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Starmer mulls compromise on migration reforms after backlash from MPs – POLITICO

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 17:00:11 +0000

Starmer mulls compromise on migration reforms after backlash from MPs

Former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner branded the plans “un-British” in a speech on Tuesday night.

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U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves 10 Downing Street ahead of Prime Minister's Questions in London, United Kingdom, on March 18, 2026. | Zeynep Demir/Anadolu via Getty Images

March 18, 2026 5:43 pm CET

By Dan Bloom and Sam Blewett

LONDON — The U.K. government is considering substantial compromises on its plan to make it harder for migrants to permanently settle in Britain, following a backlash from Labour MPs.

Downing Street declined to guarantee on Wednesday that proposals to significantly extend the length of time migrants must wait for permanent residence would proceed as planned.

Angela Rayner, a frontrunner to succeed struggling Prime Minister Keir Starmer, made a major intervention on the issue Tuesday night, intensifying the existing pressure to change tack from MPs in Starmer’s center-left party.

Rayner, his former deputy PM, branded the plans “bad policy,” a “breach of trust” and “un-British” in a speech.

The government issued a statement on Wednesday backing the broad policy of increasing the standard route to settlement from five to ten years. But officials reiterated that they were looking at transitional arrangements for migrants already in the U.K. — suggesting that not all proposals would apply retroactively.

That would address concern from Rayner and other critics that the government is “moving the goalposts” — but also be a major headache for the Home Office, which is facing the consequences of a surge in legal migration after Brexit.

One senior minister, granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations, said one potential compromise was to introduce more routes for migrants to obtain indefinite leave to remain (ILR) in a shorter timeframe.

They told POLITICO that the proposals had been “shifting anyway” before Rayner’s intervention.

“No. 10 and the chief whip are heavily engaged with MPs, in a way that they weren’t with the welfare reforms,” they added.

Critics have complained that lower-earning migrants will have to wait far longer than high earners before being granted settlement under the government’s proposed changes.

Tony Vaughan, the backbench leader of a push to get Starmer to rethink the plans, told the same event that Rayner spoke at: “We cannot have a system where the child of a banker gets settlement after three years and the child of a care worker gets it after 15.”

On Wednesday, officials came under intense pressure to back Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s plans. By the afternoon, the government released a statement insisting it would “double the route to settlement from five to ten years,” but added that “we are consulting to apply this change to those [who are] in the U.K. today but have not received settled status.”

That consultation — which the government says has received 200,000 responses — gives ministers wriggle-room to water down their proposals.

But if the changes aren’t applied retroactively, it risks undermining the argument that they are being introduced to target the so-called “Boriswave,” a nickname for the significant spike in migrants arriving in the U.K. following COVID lockdowns under former Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson. These people are due to start receiving settled status shortly.

‘Open for discussion’

Mahmood’s proposals are being dispersed through various pieces of legislation — making a fightback against them harder for critics. The ILR restrictions will be made via a rule change that doesn’t require legislation at all. But some Labour opponents asked whether that position is sustainable.

“The big question is if politically they can do that even if they can legally,” said one Rayner ally. “The one thing that appears to unite a growing body of people is a blunt retrospective five to ten year element, with no protections.”

The opponents hope they can get the PM to water the plans down himself, but failing that, they want to push for a vote. They’re yet to land on a means, but tabling an amendment to one element of the legislation is one possibility under discussion, one adviser told POLITICO.

Like other critics, the same adviser had been buoyed by Rayner’s speech: “That was very helpful last night. That was a big intervention.”

Vaughan, an immigration lawyer at the firm where Starmer practised, Doughty Street Chambers, has written a detailed letter to the PM calling for a rethink that has amassed more than 100 signatures from fellow Labour MPs.

One government official said: “They’re doing an awful lot of engagement with MPs. It’s been going on for weeks. I hadn’t heard that they were willing to shift, but I’ve noticed that they’ve been doing loads of engagement. Anyone who wants to talk to a minister is being put in front of one, and anything on the proposals that have been floated has been open for discussion.”

Mahmood, however, thinks her plans are popular with the wider public. Her team points to research by the More in Common think tank that suggests extending the waiting period for ILR, even if applied to those already living in the U.K., is backed by Green supporters on the left of British politics.

A leadership pitch?

Rayner’s comments on the migration proposals were part of a broader swipe at the direction and strategy of Starmer’s government, from which she resigned over a tax scandal in September. She said her party was “running out of time” to show change and “cannot just go through the motions in the face of decline.”

Some of Rayner’s supporters — and critics — in Labour suggested privately that her intervention was geared toward winning the support of grassroots members in any future leadership contest.

Leadership contenders generally require some support from major unions, which are formally affiliated to Labour. One of the largest, UNISON, branded the migration reforms “reckless” in February.

One union official said: “Rayner’s intervention on changes to indefinite leave to remain is savvy. It’s one of UNISON’s big campaign asks right now — UNISON represents a lot of migrant social care workers. Rayner coming out publicly against Mahmood’s proposals won’t go unnoticed.”

The left-wing TSSA union, which has already publicly backed Rayner to replace Starmer, praised her “sound advice” on Wednesday while Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor who had been touted as a possible leadership contender before he was blocked from running for parliament, said Rayner “needs to be listened to.”

A second union official said: “She’s playing a canny game, the way she’s got the unions and Burnham on her side over this. She’s making clear that she is the default candidate.”

President vs Parliament: Metsola overrides MEPs in bid to force through child abuse law – POLITICO

Thu, 16 Jul 2026 10:56:57 +0000

President vs Parliament: Metsola overrides MEPs in bid to force through child abuse law

The European Parliament president’s power play is “without precedent,” diplomats wrote in a note seen by POLITICO.

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European Parliament President Roberta Metsola delivers a speech during a plenary session in Strasbourg, France on May 20, 2026. | Photo by Sebastien Bozon/AFP via Getty Images

June 24, 2026 6:00 am CET

By Sam Clark

BRUSSELS — European Parliament President Roberta Metsola is trying to push through a controversial law on scanning child abuse content online even though it has been repeatedly slapped down by her own chamber, according to a document seen by POLITICO.

In a step that diplomats deem “without precedent,” the top EU politician has asked member countries in the Council to approve a bill that her own Parliament shot down in a plenary vote in March.

At stake is whether the EU allows tech platforms to voluntarily scan their services for child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The issue has been mired in controversy, with police and child rights advocates and European commissioners arguing that a lack of legislation allows predators and pedophiles to operate with impunity online. Privacy campaigners, meanwhile, have argued the proposals could lead to unacceptable mass surveillance and the end of encryption.

Ambassadors on Friday will consider an “invitation of the President of the European Parliament [to] proceed with the Council’s first reading position” on the proposal to allow tech companies to choose to scan for CSAM, said a note by the Cyprus presidency of the Council of the EU dated June 22.

In the note, Cyprus asked capitals to “carefully consider” the invitation, “even if this would be without precedent in the present circumstances."

Talks between the Parliament and the Council collapsed in March, just days before the temporary legislation was due to expire. Lawmakers in the Parliament later resisted last-ditch pressure from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, four European commissioners, tech giants Meta, Google and Microsoft and numerous children’s charities, eventually voting down an attempt to pass the bill in March by a margin of 311 to 228 with 92 abstentions.

A spokesperson for Metsola said the issue was "raised and asked for" at a meeting of heads of the Parliament's political groups.

An EU parliament official said the European People's Party, the group to which Metsola belongs, raised it and no groups objected. The official was granted anonymity to disclose confidential details of the meeting.

Lawmakers working on the legislation now feel Metsola has gone over their heads to invite the Council to adopt a position that the Parliament had already rejected, according to two Parliamentary aides.

Markéta Gregorová, a Czech lawmaker with the Greens group in the Parliament and shadow lead lawmaker on the law, described herself as “extremely surprised” by the move and said Metsola’s invitation is “unacceptable and undermines the European Parliament position.”

Hilde Vautmans, a Belgian lawmaker with the liberal Renew group and shadow lead lawmaker on the file, said reopening debate on the temporary law is a “political dead end.” “Parliament has rejected it twice, and that will not change,” she said.

Spokesperson for the liberal Renew group Nick Petre said it was "concerned" the move to reopen negotiations could weaken Parliament's position to negotiate rules on child sexual abuse material. "After trilogue negotiations on the interim file failed, it is difficult to see how reviving that process now would bring us closer to a lasting solution. On the contrary, it could delay progress on the comprehensive legislation that victims, law enforcement and online platforms all need," he said.

The invitation to ambassadors to proceed has not been previously reported.

Close the legal gap

The European Commission proposed the temporary CSAM bill as a stopgap measure to allow companies to scan while legislators agreed on a more permanent solution.

As talks stalled on the latter, legislators were working to extend the former — at least until the dispute over the stopgap measure came to a head earlier this year. The Council and the Parliament couldn’t agree on terms to extend it, so the law lapsed in early April and companies were left without a legal basis for voluntary scanning.

Tech firms continued to scan, despite the legal limbo.

Metsola called publicly to look at “how to find an agreement on a second reading of this file,” in an address to EU leaders last week.

Cyprus in Monday’s note said there was a “pressing need” to close that legal gap. It said it “takes note of the political signal from the President of the European Parliament to encourage continuing the work on the proposal.”

If capitals choose to adopt their position, the law does not automatically pass: The Parliament would need to either accept it or re-enter negotiations. “There is no certainty that [the Parliament] would adopt the legislative act in second reading in line with the Council’s first reading position,” Cyprus wrote in the note.

Gregorová rejected the suggestion that lawmakers would budge. “The Parliament mandate is clear: A majority voted it down, meaning that we reject the extension.”

According to EU procedures, if capitals and the Parliament continue to disagree, they could move to a rare procedure known as conciliation.

Lawmakers will meet next Monday for a political negotiation on the other, permanent bill to tackle CSAM, though a deal at that meeting is unlikely, two Parliament officials and one national official involved in the process said last week.

Max Griera contributed reporting.

This article was updated to include a comment from a spokesperson for Metsola and a Renew spokesperson and additional detail.

Inside von der Leyen’s push for an EU social media ban – POLITICO

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 23:13:34 +0000

Inside von der Leyen’s push for an EU social media ban

A report out Monday will add weight to calls for a ban on social media for young people.

