billion per year. According to the Global Obesity Observatory, Bulgaria spends the highest share of GDP in the world on obesity-related costs — 4.7% of GDP in 2019. If no action is taken, this figure is projected to exceed 7% of GDP by 2060. “Direct medical costs, such as treatment, outpatient care and reimbursed medication related to obesity, exceed €130 million in 2024, while the total economic burden is around €6 billion,” Dr Andreeva notes. A UNICEF report similarly ranks Bulgaria among the European countries with the highest levels of childhood obesity, with nearly one in three children being overweight – a finding that echoes WHO data. “Given the heavy economic burden, investments in the prevention and treatment of overweight and obesity should be seen not as healthcare costs but as strategic economic investments with a high return potential,” Dr Andreeva argues. The EFPIA report shows that in 2022, obesity rates in the EU increased gradually with age, peaking at around 20% among those aged 65–74 and 15% among adults aged 18–64. Researchers estimate that by 2030, more than 30% of Europeans will be living with obesity, with the direct and indirect costs to healthcare systems potentially reaching €1.6 trillion if no holistic action is taken. [VA, BM]	Krassen Nikolov	Bulgaria spends the highest share of GDP in the world on obesity-related costs, but poor data is causing a weak obesity strategy	[ "Health", "Access to Healthcare", "Bulgaria", "Obesity" ]	Health	2025-10-28T12:21:46+00:00		en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/bulgaria-is-losing-childhood-obesity-battle/
The Missing Piece in Disaster Response	In conflict settings, mental health support is as critical as providing food, water and shelter. It’s past time we recognize it as an essential part of crisis response. At just fifteen years of age, Aly was forced to flee his home with his family, eventually finding refuge in a crowded settlement near Burkina Faso. But safety didn’t end his struggles. Hounded by painful memories, Aly was plagued by night terrors and insomnia. After his mother attended a mental health awareness session in the settlement, she recognized his symptoms and brought him to an ICRC-backed medical center—one of the few in the region. Through drawing and writing, therapy helped Aly work through guilt and trauma. Today, he is back in school, making friends, and finally sleeping through the night. This is the power of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS), delivered at the right time in the right way. Yet too often, these essential services are an afterthought in disaster preparedness and response plans—if they’re considered at all. Action lagging behind awareness Awareness of mental health needs has grown in recent years, with the United Nations and Wellcome Trust announcing in September 2025 a US$13.2 million initiative to support scaling up mental health response in humanitarian settings. Yet overall, investment and capacity have not kept pace. According to the WHO Mental Health Atlas 2024, over 1 billion people worldwide live with mental health conditions. However, mental health receives only 2% of national health budgets on average—a figure that has remained virtually unchanged for the past eight years. In emergency contexts, this figure shrinks even further – mental health programs receive a mere 1% of development assistance for health[1] . This is despite the fact that investment in mental health is money well spent: research shows that every $1 invested in mental health yields $4 in return in better health and ability to work. Such stagnation is dangerously out of step with the challenges we face. The last decade has borne witness to a series of disasters in rapid succession. Some were local, like earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria, floods in Brazil and Spain and wildfires in Australia and the USA. Others sent shockwaves worldwide: the COVID-19 pandemic, an escalating climate crisis and a rising number of conflicts across the globe. These have taken a heavy toll – physical and psychological – on communities, on families and individuals alike. We cannot afford to keep responding with half measures. Left untreated, psychological distress fuels anxiety, depression, and other conditions that ripple through families and communities, weakening recovery and resilience. It diminishes people’s ability to care for themselves and their loved ones, to return to work, and to contribute to their communities, resulting in losses that add up to an estimated USD $1 trillion every year in costs to the global economy — in addition to the immense human suffering borne by individuals, families and communities. The need is dire. Of the 300 million people today who need humanitarian assistance, 66 million are grappling with mental health conditions, often cut off from desperately-needed care. For the sake of both individual wellbeing and collective resilience, MHPSS must no longer be treated as optional. MHPSS: Not one-size-fits-all MHPSS is not an exercise in identifying a successful intervention, then building from the exact same blueprint, country to country, crisis to crisis. Every community and experience is unique, and so interventions must be tailored to time, place and person. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have vast experience in crisis response, across contexts and borders, measuring success not only by clinical outcomes but also by whether support is accessible, context-appropriate, and responsive to the needs of those most at risk. The ICRC and the Z Zurich Foundation (the Foundation), a charitable foundation established by various members of Zurich Insurance Group, have entered a multi-year collaboration to support and expand MHPSS in emergencies in August 2025. This collaboration will help the ICRC further advance its work in strengthening emergency MHPSS capacities, integrating mental health considerations into humanitarian response, and developing key tools to improve care for conflict-affected populations. The support from the Z Zurich Foundation will contribute to developing practical guidance to help ensure MHPSS activities are effectively integrated into emergency measures across diverse contexts. The capacity building element of this collaboration will help drive sustainable impact and resilience. Using the Pyramid of Care framework, the ICRC works to build adaptable, context-specific models that are embedded in public services and co-designed with affected communities and local professionals. They support the development and integration of MHPSS within existing public services, such as health and education, ensuring that support is safe, culturally appropriate, and sustainable. In many countries, the organization works closely with Ministries of Health and Justice to build capacity, train personnel, and scale up national MHPSS responses. A shared goal: public, private and humanitarian sector roles in MHPSS But neither public institutions nor humanitarian organizations, such as the ICRC, can shoulder the burden alone. With limited financial and human resources, a shortage of trained professionals, persistent stigma around mental health, and competing priorities during emergencies, cross-sector collaboration is essential. Rather than a challenge, this should be seen as an opportunity: the private sector can add real value to humanitarian and public efforts. Beyond funding for MHPSS, the Z Zurich Foundation engages the employees of various members of the Zurich Insurance Group to volunteer their time in support of humanitarian goals. Mental health is not a luxury—it is a lifeline. In emergency response, supplying mental health support is as essential as distributing aid parcels and providing a safe place to sleep. The ICRC sees every day how timely, culturally appropriate MHPSS helps people heal and rebuild their lives. Sustained investment, national ownership, and coordination are key to scaling up this support. By stepping up their support, private actors like the Z Zurich Foundation can play a critical role in shaping a more resilient, responsive, and compassionate humanitarian system. When mental health and psychosocial support are woven into disaster management, crisis response becomes more than a short-term fix — it becomes the foundation for long-term healing. About Z Zurich Foundation The Z Zurich Foundation works alongside Zurich Insurance Group employees and other stakeholders as well as with governments and NGOs in pursuit of a future where people can thrive in the face of increasing climate hazards and catastrophes, where those of us feeling the stresses of life are empowered to speak up, and where the marginalized in our society can reach their full potential. The Z Zurich Foundation is a Swiss-based charitable foundation established by members of the Zurich Insurance Group. It is the main vehicle by which Zurich Insurance Group delivers on its global community investment strategy. Visit the Z Zurich Foundation’s website to learn more about its work: https://zurich.foundation. Follow Z Zurich Foundation on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. [1] Although DAMH did increase between 2007 and 2013, it remains low both in absolute terms and as a proportion of total development assistance for health (DAH). The average annual DAMH between 2007 and 2013 was US$133.57 million, and the proportion of DAH attributed to mental health is less than 1%. DAH: Development assistance for health. Assessing Development Assistance for Mental Health in Developing Countries: 2007–2013 – PMC		In conflict settings, mental health support is as critical as providing food, water and shelter. It’s past time we recognize it as an essential part of crisis response.	[ "Health", "Action", "Awareness", "Mental Health", "Promoted content", "Psychosocial Support", "Trauma" ]		2025-10-28T11:00:21+00:00		en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/opinion/the-missing-piece-in-disaster-response/
COP30: EU’s climate chief pushes China to ‘put more money on the table’	The EU's Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra is doubling down on confronting Beijing China needs to spend more to boost global climate finance given its increasing economic clout, the EU’s Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra told Euractiv on Tuesday. In 2024, the EU contributed more than €30 billion to global climate finance, making the bloc the biggest donor. China, the world’s second-largest economy, has yet to contribute beyond bilateral support. Meanwhile, developing countries are pushing for €1.3 trillion in support, up from €100 billion in previous years. “What is true and that is not a statement by me, but by the United Nations, according to them, China is an upper middle income country. And they have done an amazing job in terms of creating affluence,” Hoekstra said at Euractiv’s Energy & Environment Policy Conference. You've reached your limit of free articles To continue reading, click the Subscribe button belowto choose a plan and unlock full access. Already have an account? Log in	Nikolaus J. Kurmayer	The EU's Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra is doubling down on confronting Beijing	[ "Energy, Environment & Transport", "2040 climate target", "climate", "COP30", "ETS2", "Wopke Hoekstra" ]	Energy, Environment & Transport	2025-10-28T09:41:47+00:00	2025-10-28T16:43:11+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/cop30-eus-climate-chief-pushes-china-to-put-more-money-on-the-table/
UN: Global greenhouse gas emissions set to fall for the first time, but not quickly enough	But the forecasted 10% emission cut in 2035 would be insufficient to respect global warming red lines World governments’ climate pledges for the next decade are expected to reduce global emissions for the first time ever, although not enough to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, the United Nations’ climate change body said on Tuesday. Global emissions in 2035 should fall 10% compared to 2019, the secretary general of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Simon Stiell, said in a statement. But the pace of reduction was “not nearly fast enough” to respect the planet’s climate boundaries, he warned. To avoid the worst consequences of climate change, global warming should not increase by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels, the aspirational target set in the 2015 agreement. According to the UN, this would be possible only if 2019 emissions were to be cut by 60% by 2035. To keep global warming below the Paris Agreement’s upper limit of 2°C, emissions would need to be cut by at least 35% over the next ten years. This means that a 10% cut – an estimate that the UN acknowledges is based on limited data – would be far short of what is needed to respect either red line. The figure is also understood to consider at least one optimistic assumption about developments in the US. The outgoing Biden administration pledged to cut emissions by at least 61% by 2035 compared to levels thirty years earlier, but President Trump swiftly moved to pull out of the global effort as he doubled down on an anti-green agenda. The US will be formally out of the Paris Agreement in January, but Washington was not the only centre of power to give the UNFCCC secretariat a headache. Only about one-third of nearly 200 signatories of the Paris Agreement presented their formal climate pledges by last September’s extended deadline, and major emitters such as China and India are among the laggards. Self-styled global climate action leader the EU has also yet to submit its ‘nationally determined contribution’ (NDC). The UN’s 10% emission cut forecast is based on both formal pledges and declarations that Brussels, Beijing, and others made at a Climate Summit in New York last month. The UN analysis of the 64 pledges that were submitted in time was published today and indicates that these countries, including the US, are expected to cut their emissions by a total of 17% compared to 2019 levels. A more complete analysis can be expected when more governments file their pledges before the next round of climate talks at the COP30 summit that kicks off on 10 November in the Brazilian city of Belém. According to UN climate policy chief Stiell, the conference should show that the world is still ready to cooperate on accelerating greenhouse gas emissions reduction and to “connect climate action to people’s lives” and ensure “everyone shares in its vast benefits”. He said that the opportunities offered by climate action were “monumental” as it “emerges as the economic growth and jobs engine of the 21st century”. “We are still in the race, but to ensure a liveable planet for all eight billion people today, we must urgently pick up the pace, at COP30 and every year thereafter,” he said. (rh)	Stefano Porciello	But the forecasted 10% emission cut in 2035 would be insufficient to respect global warming red lines	[ "Energy, Environment & Transport", "Climate Change", "COP30", "UN Framework for Climate Change (UNFCCC)" ]	Energy, Environment & Transport	2025-10-28T07:00:59+00:00	2025-10-28T11:19:42+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/un-global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-set-to-fall-for-the-first-time-but-not-quickly-enough/
