Following the recent hybrid attacks, Meit Fohlin, the regional government chief, said she meets “every week” with the coast guard, police, firefighters, army, hospital, water and energy operators to map out responses to every possible scenario — ranging from energy shortages to supply blockades to an armed attack on the local harbor. “We have to … Read more
One of the thorniest issues involves giving more supervisory powers to the EU’s markets body, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). France and Spain pushed to give ESMA sweeping new powers immediately, while Italy and the Netherlands pushed for a transition period of up to eight years. The discussions ended with the E6 agreeing … Read more
Trump has dismayed European allies by announcing he would pull 5,000 troops out of Germany, which later turned out to include 4,000 soldiers from Poland — before U-turning and saying he would deploy an additional 5,000 troops to Poland. The exact nature of the cutbacks is not yet finalized, the diplomats said, and the U.S. … Read more
Janša narrowly lost the Slovenian election in March to liberal candidate Robert Golob, who subsequently failed to form a government and resigned himself to leading Slovenia’s opposition. “Others have tried to form a majority coalition, but they have failed. We approached it differently, on a programmatic basis, step by step,” Janša said Friday. European Commission … Read more
Things can’t only get better It wasn’t always like this. The last Labour prime minister to win big before Starmer was Tony Blair. When he came to power in 1997, the U.K. had a bigger economy than China’s, was a leading member of the growing European Union trade bloc, and was approaching peak oil and gas production in the North Sea. Blair led … Read more
He added: “I will not give up on the transatlantic relationship, and I will not give up on cooperation with Donald Trump.” Merz on Sunday sought to play down the substance of the dispute, particularly the threat of a U.S. troop withdrawal, framing it as part of longer-running military planning rather than a sudden rupture. … Read more
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 … Read more
As European heads of state and government dined together on Thursday in the Cypriot resort of Ayia Napa, on the first day of a two-day gathering largely focused on global politics, any sense of triumph ebbed as they confronted the many challenges and crises on their plates. While they had the luxury of not needing … Read more
The move is part of efforts to show Washington that the U.K. — which has angered U.S. President Donald Trump by staying out of offensive missions during the U.S.-Israel war with Iran — is prepared to make a serious contribution to policing the key passage through the Persian Gulf. Britain and France have jointly convened … Read more
The Venice Biennale, one of the world’s most prominent art exhibitions, is set to host Russia for the first time since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — a move that has sparked widespread criticism across Europe. Latvia’s Culture Minister Agnese Lāce, who had spearheaded a joint position by 25 European countries calling for … Read more