The Brussels Radar: Sanctions, Enlargement and EU Cohesion
On eleventh-hour unanimity compromise, Brussels agreed to delist prominent Russian billionaires Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman in exchange for locking in the wider Russia sanctions framework on a 36-month review cycle. Concurrently, the European Commission is advancing accession plans for candidates like Ukraine, Moldova, Montenegro and Albania, pairing market integration with unprecedented institutional and internal-market […]
The Return of Geopolitics
This year’s United Nations General Assembly has been unusually revealing, not because it produced a major diplomatic breakthrough, but because of what it says about the changing role of the United Nations itself. The official theme of this year’s General Assembly is “Restoring trust, managing transformation: A United Nations that delivers for all”, but much […]
Sweden’s Election: the Moderates Hold, Social Democrats Survive, and the Sweden Democrats Lose Ground
Last weekend’s election in Sweden gave a narrow edge to the centre-left, though the outcome may shift over the coming days. We can examine what occurred and what lies ahead. In every poll before the vote, the centre-right Moderata—linked to the EPP at the EU level and to the prime minister—were expected to lose up […]
The Many Drivers Behind the AfD Vote
This past weekend’s election in Saxony-Anhalt shocked Germany with the victory of Alternative für Deutschland with more than 40% of the votes. In this newsletter, we look into the reasons behind such vote and what it means for Europe at large. Sunday’s AfD’s 43.8% victory in Saxony-Anhalt is not that easy to explain. The simplest […]
Iceland Sails Alone: No to the Eurointegration
As Iceland’s EU membership bid remains stagnant after the referendum, the voters decided to prioritise its fishing industry and national sovereignty over the security guarantees that the bloc accession would carry. On 29 August, Icelanders were asked a narrow procedural question, whether to reopen EU accession talks that the island abandoned in 2013. The turnout […]
Europe’s Energy Problem is Becoming an Industrial Problem
Europe’s energy crisis is becoming a structural competitiveness problem, raising questions about whether the EU can decarbonise without making European industry increasingly uncompetitive. Europe’s energy crisis is increasingly becoming a competitiveness problem, but the debate in Brussels is still largely framed as an energy-policy problem. The original causes of the crisis are well understood. The […]
Doubling the Electricity Use by 2040: EU’s New Electrification Action Plan
On 17 July 2026, the Commission proposed the Electrification Action Plan. The plan represents a package made to push Europe toward becoming what officials are calling the world’s first “electro-continent”. Primarily, it shows how Brussels wants to move industry and transport away from fossil fuels and towards the electricity grid. Overall, it is an ambitious […]
From Ceuta to Brussels: Managing Budgets for Security and Defence
As thousands of people illegally entered Spain from Morocco last week, the EU countries are confronted with the evergreen issue of balancing the budgets, especially in the modern era of immigration pressure and external security threats that keep intensifying since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. In the last week of July, almost 60 […]
Iceland Heads to the Polls: A Referendum that could change Europe
on July 27 Iceland opens the pooling station asking citizens to decide if they want to restart negotiations with the EU over a possible accession to the block or no. A vote that could change Europe. On 27 July, Iceland opens voting in a referendum that could mark the beginning of a new chapter in […]
Ankara-Kyiv-Washington: Ukraine’s Diplomatic Offensive
At a first glance, three developments over the past several days (a NATO summit, a government reshuffle in Kyiv, and the announcement of the Washington’s sanctions package aimed at Russia) are separate stories. Looking at them together, they follow a common theme of an alliance trying to secure more support for Ukraine as the individuals […]