Timmermans boosted by gay youth controversy	In today’s edition: a gay rights controversy jolts the Dutch election as centrist parties eye a comeback, Pedro Sánchez’s fragile alliance unravels after Catalan separatists cut ties, and Berlin urges restraint as EU-China trade tensions escalate over mineral export curbs What determines the calendar in Brussels? The school holidays or the European institutions? It’s a chicken-and-egg situation. Whatever the answer, the city is remarkably quiet this week. Welcome to Rapporteur. This is Eddy Wax, with Nicoletta Ionta. Want to keep me busy? Drop me a line – I read every message. Need-to-knows: Today’s edition is powered by the European Free Alliance Direct regional funding is essential for the EU’s cohesion The renationalisation of European funds proposed in the MFF 2028-2034 would increase the economic gap between peripheral regions and the already wealthier European capital cities. In EFA, we believe in the EU’s role in mitigating territorial inequalities. We call EU leaders to draft a new proposal that protects direct funding for EU’s regions. Find out more. This is a political ad. More info at https://www.euractiv.com/political-ads/. For details relating to this campaign, more info at https://content.efaparty.eu/. It’s starting to get exciting in the Netherlands, which goes to the polls on Wednesday for a snap vote. Dutch elections always end with some kind of multi-way coalition, but it was safe to assume this campaign would be dominated by a two-way slugfest between anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders and Left-Green leader Frans Timmermans. That has largely been the case – with the pair duelling in recent days over AI-generated images used by Wilders’ MPs against the leftwinger, who’s taking his second crack at becoming prime minister since leaving the Commission in 2023. But with Wilders deemed too toxic for most other parties, the real question has been who might come second to him, form a coalition, and become prime minister. It was, in some ways, Timmermans’ to lose. However, a dark horse candidate in the shape of Christian Democrat leader Henri Bontenbal, a 42-year-old former energy consultant, ran a campaign built on quiet decency – aiming to differentiate himself from the polarising Wilders-Timmermans battle and resurrect his almost-dead party. Polls briefly put him neck-and-neck with the Green Deal’s architect. That was until last week, when Bontenbal’s low-key strategy combusted spectacularly. In a televised interview, he suggested that a gay pupil at a publicly funded Christian school could choose to attend another school if he felt uncomfortable about his sexual identity. In a largely secular country proud of its liberalism, Bontenbal’s risk-averse campaign suddenly heated up. And he lost five projected seats, according to polling. Bontenbal has apologised and remains personally popular, but the gaffe could benefit Timmermans – or the race’s other dark horse: Rob Jetten. A more progressive version of Mark Rutte, Jetten, 38, is a former energy minister who leads the liberal D66 party. He is having a very good campaign and enjoying a late burst in the polls. If the centrist parties – Timmermans’ Green Left, Bontenbal’s CDA, Jetten’s D66, and Rutte’s old VVD now led by Dilan Yeşilgöz – manage to form a coalition despite their differences, a more compromise-based form of Dutch politics will return. That would mark a shift after two years under a right-wing government that failed to get much done and largely sought to cast Brussels as a hindrance. The EU could be about to get a lot more Dutch. Sánchez abandoned by Catalan separatists Catalan separatist party Junts on Monday said it would “unanimously break relations” with Spain’s ruling Socialists over what it called unfulfilled promises tied to Pedro Sánchez’s re-election deal. Party leader Carles Puigdemont accused Madrid of failing to transfer powers and fully apply the amnesty law shielding independence figures, including himself, my colleague Inés Fernández-Pontes reported. The split, still subject to a grassroots vote, would leave Sánchez’s minority government without Junts’ seven MPs, threatening future budgets and deepening uncertainty over the coalition’s stability. Germany aims to defuse EU-China crossfire Germany’s foreign minister urged calm on Monday amid a mounting trade spat between the EU and China over Beijing’s new export curbs on critical minerals – just days after Brussels hinted at pulling the trigger on its so-called “trade bazooka.” “We want a close dialogue with China,” Johann Wadephul said during a visit to Brussels after meetings with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič. Von der Leyen warned over the weekend that she’s “ready to use all instruments in our toolbox” in response to China’s move – remarks widely seen as a thinly veiled threat to deploy the EU executive’s much-vaunted anti-coercion instrument, informally known as the “trade bazooka.” France’s Emmanuel Macron also floated using the measure, which would let Brussels target services, investment, and licences. Beijing, meanwhile, sought to dial down the rhetoric, with a Foreign Ministry spokesperson touting China’s “mutually beneficial” ties with Germany. EU eyes moving training mission east EU military officials are drawing up contingency plans to shift the bloc’s training mission for Ukrainian troops into Ukraine itself – but only if a ceasefire takes hold. “EUMAM would have to evolve,” said Seán Clancy, chair of the EU Military Committee, in an interview with my colleague Aurelie Pugnet. The move would mark a major shift in the EU’s military posture, turning the current external training effort into a security guarantee for Ukrainian soil. Clancy stressed that no action will be taken until conditions permit, but renewed US efforts to broker peace have revived discussions long stalled in Brussels. Tree-mendous mess A plan by the Commission to simplify the bloc’s deforestation rules has deepened tensions with member states, several of which accuse Brussels of changing course without warning. Marek Výborný, the Czech agriculture minister, told my colleague Sofia Sanchez Manzanaro that he felt blindsided when the Commission declined to postpone the rules for a year, despite earlier suggestions by Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall that it could. The about-face, he said, left small businesses scrambling and governments uncertain. Countries including Latvia, Poland, and Bulgaria now want to push enforcement back to 2027, arguing the EU’s new system is not ready. EU considers centralised return hubs As capitals debate how to set up “return hubs” – facilities for third-country nationals facing deportation under the bloc’s new Returns Regulation – the Commission has clarified that such hubs could be created not only by member states but also at the EU level, according to a presidency discussion paper seen by Euractiv. Cyprus’ deputy migration minister, Nicholas Ioannides, this month called for migrant return deals to be struck “at the EU level, not bilaterally, to ensure a coordinated approach.” Governments are also weighing whether the hubs should serve as final destinations or as transit points for onward transfers. Patriots press EPP on corporate laws The far-right Patriots for Europe group is urging the conservative European People’s Party to back a deregulatory proposal on the EU’s corporate sustainability and due diligence laws. “We’re asking for a public vote, and we want the EPP to support compromise number one,” lead negotiator Pascale Piera told Euractiv over coffee. The compromise would roll back the bloc’s corporate sustainability reporting and due diligence laws beyond what the EPP later agreed with liberal and centre-left lawmakers. That deal recently collapsed in a secret ballot, and the omnibus law revision now heads for a full-house examination on 13 November. The EPP has blamed the socialists for the breakdown and demanded explanations, but the Patriots have signalled they are ready to step in. WARSAW 🇵🇱 Donald Tusk startled allies by suggesting that countries unable to reform within the European Convention on Human Rights might quit it. The prime minister told The Sunday Times that the court’s broad rulings were worsening Europe’s migration woes. Warsaw hastened to clarify it has no plans to withdraw, but the remark drew sharp rebukes from coalition partners who accused him of chipping away at Europe’s legal bedrock. VILNIUS 🇱🇹 Lithuania’s government said Monday it would begin shooting down smuggling balloons drifting across its border from Belarus, calling the incidents a form of hybrid attack reminiscent of Russia’s efforts to destabilise the region. The decision follows recent closures of Vilnius airport as authorities weigh whether to seek NATO consultations amid rising tension with Minsk. STOCKHOLM 🇸🇪 Sweden’s government on Monday unveiled plans to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 13, a drastic step aimed at curbing the surge in gang violence that has shaken the country. The proposal, backed by the far-right Sweden Democrats, would allow 13- and 14-year-olds to face prison sentences for serious crimes. Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer said accountability must apply regardless of age, while prosecutors and rights groups warned it risks breaching child-protection norms. PRAGUE 🇨🇿 Andrej Babiš, a billionaire populist who calls himself a “Trumpist,” was asked to form the Czech Republic’s next government after his ANO party won 34.5% of the vote but no majority. Talks with the far-right SPD and the anti-EU Motorists party are under way. President Petr Pavel urged him to uphold democratic norms. The coalition’s shape may determine whether Prague maintains its strong support for Ukraine. HELSINKI 🇫🇮 Finland’s defence ministry blocked 11 property purchases by non-EU nationals – including Russian, Israeli, Kazakh, and Kyrgyz citizens – citing security risks along key maritime and road corridors and warning of “hybrid influence operations.” Cases included forest estates and a highway-side house; rouble prepayments raised financing red flags. The ministry urged parliament to fast-track a broader ban on all non-resident acquisitions by Russian nationals. PARIS 🇫🇷 French lawmakers are preparing to debate a proposed tax on supplementary health insurers that could bring in around €1 billion for the state. The measure, set out in Article 7 of the draft budget, is intended to help offset the financial impact of freezing the government’s pension overhaul. Critics warn, however, that it could push mutual insurers to raise premiums for millions of households – a prospect the left-wing opposition has branded a “casus belli.” 📍 Von der Leyen in Sweden for meetings with Nordic leaders and the SG of the Nordic Council of Ministers; meets Speaker Andreas Norlén and delivers a speech at the 77th Nordic Council session 📍 Metsola in Washington for meetings with US House Speaker Mike Johnson and Energy Secretary Chris Wright 📍 Costa in Abu Dhabi for talks with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan 📍 Dombrovskis in Romania for a press conference with PM Ilie Bolojan 📍 EU–Tunisia Association Council convenes Contributors: Maria Simon Arboleas, Magnus Lund Nielsen, Thomas Moller-Nielsen, Elisa Braun, Jacob Wulff Wold, Inés Fernández-Pontes, Aleksandra Krzysztoszek, Natália Silenská, Charles Szumski, Jeremias Lin Editors: Christina Zhao, Sofia Mandilara	Eddy Wax	In today’s edition: a gay rights controversy jolts the Dutch election as centrist parties eye a comeback, Pedro Sánchez’s fragile alliance unravels after Catalan separatists cut ties, and Berlin urges restraint as EU-China trade tensions escalate over mineral export curbs	[ "Politics", "Rapporteur" ]	Politics	2025-10-28T07:00:13+00:00	2025-10-28T07:04:24+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/rapporteur-timmermans-boosted-by-gay-youth-controversy/
Facial recognition firm Clearview AI hit with criminal complaint	Privacy rights group noyb, which has filed the complaint in Austria, wants criminal liability or even jail time for the AI company's leadership if they travel to the EU European privacy rights group noyb filed a criminal complaint against the controversial US facial recognition company Clearview AI and its leadership on Tuesday. Noyb’s complaint to authorities in Austria follows a string of sanctions hitting the company in recent years after EU privacy authorities found that Clearview breached the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) when it scraped Europeans’ information off the public internet to build a facial recognition database. The US company sells a facial recognition-powered identity-matching service, using AI to match photos or videos of individuals with its database of information, such as social media profiles. Its clients include US law enforcement authorities and private firms. The use of facial recognition technologies, in particular by police authorities, raises huge privacy questions, as well as raising the risk of the technology being misused for mass surveillance. But despite multiple GDPR fines being issued on Clearview – in total the company has received €95.7 million in administrative fines from data protection authorities in Greece, France, Italy, and the Netherlands since February 2022 – EU authorities have struggled to collect the money. The US-based firm has been largely able to dodge GDPR enforcement in the EU, as it has no formal representation on the continent. Noyb’s complaint accuses Clearview of simply ignoring EU law. By filing a criminal complaint, the privacy rights group said it hopes that – should Clearview be found guilty – its management would have to risk jail time or being held personally liable if they travel to the EU. It points out that the GDPR gives scope to enforcement authorities to foresee criminal sanctions for certain data breaches if such a criminal provision has been implemented in national law – as is the case in Austria. “We hope that the public prosecutor […] takes action when the personal data of billions of people was stolen – as has been confirmed by multiple authorities,” said noyb chairman Max Schrems in a statement. In the UK, Clearview was also handed a £7.5 million (€8.6 million) penalty in 2022 after the national privacy watchdog applied the UK’s version of the GDPR. The company has challenged the UK’s enforcement but, earlier this month, a court ruled that it was bound by national law. (nl)	Claudie Moreau	Privacy rights group noyb, which has filed the complaint in Austria, wants criminal liability or even jail time for the AI company's leadership if they travel to the EU	[ "Tech", "artificial intelligence", "Max Schrems", "Privacy" ]	Tech	2025-10-28T06:01:29+00:00	2025-10-28T11:05:34+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/facial-recognition-firm-clearview-ai-hit-with-criminal-complaint/
