Over decade in the making, the new EU asylum rules are finally kicking into force on Friday. But EU member states delays are posing challenges amid critics who warn of rights abuses when it comes people seeking international protection.
Spending of corporate lobbying into the EU reaches new highs according to new research, manifesting in slashed regulation in a bid to build competitiveness and facilitate corporate interests
THIS WEEK: ECB set to hike rates, as capital markets union and climate top the EU agendaThis week, the European Central Bank is expected to raise interest rates amid inflation and energy-price pressures. EU finance ministers will discuss capital markets integration and energy investment rules. The EU Commission will present the 2027 EU budget, while climate talks, transport and telecom meetings, and an EU–South Korea summit also take place.
‘Have you eaten today?’ What an incident on an Italian train taught me about EU valuesAn Asian man was travelling without a ticket, but the conductor stopped asking for his ID and enquired instead: “Have you eaten today?”.
As Andrej Babiš rages against a supposed “deep state” while surrounding himself with pro-Russian and ultra‑conservative allies inside his own office, even long‑time insiders from his party ANO fear he is slipping further into paranoia and culture‑war politics.
Swedish MEP Abir Al-Sahlani is a loud and outspoken feminist in the rightwing and male-dominated corridors of the European Parliament. “The far-right is really funny because they will fight you for the right of Syrian women to wear lipstick, but then they will not allow women with a veil to work in this house,” she tells EUobserver.
As Péter Magyar distances himself from Orbán’s hard line by backing Ukraine’s EU bid and courting Western leaders, he is betting that minority guarantees and a softer tone can restore Hungary’s clout in the EU’s power game.
An advocate-general at the European Court of Justice suggested judges dismiss a case from the French parliament, which wants to annul EU rules on relocating asylum seekers.
Europe’s alleged competitiveness gap with the United States and China has become a defining theme in Brussels policymaking. But experts argue that the use of selective data to support simplification is “close to political manipulation” and “definitely cherry-picking”.
Some MEPs doubted the EU Commission had enough manpower to take on the giant legal teams of Big Tech companies – which have been pushing back strongly against the EU’s flagship Digital Markets Act.
An agreement on the EU’s deportation bill was reached late on Monday (1 June) after a proposal to break the deadlock included suggestions that deportation hubs be launched immediately once the legislation enters into force.
With the EU’s already controversial pact on migration’s implementation date fast approaching, many member states will face a complex policy net unprepared.
“People want participation. They want to be involved in decision-making”, warned one former leader of France’s ‘Yellow Vests’ movement, as a group of European ex-politicians and civil society figures launched the Demcracy27 exercise.
THIS WEEK: EU parents’ rights, US trade war, and a Western Balkans summitA new EU law on ‘recognition of parenthood’ will top the agenda of home affairs’ ministers in Brussels. MEPs will also get an update on the Ebola and Hantavirus outbreaks.
As EU lawmakers turn their fire on “foreign-funded” NGOs, Natacha Kazatchkine warns that a coordinated witch-hunt is starving civil society of money, legitimacy and space to defend basic rights.
The European Commission is ready to unlock €10bn of funds for Hungary. But the country must meet deadlines that are closing in fast, and any funds are unlikely to be released until the end of this year. With a looming 31 August deadline, Hungary essentially has only shot to get everything right.
Hungary’s new prime minister is halving the job’s sky-high pay, pushing quasi-judicial inquiry committees and racing to clinch an EU cash deal – all while discovering he is no longer even his own party’s most popular face.
Péter Magyar is hoping to unblock over €10.4bn in frozen EU post-pandemic Covid funds following a planned meeting on Friday with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
Commission officials are also required to restrict contacts with the tobacco industry strictly to what is necessary for regulatory purposes, under a May 2025 decision reinforcing the application of the UN’s global tobacco control treaty (UNFCTC).
EU officials have played down the prospect of a radical change in EU-UK relations, despite talk from Keir Starmer’s government that the UK could rejoin the single market.