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Ursula von der Leyen’s strong support for a social media ban comes as multiple European countries are already moving at full speed with their own measures. | Cristina Quicler/AFP via Getty Images

July 9, 2026 9:46 pm CET

By Eliza Gkritsi and Gabriel Gavin

BRUSSELS — If young Europeans soon find themselves kicked off social media they'll have Ursula von der Leyen to thank.

Monday brings a key step in the European Commission president’s well-orchestrated push to enact an EU-wide social media ban for young people: the release of an expert report on the dangers of social media for minors.

Von der Leyen brought together child psychiatrist Jörg Fegert and social epidemiologist Maria Melchior to tell the EU how to best shield children from online harm, with months of input from dozens of other experts.

Yet the release of their report Monday isn’t really meant to convince von der Leyen that action is needed, nor that age restrictions are a good idea. As a medical doctor and a parent to seven grown children, she has already expressed her worry that social media is bad for young people and said some kind of EU-wide restrictions are necessary.

Von der Leyen could unveil plans for EU-wide age restrictions on social media as soon as September, four officials said, after POLITICO reported in March that the Commission’s tech department had already drafted a version of the law.

One EU official said Monday’s report is a way to convince any skeptical national governments to get on board and to provide “an evidence base” for any proposed ban.

Von der Leyen gives her annual State of the Union address during a plenary session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Sept. 10, 2025, when she first announced the expert panel. | Sebastien Bozon/AFP via Getty Images

It’s the latest step by von der Leyen to take a personal stake in ensuring Europe follows the global movement toward social media bans. When she first announced the expert panel at last year’s State of the European Union address, it caught officials working on the matter by complete surprise, two EU officials told POLITICO.

Opponents of a blanket ban aren’t impressed by the process. “Usually it is better to explain the problem and find hopefully the best solution to the problem. If you have already said that we are going for a ban and we are looking for a way how to do it, then this is a little bit biased,” Estonian Justice and Digital Affairs Minister Liisa-Ly Pakosta told POLITICO.

Global wave

Australia became the first country to impose age restrictions for social platforms in December. Indonesia started enforcing a ban in March, with Malaysia following in June. Turkey's parliament has greenlit a bill. France is the furthest along among EU countries, with the United Kingdom also forging ahead.

An EU-wide ban requires a far more difficult balancing act among 27 countries. Von der Leyen brought up the issue at last year’s State of the European Union address, an annual tradition where she sets out the EU executive’s policy aims for the year. The four officials said they expect an announcement with next steps at this year’s speech in September, as von der Leyen continues to build support across the bloc.

“We’ve seen that already 14 member states are on board,” Poland’s Digital Affairs Minister Dariusz Standerski told POLITICO. “I believe that we have now a strong majority in favor of those solutions. We’ve heard from a couple of countries which are not really happy about those proposals — however, I do not see any possible blocking minority right now.”

Standerski said more than 70 percent of the public in Poland supports a social media ban for children and age verification in light of some of the content that young people are exposed to. “Children about six, seven years, those kids are seeing harmful content — child pornography, bullying and other crimes on the internet,” he said.

Most of the public opposition is coming from a handful of more digital-savvy nations that insist there are smarter ways to protect children than a blanket ban.

Von der Leyen will make a short statement Monday and publicly accept the experts’ findings. One official who has seen the report told POLITICO that it will contain concrete recommendations about how to limit the harm done by social media but won’t go as far as to tell politicians what specifically should be banned.

Another official briefed on the contents said the report will not give a yes-or-no answer on whether age restrictions are a good idea. It will, however, leave the door open to such a measure, they said, as well as on at what ages limits should be set.

Many of the experts consulted by the panel don’t agree with a blanket social media ban, favoring a more nuanced approach that considers children’s rights. Several, including Leanda Barrington-Leach of the 5Rights Foundation and the London School of Economics’ Sonia Livingstone, wrote a letter addressed to von der Leyen a month ago to warn against blanket measures.

There are early signs that the new restrictions may not work as expected. Australia’s eSafety Commissioner said in March that the country’s ban has been largely ineffective in keeping kids off of social media, citing a lack of enforcement from Big Tech companies. The government is trying to increase the powers of the online safety regulator so that they can bring platforms in line.

Sørine Vesth Rasmussen, senior advisor on tech policy and children’s rights at Danish civil society group Børns Vilkår, who also contributed to the panel, told POLITICO that she expects the recommendations “to address protection and empowerment of minors taking a holistic perspective.”

Poland’s Digital Affairs Minister Dariusz Standerski, who said 70 percent of the Polish public supported a social media ban for children, is pictured at the European Parliament in Brussels in January 2025. | artin Bertrand/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images

Capitals with a bone to pick

Von der Leyen’s strong support for a social media ban comes as multiple European countries are already moving at full speed with their own measures. France plans to impose age restrictions by September, while Denmark and Greece are aiming for measures by the end of the year. The Commission has given them the green light to go ahead.

Several key aspects of how an EU proposal could look remain unclear, such as whether Brussels will set an EU-wide age or let countries set their own.

Pressure on the Commission to do more to protect children online has been mounting since last summer when French President Emmanuel Macron made the issue a key part of his agenda. Von der Leyen has also faced pressure from capitals like Athens, Copenhagen and Madrid to do more to keep minors off social media.

“The highest level in Paris” has been pressing for more action, an official from an EU capital closely working on the matter told POLITICO.

Earlier this summer, the Commission hastily announced a technical solution to check users’ age online — just in time for an EU leaders’ call on the topic organized by Macron. The tool was later found to have security flaws, which the Commission claims to have fixed.

The EU executive told Paris earlier this week that it can go ahead with setting its own minimum age of social media, so long as it doesn’t include requirements that wade into the Commission’s oversight responsibility for tech companies.

EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen has hinted that she doesn’t see social media bans as a panacea. “The first priority to make it safe for everybody, and especially for minors, because [the] online environment is very important part of our everyday life,” she told reporters earlier this year.

But given the actions of multiple governments, should the EU fail to take measures, Virkkunen and her team have also come to understand that the only way to avoid fragmentation is to push forward with EU measures.

“We must minimize fragmentation of national systems that may create legal uncertainty or weaken enforcement,” Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier told POLITICO.

Europe’s effort to block kids from social media gathers pace – POLITICO

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 23:13:34 +0000

Europe’s effort to block kids from social media gathers pace

Document obtained by POLITICO shows countries pushing for EU-wide controls to protect kids online.

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The issue has gained increased attention worldwide after Australia moved to set a minimum age of 16 for accessing certain social media sites as of later this year. | Marijan Murat/Picture Alliance via Getty Images

May 20, 2025 4:20 am CET

By Eliza Gkritsi and Pieter Haeck

BRUSSELS — The European Union would become a world leader in stopping kids from using social media under a new proposal gaining traction in Brussels.

The proposal, which is being spearheaded by Greece and already has the support of digital frontrunners France and Spain, would see the EU set new rules to massively curb children’s social media use amid growing concerns about the impacts of spending too much time online.

The issue has gained increased attention worldwide after Australia moved to set a minimum age of 16 for signing up to accounts with certain social media sites as of later this year.

According to a document obtained by POLITICO, countries want Brussels to go further by establishing an EU-wide age of digital adulthood, below which minors would need parental consent to log onto social media — meaning that kids couldn’t automatically access any of the most popular apps such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat.

The proposal is set to be discussed by EU digital ministers at a meeting in early June. It comes as Denmark prepares to take over the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU for a six-month stint in which Copenhagen has already committed to action in Brussels.

“Protection of our children online will be a key priority for the upcoming Danish EU presidency,” Denmark’s Minister of Digital Affairs Caroline Stage Olsen said in a statement. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has also previously said she supports a ban on social media for under-15s.

The proposal was sent to other countries on Thursday to ask for their support ahead of the Council meeting, an EU official with knowledge of the process said.

It’s a sign that European capitals are not happy with the pace at which Brussels regulators are taking action and are joining forces in a fresh bid to prevent children from being exposed to excessive screen time. Protecting minors from online harms and risks “demands collective action at the European level,” the proposal reads.

The move follows a year-long effort by French President Emmanuel Macron. “We must regain control of the lives of our children and teenagers, in Europe, and impose digital majority at age 15, not before,” he said in April 2024, coining the phrase digital majority to mean a legal definition of the age under which kids should be banned from certain online behaviors.

The European Commission is already working on some measures centered around existing regulations like the Digital Services Act, which defines rules for online platforms.

But the proposal would see the EU go much further — with mandatory, built-in age verification and parental control on devices, as well as “European norms” to minimize persuasive architectures. These include features like autoplay, personalization and pop-ups, which are designed to raise the appeal of apps and keep users online for longer.

The document proposes that age verification happen at the level of devices, which companies like Apple and Google will likely object to.

Junior digital minister Clara Chappaz has been campaigning to get other countries on board for EU-wide action in recent months.| Bastien Ohier/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images

Platforms, chief among them Meta, are lobbying for device or app store-level solutions, while providers of app stores and operating systems have argued solutions should come at the device level — a disagreement that means it could take years to see meaningful action from the industry, according to proponents of regulation.

None of the social media platforms contacted for this article — TikTok, Meta, X and Google — responded to a request to comment on the proposal.

France already passed measures to block access to social media for children under 15 in 2023, although these are yet to be fully implemented.

Macron’s junior digital minister Clara Chappaz has been campaigning to get other countries on board for EU-wide action in recent months.

The Greeks, who led the proposal, have been on a similar campaign, although their view is that a total ban doesn’t work, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said. Instead, they want to focus on age verification and requiring platforms to design their services with minors in mind, avoiding addictive features. As a result, many of the suggestions in the proposal remain general in nature.

The proposal is signed by Chappaz, Greece’s digital minister Dimitris Papastergiou and Spain’s digital minister Oscar López Agueda.

The three countries have also been selected to test an app for age verification developed by the Commission, POLITICO reported earlier.

