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Key disagreements between Moscow and Kyiv remain, including over Ukraine agreeing to cede territory it continues to control and security guarantees provided by Europe.

Kremlin signals no Ukraine breakthrough after Putin talks with US

By: BBC News | Wednesday, December 3, 2025

Five hours of talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump’s senior negotiator appear to have failed to produce a breakthrough on securing a Ukraine peace deal.

The EU has enough leverage to achieve some genuine agency in negotiations. Be it sanctions, Russian frozen assets, security guarantees, or accession to the EU, Brussels has the cards to drive a nimble diplomacy that acts in close tandem with Ukraine.

Potential Peace in Ukraine Is a Moment of Reckoning for Europe

By: Carnegie - Strategic Europe | Tuesday, December 2, 2025

Sidelined by the latest U.S. initiative on Ukraine, Europe has no alternative but to set out its own strategic vision—not just for Kyiv but for the entire security order of the continent.

As fanciful as the idea of a second EU referendum may seem, there are forces at play that could at the very least make it much more possible that the Labour Party commits to rejoining the customs union.

The Labour plot to reverse Brexit

By: EBR | Monday, December 1, 2025

A group of vocal Remainers, with Alastair Campbell a key member, are urging Keir Starmer to rejoin the customs union – or the EU itself

Since the Netherlands recognised same-sex unions in 2001, a number of other EU countries have followed suit, but others, such as Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, have not.

Same-sex marriage must be respected throughout EU, top court tells Poland

By: BBC News | Wednesday, November 26, 2025

Poland has been told to recognise same-sex marriages registered elsewhere in the European Union, in a ruling by the EU’s top court.

Delors’ drive to abolish national barriers and streamline intra-European trade revitalised a European integration project becalmed in the doldrums since the 1970s. To ensure most of his 300 measures would get onto member states’ statute books by his 1992 deadline, he took a British-inspired ‘pragmatic’ approach.

It’s time to emulate Delors and fight for Draghi & Letta reforms

By: Friends of Europe | Tuesday, November 25, 2025

Giles Merritt recalls the heyday of Delors’ combative style that transformed the single market from dream into reality, and urges a repeat performance.

Western governments are mostly bowing to Trump’s bullying and adapting their priorities given their correct conclusion that the United States is no longer a reliable strategic partner. Accordingly, several of these governments are boosting defense outlays and cutting foreign aid spending.

Rising Global Dangers and European Silence

By: The Globalist | Monday, November 24, 2025

The failure of leading Western European governments to stand up against Trump’s outrages poses exceptional dangers.

Out on the waves, where freedom of navigation is a golden rule, the ability and appetite of coastal countries to intervene is limited, even though the risk they face is escalating.

On the front line of Europe’s standoff with Russia’s sanction-busting shadow fleet

By: BBC News | Wednesday, November 19, 2025

Out on the western Baltic, a coastguard officer radios a nearby, sanctioned oil tanker. "Swedish Coastguard calling… Do you consent to answer a few questions for us? Over."

The Bataclan attackers were young men of mainly North African origin, recruited in Belgium and France, trained in IS territory in the Middle East, who then returned to Europe hidden among a vast flow of migrants.

France remembers Bataclan attacks but knows enemy has not gone away

By: BBC News | Friday, November 14, 2025

Just as France marks the 10th anniversary of the Bataclan massacres, another reminder has come of the permanence of the jihadist threat.

Throwing more money to combat regional ‘desertification’ may not be the answer. Research in Germany challenges the effectiveness of development finance, arguing that each euro spent through the EU’s cohesion policies generates little more than an additional euro in economic growth.

Neglecting its poorest regions risks being a fatal EU mistake

By: Giles Merritt | Thursday, November 13, 2025

Giles Merritt warns against halving cohesion funds in the new MFF when hard-hit rural regions flock to support the populists’ disruptive messages

Ahead of Monday’s meeting, liberal Renew and the Greens were pleased with the Commission’s concessions, per three parliament sources, but still said they would argue for more.

Disunited European Parliament calls off EU budget rebellion

By: Euractiv | Tuesday, November 11, 2025

"The Commission’s proposals are quite good and meet our demands," said EPP MEP Herbert Dorfmann, while sources close to the file said centre-left S&D lawmakers were unhappy with the suggestions.

