Russia is too weak militarily to invade any Nato country. It is building some military infrastructure, notably on the border with Finland, but it has no soldiers to put there. Whatever Russia is planning is in a different domain, a war of nerves, aimed at our brains, not our territory.
In 2026, a woman worker in average working in the EU still earns 11.1 percent less her male counterpart. Not because she works less, or contributes less, but because the system has been carefully designed to keep her in the dark about it.
An attack on Poland would be Putin’s last failThe US has warned Poland that Russia was plotting to attack it in a “few months” time, which would be the fastest way to end the Ukraine war, in president Vladimir Putin’s ultimate fail. The Russian emperor would go home from Poland not just naked, but also with a broken nose.
The EU seems to be fully caught up in what has been defined as the “deterrence trap”: a full focus on restrictive measures that might offer short-term political relief but that will prove ineffective in the long run, providing extremist movements the tools to erode the political centre.
EU commission travels to Afghanistan. Who, what, when?The European Commission apparently has no clue that one of its senior officials went to Afghanistan in January to meet with the Taliban, the latest indictment of an institution that continues to railroad accountability while proclaiming itself to be transparent.
Instead of asking how Europe should adapt to a changing climate, some politicians have found another opportunity to wage a stale culture war. Their latest target is air conditioning.
The digital euro is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to restore people’s access to public money and to realise a sovereign payment system in the digital age. Trilogue negotiators should not squander it by designing it in a way that serves the banking sector first and the public second.
Norway’s Arctic oil and gas pitch to Europe is built on exaggeration, not energy securityNorway’s prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre has been vigorously touring the continent since the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran, telling everybody who wants to listen that Norway’s Arctic oil and gas are crucial for Europe’s energy security. But is it?
Since Donald Trump’s return, Europe has consistently failed to get into the rooms where straight answers exist. What Europe has not done is structurally engage enough with the one constituency that can actually give it clear eyes: the opposition.
Will Ireland’s diplomatic charm fix budget wars and Gaza trade row in next six months?For the next six months, Dublin will try to play neutral on defence and Middle East policy while simultaneously pushing for a contentious EU budget deal that many in Brussels still think could easily collapse.
Europe’s standing will not be restored by shifting responsibilities from one building to another, moving competences between commissioners and directorates-general, or publishing yet another security strategy.
The EU´s inaction and silence during the war in Gaza landed a heavy and long-standing blow to the EU’s credibility in the Global South. But we now have both instruments and a window of opportunity to address it, writes S&D MEP Nacho Sánchez Amor.
Russian authorities in occupied areas of Ukraine label homes “ownerless.” That allows authorities to transfer them into municipal ownership by Russia-installed courts and redistribute them, including to new residents holding Russian passports. This sham process violates international law on occupation and international human rights law.
Uncertainty about the US military commitment to Europe, plus the near-certainty of a continuing threat from Russia, places the UK centre-stage in all defence and security discussions. So who prime-minister designate Andy Burnham appoints as foreign secretary, and defence secretary, is crucial.
Bulgaria’s threat to block the bloc’s 21st Russia sanctions package shows that the Union’s weakness was never Viktor Orbán alone. It is a rule under which one capital’s refusal binds the other 26 and owes them no reason.
Ireland takes over the EU presidency as analysts ridicule its defence spending – Europe’s lowest at 0.2 percent of its GDP. But contributions to European security should not be measured by spending on arms alone: and Ireland is the case in point.
EU commission see ‘no overriding public interest’ to release secret Gaza reports, on day UN calls out genocideOn the same day that the UN human rights office called out genocide in Gaza, the European Commission told me there was no public interest in releasing 17 documents it wants to keep secret on the enclave.
Large trucks equipped with biometric cameras were stationed around last year’s Budapest Pride march to discourage participation. The objective was not only punishment, but deterrence. Despite the new government, this logic remains embedded in Hungarian law today.
Europe’s ugly anti‑migrant politics just found a new stage: South AfricaSouth Africa is facing a anti-migrant crisis that is rerunning many of the arguments, rhetoric and racism seen in Europe over the past decade.
To fundamentally understand why it’s strange the EU Commission is throwing its weight behind this new for-profit social platform, you need to understand what lies beneath.