Europe Accelerates Clean Competitiveness	Can the EU be sustainable and continue to grow? Can Europe remain competitive without being sustainable? For the new president of Eurima, an upcoming EU Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) is a chance to show that competitiveness and decarbonisation work best together. “Will the IAA be a driver of sustainable competitiveness or of competitive sustainability?” asks Efrén del Pino Iglesias. “Why not both?” He explains how the act can help build a strong economy and a climate-neutral continent by 2050. This is no easy task. It has never been done before and is happening right in the middle of what Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has called “a fight – for a continent that is whole and at peace.” First mentioned in the Commission’s Competitiveness Compass and the Clean Industrial Deal, the IAA is due to be published this year. It will complement EU policies such as the Net Zero Industry Act and renewable energy legislation, introducing sustainability criteria to boost demand for clean products and creating “lead markets” for green industry sectors. Efrén believes that it is an opportunity for promoting a changed mindset, supporting new forms of behaviour, decision-making and institutional culture.. For instance, an energy efficiency lead market would be a new way of thinking, one that recognises that achieving a competitive and sustainable economy sometimes means acknowledging that you can do much more with less. Efrén was elected President of Eurima in June, bringing a pragmatic view from inside Europe’s manufacturing base, as Etex’s Head of Division Insulation, which includes URSA’s mineral wool solutions. He is a strong believer in pushing industrial competitiveness and decarbonisation in parallel, with European jobs and local factories at the centre of the transition. As president of Eurima, he says the IAA can help turn Europe’s climate ambition into industrial strength, with energy efficiency as the link between sustainability and competitiveness. Saving for the Future “The most sustainable energy is saved energy,” Efrén explains. “If we start with energy-efficient structures and proper insulation, we reduce the need for massive amounts of energy in the first place.” Otherwise, relying only on electrification and renewables to fix inefficient buildings “is like putting a powerful new engine into an old car with four flat tyres.” Shortly after Efrén’s appointment, Eurima joined almost 100 industry partners in successfully advocating for EU governments to keep the Energy Efficiency First principle at the core of the EU Climate Law. Prioritising energy efficiency in buildings and industry today can optimise future investments in energy infrastructure, allowing Europe to do much more with less. Recent studies show just how quickly energy efficiency pays off. Research by the Danish Energy Agency found that many industrial energy-saving measures can pay for themselves in less than two years. Similarly, the European Industrial Insulation Foundation (EiiF) demonstrated that improving insulation in factories can deliver over the same two year period, while cutting about 500,000 tonnes of carbon emissions and saving more than 20 million euros annually across Europe. These numbers, Eurima notes, show that efficiency is not a cost but an investment, one that directly strengthens both competitiveness and decarbonisation. Building with the Best The IAA is a culmination of EU efforts to reconcile industrial performance and climate ambition, and to make Europe’s industrial model both clean and competitive. Efrén warns against climate fatigue, after years of policy debate. Europe has already achieved a head start on decarbonisation compared with other regions, and this gives its industries an advantage in finding the right balance between sustainability and competitiveness. Energy efficiency, insulation, and construction materials are enabling industries: sectors that make every other sector cleaner, more resilient, and more competitive. The construction sector alone accounts for more than 10% of the EU’s GDP and employs around 25 million people, with many EU companies being global leaders, making it one of Europe’s most strategic industries. Within it, enabling sectors like insulation play a crucial role in improving energy efficiency and saving energy, in both buildings and industry. Research confirms that improving building energy efficiency frees up clean energy that would otherwise be wasted, making more power available for harder-to-abate industrial sectors. For Efrén, this makes insulation “a very special type of energy-intensive industry,” one that directly helps others to decarbonise. “We need energy to produce mineral wool, but mineral wool has a fantastic energy balance,” Efrén explains. “For every tonne of CO₂ emitted by manufacturing mineral wool insulation, around 200 tonnes are saved during the product’s lifetime.” Money for Nothing Just as energy savings bring cost savings, “economic savings can automatically lead to carbon savings,” he says. Using less energy immediately cuts both costs and emissions, as it reduces dependence on fossil-based power. Those savings can then help industries invest in cleaner technologies such as low-carbon electricity. That balance, Efrén suggests, is what the IAA should be about. Competitiveness and decarbonisation are not opposites. Industries like insulation show that the same investments can strengthen both. Europe’s future competitiveness will depend on industries that turn sustainability into a practical reality, enabling others to go green. The question is not whether we should pursue sustainable competitiveness or competitive sustainability. Europe now has an opportunity to make them one and the same. It’s time for Europe to accelerate industrial decarbonisation		Can the EU be sustainable and continue to grow? Can Europe remain competitive without being sustainable? For the new president of Eurima, an upcoming EU Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) is a chance to show that competitiveness and decarbonisation work best together.	[ "Energy, Environment & Transport", "Construction", "Efrén del Pino Iglesias", "Energy Efficiency", "EU Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA)", "Eurima", "Promoted content" ]		2025-10-28T06:00:02+00:00		en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/opinion/europe-accelerates-clean-competitiveness/
Finland blocks a dozen property deals over national security concerns	“The properties form part of one of the channels for hybrid influence operations,” Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen said The Finnish Ministry of Defence has refused authorisations for 11 real-estate purchases by non-EU/EEA nationals – including Russian, Israeli, Kazakh and Kyrgyz citizens – after deeming the assets strategically sensitive, Finnish broadcaster Yle revealed. “The properties form part of one of the channels for hybrid influence operations,” declared Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen. Together with the full ban on purchases by Russian and Belarusian buyers that entered into force this summer, the authorisation system constitutes an effective tool, he added. The thwarted properties are located along key corridors near the Baltic Sea shipping lanes and national route 5 – in Mikkeli, Parainen, Puumala, Taipalsaari, Savonlinna, Simo, Kouvola, Parikkala, Kolari and Tornio. One Russian national residing in the Czech Republic attempted to buy forest estates across five sites, ostensibly for forestry purposes, the ministry says, adding it could not rule out exploitation by hostile state actors. You've reached your limit of free articles To continue reading, click the Subscribe button belowto choose a plan and unlock full access. Already have an account? Log in	Charles Szumski	“The properties form part of one of the channels for hybrid influence operations,” Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen said	[ "Politics", "Across Europe", "Finland", "real estate" ]	Politics	2025-10-28T04:57:10+00:00	2025-10-28T08:12:18+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/finland-blocks-a-dozen-property-deals-over-national-security-concerns/
Tusk under fire over remarks on quitting ECHR	“If the 46 signatories cannot agree on reform, then withdrawal is a reasonable solution,” he said WARSAW – Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk caused political tremors after suggesting that countries unable to agree on reforms to the European Convention on Human Rights could consider withdrawing from it – a remark that the government later sought to downplay. In an interview with The Sunday Times, Tusk described immigration and its cultural consequences as major challenges for Western Europe, arguing that the “strict and increasingly broad interpretation” of the ECHR was part of the problem. “If the 46 signatories cannot agree on reform, then withdrawal is a reasonable solution,” he said. Government spokesman Adam Szłapka nevertheless insisted Poland “has no plans to denounce the Convention” and that Tusk’s words “did not refer to Poland.” Still, the comments sparked criticism within the ruling coalition. Left MP Anna-Maria Żukowska accused Tusk of undermining “the foundation of modern Europe,” noting that even the opposition no longer calls for leaving international treaties. “The Prime Minister wants to break with the foundation of modern Europe,” she added. Earlier this year, Poland co-signed a letter with Denmark and Italy accusing the Strasbourg court of overstepping its mandate and protecting criminals rather than victims.	Aleksandra Krzysztoszek	“If the 46 signatories cannot agree on reform, then withdrawal is a reasonable solution,” he said	[ "Politics", "Across Europe", "Donald Tusk", "European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)", "Poland" ]	Politics	2025-10-28T04:54:10+00:00	2025-10-28T13:06:15+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/tusk-under-fire-over-remarks-on-quitting-echr/?utm_source=euractiv&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_content=The capitals&utm_term=0-0&utm_campaign=EN_THE_CAPITALS
Vietnam strengthening EU relations after 35 'remarkable' years, says foreign minister	Vietnam’s message to the world is one of openness, trust, and cooperation - principles that increasingly define its growing partnership with the European Union. In an exclusive interview with Euractiv, His Excellency Lê Hoài Trung, Foreign Minister of Vietnam, reflects on the country’s diplomatic achievements, its comprehensive partnership with the European Union, and its growing role within ASEAN and beyond. He says Vietnam has evolved from a post-war nation to a confident global actor, a symbol of openness and pragmatic diplomacy, committed to dialogue and multilateral cooperation. EV: In 2025, Vietnam and the EU celebrate 35 years of diplomatic relations. What’s your assessment of the Comprehensive Partnership and Cooperation between Vietnam and the EU? LHT: After 35 years since establishing diplomatic relations, our partnership has achieved remarkable progress, particularly since the upgrade to the Comprehensive Partnership and Cooperation in 2012. Viet Nam is the ASEAN country with the highest number of cooperation mechanisms with the EU. The two sides have signed or adopted six agreements and established eight cooperation mechanisms, serving as a catalyst for a closer, more effective, and comprehensive relationship based on political trust, open dialogue, shared interests, and joint efforts to overcome differences. Delegation exchanges at all levels have been promoted, most notably through high-level visits. Economic, investment, and sustainable development cooperation stand out as bright spots. After five years of effective implementation of the EU-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), two-way trade has grown 10-20 per cent annually, despite the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2024, bilateral trade grew over 10 per cent, reaching $68.4 billion, and 7.7 per cent ($48.4 billion) in the first eight months of 2025. The EU is Viet Nam’s sixth-largest investor, fifth-largest trading partner, and leading provider of official development assistance (ODA). The EU has supported Viet Nam in judicial reform, education development, forestry improvement, business environment enhancement, and various climate and environmental change projects under the Global Gateway framework, including the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) with the International Partners Group (IPG). Notably, Viet Nam is one of three key JETP partners of the EU, alongside Indonesia and South Africa. Defence and security cooperation has been strengthened. In 2024, Viet Nam opened a Defence Attaché Office in Belgium, concurrently accredited to the EU, and since 2022 has sent officers annually to participate in the EU Training Mission in the Central African Republic (EUTM RCA). Cooperation in education, science and technology, innovation, energy, culture, tourism, sports, and people-to-people exchanges has also expanded. EV: What are the prospects and opportunities for bilateral relations in the coming years? LHT: I believe there remains vast potential for cooperation. Politically, both sides should continue delegation exchanges, especially at high levels, and prepare for the upcoming visit to Viet Nam by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen later this year, aiming to elevate relations. In the economy, trade, and investment, I hope the remaining eight EU Member States will soon ratify the EU-Viet Nam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA). Maintaining and implementing existing cooperation mechanisms, including the “Task Force” between the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security in 2025, will help address mutual concerns effectively. I also propose that the EU facilitate smoother travel for Vietnamese enterprises and citizens, including through more flexible visa policies and preferential entry conditions. Recently, Viet Nam extended its unilateral visa exemption (up to 45 days) to 12 additional Member States from August 2025 for five years. Just energy transition and sustainable development are key areas where the EU’s strengths align with Viet Nam’s priorities. Access to concessional finance, technology, capital, and expertise will help implement the JETP with the IPG, co-chaired by the EU and the UK. Simultaneously, Viet Nam