Category: Politico News

Mandelson served as EU trade commissioner from 2004 to 2008 and was a senior figure in the U.K.’s Labour Party. Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently dismissed the seasoned politician from a senior Foreign Office role following allegations of ties to Epstein, after appointing Mandelson as U.K. ambassador to the United States at the start of […]

Honeymoon’s over That’s not to say they didn’t find some common ground. A few voiced optimism about the EU’s chances of finding consensus without the pugnacious Hungarian premier. “For the first time in years there are no Russians in the room,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk posted on social media, alluding to Orbán’s closeness to […]

Over dinner, leaders talked about how to make the EU’s barely used mutual defense clause — Article 42.7 — work in practice, while avoiding any suggestion it could replace NATO’s Article 5 security guarantee. That discussion comes at a sensitive moment for European capitals, which are trying to respond to growing uncertainty over Washington’s commitment […]

While Cyprus wants the article to be better defined, countries on the frontline against Russia are worried about the EU pledge clashing with NATO’s Article 5 common defense pact. Seeking to reassure them, Cyprus Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos told POLITICO on the sidelines of the leaders’ meeting that 42.7 is “not about defense, I agree […]

Raising taxes But EU institutions and countries such as France are calling for a more ambitious package, arguing the bloc needs to invest in strategic sectors and compete with its Asian and American rivals. For them, a bigger budget does not necessarily mean asking EU countries with strained public finances to pay more. Instead, they […]

8. Italy doesn’t want to pay for Brussels building work Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni isn’t happy about plans to renovate the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels (that’s the building just off the Schuman roundabout that looks like a 1970s leisure center and is next to the giant glass egg building). “We cannot propose renovating […]

“We need to tariff the goods from Russia to pay off the damages,” he said. “This has been the talk in different kinds of corridors [and] different meetings, that different kinds of tariffs on Russian goods could fund the reconstruction of Ukraine.” Seven countries, including Estonia, called for tariffs on Russian products such as steel […]

“The current law is no longer adapted to the expectations of consumers and retailers, nor to the development of e-commerce, which is much more flexible than physical stores, causing distortions of competition,” Eléonore Simonet, Belgium’s minister for small businesses, the self-employed and SMEs, said in a statement in July 2025. “More flexibility should ensure that […]

Poland announced Friday it will file a legal challenge against the EU-Mercosur trade deal at the EU’s top court, in a largely symbolic gesture.  The reversal comes just weeks before the May 26 deadline for annulment actions under EU law, and barely a month after Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the government had no such […]

With oil and gas tankers stranded in the Strait of Hormuz and energy prices skyrocketing, European leaders have so far failed to find an agreement on how to help secure the strategic waterway. While Germany has indicated it could be ready to accept U.S. President Donald Trump’s demand for a maritime operation to reopen the […]