Bruxelles veut limiter à 13 ans l’accès aux réseaux sociaux – POLITICO

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 23:13:34 +0000

Bruxelles veut limiter à 13 ans l’accès aux réseaux sociaux

This article is also available in: English

July 13, 2026 1:01 pm CET

By Eliza Gkritsi

BRUXELLES — L'Union européenne va fixer un âge minimum à partir duquel les jeunes internautes pourront accéder aux réseaux sociaux sans la surveillance de leurs parents, a annoncé ce lundi 13 juillet la présidente de la Commission.

Ursula von der Leyen présentait ce matin les conclusions du groupe d'experts qu'elle avait chargé, l'an dernier, de faire des propositions pour lutter contre les effets néfastes des réseaux sociaux. Leur rapport, publié ce jour, recommande que les mineurs de moins de 13 ans ne disposent d'un accès aux réseaux sociaux que "pour une durée limitée", et sous la surveillance de leurs parents.

"Il est tout à fait clair que nous avons besoin de restrictions d'âge adaptées sur ces plateformes. La question n'est pas de savoir si les enfants peuvent accéder aux réseaux sociaux. Il s'agit de savoir si et quand les réseaux sociaux peuvent accéder à nos enfants", a-t-elle déclaré.

Cette annonce intervient après plusieurs années d'efforts visant à lutter contre les risques pour la santé mentale et physique que représentent les réseaux sociaux pour les mineurs. Ursula von der Leyen a fait de cette question une priorité absolue de son deuxième mandat à la tête de l'exécutif européen. Des capitales telles qu'Athènes, Copenhague et Paris ont également fait pression en faveur de restrictions d'âge, tout comme des pays non membres de l'UE, notamment l'Australie, l'Indonésie et la Malaisie.

Les réseaux sociaux limitent déjà l'accès aux utilisateurs de moins de 13 ans, car ceux-ci ne sont pas en mesure de donner leur consentement au traitement de leurs données, conformément à la réglementation européenne en matière de protection de la vie privée.

Ursula von der Leyen a suggéré que les parents devraient également pouvoir contrôler les limites d'âge sur les réseaux sociaux. "Les enfants ne devraient avoir accès aux réseaux sociaux que sous la surveillance de leurs parents, de leurs tuteurs ou de leurs enseignants, et pendant une durée limitée", a-t-elle déclaré.

"Ce ne sera pas infaillible, et le changement prend du temps", a-t-elle ajouté, affirmant que les gens finiraient par modifier leur comportement, comme ils l'ont fait lors de l'introduction des ceintures de sécurité dans les voitures.

La présidente de la Commission a affirmé que l'Union envisageait également d'imposer des restrictions d'âge pour d'autres services en ligne, et qu'elle allait commencer à déterminer quelles plateformes sont préjudiciables aux mineurs.

"La Commission souhaite instaurer un accès progressif et par étapes pour les différentes tranches d’âge", a-t-elle déclaré, avant d’ajouter : "L’enfance n’attend pas, et une fois qu’elle est passée, on ne peut jamais la faire revenir".

Le groupe d'experts a également recommandé que les enfants ne soient pas exposés aux écrans avant l'âge de trois ans, puis qu'ils soient progressivement, et sous surveillance, initiés aux réseaux sociaux et aux autres technologies jusqu'à l'âge de 13 ans.

EU wants 13+ age restriction for social media – POLITICO

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 23:13:25 +0000

EU wants 13+ age restriction for social media

A Commission report published Monday recommends minors under 13 years of age should only have “time-limited” access to certain platforms.

A teenager looks at her smartphone in Brussels on July 7, 2026. | Nicolas Tucat/AFP via Getty Images

This article is also available in: French

July 13, 2026 11:05 am CET

By Eliza Gkritsi

BRUSSELS — The European Union will impose a minimum age for young internet users to access social media without parental supervision, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Monday.

"It is very clear that we need age-appropriate restrictions to platforms. This is not about whether children can access social media. It is about whether and when social media can access our children," she said.

Von der Leyen presented a report by a panel of experts she convened last year to look into policies to fight social media harms. The report on Monday recommended that minors under 13 years of age should only have "time-limited" access to social media and with parental supervision.

The EU announcement comes after a years-long push to deal with the mental and physical health risks social media pose to minors. Von der Leyen has made the issue a top priority in her second term heading the EU executive. Capitals like Athens, Copenhagen and Paris have also been pushing for age restrictions — and non-EU countries including Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Social media platforms already limit access to users under 13 because they cannot consent to have their data processed according to EU privacy rules.

Von der Leyen suggested parents should also have control over social media age limits. "Children should only be exposed to social media under the supervision of parents, of caregivers teachers, and time-limited," she said.

"This won't be foolproof, and change takes time," she said. She added that people will eventually change their behavior, as they did when seat belts were introduced for road safety.

Von der Leyen said the bloc would consider age restrictions for other online services too, and will start work on determining which platforms are harmful to minors.

The Commission wants to impose "phased and gradual access for different age ranges," she said, adding: "Childhood won't wait, and once it's gone, we can never give it back."

The panel also recommended that children are not exposed to screens below three and then gradually are introduced to social media and other technology until 13 under supervision.

Democracy’s at risk, it’s time politicians stopped fibbing – POLITICO

Sun, 12 Jul 2026 22:11:55 +0000

Democracy’s at risk, it’s time politicians stopped fibbing

Politicians and the truth have always been strained acquaintances, but faced with populist fabulists in our current post-truth era, is deception really the way to go?

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In a leaked recording, a senior Labour lawmaker admitted to local party officials that Labour couldn’t openly talk about revaluing homes for property tax hikes. | Anthony Devlin/Getty Images

Unpacked

July 8, 2024 12:25 pm CET

By Jamie Dettmer

Jamie Dettmer is opinion editor at POLITICO Europe.

Does truth matter less in politics than it used to? Have politicians always been “economical with the truth” — as a top adviser to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once spun it — or has the tendency become worse in recent years?

From the recent European Parliament election to last week’s U.K. general election, from the U.S. all the way to France, the campaign trails have seen their fair share of fibs, large and small.

Americans are being told by the White House that President Joe Biden is fit and well, but they saw him debate former President Donald Trump with their own eyes just last week. He’s no longer the man he was — physically or mentally.

Also, persisting with the claim that he’s fit as a fiddle and that he’ll breeze through another full term clearly isn’t persuading American voters. Days after his stumbling — and frankly unnerving — performance at the debate, a CBS/YouGov national survey found that 72 percent of registered voters don’t believe the 81-year-old is fit enough to serve a second term.

Meanwhile, over in Britain, whenever asked about possible tax raids on people’s homes, cars, pensions, savings and investments, Labour leader — and now new prime minister — Keir Starmer dodged and weaved on the campaign trail. “What I am not going to do is sit here two and a bit weeks before the election and write the budgets for the next five years,” he said in a radio interview. And day after day, his top aides insisted they had no plans or intentions to launch any tax hikes, dismissing any claims to the contrary as “scaremongering nonsense.”

But in a leaked recording, senior Labour lawmaker Darren Jones admitted to local party officials in his constituency that Labour couldn’t openly talk about revaluing homes for property tax hikes because if it did so, the party wouldn’t get elected. He also raised the prospect of major changes to inheritance tax in the same secret conversation . And Jones has now been appointed chief secretary to the Treasury in Starmer’s government.

Much like most Americans know in their hearts that Biden isn’t really up to another term and the White House isn’t coming clean, most Britons had a fair inkling that Labour wasn’t coming clean on the campaign trail either — the financials simply didn’t add up. Maybe that explains, in some ways, why there was little enthusiasm for Labour itself — voters just wanted to see the back of the Conservatives.

Not that the U.K.’s Conservatives were honest during the election either. As my colleague Jack Blanchard recently pointed out, neither the Tories nor Labour sought to address the huge, systemic problems Britain faces in any serious way: “Aspirations are bold but vague. Rosy outcomes are promised, without any real plan for how to deliver. Brexit is barely discussed at all. And nobody wants to talk about the enormous black hole in the nation’s finances awaiting whoever takes power on July 4.”

So, if Labour does impose a variety tax hikes — as seems highly likely — how will the public react? It has won a huge victory — but so had former Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2019, seemingly putting the Tories on track for a decade in power. Supermajorities don’t immunize a government from angry voters when they feel let down — especially when the electorate is as volatile and disenchanted with politicians as Britain’s.

Americans are being told by the White House that President Joe Biden is fit and well, but they saw him debate former President Donald Trump with their own eyes just last week. | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Refusing to come clean is just another form of lying — and it sticks in voters’ craw just as much.

EU leaders employed the very same tactic in the run-up to last month’s EU elections as well. Against a backdrop of angry farmers protesting across the Continent, they decided to keep enlargement talks to a minimum ahead of the polls, fearing it would only help populists. “Talking about less subsidies for European farmers is not something you’d want to put on your campaign slogans — or give as electoral ammunition for the far right,” an EU official told POLITICO.

So, is it any worse now than before? Maybe not — political falsehoods, evasions and distortions have always been par for the course, and politicians have always been knowingly economical with the truth. Even Shakespeare was almost always disdainful of them, “A politician … one that would circumvent God,” he noted in “Hamlet.”

Cast your minds back to 1960 and the White House campaign of soon-to-be U.S. President John F. Kennedy, which saw him claim that the Soviet Union possessed more nukes than America. The so-called “missile gap” figured prominently throughout the election, but two weeks after Kennedy was inaugurated, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara admitted there was no such gap.

Then came U.S. President Richard Nixon who, during his reelection campaign, denied he had anything to do with the Watergate break-in. And on Jan. 26, 1998, we saw red-faced, finger-wagging U.S. President Bill Clinton take to the microphone to deny an extramarital affair: “I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I’m going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.”

In 2004, left-wing commentator David Corn managed a whole book on the deceptions of Clinton successor George W. Bush — “The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception” — arguing that America’s 43rd president had systematically “mugged the truth” as a political strategy.

And two years later there was “Le mille balle blu” (The Thousand Blue Balls — “balle” being a vulgar slang word for lie in Italian), chronicling the fibs of larger than life and sexually insatiable Silvio Berlusconi — Italy’s longest-serving post-war prime minister, whose scandal-ridden career was full of outlandish falsehoods often involving dalliances with young women, and in one case an underage girl. Written by Italian journalists Marco Travaglio and Peter Gomez, it’s a much more uproarious — and in some ways even more disturbing — read thanks to the flamboyant life of Italy’s perma-tanned populist Lothario, a man the authors call “the most sincere liar that ever existed.”