is promoting science, technology, and innovation nationally. I hope the EU will support emerging industries such as AI, semiconductors, satellite development, cloud computing, and high-value research projects at leading European universities, particularly in Germany, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. One remaining issue is the EU’s “yellow card” on illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, which has persisted for eight years. Fully aware of this matter, Viet Nam has strengthened its legal framework and taken measures to prevent IUU activities, including stopping Vietnamese vessels from illegal fishing abroad. We believe the Commission will soon lift the IUU “yellow card”, safeguarding fishermen’s livelihoods while supporting coastal communities in transitioning to sustainable fisheries and advancing cooperation in marine economy, offshore wind energy, ports, and cold storage. Finally, I hope the EU will continue supporting Viet Nam on the South China Sea issue, maintaining maritime and aviation security based on international law, particularly the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) 1982. Mutual exchanges and support within ASEAN-EU mechanisms, ASEM, AIPA, ARF, EAS, the United Nations, and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) will remain crucial. EV: People-to-people exchanges, particularly in education and culture, are often described as a bridge of trust. How do you see their role in Vietnam-EU relations? LHT: Indeed, they are a ‘bridge of trust’ and a ‘bridge of friendship’ that keeps relations close and enduring. Such exchanges foster strong ties between Viet Nam and the EU as a whole, and with each Member State individually. Educational cooperation has trained many generations of Vietnamese intellectuals, workers, and skilled labourers in Europe, especially from the 1970s to the 1990s, who returned to play key roles in national development. Many of Viet Nam’s leaders studied in Europe before assuming responsibilities from central to local levels. Diplomats trained in Europe have significantly contributed to strengthening multifaceted cooperation between Viet Nam and EU Member States. The Vietnamese community and alumni networks in Europe also play an essential role in connecting and consolidating relations. I firmly believe that cooperation in education, culture, and people-to-people exchanges will continue to enhance mutual trust, understanding, and empathy, strengthening our partnership further. EV: Vietnam is playing an increasingly important role within ASEAN. How do you assess its position in promoting ASEAN-EU relations and cooperation potentials in sustainable development, innovation, and digital infrastructure? LHT: 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of Viet Nam’s accession to ASEAN, a crucial platform for Viet Nam’s security, development, and overall foreign policy. Viet Nam has actively contributed to peace, security, stability, and development in the region. ASEAN-EU dialogue, established in 1977, has developed substantially. Viet Nam served as ASEAN-EU Coordinator from 2012-2015, helping advance the partnership, culminating in the upgrade to a Strategic Partnership in 2020 when Viet Nam chaired ASEAN. With strong Viet Nam-EU relations, Viet Nam is well-positioned to serve as a bridge in advancing ASEAN-EU cooperation. The ASEAN Community Vision 2045 opens new potential with the EU in sustainable development, innovation, and digital infrastructure – an inevitable trend in today’s era. We appreciate the EU’s commitment of €10 billion to ASEAN connectivity projects through the Global Gateway by 2027, supporting economic restructuring, clean energy transition, digital infrastructure, academic exchange, and health system strengthening. To unlock this potential, the EU can work with ASEAN countries, including Viet Nam, to improve frameworks for renewable energy, a just transition, and balancing growth with environmental protection, while promoting research, technology transfer, and resource mobilisation for green and digital infrastructure. Flagship ASEAN projects such as the ASEAN Power Grid (APG) and the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA) offer major opportunities for the EU to enhance cooperation. Sustainable development, however, must ensure long-term livelihoods, particularly through marine resource management and addressing IUU fishing. Beyond sustainable development and innovation, ASEAN-EU cooperation holds great promise in trade and investment. A region-to-region Free Trade Agreement (FTA) should be a goal to pursue, leveraging the EU-Viet Nam FTA as a foundation. Trilateral frameworks, such as Viet Nam-EU-Lao PDR or Viet Nam-EU-Cambodia, could implement digital infrastructure, modern railways, or expressway projects. To strengthen the ASEAN-EU Strategic Partnership, we need to seek common ground, minimise differences, and harness each side’s strengths to seize new opportunities amid the evolving international context and organisational capacities. EV: What’s your assessment of Vietnam’s diplomatic achievements over the past 80 years, and its orientation in the new context? LHT: Viet Nam’s diplomacy, founded by President Hồ Chí Minh, our great leader and an outstanding diplomat, has left profound imprints across every stage of our history – from the struggle for independence, wars of resistance, to today’s national construction and defence. From early independence, Viet Nam expressed to the UN its desire to be friends with all countries and to pursue “openness and cooperation in all fields”. The Đổi Mới (Renovation) process has opened the country, normalised and expanded relations, supported development, and enabled Viet Nam to play an active international role. Guided by multilateralisation and diversification, Viet Nam now has diplomatic relations with 195 countries and Comprehensive Partnerships or higher with 38 countries. Diplomacy facilitated economic openness, transforming Viet Nam into a dynamic market economy integrated into international trade. Defence, security, and diplomacy have together built peaceful borders, strengthened friendships, safeguarded sovereignty, promoted cooperation in resolving border issues, creating a favourable environment for socio-economic development. Viet Nam’s international image is respected for its broad diplomatic outreach and its contributions to regional and global issues. Many world leaders and organisations recognise Viet Nam as a “model of peace and sustainable development”, elevating the voice of developing countries. Going forward, Viet Nam’s foreign policy will continue to prioritise independence, self-reliance, peace, friendship, cooperation, diversification, multilateralisation, and comprehensive integration. Maintaining peace and stability remains the foundation for national development. Viet Nam also seeks to contribute more actively to a fair and equitable international order, upholding traditional values of equality, mutual respect, and mutually beneficial cooperation. Viet Nam engages proactively in international integration, addressing disputes through dialogue, upholding international law and the UN Charter, and contributing to peace and stability globally. We hope countries, partners, and friends will continue to support Viet Nam in this new era of development. (BM)	Xhoi Zajmi	Vietnam’s message to the world is one of openness, trust, and cooperation - principles that increasingly define its growing partnership with the European Union.	[ "Global Europe", "ASEAN", "ASEAN-EU", "Comprehensive Partnership and Cooperation", "Viet Nam", "Vietnam" ]	Global Europe	2025-10-27T21:08:39+00:00	2025-10-27T21:18:07+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/interview/vietnam-strengthening-eu-relations-after-35-remarkable-years-says-foreign-minister/
The Brief – Good cop, Belgian cop	It's no surprise that corruption concentrates in Brussels. But if Belgium's cops aren't cutting it, where's the EU's own crack team to keep its nose clean? You've reached your limit of free articles To continue reading, click the Subscribe button belowto choose a plan and unlock full access. Already have an account? Log in		It's no surprise that corruption concentrates in Brussels. But if Belgium's cops aren't cutting it, where's the EU's own crack team to keep its nose clean?	[ "Opinion", "anti-corruption", "Corruption probes", "Qatargate" ]		2025-10-27T18:01:37+00:00	2025-10-28T11:34:07+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/opinion/the-brief-good-cop-belgian-cop/
Building a safer food future needs strong evidence and clear regulation	As public health risks mount, the role of science and policy in safeguarding consumer interests has never been more critical European consumers are increasingly confronted with opaque food labelling, aggressive marketing of ultra-processed products, and environmental concerns tied to packaging and waste. As public health risks mount, the role of science and policy in safeguarding consumer interests has never been more critical. At the 2025 Annual Conference of SAFE – Safe Food Advocacy Europe – held in Brussels to coincide with World Children’s Day, leading researchers, regulators, and civil society representatives will convene to examine how data-driven advocacy and legislative reform can reshape the continent’s food systems. Key themes will include the nutritional impact of high-fat, high-sugar diets on children, the persistent challenge of food waste, and the credibility of sustainability claims. The event aims to spotlight how rigorous research and transparent regulation can foster healthier, fairer, and more sustainable choices for all Europeans. Agrifood SAFE — Safe Food Advocacy Europe is a European Consumer Organisation specialised in the protection... 7 minutes		As public health risks mount, the role of science and policy in safeguarding consumer interests has never been more critical	[ "Agrifood", "Environment", "Event Report", "Food Safety", "Sustainability" ]	Agrifood	2025-10-27T17:11:04+00:00		en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/special_report/building-a-safer-food-future-needs-strong-evidence-and-clear-regulation/
Berlin urges ‘dialogue’ with China after EU trade bazooka threats	Chinese officials also sought to ease tensions between Beijing and Berlin on Monday, with a foreign ministry spokesperson stressing their “mutually beneficial” relationship Germany’s foreign minister called for calm amid a mounting trade spat between the EU and China over critical mineral export curbs on Monday – just days after the bloc’s top brass threatened to fire their most powerful trade weapon at Beijing. “We want a close dialogue with China,” Johann Wadephul told reporters during a visit to Brussels, where he met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič. The comments come two days after von der Leyen said in Berlin that the Commission, which oversees EU trade policy, was “ready to use all of the instruments in our toolbox” in retaliation against Beijing’s announcement of sweeping export controls on rare earths earlier this month. The remarks were widely interpreted as a thinly veiled threat to use the EU executive’s much vaunted anti-coercion instrument – informally known as the ‘trade bazooka’ – against the world’s second-largest economy. French President Emmanuel Macron also floated using the instrument – which would allow Brussels to target services, impose investment restrictions, and suspend company licences – during a summit of EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday, according to three EU diplomats briefed on the discussions. China accounts for 70% of mining and 90% of refining of the world’s rare earth metals, which are used to produce numerous advanced technologies including smartphones, electric vehicles, and fighter planes. The German foreign minister’s comments also come after he abruptly cancelled a trip to Beijing last week – a move that some interpreted as a further sign of growing tensions between the EU and China, which have long been strained over Beijing’s enormous trade surplus and close ties to Russia. The Asian country is Germany’s biggest trade partner, with imports and exports totalling €163 billion from January to August this year. Wadephul said he was pushing for “sustainable solutions” to ensure European firms’ access to raw minerals. “This is about nothing less than the economic power, prosperity and innovative strength of our continent,” he added. Chinese officials also sought to ease tensions between Beijing and Berlin on Monday, with a foreign ministry spokesperson stressing their “mutually beneficial” relationship, as reported by state media outlet Global Times. (vib)	Nikolaus J. Kurmayer	Chinese officials also sought to ease tensions between Beijing and Berlin on Monday, with a foreign ministry spokesperson stressing their “mutually beneficial” relationship	[ "Economy", "Anti-Coercion Instrument (ACI)", "China", "Johann Wadephul", "Maroš Šefčovič", "Rare Earths", "Trade", "Ursula von der Leyen" ]	Economy	2025-10-27T16:27:11+00:00	2025-10-28T08:49:54+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/berlin-urges-dialogue-with-china-after-eu-trade-bazooka-threats/
Post-COVID business reforms show little impact, EU watchdog says	The findings come as the Brussels already rushing to spend hundreds of billions before the loan expires in 2026 A €109 billion COVID loan investment to reform the EU’s business environment suffered from poor design, slow and inconsistent rollout, and could perform even worse in future, the EU’s financial watchdog warned on Monday. The findings, published in a new report by the European Court of Auditors (ECA), are another blow to the European Commission, which has repeatedly praised the programme, and plans to replicate its approach in its new €2 trillion budget proposal for 2028-2034. Under the COVID scheme, known as the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), EU countries receive funds in exchange for implementing EU-friendly reforms or specific projects, such as building a new railway. The full €650 billion loan is implemented through national plans negotiated between Brussels and national governments. You've reached your limit of free articles To continue reading, click the Subscribe button belowto choose a plan and unlock full access. Already have an account? Log in	Jacob Wulff Wold	The findings come as the Brussels already rushing to spend hundreds of billions before the loan expires in 2026	[ "Economy", "Politics", "European Court of Auditors", "Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF)", "Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF)" ]	Economy	2025-10-27T16:01:13+00:00	2025-10-28T07:57:43+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/post-covid-business-reforms-show-little-impact-eu-watchdog-says/