Trump’s questioning of security guarantee and his constantly shifting messages on Ukraine have both reinforced the case for Europe’s strategic autonomy and highlighted the continent’s continued dependence on U.S. military support.

Can the EU Meet the Trump Moment?

By: Carnegie - Strategic Europe | Tuesday, November 4, 2025

The second term of U.S. President Donald Trump is pushing Europeans to strengthen their capacity for collective action. But their biggest challenge comes from within: U.S.-backed radical-right parties that want to weaken the EU.

Whether Europe’s faltering performance on AI could be turned into a coherent strategy in the event of a US financial crisis remains to be seen.

How Europe’s AI tortoise might overtake the US hare

By: EBR | Wednesday, October 29, 2025

Giles Merritt reports on the growing risk of an investment meltdown of the US’s exuberant AI start-ups, and the opportunity for Europe.

Western Balkan governments should team up to develop joint projects, attract foreign investment in the defense industrial sector, and benefit from increased spending on security in the EU.

How the Western Balkans Can Contribute to European Defense

By: Carnegie - Strategic Europe | Wednesday, October 29, 2025

The Western Balkans’ defense industry offers Europe a chance to strengthen its security. But to become net contributors, governments across the region must modernize their militaries, attract investment, and gradually integrate into the EU’s defense initiatives.

Kallas told a party congress of her liberal political family ALDE on Friday: “Yesterday at the European Council we gave a mandate to sign the Mercosur agreement.”

Kallas walks back claim Mercosur deal was agreed at European Council

By: Euractiv | Monday, October 27, 2025

Remarks by the EU’s top diplomat on Friday clashed with a readout from the European Council president

Russia has rejected European calls for a ceasefire based on existing front lines

Europe’s leaders back Trump call for frontline freeze but Russia says no

By: BBC News | Wednesday, October 22, 2025

European leaders have joined Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky in insisting that any talks on ending the war in Ukraine should start with freezing the current front line, and warned that Russia is not serious about peace.

The European crisis is deeper than an inability to conceive of security outside the U.S.-dominated NATO framework

Europe’s Broken National Politics Hamper its Geopolitical Power

By: EBR | Tuesday, October 21, 2025

Europe is paralyzed, crippled by a lack of strategic vision, the surge of far-right forces, and the multiplication of caretaker governments. To achieve the union’s geopolitical ambitions, EU member states must first respond to their citizens’ daily concerns.

Marine Le Pen’s hard-right National Rally (RN) and the radical-left France Unbowed (LFI) of Jean-Luc Mélenchon have both tabled confidence votes in Lecornu’s government on Thursday, but would need the support of centre-left parties to bring him down.

French PM backs freezing Macron’s pension reform to save government

By: EBR | Wednesday, October 15, 2025

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has told parliament he backs suspending controversial 2023 pension reforms, in the face of crucial votes of no-confidence later this week

However, he does share something fundamental with populist leaders Nawrocki, Orbán, and Fico about the EU: sovereignty. These leaders do not support further EU integration even though the political, security, and defense circumstances demand it.

Babis’s victory in Czechia is not a turning point for European Populists

By: EBR | Tuesday, October 14, 2025

A populist movement has taken power in Czechia, reinforcing the steady rise of far-right parties across Central Europe. While united by the idea of regaining sovereignty, these forces remain divided on vital issues such as their stance toward Russia

Europe’s ‘coalition of the willing’ may at some point have to put peacekeeping ‘boots on the ground’ in Ukraine, but its weaknesses are daunting. The UK and France wrangle over their soldiers’ rules of engagement – should these deter Russian assaults or respond to them? As to capability shortcomings, the Europeans would have to rely on the US for intelligence, for many weapons systems and logistical support.

The EU’s defence drive lacks a plan and a political mandate

By: EBR | Tuesday, September 30, 2025

Europe’s answer to the world’s geopolitical turmoil is massive rearmament and a new era of intra-EU military cooperation

The EU should support African partners in making the African Continental Free Trade Area a reality and streamline existing trade frameworks – particularly rules of origin – while expanding current agreements to include services, competition and intellectual property. It is equally important to improve the investment climate across Africa by fostering robust institutions, legal certainty and good governance.

"Stronger" EU-Africa relationship needed

By: EBR | Wednesday, September 24, 2025

The EU-Africa relationship offers great investment and trade opportunities, according to Europe’s business community

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