So, yes, politicians and the truth have always been strained acquaintances. But in our current post-truth era, when faced with brazen populist fabulists like Trump, is deception really the way for their opponents to go?

If democracy is in danger, as they claim, further discrediting or corroding faith in it by not coming clean themselves won’t help.

Europe must choose between AI and climate goals, data center lobby says – POLITICO

Sun, 12 Jul 2026 06:16:02 +0000

Europe must choose between AI and climate goals, data center lobby says

Tech sector says only carbon-emitting gas plants are reliable enough today to power the EU’s AI goals.

AI generated Text-to-speech

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That leaves Europe facing the sensitive question of whether it should temporarily rely on gas-fired power to support AI growth while waiting for grids, nuclear reactors and renewable energy storage to catch up. | Nicolas Tucat/AFP via Getty Images

June 17, 2026 6:00 am CET

By Elena Giordano

BRUSSELS —Europe must prioritize artificial intelligence over its immediate climate ambitions or risk surrendering its tech sovereignty to China.

That's the view of the president of the European Data Centre Association, which lobbies the EU on behalf of data center companies.

Lex Coors said that Europe's energy system is not ready to power advanced AI data centers, and Europe may need to fall back on new carbon-emitting gas power plants to meet its tech sovereignty goals.

"The grid is not ready, [small modular nuclear reactors] won't be on time. So now what?" he said.

The European Commission wants to triple the bloc's data center capacity by 2032 as part of its AI Continent Action Plan. But Coors said the rollout of renewables, grid expansion plans and next-generation nuclear projects are not moving fast enough to support that growth.

"My suggestion is, let's at least open the conversation," said Coors, whose organization represents Big Tech groups like Microsoft, Google and Amazon, along with local data center companies.

AI vs. climate goals

The debate strikes at the heart of a broader political dilemma in Brussels.

Europe hosts approximately 3,000 data centers, making it the world's second-largest regional hub after North America. Most are concentrated in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Ireland and the U.K., while the Nordics are emerging as a growing destination because of their cooler climate and abundant clean power.

Yet, Europe still lags far behind the U.S. and China in overall computing capacity and the large-scale infrastructure needed to train advanced AI models.

Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen argued in a recent interview with POLITICO that data centers are welcome in Europe only if they contribute to the energy transition, including by supporting the deployment of renewable energy and recycling waste heat. The Commission is also developing a sustainability label for data centers based on criteria such as energy efficiency, water use and heat recovery.

Earlier this month, the Commission unveiled a Strategic Roadmap on digitalization and AI in the energy sector and secured a declaration of intent between utilities, grid operators and data center companies aimed at accelerating the deployment of AI infrastructure.

Pipes that form part of the cooling system at a data center in Noyal-sur-Vilaine, France are pictured on Oct. 31, 2025. | Damien Meyer/AFP via Getty Images

Coors welcomed the initiative as "an extremely valuable start," but said policymakers are still operating under the assumption that key infrastructure projects will arrive on schedule despite doubts within the industry. "Any good idea is now blocked by the certainty, on paper, that everything will be on time," he said.

He argued that greater transparency from grid operators and policymakers about expected delays would allow the sector to plan alternative solutions. "If the Commission was open that it was behind, then it would open up the conversation."

For climate groups, Europe's vulnerability to energy crises is the result of its continued dependence on imported fossil fuels. Building more gas capacity, they argue, risks locking in the problem Brussels is trying to solve.

"The idea that the EU's too-slow progress on climate should be further sacrificed by burning more gas for the sake of tech bro profits is preposterous," said a spokesperson for Greenpeace EU.

Maya Perera, energy expert at the European Environmental Bureau, urged the Commission to "hold the line," arguing data centers "must meet the highest efficiency and environmental standards and actively support the energy transition, not undermine it."

The gas question

Coors stressed that the data center industry remains committed to operating on clean energy and continues to support solar, wind and nuclear power.

But he questioned whether batteries and renewable energy alone can bridge what he sees as an emerging supply gap. Because wind and solar are intermittent (they don't work when there's no wind or sunlight), they must be backed up by energy storage technology, such as batteries.

"Batteries will not ride us through till 2034," he said, arguing that policymakers underestimate the costs and scale of storage needed to support rapid AI expansion.

If grid upgrades and advanced nuclear projects are delayed, gas could emerge as the only practical bridging fuel, he argued.

That would mirror what's already happening in the U.S., where a data center boom is prompting surging demand for new gas power plants. Last year, global orders for new gas plants reached a 25-year high largely thanks to the U.S. AI boom, according to the International Energy Agency.

For Coors, the challenge extends beyond energy policy. He argued policymakers are trying to maximize four competing objectives simultaneously: “Competitiveness, sovereignty, sustainability and speed."

But he said Europe must make a "trade off" between sustainability and the other three objectives. "If AI falls behind, it means that we will have to buy it forever rather than build it now."

The risk, he argued, is that by demanding that sustainable energy sources power data centers, Europe will lose time while rivals move ahead. "There's only one winner at that moment: China," he said.

Slovenia becomes first EU country to ban all weapons trade with Israel – POLITICO

Thu, 09 Jul 2026 08:27:43 +0000

Slovenia becomes first EU country to ban all weapons trade with Israel

Ljubljana said it decided to act independently, as the bloc has not yet taken action against Israel over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

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“People in Gaza are dying because humanitarian aid is being systematically blocked,” the government statement said. | Maksim Konstantinov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

August 1, 2025 1:31 pm CET

By Yurii Stasiuk

Slovenia became the first EU country to ban all weapons trade with Israel, citing the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

The government also prohibited the transit of weapons to or from Israel through Slovenia, the administration in Ljubljana said in a statement Thursday.

Slovenia said that it decided to act independently from the EU, as “due to internal disagreements and disunity,” the bloc is unable to take action against Israel. Though the European Commission proposed partially suspending Israel’s association agreement with the EU this week, member countries have yet to agree on it.

“People in Gaza are dying because humanitarian aid is being systematically blocked,” the government statement said. “In such circumstances, it is the duty of every responsible country to take action, even if this means taking a step ahead of others.”

The move is largely symbolic, as Slovenia has not issued any military export permits to Israel since October 2023. An anonymous Israeli official told Ynet, the largest Israeli news site, that the country “doesn’t buy a pin” from Slovenia.

Ljubljana has been among Israel’s toughest critics in Europe. It previously banned two Israeli far-right ministers from entering the country, in another EU first, and was followed by the Netherlands this week.

Israel has increasingly lost support in Europe, even from its allies, over struggles to get humanitarian aid to civilians amid its military assault on Gaza. France, Canada and the U.K. have pledged this week to recognize a Palestinian state and have all issued sharp condemnations of Israel.

Slovenia will prepare further measures against Israel in the coming weeks, the government said Thursday.

European lawmakers urge Albania to halt construction on Kushner-linked project – POLITICO

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 10:16:33 +0000

European lawmakers urge Albania to halt construction on Kushner-linked project

Lawmakers adopted a resolution calling for an immediate moratorium on new permits and construction in the country’s protected areas.

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Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama delivers a speech during a rally to mark the 35th anniversary of the foundation of the Socialist Party of Albania, in Tirana on June 12, 2026. | Adnan Beci/ AFP via Getty Images

June 17, 2026 4:46 pm CET

By Jakob Weizman

The European Parliament on Wednesday urged Albania to suspend construction in protected areas, piling pressure on Prime Minister Edi Rama over a proposed Jared Kushner-linked luxury resort that has sparked the country’s largest protests in decades.

Albania has seen 18 days of continuous protests, dubbed "The Flamingo Revolution," over the project, as well as demonstrations organized by the diaspora in the U.S., UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Australia. Calls to halt the project and repeal crucial laws on investments and protected areas have been accompanied by demands that Rama resign.

“The flamingo protest shows that citizens care about protecting the environment and joining the EU. We will stand with them, supporting their protest against Trump allies who exploit their natural heritage and supporting their journey towards the EU,” said Dutch MEP Tineke Strik, shadow lawmaker from the Greens–European Free Alliance group for the Commission’s 2025 report on Albania.

Lawmakers in Strasbourg adopted their resolution on the 2025 Commission Report on Albania, which, among other things, called for an immediate moratorium on new permits and construction in protected areas. While an earlier amendment had mentioned the proposed Kushner development, this was rejected, with the adopted version not mentioning any specific project.

The move echoes the Commission’s own warnings in its report and in recent weeks that Albania risks losing momentum in its EU accession process if it presses ahead without an environmental impact assessment.

The European Parliament and Commission are also pressuring Albania to reverse changes to its protected areas law and repeal its strategic investments law, which opened the door to development projects such as Kushner's.

"Europe should pay close attention to what is happening in Albania. There is no better guarantee for the path toward accession to the European Union than a living, conscious people capable of mobilizing against predatory capitalism, in defense of justice, the commons and freedom," said Italian MEP Ilaria Salis during a debate on Tuesday.

Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos told reporters on Monday that she was given "assurance from the Government of Albania that a full environmental impact assessment will be carried out and that European environmental standards will be respected."

She also pointed out that Albania "is one of the frontrunners in the enlargement process and has made important progress on environmental protection."

Rama reacted to the rejected amendment and adopted resolution in an Instagram post, criticizing the furor over the situation and insisting that "flamingos will be protected, Vjose-Narta will be protected, Zvernec will be developed based on an Environmental Impact Assessment according to European Union standards."

This story has been updated to provide more information about the resolution and Rama's reaction.

Albania’s PM Rama lashes out at ‘flamingo’ protesters – POLITICO

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 10:16:32 +0000

Albania’s PM Rama lashes out at ‘flamingo’ protesters

Albanians flooded Tirana over the weekend in the largest demonstration yet — and called for the prime minister’s resignation.

Protestors hold banners as they gather in front of the Albanian Prime Minister's Office in Tirana on June 10, 2026. | Adnan Beci/AFP via Getty Images

June 14, 2026 4:42 pm CET

By Jakob Weizman

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama railed against the “Flamingo Revolution” on Sunday, criticizing the crowds’ actions and referring to a faction of the protesters as “hajvan” — an Albanian term roughly meaning “stupid.”