Czech minister slams Commission’s 'chaotic steps' in deforestation rules overhaul	"The European Commission is taking very chaotic steps and chaotic statements," Czechia's Agriculture Minister said The European Commission’s bid to simplify the EU’s deforestation rules is turning out to be anything but simple. After weeks of behind-closed-doors talks with diplomats and MEPs, the Commission last week unveiled its plan to tweak the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), easing compliance for EU farmers and delaying enforcement for small businesses. But several governments, including Czechia, are baffled by what they see as a policy U-turn. They expected the Commission to postpone the rules by a whole year to fix the EUDR’s IT system. Czech Agriculture Minister Marek Výborný told Euractiv he was blindsided by the decision not to postpone the rules. You've reached your limit of free articles To continue reading, click the Subscribe button belowto choose a plan and unlock full access. Already have an account? Log in	Sofia Sanchez Manzanaro	"The European Commission is taking very chaotic steps and chaotic statements," Czechia's Agriculture Minister said	[ "Agrifood", "Czechia", "Deforestation" ]	Agrifood	2025-10-27T15:39:39+00:00	2025-10-28T09:55:40+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/czech-minister-slams-commissions-chaotic-steps-in-deforestation-rules-overhaul/?utm_source=euractiv&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_content=In the capital continued.&utm_term=0-0&utm_campaign=EN_THE_CAPITALS
Sweden to lower age of criminal responsibility to 13 amid gang violence crisis	Swedish police estimated in 2024 that 1,700 under-18s were active members of criminal networks The Swedish government unveiled on Monday a long-awaited proposal to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 13 to tackle the country’s spiralling gang violence. If adopted, the reform would allow 13- and 14-year-olds to face prison sentences for serious crimes, and follows years of concern over criminal gangs recruiting minors to carry out shootings, bombings and murders, exploiting the fact that those under 15 cannot be prosecuted. Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer said prevention remains essential but insisted that accountability must apply regardless of age. “Anyone who commits a serious crime must be punished,” he told SVT earlier this year. Swedish police estimated in 2024 that 1,700 under-18s were active members of criminal networks. The proposal, backed by the far-right Sweden Democrats and expected to take effect in the summer, has triggered fierce criticism from legal experts and rights advocates. In an opinion piece for Dagens Nyheter, 26 prosecutors and former prosecutors warned that the measure could violate child-protection principles and would not curb gang violence. “Criminal gangs that exploit children know no minimum age. Can’t a ten-year-old already carry a gun?” they wrote. The bill will now undergo a consultation process assessing its legality and compatibility with international law. The issue has gained regional attention in the region after Swedish gangs expanded their operations to neighbouring Denmark, Norway and Finland, where their particularly violent methods are worrying authorities. Finland, where the age of criminal responsibility remains 15, has also debated whether to follow Sweden’s lead. (mm)	Charles Szumski	Swedish police estimated in 2024 that 1,700 under-18s were active members of criminal networks	[ "Politics", "Across Europe", "Sweden" ]	Politics	2025-10-27T15:27:57+00:00	2025-10-28T13:44:17+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/sweden-to-lower-age-of-criminal-responsibility-to-13-amid-gang-violence-crisis/
SAFE’s Annual Conference 2025 – Advancing Consumer Protection through Research	SAFE’s Annual Conference 2025, on 20 November in Brussels, will mark World Children Day, a good reminder of our journey as an organisation and a motivation to carry our work forward, along our core principles of Health, Environment, and Inclusion. SAFE — Safe Food Advocacy Europe is a European Consumer Organisation specialised in the protection and the representation of EU consumers in the food sector. We work to protect European citizens from health risks around food through our advocacy work, and we promote healthier, more sustainable diets, with an emphasis on vulnerable groups, like children. One of our focuses of the last years has been the health impact of foods high in fat, sugar, and salt (HFSS foods), which has been linked by consistent scientific evidence to negative health outcomes, including higher prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), obesity, or poor mental health. This is why SAFE has raised concerns about the need for stricter rules regarding the marketing of these unhealthy foods, especially in food products directly marketed to children, as reflected in our report “HFSS Food Marketing Targeting Children”, which will be distributed at our Annual Conference. Measures taken on the national level in several member states — such as restrictions on TV and online promotions, bans on celebrity endorsements, or product placement in supermarkets — provide a good blueprint for what should be a more comprehensive EU regulation on the marketing of these food products. Transparency and clarity in food labelling are essential for consumers to be able to make free, informed choices, as stated in the first point of our manifesto for the 2024 European elections. SAFE has repeatedly voiced concerns that many of the valuable promises of the Farm to Fork strategy, designed to improve consumer protection and the sustainability of our food systems, have been left unfulfilled. Such is the case of the announced regulations on pesticides, the Nature Restoration Law, or the Green Claims Directive, regrettably left hanging when it was set for final approval, and which we hope to be as soon as possible. For us, any claims, green or other, made by products marketed in Europe must be substantiated on real, independent data. At our Annual Conference, we will address the incorrect use of the term ‘natural’ in food marketing, a widespread practice we uncovered during our field work analysing supermarket products across Europe in 2020, that has led to years of advocacy work. We believe that food products misleadingly sold as “natural” are in breach of the principles inspiring the current Food Information to Consumers legislation, which stipulates that food information should not mislead consumers about the food’s nature, identity, properties, or composition. This is why SAFE launched its campaign “We Value True Natural” — to inform the consumers about these practices and to call for more specific legislation to protect them. The European Court of Auditors also supports the view that the use of such terminology constitutes misleading product names. This is particularly serious according to the Court, because there is an increasing number of voluntary labels and claims used to advertise products with attractive messages, such as illustrations of fruit, or claims of “natural” or “no additives”. As the Court, SAFE believes that the European Commission should put an end to these improper and misleading practices. Consumers demand this, as clearly shown by our survey: only 33% of them believe that all necessary information is provided on food labels and almost 9 in 10 believe that a product containing synthetic ingredients cannot be considered “natural”. These results come from the European Consumer Survey, based on a sample of 1,000 people from each of the 5 biggest EU countries, commissioned by SAFE as a part of our campaign. Our Annual Conference will highlight some of these findings. Another focus of our work is the promotion of good dietary habits, because of their long-term impact on health. SAFE coordinates the EU4Health-funded Preventia project to tackle non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and reduce health inequalities. At our Annual Conference, we will present one of the results of the project: our new food scanning app BiteWatch, a tool to empower consumers to make healthier food choices through better food literacy. BiteWatch displays nutritional information like levels of salt, sugar, and saturated fat, as well as details on additives, degree of processing, and whether the product is vegan or vegetarian. It offers options allowing consumers to create their dietary profiles and see how well a product aligns with their needs and health goals, through a matching score out of 100%. This app helps users easily discover what’s in their food and make more informed food choices. BiteWatch will be available for iPhone and Android in all EU member states, initially in English, Spanish, French, Dutch and Italian. Another core activity of SAFE’s work in the last years is food waste reduction, also on the programme of our Annual Conference. Cutting EU food waste by half would feed all 37 million Europeans facing food insecurity. This was the logic behind SAFE’s food distribution network, which supplied 140 people in need with donated food, every week for four years, and the reason why we analysed and compared the legal frameworks and obstacles in the way of food donations, across 26 EU countries and compiled them in our report “Food Donation in the EU: State of Art, Barriers, and Perspectives”. We will disseminate the results of two EU Horizon-funded projects SAFE is a part of, beginning with ZeroW, which will present practical recommendations for food waste reduction regarding consumers, farmers, urban environments, governance, and short food supply chains, based on the innovations and insights ZeroW developed in different EU countries. SAFE is the coordinator of all activities aimed at designing these policy recommendations. We will then move on to SISTERS, also designing innovations to reduce food loss and food waste in the main stages of the food value chain, with contributions to primary producers, through a new platform to promote direct, short chain sales, new technological innovations in packaging in the processing and retail stages, and awareness campaigns for retailers and consumers on food loss and food waste. SISTERS will deliver 80 practice abstracts by the end of the project, next year. These innovations have the potential to reduce food loss and waste by 27.4% and CO2 emissions by around 20%. In September, SAFE welcomed the EU’s first binding food loss and waste reduction targets, to be applied nationally by 31 December 2030. We view this legislation as the basis for more ambitious mandatory targets after 2030 and we are proud of our contribution to the fight against food loss and waste in Europe. The morning session will conclude with a workshop dedicated to the GI-SMART project, focusing on products with Geographical Indications (GIs). The aim of the project is to make GIs more sustainable, and SAFE’s contribution is to provide the consumer perspective: studying the communication and perception of the sustainability and quality of these products. Through workshops and interactive activities, SAFE is committed to making the value of GIs more visible and recognised by European citizens. Finally, we will address food contact materials and sustainability in packaging, highlighting our R3PACK project — Reduce, Reuse, Rethink packaging. For years, SAFE has raised concerns about the hazards posed by chemicals contained in food and drink packaging. At R3PACK, we have worked to develop safe, sustainable packaging options. The main aspects of R3PACK will be addressed, such as plastic substitution through fiber-based packaging, reusable plastic packaging, including the life-cycle assessment (LCA), and future perspectives on sustainable packaging and food contact materials. We will look at the insights from consumers drawn from this three-year project. Europe’s food system is facing serious challenges in the present European mandate. SAFE’s mission is to identify them and work for the protection of consumers and the environment in EU legislation. Our Annual Conference will embody that work.		SAFE’s Annual Conference 2025, on 20 November in Brussels, will mark World Children Day, a good reminder of our journey as an organisation and a motivation to carry our work forward, along our core principles of Health, Environment, and Inclusion.	[ "Agrifood", "Development", "Food systems", "Promoted content", "Sustainability" ]		2025-10-27T15:00:54+00:00	2025-10-27T17:16:04+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/opinion/safes-annual-conference-2025-advancing-consumer-protection-through-research/
Catalan separatist party Junts breaks relations with Sánchez's Socialists	Seven MPs from Junts underpin Sánchez’s minority government MADRID- Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Catalan ally Junts decided on Monday to “unanimously break relations” with the ruling Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) over “unfulfilled promises” made in exchange for backing the Spanish premier’s re-election in 2023. The move, which still needs to be approved by the party’s grassroots members, would mean the government can no longer rely on Junts lawmakers to back their proposals. The Sánchez government currently controls 152 seats in Spain’s 350-member legislative body, and often depends on regional parties to pass new laws. The break with the Catalans will not immediately topple the government. However, it could weaken Sánchez’s mandate, and could hint at troubles ahead if the Catalan separatists join forces with the opposition and back a no-confidence vote. You've reached your limit of free articles To continue reading, click the Subscribe button belowto choose a plan and unlock full access. Already have an account? Log in	Inés Fernández-Pontes	Seven MPs from Junts underpin Sánchez’s minority government	[ "Politics", "Across Europe", "Catalan independence", "Spain" ]	Politics	2025-10-27T13:51:10+00:00	2025-10-27T18:23:39+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/catalan-separatist-party-junts-breaks-relations-with-sanchezs-socialists/
Ten people go on trial over online harassment of French first lady	The trial comes after she and Macron filed a defamation lawsuit in the US in July Ten people went on trial in Paris on Monday, charged with sexist online harassment of Brigitte Macron, in the latest case linked to unsubstantiated gender claims thrown at the French first lady in France and beyond. The trial comes after she and President Emmanuel Macron filed a defamation lawsuit in the United States at the end of July, in connection with a rumour amplified and repeated online that Brigitte Macron was assigned male at birth. The unsupported claim has long targeted the presidential couple, alongside criticism of their 24-year age gap. You've reached your limit of free articles To continue reading, click the Subscribe button belowto choose a plan and unlock full access. Already have an account? Log in		The trial comes after she and Macron filed a defamation lawsuit in the US in July	[ "Politics", "Brigitte Macron", "Emmanuel Macron", "trial" ]	Politics	2025-10-27T13:47:20+00:00		en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/ten-people-go-on-trial-over-online-harassment-of-french-first-lady/
