![Indeed, if Starmer does win on July 4, he will be the fourth cautious, unflashy center-left leader in recent years to take over from rulers from the right, following the victories of Joe Biden in the United States, Anthony Albanese in Australia, and Olaf Scholz in Germany.](/articlefiles/ukfl_.png)
The UK Braces for a Change of Direction
By: EBR | Tuesday, May 28, 2024
Unless something extraordinary happens, fourteen years of Conservative rule in Britain will come to an end on July 4
![One can only dream of Robert Fico returning to the political stage not – as is to be feared – full of vengeance, but full of restraint and a clear-eyed, indeed very personal view of where the politics of hate can lead a country, if not a continent.](/articlefiles/slovak_.png)
Beyond Slovakia: The New Politics of Hate Takes Root In Europe
By: EBR | Thursday, May 23, 2024
There is a new divide in politics in Europe
![The first that the UK will not be involved with. Yet in a way we will be involved because the outcome will shape our relations with each other.](/articlefiles/eueukk_.png)
EU elections: UK looks on from the “outside”
By: EBR | Wednesday, May 22, 2024
There is something fundamentally depressing about the forthcoming EU elections
![What all the above means is that Europe needs to strategically acknowledge how such premises no longer apply.](/articlefiles/euroelec_.png)
Europe’s Inability to Manage Instability
By: EBR | Tuesday, May 21, 2024
It has been a tumultuous few weeks inside the EU and beyond
![Voters’ forecast shift to the hard right is set to upset if not reverse policies that have been central to the European project for decades.](/articlefiles/epelect_.png)
Hard-right’s EP election wins may have a silver lining
By: EBR | Tuesday, May 21, 2024
Unless the opinion polls have got it very wrong, next month’s European elections will trigger a massively disruptive ‘Blame Game’ within the EU
![Twenty days before the vote that could change the balance in the EU, Meloni outlined a “model” to be implemented in the next European legislature: uniting the right-wing parties in Europe.](/articlefiles/euelctions_.png)
Meloni seeks to unite Europe’s right parties, edges closer to Le Pen
By: EBR | Tuesday, May 21, 2024
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni reiterated her mission to unite Europe’s right-wing parties in an interview on Monday
![Speaking at a summit for “Global Solutions” in Berlin on Tuesday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD/S&D) called the transformation of economies towards climate neutrality “irreversible”.](/articlefiles/50euros_.png)
‘It’s the economy, stupid’: Scholz, German leaders get real on costs of climate transition
By: EBR | Wednesday, May 15, 2024
While all eyes were on Xi Jinping’s visit to Europe earlier this week – with China’s state subsidies to green industries particularly in the spotlight – leaders in Berlin debated how the global transition towards climate neutrality affects the economy
![“Despite the growing evidence of looming ecological collapse (…) European governments and EU politicians are blocking new measures to protect nature and tearing up ones already in place,” it continues.](/articlefiles/eucycle__2.png)
NGOs unite against EU’s rollback of green policies for the agrifood sector
By: EBR | Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Hundreds of civil society organisations decried the recent reversal of EU sustainability policies for the bloc’s agrifood sector in an open letter
![“We should move forward as a union, and we are all committed to doing so,” Gentiloni said after the meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels.](/articlefiles/commisssion_.png)
Gentiloni: If no EU consensus, member states will set up smaller-scale capital markets union
By: EBR | Tuesday, May 14, 2024
Member states keen on integrating their capital markets will likely move ahead by themselves if no EU-wide consensus can be reached, European Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni said
![Take Poland. Here is what Sikorski told the Sejm about the country’s role in NATO and the EU, and its own defense.](/articlefiles/eunato_.png)
Making European Defense an Imperative
By: EBR | Thursday, May 9, 2024
Europeans still lack a common vision for how to ensure the continent’s security
![France’s president embodies this question in several ways. He is the EU’s only national leader of global stature who sets out a strategic vision for Europe. Also, he must leave the Elysee Palace three years from now and will, at only 49, be looking for work.](/articlefiles/sorbonne_.png)
Was Macron’s Sorbonne speech an unspoken EU leadership bid?