In his weekly podcast, Rama said he finds it unacceptable that a segment of protestors have called for boycotting pop singers’ concerts for refusing to speak out about the ongoing demonstrations, as well as for engaging in “online violence” and threats against others who have refused to take a public stance.

The remarks come as the political unrest entered its 14th consecutive day as Albanians flooded Tirana over the weekend in the largest demonstration yet, calling for the prime minister’s resignation.

Saturday’s protest saw an estimated 100,000-200,000 people take to the streets. They have remained peaceful, attended by children, the elderly and families, and even including an area for children to draw and paint.

Alice Taylor/POLITICO

Now in its second straight week, the protest has transformed from demands for the cancellation of a Jared Kushner-linked luxury resort into one of the largest anti-government demonstrations that Albania has seen since the fall of communism in 1991.

Rama also condemned a chant used at the protest, which states that Albania belongs to Albanians. He said this comes across as “meaning that everyone else outside that is not welcome — just as Germany was ‘for the Germans’ and then became Europe’s ‘black sheep’ for years and years afterward,” he added.

Demonstrations in support of the “Flamingo Revolution” were set to continue both worldwide and in Tirana on Sunday, with rallies planned from New York and Berlin to Vienna and London.

CORRECTION: This article was updated June 14 to clarify Edi Rama’s remarks about the protests in Albania.

Alice Taylor contributed to this report.

SG muscles up for key files – POLITICO

Tue, 30 Jun 2026 19:40:31 +0000

POLITICO’s must-read briefing on what’s driving the day in Brussels, by Gerardo Fortuna, Nicholas Vinocur and Gabriel Gavin.

By GERARDO FORTUNA

Send tips here | Follow us @gerardofortuna @NicholasVinocur @GabrielGavin | Listen to Playbook and view in your browser

CIAO THERE. It’s Gerardo Fortuna, back with you on another scorching day in Brussels, where even basic advice about staying cool can become a political controversy (scroll down for the institutional air-conditioning wars).

In today’s Playbook:

— A sneak peek at the Commission’s plans for new staffing.

— Brussels’ Italians aren’t letting a diplomatic spat spoil a good party.

On today’s Brussels Playbook Podcast: Zoya and Ian unpack the first leaders’ summit of Europe’s E5 power club.

DRIVING THE DAY

SG STAFFS UP: The European Commission’s Secretariat-General, the Berlaymont’s powerful coordinating center, is set to receive nine additional senior posts this year, according to an internal document seen by Playbook.

The staffing plan points to the Commission’s priorities before a wider restructuring expected by the end of the year — and to a stronger SG with a bigger role in the EU’s next long-term budget. Only DG TRADE is getting as many new senior roles.

The document, drawn up by Commission officials as part of the 2027 budget and obtained by my colleague Jacopo Barigazzi, was approved by commissioners on June 10 but hasn’t been made public, two EU officials confirmed.

It gives SG 10 new roles overall: nine administrator-level jobs and one assistant post. The extra staff will support work on two of the biggest pieces of the Multiannual Financial Framework: the Competitiveness Fund and the National and Regional Partnership Plans.

The Commission confirmed the allocation, adding that some of the new recruits will help coordinate work on the next EU budget, competitiveness and technological sovereignty. “Other services have also been reinforced as part of the regular yearly reallocation exercise,” a spokesperson said, pointing out that TRADE is getting 14 new posts overall.

Perspective: Even with the new recruits, SG remains lean compared to the Commission’s biggest departments. “If they think they can run the whole [budget] with nine people more, good for them,” said an official in a large department.

But the allocations are a sign of the secretariat’s growing importance under Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Once conceived as a coordinating service, SG now reaches into the post-Covid Recovery Fund, SAFE defense funds, security policy, Ukraine financing and parts of the Commission’s strategic agenda. “If I want to know what’s happening in my policy area, it’s often more useful to speak to the SG than to my boss,” one Commission official told POLITICO.

As Playbook reported last month, powers traditionally held by spending departments such as DG REGIO could gradually move toward SG — and therefore closer to von der Leyen. In particular, SG REFORM, the unit overseeing the post-Covid recovery fund, appears to be positioning itself for a larger role in future EU spending. “That seems to be the direction of travel,” said an EU official granted anonymity to discuss the internal Commission document.

SG has also become a talent pipeline for von der Leyen to expand her network of loyalists. Recent moves sent Céline Gauer and Elisabeth Werner from SG to the top of DG ENER and DG AGRI — extending the reach of officials shaped in the Berlaymont’s upper floors.

BIG AND BREAKING

NEW MOVE TO OUTSOURCE MIGRATION: A group of EU countries is considering sending rejected asylum-seekers to Rwanda and Uzbekistan.

WHY ARE WE SWEATING? Climate change, poor infrastructure and distracted politicians are all partly to blame.

HITTING PAUSE: Hungary has delayed a key procedural step needed to progress Ukraine and Moldova’s EU membership bids.

SUPERPOWER NO MORE: For decades, central bankers dominated economic policymaking, but power is shifting back to governments as Europe confronts war, rearmament and trade conflict.

MILITARY MOVE: The top U.S. Army officer in Europe, Gen. Christopher Donahue, is unexpectedly standing down after just 18 months in the job. He had clashed with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, per CBS News.

THE AC WARS

HOT AND BOTHERED: The soaring Brussels heat is fraying tempers in some EU departments, where basic heatwave advice posted on the Commission’s intranet — avoid going outside at the hottest time of day, drink water regularly — has prompted eye-rolling among overheated officials, according to messages seen by Playbook.

Losing their cool: When one Commission staffer posted that they love coming to the office because it’s air-conditioned, an official at DG AGRI (located in one of the Commission’s oldest buildings) shot back: “We don’t have Airco in the office. Enjoy!”

“This AC thing in offices is going to be a game changer,” a DG DEFIS official posted, lamenting the lack of air-conditioning at one of the most prominent organizations in a wealthy capital. Several officials highlighted difficult conditions in the Merode building in Etterbeek, home to DG MENA, and the Madou building in Saint-Josse-Ten-Noode, where DG COMP is based (and which had problems with contaminated tap water earlier this year).

Thanks for that: The Commission’s advice to “switch off heat sources in your office (electrical appliances)” prompted one official to respond: “OK, I’ll shut down my laptop then.” Another pointed out that a suggestion to telework isn’t exactly helpful to those living in apartments with no AC or window blinds and inside temperatures hitting 30C.

The 13th floor hasn’t been spared, either: The higher you get in the Berlaymont, the warmer it gets, Playbook hears. “There’s some AC” up there, a resident of the executive’s nerve center told me. “But it’s a large building, there are many people and heat rises.” Fans have been deployed but they’re barely up to the job, that person said.

20-SECOND PLAYBOOK PRIMER

The European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee on Tuesday backed the creation of a digital euro. But how would that work? It would be an electronic version of cash issued by the European Central Bank and would have the same value as existing banknotes and coins — assuming the EU offers its full backing. The ECB hopes to begin minting the virtual extension of euros before the end of the decade. Your digital cash would most likely be stored on a wallet-like application on your smartphone.

TALK TO PLAYBOOK: On the Brussels Playbook Podcast, Zoya and Ian talked about overheating EU officials. Tell us how your institution is coping with the heat via Whatsapp on +32 491 050629 and listen from 7 a.m. to hear if we give you a shoutout.

FAR-RIGHT CASH CLASH

MONEY TALKS: The European Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee will today decide how tough it should get with the Patriots for Europe over spending irregularities by the far-right political group.

In late 2024, EU auditors uncovered €270,000 of misused EU funds — in addition to more than €4 million improperly spent by the group’s predecessor, the Identity and Democracy group, between 2019 and 2024.

Committee Chair Andreas Schwab, from the European People’s Party, has drafted a letter saying the Patriots have faced “necessary consequences.” The letter will be the basis for today’s discussion between group coordinators, Schwab said.

Going further: But the Greens/EFA, along with the Socialists and Democrats, want more. They’re calling for the European Public Prosecutor’s Office to step in and for enhanced scrutiny of the Patriots’ 2025 accounts. They say the far-right group must repay the €4 million misspent by Identity and Democracy, and that Patriots Secretary-General Philip Claeys, who oversaw the finances of both groups, should lose his powers.

In response: The Patriots denied any wrongdoing and warned against “premature conclusions based on leaked interim information.” The group said it has no link with Identity and Democracy and that it has introduced new rules to strengthen financial controls.

The first stone: Lawmakers aren’t expected to demand similar action against any other group — prompting the Patriots to accuse their critics of “double standards.” Meanwhile, Transparency International is calling for an overhaul. “The sheer scale of misuse of EU funds [demands] a reform of how political groups are allowed to manage taxpayers’ money,” the NGO’s Nicholas Aiossa said.

**Celebrate 100 episodes of the Brussels Playbook Podcast. To mark the 100th episode of the Brussels Playbook Podcast, POLITICO is bringing the show into the room for an exclusive live recording in the heart of the EU quarter. Join fellow policymakers, stakeholders and Playbook readers for an evening of insight, discussion and behind-the-scenes access. Places are limited, apply to attend.**

5 MORE THINGS GETTING US TALKING

TAX OMNIBUS: Companies are set to save €8 billion annually in compliance costs under the Commission’s tax omnibus due to be unveiled today (more for subscribers in Morning FS). “The world will not wait for Europe to do what it must to secure its long-term prosperity. We must act with urgency and ambition,” Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis told Playbook ahead of the unveiling.

ENERGY PRODUCT SIMPLIFICATION: The European Commission will also propose changes to the bloc’s energy labels today as part of its broader “simplification” drive. More in Morning Energy (for subscribers).

FOREIGN TRIP: Ursula von der Leyen is preparing to travel to Armenia next week in a show of support for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

OFF THE BENCH: Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said she will lead Kyiv’s delegation to this week’s Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdańsk. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to skip the event amid a growing diplomatic dispute with his Polish counterpart Karol Nawrocki.

NOT HAPPY: Czech President Petr Pavel said he filed a lawsuit against the government, challenging Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’ decision not to include him in the delegation attending July’s NATO summit.

BRUSSELS CORNER

WEATHER: Sunny and very hot. An orange alert is in place until Sunday. High 36C.