Voices for the Ocean: Citizens driving change in Europe	How can ocean literacy empower citizens, shape policy, and inspire collective action to protect Europe’s seas? Euractiv’s Xhoi Zajmi speaks with Adeline Plé from the Surfrider Foundation Europe and Eliane Vera Paz from Atlantic Cities, to understand how our connection to the ocean can drive meaningful change.		How can ocean literacy empower citizens, shape policy, and inspire collective action to protect Europe’s seas? Euractiv’s Xhoi Zajmi speaks with Adeline Plé from the Surfrider Foundation Europe and Eliane Vera Paz from Atlantic Cities, to understand how our connection to the ocean can drive meaningful change.	[ "Energy, Environment & Transport" ]	Energy, Environment & Transport	2025-10-27T13:17:57+00:00	2025-10-27T13:23:10+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/podcast/voices-for-the-ocean-citizens-driving-change-in-europe/
EU to propose ‘concrete’ critical mineral plan before end of 2025	The move follows Beijing’s announcement in October of sweeping export controls on rare earths Brussels is seeking to flesh out a plan to reduce its dependence on China for critical minerals before the end of the year, a European Commission spokesperson said on Monday. The comments come after Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s weekend unveiling of ‘RESourceEU’, a proposal to strengthen Europe’s supply chain resilience for strategically crucial metals by boosting trade links with third countries. The plan includes increasing domestic mining and refining, and joint stockpiling. China dominates the world’s supply of critical minerals, which are the building blocks of everything from electric vehicles and computers to wind turbines, radars, and fighter jets. “The intention with the RESourceEU proposal is to come forward with a concrete initiative before the end of the year,” Commission trade spokesperson Olof Gill told reporters. He added that the initiative would seek to “complement” the 2024 Critical Raw Material Act, a similar plan to reduce the bloc’s strategic dependence on China, without providing details. The news follows Beijing’s announcement earlier this month of sweeping export controls on a range of minerals known as rare earths, tightening previous restrictions imposed in April that have already forced some EU firms to shutter production. China accounts for roughly 70% of global mining and 90% of the world’s refining capacity. Defence The European Commission said it was unsettled by China’s sweeping new export controls on strategically… 3 minutes The move has exacerbated tensions between Brussels and Beijing, which have long been aggravated by China’s growing trade surplus, and its deepening political and economic links with Russia. Gill also said on Monday that Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao would not participate in a “high-level” meeting between Chinese and European officials in Brussels this week, despite EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič’s suggestion last week that Wang would join. “High-level technical people” from China will arrive in Brussels on Thursday, Gill said. “I don’t need to name them; I ain’t gonna name them. You just need to trust me that they’re high-level, that they’re technical, and that they’re working hard to get the job done.” The Chinese delegation’s visit comes on the same day of a planned meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea. (mm)	Thomas Moller-Nielsen	The move follows Beijing’s announcement in October of sweeping export controls on rare earths	[ "Defence", "Economy", "Energy, Environment & Transport", "Politics", "China", "Critical Raw Materials Act", "Maroš Šefčovič", "Rare Earths", "RESourceEU", "Trade", "Ursula von der Leyen" ]	Economy	2025-10-27T13:02:22+00:00	2025-10-27T15:34:02+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/eu-to-propose-concrete-critical-mineral-plan-before-end-of-2025/
Poland rises to sixth in EU digital health transformation, reports new study	Poland has achieved an impressive 92% eHealth 'maturity level' surpassing many EU member states typically considered more developed Poland has emerged as a leading performer in the digitalisation of healthcare, securing sixth place among EU member states in the newly released Digital Decade eHealth Indicator Study 2025. The report, which also includes data from Iceland and Norway, assesses progress made by European countries towards the digital transformation of public health systems, based on data collected through December 2024. Dariusz Standerski, deputy minister of digital affairs and head of the government’s healthcare digitalisation taskforce, said Poland’s advancements reflect a broader commitment to modernising public services. “Technology should support and ease the burden on healthcare systems,” Standerski told Polityka Zdrowotna, citing improvements in data management, diagnostics, and administrative efficiency. “Today, the e-prescription system eliminates errors and inefficiencies that were once routine,” he added. The report uses 12 indicators to measure the maturity of national eHealth systems. Poland has achieved an impressive 92% eHealth maturity level, surpassing many EU member states typically considered more developed, while the EU average stands at 83%. Leading the rankings are Belgium and Estonia, which both achieved a perfect score of 100%. Denmark, Lithuania, and Malta rank just above Poland, while Ireland sits at the bottom with only 25% access. Greece recorded the largest improvement, increasing its score by 16 percentage points, although it still ranks fourth from last with 74%. A key digital tool advancing this progress in Poland is the Patient Online Account, which provides all citizens access to their health data, including the ability to grant access to authorised persons such as children, dependents, or close relatives. This system gives Poland a notable edge in the availability and transparency of medical information. Currently, Polish citizens can access nine types of electronic health documents via the Patient Online Account. These include e-prescriptions, e-referrals, hospital treatment information cards, diagnostic and laboratory test reports, individual healthcare plans, refusal of hospital admission forms, information for primary care physicians, and the student preventive examination card, which is still being integrated into the system. Despite Poland’s impressive advances in eHealth, the report highlights several areas requiring further attention. One major recommendation focuses on improving access to medical imaging. Currently, patients can view reports from diagnostic tests such as ultrasounds, X-rays, and CT scans, but do not have direct access to the images themselves. Allowing patients to download and review diagnostic images online would significantly enhance the quality of care and facilitate clearer communication between patients and healthcare providers. Another critical challenge lies in ensuring the timely and efficient transmission of all medical data to both patients and medical staff. Automation and system integration are pivotal to achieving this goal and driving the continued development of eHealth services. Standerski emphasises that a key factor in Poland’s digital transformation success is the close cooperation between the Ministry of Digital Affairs and the Ministry of Health. This partnership takes practical form through the Team for Supporting Healthcare Digitalisation, a joint team that defines shared priorities in healthcare digitalisation. Standerski explained, “The ministry of health is responsible for systems such as the Patient Online Account, while we manage the mObywatel app and other state registries. Our goal is full interoperability between these systems. Each application has its strengths, mObywatel is widespread, the Patient Online Account specialises in health data.” Looking ahead, the plans go beyond current achievements. The e-Health Centre, which oversees more than 50 digital health systems, is preparing to launch a range of innovative eHealth services funded by the National Recovery Plan, a government initiative designed to stimulate post-pandemic economic recovery. These include an e-Registration platform that enables quick, convenient booking of medical appointments and tests. There is also an e-Consultation system designed as a secure online collaboration space for specialists and medical teams. Additionally, an e-Profile tool will serve as an early warning system, alerting clinicians to a patient’s deteriorating health. An e-Home suite of tools will also support remote health monitoring, particularly useful for chronically ill patients and elderly people. Together, these initiatives are set to significantly enhance the scope and quality of Poland’s digital healthcare services. Poland’s minister of digital affairs stressed that no one will be forced to use digital applications. He emphasises that digitalisation represents an opportunity, not an obligation, assuring that there will always be the option to handle matters in person at a service desk. However, officials will also have access to online systems, which will help reduce queues and waiting times. Educational campaigns such as the Intergenerational School are underway to familiarise older generations with new technologies. Currently, one in three adult Poles uses the mObywatel app, illustrating that digital solutions gain acceptance when they are convenient and user-friendly, the minister highlights. [VA, BM]	Paulina Mozolewska	Poland has achieved an impressive 92% eHealth 'maturity level' surpassing many EU member states typically considered more developed	[ "Health", "Poland" ]	Health	2025-10-27T12:40:53+00:00		en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/poland-rises-to-sixth-in-eu-digital-health-transformation-reports-new-study/
Czech president tasks billionaire ex-premier with forming new government	A Czech billionaire and owner of agro-chemical giant, Babis came out on top in the October elections The Czech president on Monday tasked billionaire ex-premier Andrej Babis, whose party won a parliamentary election earlier this month, to lead talks to form the country’s next government. The ANO party of self-described “Trumpist” Babis topped the October 3-4 poll, gaining 34.5% of the vote and 80 seats in the 200-member parliament, but failing to get an outright majority. Czech President Petr Pavel on Monday called on Babis to form a new government, saying he had based the decision “on the results of the elections… the progress of negotiations to date, and the positions adopted by the various parliamentary parties”. You've reached your limit of free articles To continue reading, click the Subscribe button belowto choose a plan and unlock full access. Already have an account? Log in		A Czech billionaire and owner of agro-chemical giant, Babis came out on top in the October elections	[ "Politics" ]	Politics	2025-10-27T12:40:27+00:00	2025-10-27T15:45:22+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/czech-president-tasks-billionaire-ex-premier-with-forming-new-government/?utm_source=euractiv&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_content=The capitals&utm_term=0-0&utm_campaign=EN_THE_CAPITALS
Italy court reorders extradition of Ukrainian to Germany in Nord Stream case	His lawyer said the proceedings against Kuznietsov were "tainted by serious procedural violations" An Italian court once again ruled on Monday that a Ukrainian held since August for allegedly sabotaging the Nord Stream gas pipelines could be extradited to Germany, his lawyer said. Lawyer Nicola Canestrini said in a statement that his client, Serhii Kuznietsov, would appeal the decision by the court of appeals in Bologna. A different section of the same court had approved the extradition in September, only for Italy’s top court to reject the decision over an issue with the arrest warrant issued by Germany, sending the case back for reexamination. You've reached your limit of free articles To continue reading, click the Subscribe button belowto choose a plan and unlock full access. Already have an account? Log in		His lawyer said the proceedings against Kuznietsov were "tainted by serious procedural violations"	[ "Energy, Environment & Transport", "Politics", "Germany", "Italy", "Nord Stream" ]	Energy, Environment & Transport	2025-10-27T11:17:46+00:00		en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/italy-court-reorders-extradition-of-ukrainian-to-germany-in-nord-stream-case/
ECB to hold interest rates steady with inflation subdued	For now, the central bank is "in a good place", ECB President Christine Lagarde said The European Central Bank is expected to hold interest rates steady this week for its third straight meeting, with inflation under control and the long-struggling eurozone economy looking healthier. Following a year-long series of cuts, the ECB has kept its key deposit rate on hold at 2% since July. Inflation has settled around the central bank’s 2% target in recent months, as Europe has weathered US President Donald Trump’s tariff onslaught better than initially feared. You've reached your limit of free articles To continue reading, click the Subscribe button belowto choose a plan and unlock full access. Already have an account? Log in		For now, the central bank is "in a good place", ECB President Christine Lagarde said	[ "Economy", "Christine Lagarde", "Eurozone" ]	Economy	2025-10-27T09:44:45+00:00		en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/ecb-to-hold-interest-rates-steady-with-inflation-subdued/
Alleged head of Greece subsidy scandal network detained	The 38-year-old man acknowledged his role in the scandal during questioning by prosecutors The alleged head of a network that diverted more than €17 million of EU farm subsidies has been ordered into pre-trial detention following questioning, the ANA news agency reported on Monday. The 38-year-old man acknowledged his role in the scandal during questioning by prosecutors, the report said. Thirty-seven people were arrested last week in raids linked to the fake claims for EU Common Agriculture Policy subsidies. Ten have now been ordered held in detention, with more suspects to be questioned on Monday. You've reached your limit of free articles To continue reading, click the Subscribe button belowto choose a plan and unlock full access. Already have an account? Log in		The 38-year-old man acknowledged his role in the scandal during questioning by prosecutors	[ "Agrifood", "Politics", "Kyriakos Mitsotakis" ]	Agrifood	2025-10-27T09:40:11+00:00	2025-10-27T09:52:29+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/alleged-head-of-greece-subsidy-scandal-network-detained/
