The situation in Cuba is worsening day by day. According to the United Nations, the country has been pushed to the point of imminent humanitarian “collapse.”What are the reactions of Europeans?
MEPs have inserted a series of safeguards into the EU-US trade tariff deal that will require Washington’s approval, as US urges the EU to sign it off.
“As the [Middle East] region enters a period of religious holidays, I think everyone should calm down and the fighting should stop,” said French president Macron in Brussels.
MEPs are going to press ahead with a vote to approve the EU-US trade pact —despite most observers believing that it clear favours the US.
Ursula von der Leyen’s flurry of diplomacy after the US-Israel strikes on Iran is very hard to ignore. In the span of one day, she had conversations with eight foreign leaders, as well as with three EU countries — greatly overdoing communications by both the president of the European Council (António Costa) and the high representative (Kaja Kallas). Here’s why this is seen as highly controversial, or even problematic, within the EU institutional system.
“First of all, we want to hear from Israel and the United States of America when they want to achieve their military goals in Iran,” said Germany, while also calling for Israeli restraint in Lebanon.
Russia has earned an estimated €6bn in fossil-fuel, or €510m per day, since the attacks on Iran, according to a new analysis published on Thursday.
On 10 March 2025, the US announced that 83 percent of USAID’s programs would be cancelled, involving over 5,000 contracts. The UK, Germany, France, Belgium and others quickly and sharply cut their aid budgets too. One year on, what are the effects?
Calls to lift oil-related sanctions imposed on Russia to limit its war budget are now also being heard in the EU. Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán has already urged the EU “to review and lift all sanctions on Russian energy”. And he may not be the only EU leader thinking along similar lines.
Europe’s reaction to Monday’s oil-price surge was far from unified, with some officials calling for a faster shift to clean energy, while others said boosting oil and gas supplies offered the quickest path to easing a potential energy shock from the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Unable to defend European interests, unwilling to hold Washington and Tel Aviv accountable, and therefore impotent in the face of great-power predation. This failure is not merely moral — it is strategic.
“If any [European] country joins in the aggression against Iran … they will be also legitimate targets for Iranian retaliation,” Iran’s deputy foreign minister warned on French TV.
A transatlantic rift is opening. Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez has condemned the US-Israeli attacks on Iran and blocked American access to Spanish bases —directly challenging Donald Trump. The question now: how far can Spain go in defying Washington?
Asked if southern EU states were at risk of further aggression, EU commissioner Dubravka Šuica said: “It’s not easy to anticipate at this moment, but I don’t think it will happen”.
The European Commission’s remarks follow the threat by Donald Trump to halt all trade with Spain, following PM Pedro Sánchez denial of the use of military bases in the peninsula for further attacks against Iran.
Russian president Vladimir Putin phoned his ally, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, on Tuesday to “commend” his “principled” and “sovereign” Ukraine foreign policy, according to a Kremlin readout.
European leaders have been carefully drafting cautious statements urging ‘de-escalation’ and ‘respect for international law’. But one voice has sounded different. And it speaks Spanish.
Iran is the second-largest refugee hosting country in the world, spooking leaders in Europe of any possible mass exodus, with the commission stepping up monitoring and cooperation with relevant UN agency and countries in the region.
“Law is stronger than force”, said Ursula von der Leyen on Greenland. Last week, the EU rightly stressed once more the illegality of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Four days later the US and Israel attacked Iran and the EU forgot about international law.
Donald Trump is inspiring European states to consider how to avoid the omnipresent services of US tech giants in everyday life.