NO ITALIAN BOYCOTT: Some Italians in Brussels were wondering if the recent Trump-Meloni spat might spill over to the U.S. Embassy’s big Independence Day bash on Sunday. Nope. Italy’s EU ambassador remains on the guest list and will attend, a spokesperson told Playbook. The same goes for another Italian on the invite list: your author will be there.

MUSIC IS LIKE MATH: At least that’s what my music teacher used to say, though admittedly not in the context of financial governance. Anyone walking through the Berlaymont and hearing live music yesterday was listening to ECFonics, the orchestra and choir made up largely of officials from the Commission’s economics department, DG ECFIN. What can we say? They’ve got strings attached.

SPEAKING OF MUSIC: Guests invited to Uber’s summer party at the KBR museum were asked to submit a song to sing loudly. I put forward The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside” — and I don’t apologize for it — but it was played in my absence while I was writing this edition.

Spotted at the Uber party … Euroconsumers’ Romane Armangau and Olivia Brown; Acumen’s Gianluigi Vona; Shopify’s Claudia Canelles Quaroni; Salesforce’s Edoardo Ravaioli; the European Commission’s Daniel Mes; WFA’s Ana Mendieta Ovejero; Uber’s Klaus Gorny and Sophie Bonnecarrère; Verne’s Lovro Nobilo; Vinted’s Angelica Viggiano; PAVE Europe’s Guido Di Pasquale; EU Strategy’s Andrea Parola; TikTok’s Paolo Ganino; Fourtold’s Victoria Main; Euronews’ Giedrė Peseckytė; Euractiv’s Anupriya Datta and Greta Jonaitytė; Bloomberg’s Gian Volpicelli; MLex’s Kait Bolongaro and Todd Buell; POLITICO’s Gerardo Fortuna.

TOP OF THE PLAYBOOKS

Berlin: Friedrich Merz will host a meeting of E5 leaders today to talk about NATO’s future after Washington pulls back.

London: Keir Starmer will face MPs at his first prime ministers’ questions since he announced he’ll step down.

Paris: France’s centrists talk about uniting behind a single presidential candidate, but the financial logistics make that hard to imagine.

Washington PM: The White House wants to pivot back to cost-of-living concerns ahead of the midterms — if Donald Trump can stay on message.

AGENDA

— The College of Commissioners meets in Brussels.

— Coreper I meets in Brussels at 9 a.m.; Coreper II meets at 9:30 a.m.

— European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivers the opening speech at Decarbon Days via video message; receives Beninese President Romuald Wadagni; and meets members of BusinessEurope.

— European Council President António Costa meets European Round Table for Industry Chair Jonathan Symonds at 10 a.m., Wadagni at 11:15 a.m. and European Court of Auditors member Pierre Moscovici at 12:30 p.m.

— European Parliament President Roberta Metsola participates in a discussion with Italian Senator Carlo Calenda on his book “Defending Freedom: Europe’s Hour” at 5:45 p.m.

— Commission Executive Vice President Henna Virkkunen delivers a keynote speech at European Sovereign Cloud Day.

— Commission Executive Vice President Teresa Ribera co-chairs the 10th anniversary board meeting of the Global Covenant of Mayors with Michael Bloomberg in London.

— Health Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi meets Peter Beyer, deputy executive director of the Global Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership, and Bálint Pásztor, president of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians and member of the Serbian National Assembly.

— Intergenerational Fairness Commissioner Glenn Micallef meets representatives of the German National Youth Council.

— German Chancellor Friedrich Merz hosts a meeting of E5 leaders in Berlin to discuss Ukraine and preparations for the NATO summit.

— NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte meets U.S. President Donald Trump and senior administration officials in Washington and joins the E5 leaders’ meeting virtually.

BIRTHDAYS

Playbook is brought to you by POLITICO’s EU Politics team: Gerardo Fortuna, Nicholas Vinocur, Gabriel Gavin, Zoya Sheftalovich, Max Griera, Mari Eccles, Hanne Cokelaere and Sebastian Starcevic. And: reporters Ferdinand Knapp and Milena Wälde, editors Alex Spence and James Panichi, and producers Dean Southwell and Hugh Kapernaros.

CORRECTION: This newsletter was updated on June 24 to correct the status of Andreas Schwab’s letter on Patriots’ funding, which at the time of publication was a draft and had not been sent.

Sebastian Starcevic – POLITICO

Tue, 30 Jun 2026 19:40:31 +0000

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3 reasons why Europe can’t stop sweating this week – POLITICO

Tue, 30 Jun 2026 19:40:29 +0000

3 reasons why Europe can’t stop sweating this week

Climate change, poor infrastructure and distracted politicians all play a role.

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A woman walks with a fan during a heat wave in Nantes, western France, on June 23, 2026. | Sebastien Salom-Gomis/AFP via Getty Images)

June 23, 2026 6:04 pm CET

By Zia Weise

BRUSSELS — Western Europe is sizzling under yet another brutal heat wave this week, a harbinger of what global warming has in store for the continent — even as climate change slips further and further down the list of political priorities.

Meteorologists say that temperatures in the coming days will smash records for the month of June in several countries. France is bracing for up to 43 degrees Celsius. Spain could see up to 45 C. Temperatures in parts of the U.K., Germany and Italy could reach 40 C — and all that before peak summer.

In Belgium, where temperatures could hit 37 C, the chief forecaster of the national meteorological office said this could become “the hottest week ever recorded” in the country.

Nights will also be exceptionally hot, and won’t drop below 25 C in many parts of Western Europe later this week. The lack of a respite exacerbates so-called heat stress — heat that builds up in the body — leading to illnesses and even death, particularly among vulnerable populations such as the elderly. Some 200,000 people across the EU have died of heat-related causes in the past four years.

For Europeans wondering where to point fingers, here’s why you’re sweating in your homes and workplaces this week.

1. Fossil fuels

Yes, heat waves have been part of Northern Hemisphere summers since time immemorial. But global temperatures have increased by 1.4 C since humans started burning fossil fuels to power factories, cars and buildings, releasing planet-warming greenhouse gases.

As a result, we’ve lifted the baseline for summer weather. Scientists agree that every heat wave occurring now is hotter and more likely to occur as a result of climate change.

Climate change may not have caused the heat dome — a weather pattern trapping warm air for long periods of time — that has settled over Western Europe this week, said Mireia Ginesta, a research associate in climate damages analysis at Oxford University.

“But it raises the background temperature on which weather systems operate,” she added. “In a cooler climate, this heatwave would have been less intense.”

Europe is also the world’s fastest-warming continent due to a combination of factors, including its relative proximity to the Arctic and changes in regional weather patterns.

And with every fraction of a degree that the planet warms, the heat will get worse; scientists say if global warming reaches around 3 C from preindustrial times, the number of heat deaths in Europe will double or triple compared with 1.5 C.

2. Poor infrastructure

But outside temperatures are only part of the problem. Europeans spend around 90 percent of their time indoors — in homes, shops, trains, schools and workplaces.

In Belgium, a fifth of all trains do not have air conditioning at all, prompting the national rail company to cancel peak-hour services. | Thierry Monasse/Getty Images

In much of Europe, and especially in northern regions, buildings are designed to keep heat in, not out. Even now, many new homes are built to withstand winter temperatures, not increasingly hot summer weather. In the United Kingdom, 92 percent of homes are likely to overheat by 2050, according to the country’s climate change committee.

Plus, while a growing number of European homes have air conditioning, it’s still a rarity: Only about a fifth of households on the continent have AC installed. Even if they do, they might not be able to turn it on: More than a third of Europeans say they cannot afford to keep their homes cool enough, rising to two-thirds among people struggling to make ends meet.

Offices, schools, trains and public transport in many cities also lack sufficient air conditioning. In France, the heat — and absence of cooling tech — forced the closure of more than 800 schools this week. In Belgium, a fifth of all trains do not have AC at all, prompting the national rail company to cancel peak-hour services.

While some municipalities have started offering cooling spaces during heat waves — making air-conditioned rooms available to the public — such initiatives are few and far between, and only available during daytime hours, not the sweltering nights.

3. Distracted politicians

Governments can enact many measures to both reduce planet-warming emissions and protect citizens, infrastructure and economies from extreme weather. But as worsening heat grips Europe year after year, climate change is slipping down the list of political priorities across the continent.

While the European Union’s plans to curb emissions rank among the world’s most ambitious, governments have placed a greater emphasis on industrial revival in recent years and cut back climate policies seen as harming the bloc’s economic ambitions. The EU’s emissions last year actually rose slightly, pointing to a stagnation in pollution cuts.

The U.K.’s cross-party consensus on fighting climate change has crumbled, though the Labour government has resisted mounting calls to boost fossil fuel drilling in the North Sea. Whether that stance will survive Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s departure remains unclear.

In both the EU and the U.K., however, plans to prepare for the inevitable consequences of climate change — such as heat — lag far behind emissions-slashing efforts.

The European Environment Agency says the 27-country bloc and its governments aren’t protecting their people from extreme temperatures, assessing the threat of heat stress for the general population as critical in this decade, and “catastrophic” from mid-century onward.

The U.K. climate change committee has also described Britain’s efforts as inadequate, and on Tuesday the Green Alliance think tank warned that Brits are “paying the price” for the failure of their government to adapt the country to climbing summer temperatures.

“Right now, children are struggling to finish their exams in sweltering classrooms and the elderly are enduring dangerously hot homes and care facilities with little relief,” said Friederike Otto, a professor of climate science at Imperial College London.

“This heat is not an inconvenience, it is a growing public health threat,” she added. “Every heatwave puts lives at risk, and it’s long past time we treated it with the urgency it demands.”

EU Commission HQ forced to shut down air-conditioning amid heatwave – POLITICO

Tue, 30 Jun 2026 19:40:19 +0000

EU Commission HQ forced to shut down air-conditioning amid heatwave

As Brussels bakes, the Berlaymont building’s AC stops working.

A woman walks with an umbrella to protect herself from the sun in front of the Berlaymont building in Brussels on June 23, 2026. | Thierry Monasse/Getty Images

June 26, 2026 1:43 pm CET

By Sebastian Starcevic

The European Commission’s headquarters was forced to shut down its air-conditioning system on Friday due to the heat wave.