The dangers of ‘urgency mindset’	In today’s edition: a top MEP says the Commission is poised to amend its €2 trillion budget proposal, Geert Wilders is tipped to win the Dutch election but unlikely to become prime minister, and Parliament faces scrutiny over EU funds awarded to a professor previously fired for sexual harassment Good Monday morning, and welcome back to Rapporteur, Euractiv’s front page. This is Eddy Wax, with Nicoletta Ionta in Brussels and our editor Christina Zhao in New Zealand. The big one to watch this week is Wednesday’s Dutch election. More on that below. But first, a personal note: Six weeks into this new newsletter, Nicoletta and I want to take a moment to thank the many thousands of readers who’ve subscribed since launch. We’re thrilled so many of you are enjoying our blend of analysis, EU news, and coverage from across Europe. Since we launched last month, we’ve broken stories about Martin Selmayr, a new visa strategy, EPP pay, steel tariffs, Afghanistan returns, Roberta Metsola’s ambitions, a €1 billion renovation, and housing plans. You can help keep the scoops coming. Got a story we should know about? Drop us a line – we read every message. Need-to-knows: Today’s edition is powered by the European Free Alliance Direct regional funding is essential for the EU’s cohesion The renationalisation of European funds proposed in the MFF 2028-2034 would increase the economic gap between peripheral regions and the already wealthier European capital cities. In EFA, we believe in the EU’s role in mitigating territorial inequalities. We call EU leaders to draft a new proposal that protects direct funding for EU’s regions. Find out more. This is a political ad. More info at https://www.euractiv.com/political-ads/. For details relating to this campaign, more info at https://content.efaparty.eu/. “We need to speed up across the board,” Ursula von der Leyen declared this weekend in Berlin. “An urgency mindset, that must drive all of our work,” she said, unveiling REsourceEU, a new plan to reduce Europe’s dependence on China for rare earths. The “urgency mindset” has become von der Leyen’s mantra of the year – unsurprising, perhaps, amid rising populists and under a new German chancellor eager to slash EU bureaucracy. In any case, who would disagree with a more efficient EU? The European summit last week, however, showed the dangers of prioritising speed over substance. “If it is so urgent, maybe we should have started working on it and negotiating earlier,” said Belgian PM Bart De Wever, who kyboshed attempts to unify around a plan to construct a loan for Ukraine out of the Russian assets held in the EU. His comments raised questions about António Costa’s decision to put it on the agenda for the summit this early. Friedrich Merz’s Financial Times op-ed last month proposing the assets idea put things off kilter from the start, diplomats told my colleague Magnus Lund Nielsen. “It would have been better to keep it inside the negotiation room,” one said. There are other risks of going fast and furious. One is widening the democratic deficit. Merz recently described a vote against deregulation in the European Parliament, the EU’s only directly elected institution, as “unacceptable.” Parliament President Roberta Metsola – whose institution has already been circumvented by governments so much that it’s suing – gently pushed back, but also suggested she’d welcome Merz and other leaders’ help in steering their own MEPs. That drew criticism from members. On Friday, Mario Draghi proposed that through “pragmatic federalism” EU countries could move forward in coalitions to bypass the bloc’s slow decision-making processes. The idea isn’t new. Nor are the problems it raises: Would that lead to a fast federal Europe or undermine the need for a union in the first place? Von der Leyen spent five years calling for the rapid-fire implementation of her Green Deal. “We do not have a moment to waste on fighting climate change,” she said in 2019. The calls for rapid reindustrialisation, rearmament, and red tape reduction are coming from many of the same leaders who called for the measures that got us into this position – with just as much urgency. The more the EU shouts about speed, the more it should spur a pause for thought. What to know about the Dutch election The Netherlands votes on Wednesday after an election campaign marked by deepening polarisation, Rob Savelberg writes. Frans Timmermans, the main left-wing candidate, was verbally assaulted by a man who did a Nazi salute. And populist Geert Wilders briefly suspended his campaigning after Belgian authorities foiled a jihadist-inspired plot targeting him and other political figures, but he has since returned to the trail. Wilders, who stayed outside the government that fell in June, has successfully made migration the dominant issue. His party is again likely to come out on top, but he’s highly unlikely to become prime minister. Centrist parties are scrambling to form a last-ditch grand coalition. Parliament confident of budget win MEP Siegfried Mureșan said he’s close to securing a major victory over the European Commission on the €2 trillion next EU budget. In an interview with our budget reporter Jacob Wulff Wold, he said the EU executive “is ready at the technical level” to change its controversial proposal – and warned that if it doesn’t, Parliament will force its hand. 2040 scoop: States offered leeway on climate goal Brussels is edging toward a compromise on its 2040 climate target, with member states resisting the 90% cut in emissions offered extra breathing room in carbon offsets. A draft proposal, circulated on Saturday by the Danish Council presidency and seen by Euractiv, introduces biennial reviews for governments worried about industrial competitiveness and keeps the 3% limit on foreign carbon credits under debate. EU environment ministers are expected to hash out how much can be outsourced when they meet next Tuesday. Von der Leyen waves bazooka ahead of China talks The Commission chief hinted the EU could deploy its Anti-Coercion instrument against China after Beijing tightened exports of rare earths, crucial for tech, Maria Simon Arboleas reported. It’s unclear, however, how much appetite EU countries have for such a move. China’s Trade Minister Wang Wentao will be in Brussels this week for talks with trade chief Maroš Šefčovič. Kallas walks back Mercosur claim The EU’s top diplomat has walked back her claim that EU leaders made a political decision to sign the Mercosur agreement at Thursday’s European summit. Speaking at an ALDE congress on Friday, she said leaders had given a political mandate to sign the deal, but a spokesperson later clarified to Rapporteur on Saturday that “no mandate was given as such, but … President Costa asked member states to empower their ambassador to take the process forward.” A similar claim by Merz was quashed by Costa – a sign of how sensitive the issue remains. If leaders do reach agreement, the expectation is that Mercosur will be signed in December. BERLIN 🇩🇪 Germany’s top diplomat, Johann Wadephul, heads to Brussels this week for a round of high-level meetings with NATO and EU leaders, days after abruptly postponing a visit to China in a sign of growing friction with Beijing. He will meet Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal, von der Leyen, Šefčovič, and Kallas for talks focused on Ukraine, defence, and supply-chain resilience for critical materials such as rare earths and semiconductors. BRATISLAVA 🇸🇰 Robert Fico, Slovakia’s populist prime minister, is rallying the Visegrad Four against the EU’s new carbon-pricing system for transport and heating. Branding ETS2 “nonsensical,” he argued it would drive up household and fuel costs – and wants Hungary, Poland, and Czechia to join his resistance. Slovakia, meanwhile, is under EU infringement proceedings for dragging its feet on the law, even as Brussels itself weighs changes to appease critics. BELGRADE 🇷🇸 Europe’s would-be lithium hub is turning into a political minefield. Serbia’s year-long student protests, a recent shooting at parliament, and mounting anger over a Rio Tinto project have left President Aleksandar Vučić under pressure – and the EU facing charges of hypocrisy. Brussels needs Serbian lithium for its green plans, but risks losing Serbia altogether. WARSAW 🇵🇱 Donald Tusk announced that his centrist party, Civic Platform, will merge with two allies under a new name – the Civic Coalition – in a move meant to consolidate his governing base and signal renewal. The shift ends more than two decades of Civic Platform’s identity, a party Tusk co-founded and led to power twice before his years as European Council president. MADRID 🇪🇸 Spain’s conservative opposition has called on Catalonia’s separatists to turn against Pedro Sánchez, accusing his Socialist government of corruption and betrayal. As Junts leader Carles Puigdemont convenes his party in Perpignan to reconsider its support, the uneasy alliance that keeps Sánchez in power faces one of its most serious tests since his narrow re-election in 2023. VILNIUS 🇱🇹 Lithuania shut its main airport and sealed its Belarus border crossings on Sunday after objects, likely helium balloons, again crossed into its airspace – the fourth incident in a week. Officials blame smugglers and Belarus’s Alexander Lukashenko for turning a blind eye. Flights were grounded until late Sunday as Vilnius prepares crisis talks over its porous frontier. LUXEMBOURG 🇱🇺 Ministers met in Luxembourg on Sunday to decide 2026 quotas for a sea that is running out of fish. Sweden wanted steep cuts, Latvia blamed Russia’s trawlers, fishers blamed seals and cormorants. The Baltic, once Europe’s cooperative pond, is now a microcosm of the continent’s environmental policies: everybody agrees it’s dying, but no one agrees who should sacrifice. PO-FACED: The European Parliament is funding a news training scheme where “young journalists” will be taught about the EU from a man the College of Europe let go over sexual harassment allegations made by his female student. Sciences Po university in Paris is carrying out the programme, which will see 20 early-career journos taught by six experts, including Olivier Costa, whose contract was terminated by the College last year. He has denied the claims. Funded by Parliament, the course will take place in January and cover topics such as journalistic ethics and European values. PLOPPING THE QUESTION: Greek MEP Emmanouil Fragkos squeezed out a question to the Commission about hygiene in public toilets. “Does the Commission consider that public toilets in the EU should follow uniform high hygiene standards?” he asked. Stéphane Séjourné was the unlucky commissioner tasked with replying, perhaps because he’s in charge of industrial strategy. “There are currently no European Standards relating to hygiene in public toilets and the Commission does not plan to implement a ‘hygiene score’,” he wrote. No shit! Health The European Commission could stop funding lifesaving global health and immunisation organisations Gavi, the Vaccine… 4 minutes Brussels is weighing a plan to end funding for Gavi and the Global Fund by 2030, underscoring the EU’s shift from multilateral aid to influence-driven investment. An internal briefing, seen by Euractiv, argues the bloc should focus on where it can “truly shape governance,” aligning with von der Leyen’s call for a more geopolitical development policy. The proposal follows Washington’s retreat from global health under Donald Trump and mirrors aid cuts by European donors as budgets shift to defence and industry. Critics warn the shift risks undermining programmes credited with saving millions of lives. 📍 Costa attends the 47th ASEAN Summit in Malaysia 📍 Jørgensen travels to Romania for the CESEC ministerial meeting and meets PM Ilie Bolojan 📍 Brunner delivers a keynote at the Sant’Egidio Peace Conference 📍 Von der Leyen attends the Nordic Council meeting in Sweden and a working dinner with business leaders hosted by Ulf Kristersson 📍 Metsola is in Washington for a Strategic Dialogue Roundtable on tech, digital, and artificial intelligence, organised in partnership with the World Economic Forum Contributors: Maria Simon Arboleas, Magnus Lund Nielsen, Thomas Moller-Nielsen, Elisa Braun, Jacob Wulff Wold, Inés Fernández-Pontes, Aleksandra Krzysztoszek, Natália Silenská Editors: Christina Zhao, Sofia Mandilara CORRECTION: The re-election of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was in 2023.	Eddy Wax	In today’s edition: a top MEP says the Commission is poised to amend its €2 trillion budget proposal, Geert Wilders is tipped to win the Dutch election but unlikely to become prime minister, and Parliament faces scrutiny over EU funds awarded to a professor previously fired for sexual harassment	[ "Politics", "Rapporteur" ]	Politics	2025-10-27T08:05:55+00:00	2025-10-28T07:04:13+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/rapporteur-the-dangers-of-urgency-mindset/