By: EBR | Thursday, May 9, 2024
By accident, or perhaps by design, Emmanuel Macron’s recent Sorbonne speech was a litany of familiar woes pointing to the European Union’s greatest but unacknowledged problem
![Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and government officials welcomed Xi at the Belgrade airport, where he was greeted by a military guard of honor and folk dancers. The two leaders will hold a meeting on Wednesday.](/articlefiles/serbiachina_.png)
China’s Xi Jinping visits Serbia on anniversary of 1999 NATO bombing
By: EBR | Wednesday, May 8, 2024
Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Serbia on Tuesday escorted by MIG-29 jets in a tightly secured visit coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the NATO bombing of China’s embassy
![The alignment between the centre and hard right parties on the contentious issue of climate shows that a post-election deal is a real possibility.](/articlefiles/epp_.png)
EU elections: Alignment on climate shows that door remains open for EPP-ECR coalition
By: EBR | Wednesday, May 8, 2024
Ahead of June’s EU elections, the EPP’s official thinktank and the ECR have set out their positions
![The parties reacted to von der Leyen’s comments made during the Maastricht Debate of lead candidates on 29 April, where she did not discard collaborating with hard-right European Conservatives and Reformists group (ECR), the political family of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Poland’s Law and Justice party.](/articlefiles/euroo_.png)
EU Socialists, Greens, Liberals warn von der Leyen: No to hard-right alliance
By: EBR | Wednesday, May 8, 2024
The European Socialists, Greens, and Liberals have all shut the door to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s reelection if she decides to cooperate with the hard-right ECR party
![They attributed these difficulties to “unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles” that EU countries would face if the rules were enforced without classifying countries or regions into three different categories (high, standard and low) based on the risk of deforestation.](/articlefiles/antidefor_.png)
Austria’s farming, economy ministers urge von der Leyen to delay EU anti-deforestation law
By: EBR | Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Austria’s agriculture and economy ministers have urged European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to postpone the implementation of the new EU anti-deforestation regulation
![Progress on the EU track is no remedy for the chronic crisis besetting Bosnian politics, which is a legacy of the Yugoslav war. Milorad Dodik, president of Republika Srpska (RS), Bosnia’s Serb-majority entity, is a real thorn in the side of Christian Schmidt, the international community’s high representative, and of the West.](/articlefiles/bosnia_.png)
Polarization Threatens to Derail Bosnia’s EU Ambitions
By: EBR | Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Bosnia finally has some good news. On March 21, the European Council gave the country the green light to start membership talks with the EU
![The EU wants to have at least 30 million zero-emission cars on European roads by 2030, or about 12% of the current car fleet. However, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) cautioned the bloc may create new economic dependencies and hurt its own industry.](/articlefiles/parkinglot_.png)
EU’s 2050 net zero goals at risk as EV rollout faces setbacks
By: EBR | Thursday, April 25, 2024
The EU needs to rethink its policies to make a 2035 ban on new petrol car sales feasible as electric vehicles (EVs) remain unaffordable and alternative fuel options are not credible, the EU’s external auditor said
![Fourteen of the EU’s 27 heads of government converged next to the Atomium in Brussels for the first Nuclear Energy Summit, co-organised by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Belgian presidency of the EU Council.](/articlefiles/nucleaaaar_.png)
Nuclear gains favour in Europe, but financing struggles remain
By: EBR | Thursday, April 25, 2024
Though EU countries remain divided about nuclear power, the insecurity brought on by the war in Ukraine has sparked increased interest from politicians not seen in decades
![While the agreement has the support of the Left, Greens, Socialists (S&D), and Liberals (Renew), the European People’s Party (EPP) submitted amendments to reject the new body, arguing that it was “poorly negotiated”. However, all of EPP’s amendments were rejected by the committee.](/articlefiles/parleu__2.png)
Centre-right EPP fails to topple EU ethics body against tight majority
By: EBR | Wednesday, April 24, 2024
The centre-right European People’s Party’s attempt to block the adoption of an agreement to create an ethics body overseeing all of the EU institutions failed
![Hundreds of thousands of military-age Ukrainian men are living abroad and the country faces an acute shortage of troops against a larger, better-armed enemy nearly 26 months since Russia’s full-scale invasion.](/articlefiles/ukr___1_.png)
Ukraine to deny consular services to military-age men living abroad
By: EBR | Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Ukraine suspended consular services for military-age male citizens until 18 May, criticising Ukrainians abroad who it said expected to receive help from the state without helping it battle for survival