Staff working at the Berlaymont building received a text at midday, reading: “BERL — URGENT — Due to extreme weather conditions, forced shut down of air cooling system from floor 1 to 7 for the rest of the day.”

The 13-story building is home to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, her 26 commissioners and about 3,000 staff. Von der Leyen works on the 13th floor, and most of her commissioners’ offices are housed on floors eight or above.

Belgium and much of Europe have been sweltering for the past week, with record-breaking temperatures.

The Commission issued guidance for its staff earlier this week, which included avoiding going outside at the hottest times of day, drinking water regularly and starting work earlier.

But the advice angered some Commission staff who work in buildings without air-conditioning, including DG AGRI, according to internal communications seen by POLITICO’s Brussels Playbook.

“It’s like feudalism,” a Commission official working on a lower level of the Berlaymont, granted anonymity to speak freely, told POLITICO on Friday, referring to the fact that upper floors housing commissioners got to keep their AC on. A second official agreed it was a “disgrace.”

A third staffer working on the 8th floor told POLITICO on Friday that even with working AC, the temperature inside was still 25.7 degrees.

The heat wave has prompted a renewed discussion about the lack of air-conditioning systems in homes and offices across much of Europe. Only about one-fifth of households on the continent have AC. In Belgium, one-fifth of all trains are without AC, prompting the national rail company to cancel many peak-hour services.

The European Parliament has also faced blackouts this week due to energy consumption from cranking up its cooling system.

Gerardo Fortuna and Gabriel Gavin contributed to this report.

5 countries ask Brussels to tax energy companies benefitting from Iran crisis – POLITICO

Mon, 29 Jun 2026 06:53:47 +0000

5 countries ask Brussels to tax energy companies benefitting from Iran crisis

Austria, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain want extra corporate profits generated during the Mideast conflict to be distributed fairly.

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Some 20 percent of the oil and natural gas that powers the global economy passes through the Strait of Hormuz. | Fadel Senna/AFP via Getty Images

April 4, 2026 1:03 pm CET

By Aitor Hernández-Morales and Gregorio Sorgi

Austria, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain want Brussels to impose a windfall tax on energy companies reaping profits from the war in Iran.

In a letter sent to EU Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra on Friday and obtained by POLITICO, the five countries' finance and economy ministers requested the European Commission develop an EU-wide tax on windfall profits to ensure the "burden" of spiking fuel prices is "distributed fairly."

"Those who profit from the consequences of the war must do their part to alleviate the burden on the general public," read the letter co-signed by Austrian Finance Minister Markus Marterbauer, German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil, Italian Economy and Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti, Portuguese Finance Minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento and Spanish Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo.

In the letter, the ministers argued Brussels should do as it did following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, when it authorized the imposition of a temporary "solidarity contribution" on energy companies to "mitigate the direct economic effects of the soaring energy prices for public authorities’ budgets, final customers and companies."

The 2022 measure imposed a minimum tax of 33 percent on all oil and gas company profits that exceeded the average recorded during the previous four years by more than 20 percent. In addition to proposing a similar framework, the ministers requested the Commission determine if it can also tax profits that multinational oil companies earn abroad.

Oil and gas companies are making huge profits off the supply crisis provoked by the conflict in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which some 20 percent of the oil and natural gas that powers the global economy runs. French oil giant TotalEnergies is reported to have made $1 billion in profits after acquiring dozens of Middle Eastern crude cargoes during the first days of the war, and North Sea producers like BP and Equinor have similarly seen their share prices boom as the price of Brent crude oil skyrockets.

The ministers said in their letter that in order to retain consumers' confidence, EU members must show they "stand united and are able to take action."

For the past month, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Germany's Klingbeil have repeatedly called for the EU to take action against companies profiting from the energy crisis. That stance has been enthusiastically backed by figures like leftwing lawmaker Pasquale Tridico, head of the European Parliament’s tax subcommittee, who wants the extra profits to be redistributed to struggling households coping with higher bills.

Following last week's meeting of EU finance ministers, several national officials told POLITICO that Economy Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis had signaled his willingness to consider the tax. In a post-meeting press conference, the commissioner admitted the “scale, severity and impact” of the war had intensified and that a "coherent set of policy measures" were needed to address the price hikes.

In the letter, the ministers said the Commission, which is under growing pressure to address the economic impact of the war, has already "promised to swiftly review" their request. If Brussels ultimately comes forward with a proposal, it would be up to EU governments to give it a final green light. The windfall taxes adopted in 2022 did not require unanimous support and were adopted with the support of a qualified majority of capitals.

Western countries see World War III coming – POLITICO

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 10:32:12 +0000

Western countries see World War III coming

Voters in leading allied states broadly support higher defense spending, but balk when faced with policy trade-offs.

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A Spanish naval ship in the harbor basin of the naval base in Kiel, Germany. | Marcus Brandt/Picture Alliance via Getty Images

POLITICO POLL

February 13, 2026 4:02 am CET

By Tim Ross

BRUSSELS — Western countries increasingly believe the world is heading toward a global war, according to results from The POLITICO Poll that detail mounting public alarm about the risk and cost of a new era of conflict.

Across all five countries polled — the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France and Germany — the vast majority of respondents think the world is becoming more dangerous. The outbreak of World War 3 is seen as more likely than not within the next five years by American, Canadian, French and British respondents.

The share of voters predicting a new global conflict has risen sharply since independent pollsters Public First asked the question in March 2025. “The changed attitudes of the Western public in under a year reflect a dramatic move to a more insecure world, where war is seen as likely and alliances are unstable,” said Seb Wride, head of polling at Public First.

But The POLITICO Poll also revealed limited willingness among the Western public to make sacrifices to pay for more military spending. While there is widespread support for increasing defense budgets in principle across the U.K., France, Germany and Canada, that support fell sharply when people learned it might mean taking on more government debt, cutting other services or raising taxes.

“Our polling shows the growing concern about war does not give leaders license to spend heavily on defense,” said Wride. “If anything, voters are now less willing to make the trade-offs needed to improve military security. So European leaders are left in a bind — unable to rely on the U.S., unable to use that as a reason to invest domestically, and under higher pressure to urgently solve this for a world where conflict feels closer than before.”

The findings, based on surveys of more than 2,000 voters in each country between Feb. 6 and Feb. 9, lay bare the challenge facing NATO leaders as they try to strengthen security at a time when public finances are tight.

That struggle will shape discussions among politicians from across the world as they head to Germany for the annual Munich Security Conference starting Friday.

With no sign of an imminent end to Russia’s four-year all-out war against Ukraine, and the U.S. taking military action in Iran, Syria, Venezuela and Africa under President Donald Trump, many voters see a growing risk of global conflict.

The pattern is particularly stark in the United Kingdom, where 43 percent believe a new world war is “likely” or “very likely” to break out by 2031 — up from 30 percent in March 2025. Nearly half of Americans — 46 percent — think a new world war is “likely” or “very likely” by 2031 — up from 38 percent last year. Among the five countries, only people in Germany think on balance that a third global war is not likely in the next five years.

When it comes to individual nations engaging in military action, U.S. respondents were the most likely to think their own country will be at war within the next five years, followed by respondents in the U.K. and France.

This suggests NATO’s nuclear powers may be more braced for conflict than other nations, and that Trump’s “president of peace” image is not convincing voters at home.

At least one in three people in the U.S., U.K., France and Canada believe a nuclear weapon is likely or very likely to be used in a war in the next five years.

Russia is seen as the biggest threat to peace in Europe, while Canadians see Trump’s America as the greatest danger to security. In France, Germany and the U.K., the second-biggest threat is seen to be the U.S., which respondents cited far more often than China.

What will it cost?

A majority of voters in France, Germany, the U.K. and Canada said their country needs to spend more on defense, with that sentiment strongest in the U.K. and Canada.

But the question is how to pay for it. The POLITICO Poll found support for more defense spending fell when people were invited to consider whether that funding should come from cuts to other budgets, taking on more government borrowing, or raising taxes.

The French and German publics are now less likely to support higher defense budgets within the context of a spending trade-off than they were last year, according to the results.

In Germany, defense spending was one of the least popular uses of money, ahead of only overseas aid.

In 2025, 40 percent of the French public and 37 percent of the German public said they would support increased defense spending when the trade-offs were mentioned. This year, backing for that fell to only 28 percent in France and 24 percent in Germany.

Both countries are now more likely to oppose spending more on defense when they have to consider how to pay the bill.

The POLITICO Poll showed there is also significant public skepticism about creating an EU standing army under one central command, an idea that has been mentioned by the European Commission. The proposal received support from only 22 percent of people in Germany and 17 percent in France.

Mandatory military service was most popular in Germany and France, where around half of people support the idea.

This edition of The POLITICO Poll was conducted by Public First from Feb. 6 to 9, surveying 10,289 adults online, with at least 2,000 respondents each from the U.S., Canada, U.K., France and Germany. Results for each country were weighted to be representative on dimensions including age, gender and geography. The overall margin of sampling error is ±2 percentage points for each country. Smaller subgroups have higher margins of error.

Scott Bessent tells European leaders to ‘sit back, take a deep breath’ over Greenland tariff threats – POLITICO

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 07:25:20 +0000

Scott Bessent tells European leaders to ‘sit back, take a deep breath’ over Greenland tariff threats

The U.S. Treasury secretary urged EU and U.K. leaders to “let things play out.”

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“This is the same kind of hysteria we heard on April 2 — there was a panic,” Scott Bessent told reporters during a press briefing at USA House in Davos on Tuesday morning. | Pool photo by Yuri Gripas/EPA

January 20, 2026 11:29 am CET

By Sophie Inge, Kathryn Carlson and Zoya Sheftalovich

DAVOS, Switzerland — U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has called for calm over the U.S.’s fraught trade relationship with the EU and U.K., warning that the “worst thing countries can do is escalate against the United States.”

European governments are holding out hope they can lower the temperature and get Trump to abandon his vow to slap punitive tariffs on six EU countries plus the U.K. and Norway for opposing the sale of Greenland to the U.S.

“This is the same kind of hysteria we heard on April 2 — there was a panic,” Bessent told reporters during a press briefing at USA House in Davos on Tuesday morning, in reference to the announcement last year of sweeping “reciprocal tariffs” on many countries.