AI at work: Europe needs action, not more legislation	The World Employment Confederation-Europe calls for action, not more legislation, to harness AI’s potential in employment. By leveraging existing laws, ethical standards, and social dialogue, Europe can foster innovation, protect workers, and boost competitiveness in a future-proof labour market. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the workplace, enhancing recruitment, boosting productivity, and fostering inclusive labour markets. But as innovation accelerates, so does the debate on how best to govern it. Europe must choose between becoming AI-driven or turning into a nostalgic museum. For the HR Services industry, the choice is clear. To reap AI’s benefits and remain competitive, Europe must avoid the trap of over-regulation and instead focus on applying existing laws effectively, strengthening social dialogue, and investing in workforce skills. Europe does not need new legislation on AI in employment. Instead, it needs coherent, non-legislative measures that support innovation while protecting workers. This approach allows flexibility across member states, reduces administrative burdens, and reinforces Europe’s global competitiveness. The proposed Directive on algorithmic management in the workplace, introduced in June 2025, overlaps with many existing legal obligations. Key provisions are already covered by the GDPR, the AI Act, and work-related laws. Adding more rules risks legal fragmentation and uncertainty, especially for companies operating across borders. Existing regulation already protect workers European and national legislation already provide a strong foundation for responsible AI use in employment. Anti-discrimination laws, data protection regulations, and workplace safety directives ensure transparency, consultation, and respect for fundamental rights. Moreover, recent court rulings from the Netherlands and Italy confirm that the GDPR protects workers against unfair algorithmic decisions, excessive data collection, and opaque task allocation. These safeguards are not theoretical, they are actively enforced and effective. Leading by example: ethical AI in HR services The HR services industry is not waiting for regulation, it is leading the way. In 2023, the World Employment Confederation (WEC) launched the Code of Ethical Principles in the use of Artificial Intelligence, binding for all 43 national federations and 13 corporate members. This Code ensures fairness, non-discrimination, privacy, and transparency in all AI applications related to recruitment and employment. Complementing the code is the WEC AI Toolkit, which offers practical guidance for ethical AI deployment in line with the EU’s AI Act. These initiatives show that responsible innovation is not only possible, it is already happening. The HR services industry is equipped to upskill and reskill the European workforce Europe’s competitiveness depends on its ability to equip workers with future-ready skills. As the working-age population shrinks and global competition intensifies, skills development becomes both an economic and social imperative. WEC-Europe and its members are already delivering impactful training programs across the continent. These programs align with EU initiatives like the AI Continent Action Plan and the Union of Skills, but they also go further, proving that the private sector can lead in preparing Europe’s workforce for the future. Social Dialogue: the cornerstone of responsible AI deployment At the heart of WEC-Europe’s vision is social dialogue. When conducted with trust and mutual recognition, social dialogue becomes a powerful tool for navigating technological change. It helps dispel myths, build trust, and ensure that AI deployment respects workers’ rights and aligns with European values. For over two decades, WEC-Europe and UNI-Europa have maintained a strong EU Sectoral Social Dialogue, addressing digitalisation and the rise of online talent platforms. Rather than imposing new legal instruments, WEC-Europe advocates for capacity building and best practice sharing among social partners. This collaborative approach empowers employers and workers to shape the future of work together. A future-proof vision for AI at Work The message from WEC-Europe is both pragmatic and visionary: Europe does not need more laws, it needs better use of the ones it already has, stronger social dialogue, and a commitment to ethical innovation. By fostering a regulatory environment that supports growth and protects rights, the EU can lead the world in responsible AI deployment. The HR services industry stands ready to support this transition. Through ethical standards, practical tools, and forward-thinking training programs, it is already delivering people-centric solutions that bridge labour market gaps and create pathways to employment. As AI continues to transform the workplace, Europe must ensure that its response is balanced, enabling, and future-proof. With the right approach, AI can be a force for good, driving innovation, inclusion, and prosperity across the continent. Lieven Van Nieuwenhuyze is Chairman of the Tech in HR Taskforce at World Employment Confederation-Europe.		The World Employment Confederation-Europe calls for action, not more legislation, to harness AI’s potential in employment. By leveraging existing laws, ethical standards, and social dialogue, Europe can foster innovation, protect workers, and boost competitiveness in a future-proof labour market.	[ "Tech", "AI (Artificial Intelligence)", "Promoted content" ]		2025-10-27T06:00:19+00:00		en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/opinion/ai-at-work-europe-needs-action-not-more-legislation/
Protests, repression, and lithium: Serbia tests the EU’s democratic credibility	For many in Serbia, the EU’s words ring hollow, as more and more see the bloc as too complacent with Vučić's regime As student-led pro-democracy protests continue to sweep Serbia and local trust in Brussels erodes, the EU finds itself in a difficult balancing act as it tries to both uphold its democratic principles and its green industrial strategy. Ongoing anti-government protests and controversy over the development of an EU-linked lithium mine in Serbia are straining the already-wobbly relationship between Serbian citizens and Brussels. On Tuesday, a shooting and arson at the national parliament in Belgrade injured a man. With tensions running high, the government called it a “terrorist” attack and linked it with Serbia’s nearly year-long ongoing student protests. You've reached your limit of free articles To continue reading, click the Subscribe button belowto choose a plan and unlock full access. Already have an account? Log in	Bronwyn Jones	For many in Serbia, the EU’s words ring hollow, as more and more see the bloc as too complacent with Vučić's regime	[ "Energy, Environment & Transport", "Politics", "Across Europe", "Aleksander Vucic", "Lithium", "Serbia" ]	Politics	2025-10-27T05:00:47+00:00	2025-10-27T13:41:04+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/protests-repression-and-lithium-serbia-tests-the-eus-democratic-credibility/
What the history of tech bubbles can tell us about AI	When the dot-com bubble burst, policymakers largely let it collapse, treating it as a market correction. Today’s accelerationist MAGA-AI boom is different The last time the US tech sector suffered a major crash was when the dot-com bubble burst in 2000. Analysts are already making comparisons with today’s AI boom, warning that an AI crash could mean thousands of insolvencies across the US and Europe. But the neoliberalism of Clinton and Bush was very different from today’s more techno-authoritarian, interventionist US political economy of emerging “state capitalism with American characteristics”. Between 1990 and 2000, the NASDAQ rose tenfold as investors funded start-ups with websites and gimmicky names whose market valuations bore little relation to underlying earnings. When the bubble burst, the NASDAQ lost three-quarters of its value, erasing roughly $5 trillion in paper wealth. Yet the mania was also a “useful bubble” – what Jeff Bezos now calls an “industrial bubble.” It left behind fibre-optic cables, server farms, and a venture-capital infrastructure, as well as survivors like Amazon and Google that powered the modern Internet economy. Superficially, history seems to be repeating. OpenAI books about $13 billion in annualised revenue, but only 5% of its 800 million ChatGPT users pay for a subscription. Deutsche Bank reports that European spending on ChatGPT has stalled since May, suggesting paid uptake may be plateauing in some markets. You've reached your limit of free articles To continue reading, click the Subscribe button belowto choose a plan and unlock full access. Already have an account? Log in		When the dot-com bubble burst, policymakers largely let it collapse, treating it as a market correction. Today’s accelerationist MAGA-AI boom is different	[ "Opinion", "Tech", "Neoliberalism" ]		2025-10-27T05:00:35+00:00		en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/opinion/what-the-history-of-tech-bubbles-can-tell-us-about-ai/
Polarisation puts Dutch democracy to the test	Centrist leaders are racing to form a last-ditch coalition – a Dutch version of Germany’s “grand coalition” AMSTERDAM – The Netherlands, once a model of pragmatic consensus, is entering a volatile new phase as voters head to the polls on Wednesday to decide whether to return to the centre or embrace the politics of polarisation. For decades, the Netherlands embodied the polder model – a society built on compromise among business, labour, and government. That tradition is now fraying. How the Dutch resolve their political impasse may offer a glimpse of Europe’s broader future: whether its democracies can still bridge divides, or whether the centre, long taken for granted, has already slipped away. The forces roiling the Dutch electorate are familiar across the continent: housing shortages, migration pressures, and a generation feeling left behind. Dutch politics has splintered into a patchwork of small parties – from animal-rights activists to Turkish-minority groups – making coalition building ever harder. Even as economic growth remains solid and unemployment low, public confidence in institutions has fallen sharply. You've reached your limit of free articles To continue reading, click the Subscribe button belowto choose a plan and unlock full access. Already have an account? Log in	Rob Savelberg	Centrist leaders are racing to form a last-ditch coalition – a Dutch version of Germany’s “grand coalition”	[ "Politics", "Across Europe", "Elections", "Frans Timmermans", "Geert Wilders", "The Netherlands" ]	Politics	2025-10-27T05:00:17+00:00	2025-10-27T11:32:12+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/polarisation-puts-dutch-democracy-to-the-test/
EXCLUSIVE: EU mulls copying US with end to aid for global health funds	Massive cuts to aid funding would align the EU with Donald Trump's global health strategy The European Commission could stop funding lifesaving global health and immunisation organisations Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the Global Fund by 2030 as it looks to boost the bloc’s overseas influence in other areas, according to an internal briefing document seen by Euractiv. The document prepared for the EU’s Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jozef Síkela, says that the bloc should “focus on funds where the EU can truly shape governance.” This year, US President Donald Trump has cut Washington’s funding to Gavi and the Global Fund, undermining the global health initiatives. You've reached your limit of free articles To continue reading, click the Subscribe button belowto choose a plan and unlock full access. Already have an account? Log in	Emma Pirnay	Massive cuts to aid funding would align the EU with Donald Trump's global health strategy	[ "Health", "Politics", "Gavi", "Jozef Síkela", "Public Health" ]	Health	2025-10-27T05:00:12+00:00	2025-10-27T12:01:19+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/exclusive-eu-mulls-copying-us-with-end-to-aid-for-global-health-funds/
INTERVIEW: Commission ready to tweak its €2tn budget blueprint, says top MEP	"The majority will be so large that it will be impossible for the Commission to further defend its proposal," Parliament co-lead budget negotiator said The European Commission “is ready at the technical level” to change its €2 trillion, seven-year budget plan, and MEPs will force it to do so anyway if it outright refuses, the European Parliament’s co-lead negotiator Siegfried Mureșan told Euractiv. The insistence from the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) lawmaker comes after the EU executive was forced last week to walk back comments from one of its own commissioners suggesting that changes could be on the way. Mureșan has already threatened to reject the €865 billion plan to merge farmer and regional subsidies into centralised national plans unless the Commission makes concrete amendments by Parliament’s 12-13 November debate. You've reached your limit of free articles To continue reading, click the Subscribe button belowto choose a plan and unlock full access. Already have an account? Log in	Jacob Wulff Wold	"The majority will be so large that it will be impossible for the Commission to further defend its proposal," Parliament co-lead budget negotiator said	[ "Agrifood", "Economy", "Politics", "CAP budget", "EU Budget", "Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF)", "Siegfried Mureșan" ]	Economy	2025-10-27T05:00:04+00:00	2025-10-27T10:36:32+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/interview-commission-ready-to-tweak-its-e2tn-budget-blueprint-says-top-mep/
Russia, seals, and cormorants caught in EU Baltic blame game over depleted fish stocks	Sweden is virtually alone in backing the Commission's proposed fishing cuts National delegations from the Baltic coastal countries will meet in Luxembourg on Sunday to negotiate fishing quotas for 2026, with many blaming Russian vessels and fish-eating predators for the sea’s poor state. Known as the planet’s youngest sea, the Baltic is today one of the most polluted bodies of water in the world. The sea is marred by a wide range of pressures, from climate change and fishing to contamination from pharmaceuticals and submerged munitions. You've reached your limit of free articles To continue reading, click the Subscribe button belowto choose a plan and unlock full access. Already have an account? Log in	Maria Simon Arboleas	Sweden is virtually alone in backing the Commission's proposed fishing cuts	[ "Agrifood", "Agrifish Council", "Baltic Sea", "Fish", "Fisheries", "Fishing Quotas" ]	Agrifood	2025-10-26T11:50:12+00:00	2025-10-27T16:43:46+00:00	en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/news/russia-seals-and-cormorants-caught-in-eu-baltic-blame-game-over-depleted-fish-stocks/?utm_source=euractiv&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_content=The capitals&utm_term=0-0&utm_campaign=EN_THE_CAPITALS
AI’s war on journalism will decide the fate of the free press	The EU’s approach to how artificial intelligence uses journalistic work could determine whether the free press survives the digital age – or vanishes into the data stream A quiet war is underway in Europe – one that will decide whether journalism remains a pillar of democracy, or dissolves into the hum of the data economy. For years, news organisations have had an uneasy pact with Silicon Valley. Google and Meta took the lion’s share of advertising money, but sent readers our way. It was a lopsided but functional deal: visibility in exchange for traffic. That bargain has now collapsed. Generative artificial intelligence (GPAI) systems – software applications such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini and “AI Overviews” – are trained on millions of news articles. Many of these articles were behind paywalls and were taken without permission or payment. GPAI systems summarise and repackage journalists’ work but seldom direct readers to the source. What’s left is a veneer of reality: journalism reduced to raw material, stripped of authorship and context. You've reached your limit of free articles To continue reading, click the Subscribe button belowto choose a plan and unlock full access. Already have an account? Log in		The EU’s approach to how artificial intelligence uses journalistic work could determine whether the free press survives the digital age – or vanishes into the data stream	[ "Opinion", "Tech" ]		2025-10-26T05:00:28+00:00		en-GB	https://www.euractiv.com/opinion/ais-war-on-journalism-will-decide-the-fate-of-the-free-press/

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