“What I’m urging everyone here to do is sit back, take a deep breath, and let things play out. As I said on April 2, the worst thing countries can do is escalate against the United States.”

But he specified that “what President Trump is threatening on Greenland is very different than the other trade deals.”

“So I would urge all countries to stick with their trade deals we have agreed on them,” Bessent added.

Potential weapons at the EU’s disposal include a readymade €93 billion package of retaliatory tariffs, as well as the bloc’s Anti-Coercion Instrument (ACI) or “trade bazooka,” designed to penalize countries that use their markets as a tool for geopolitical blackmail.

However, EU diplomats and officials have told POLITICO they want to avoid retaliation and are betting that a diplomatic solution to the crisis can still be found.

Meanwhile, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has ruled out retaliation against Donald Trump’s threats, telling reporters on Monday “a tariff war is in nobody’s interest, and we have not got to that stage.”

Asked if the EU and U.K. had any retaliatory instruments in their bag that the U.S. should be worried about, Bessent replied simply: “No.”

'We love you'

More cordial U.K.-U.S. relations were on display in Davos when U.K. Finance Minister Rachel Reeves and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick took part in a joint panel discussion entitled “Prosperity: Sovereign Yet Connected?

Reeves told Lutnick Britain is America’s “strongest ally” — to which he responded: “We love you. We do.”

“Thank you very much,” Reeves responded. “The feeling is mutual.”

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson also struck a more emollient tone when he addressed the U.K. parliament at an event marking 250 years of American independence earlier on Tuesday.

Johnson told British lawmakers Starmer’s Downing Street address on Monday was “exactly the right message and the right tone.”

He revealed he had spoken to Trump “at length” on Monday. Johnson said he wanted to “encourage our friends and help to calm the waters” during his visit to Britain.

“Let us look to agreement, continue our dialogue and find a resolution, just as we always have in the past. And in that process, I am confident that we can and will maintain and strengthen our special relationship between these two nations.”

Fiona Maxwell contributed reporting.

This story was updated to include quotes from Reeves and Lutnick

‘Punching allies in the face’: Trump sparks US weapons conundrum for Europe – POLITICO

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 21:58:12 +0000

‘Punching allies in the face’: Trump sparks US weapons conundrum for Europe

The U.S. president’s repeated attacks have raised worries about Washington’s reliability, but decades of dependence on American equipment has no quick fix.

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Trump has repeatedly threatened to seize Greenland and to turn Canada into America’s 51st state. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

March 18, 2025 4:43 pm CET

By Laura Kayali, Joe Gould, Robbie Gramer and Lucia Mackenzie

Europe’s dependence on American weapons is facing a reckoning thanks to Donald Trump.

His administration’s unpredictability and repeated attacks on NATO partners are forcing a rethink of arms purchases by some key allies. For the U.S. industry, the sales pitch they’ve relied on for decades — American weapons like fighter jets and air defenses that come with a key bonus of U.S. protection — is falling flat.

While no radical decisions have been made, warning lights are flashing in allied capitals. Portugal and Canada are both getting cold feet about ordering the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter, while France is again ramping up its traditional push for European governments to buy more arms at home.

On Wednesday, the European Commission presented a €150 billion weapons-buying plan. It mostly excludes the U.S.

“Selling the F-35, or American systems for that matter, will certainly become more complicated for American companies,” said Gesine Weber, a Paris-based fellow at transatlantic think tank German Marshall Fund.

“An important factor in the purchase of the F-35 by European governments was the idea that European defense would be built on a transatlantic basis in terms of strategy, institutions and capabilities,” she said, adding that “the Trump administration is in the process of dissolving the transatlantic link, and the purchase of American systems will therefore no longer have any added value for Europeans.”

Trump’s repeated threats to seize Greenland and to turn Canada into America’s 51st state; his questioning if the U.S. would fulfill its NATO obligation to come to the aid of allies; his administration’s sudden suspension of military aid and intelligence-sharing with its ally Ukraine — all of these things have rattled Europeans.

“If you keep punching your allies in the face, eventually they’re going to stop wanting to buy weapons from you,” said a Western European defense official, granted anonymity to discuss the matter candidly. “Right now we have limited options outside of U.S. platforms, but in the long run? That could change in the coming decades if this combativeness keeps up.”

The stakes are high for the U.S. industry as well, with former U.S. Ambassador Greg Delawie calling Portugal and Canada's concerns about the F-35 "a giant political and economic red flag for our country.”

Foreign sales aren’t just a bonus — they’re essential to keeping the American defense industry afloat. In 2024, total foreign military sales and direct commercial sales hit $317 billion.

If Washington's allies start turning elsewhere — even gradually — it could eventually weaken the broader American defense ecosystem. The F-35 is assembled in Texas, a pro-Trump state, while the MIM-104 Patriot air defense system is made in Florida, another red state.

“The change in views on the F-35 and broader views on the reliability of the U.S. as a defense partner and weapons supplier reflect a potential inflection in global defense trade patterns,” said Byron Callan of Capital Alpha Partners on Monday in a note to investors.

However, despite the diplomatic storms that Trump is causing, U.S. arms-makers are banking on the continent's having few options. That’s especially true as NATO members seek to bolster their arsenals against the threat of Russia, with Poland, Romania and the Baltic countries racing to buy off-the-shelf rockets, artillery, tanks and warplanes.

“Even if [Trump] injects a lot of uncertainty in ties, American platforms are still the top choice and Europeans just can’t get around that fact now,” said a senior U.S. defense industry executive, granted anonymity to speak candidly about ongoing defense deals they were negotiating.

“It’s not helpful for Europeans to buy inferior systems,” the executive said. “It’s not like imposing tariffs on Jack Daniels whiskey, this is for their own national security.”

Indeed, there is no quick fix to ending the need for American weapons, with some European capitals even brushing off concerns about Washington’s direction. “We want to reinforce the transatlantic relationship,” Poland’s Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz told reporters in Paris this month.

Questions over future sales

The first test of Europe’s willingness to limit procurement from the U.S. will be in Denmark — a country that has been targeted by Trump with his repeated threats to annex Greenland, an autonomous part of the Kingdom of Denmark.

Copenhagen is planning to choose one of two air defense systems — the Franco-Italian SAMP/T NG and the U.S. Patriot — in a contract due to be signed later this year.

The outcome will be a solid indication of whether Europeans are ready to endorse non-American alternatives.

In Canada — a country that Trump regularly threatens — new Prime Minister Mark Carney referred to the F-35s when in London, saying: "Given the geopolitical environment ... it’s prudent and in the interest of Canada to review those options." Some 16 jets out of the 88 that Canada ordered have already been paid for, but Ottawa could buy the rest elsewhere, namely from Sweden’s Saab, whose JAS-39 Gripen came second to the F-35 in the country's fighter jet tender.

In Europe, the room for maneuver that governments enjoy depends on whether contracts have already been signed, the money spent and the weapons delivered.

It will be difficult for member capitals to get out of existing deals, especially for F-35s. Some European nations such as the Netherlands and the Czech Republic have already ruled out doing so.

Looking for other options, meanwhile, would be very long and costly, Switzerland’s outgoing air force chief Peter Merz said of the U.S. jet. Belgium is wary of the cost of a fleet with two different warplanes, the country’s Defense Minister Theo Francken said.

However, future sales are an open question.

Earlier this month, Portuguese Defense Minister Nuno Melo, whose country is mulling buying F-35s, said: “We cannot ignore the geopolitical environment in our choices,” questioning Washington’s reliability.

When asked whether Germany’s additional hundreds of billion euros for defense would be spent on American weapons, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius called for “a good balance” between U.S. and European equipment, adding that “we are learning — for the moment at least — that we should rely more on ourselves.”

The ‘kill switch’

In the past weeks, the risk of over-reliance on the U.S. for weaponry has crystallized into a single question: Does Washington have a kill switch to ground planes, shut down air defense systems and brick other key systems if a political clash arises with the user?

European officials and politicians have downplayed such concerns, with Belgium’s Francken calling it “a hoax.”

However, an actual on/off button is not needed to significantly hamper the use of American-made military equipment. “There are 24 million lines of code [in F-35 software], constant updating is essential,” said a European industry official. “With HIMARS and Patriots, the real problem isn't the software, it's the ammunition. Control is achieved through the delivery of ammunition and spare parts.”

There are precedents for the U.S. to overturn arms-sales agreements due to political shifts — such as in Iran after the Islamic Revolution, with Pakistan, and when Turkey opted to buy a Russian air defense system.

“Historically, this is how we operate, but have we done this with allies? No,” said a U.S. defense industry official. “But we are in unprecedented times where our reliability as an ally is being questioned. So it’s a legitimate conversation.”

'The best capabilities'

Privately, many European diplomats say Trump's actions are pushing Europeans to reconsider procurement policies. However, they also haven’t given up on the U.S remaining a key partner.

“We cannot guarantee our security without the U.S. at this moment, that is the reality we have to work with,” Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans told reporters this month.

The Commission is currently shepherding efforts to fund and boost Europe’s defense industry, with the long-term goal of making the continent less dependent on the U.S. Capitals are also looking at filling key capability gaps such as cruise missiles, sixth-generation fighter jets, air defenses and tanks.

European contractors are confident that the continent makes the cutting-edge weapons and has "the technical capacities" and "the brains" to compete with the U.S., Eric Béranger, CEO of European missile-maker MBDA, told French radio.

American defense firms are wary of EU moves, including efforts to prioritize European suppliers. The Aerospace Industries Association, an American 300-company trade group, asked Washington trade authorities last week to push back on the strategy — and to advocate cooperative production agreements and stronger transatlantic ties.

U.S. companies also insist that the quality of American weapons will keep them in the game.

“The European industrial base delivers some very good capabilities,” said Aerospace Industries Association Vice President of International Affairs Dak Hardwick. “But the Americans deliver the best capabilities.”

The American defense industry, meanwhile, is warning U.S. policymakers to be aware of the risk if European allies try to break free of their reliance on American weapons.

“The thing that we all need to remember is that foreign partners directly support the American defense industrial base,” Hardwick said.

Jacopo Barigazzi, Sue Allan, Nette Nöstlinger and Oliver Royan contributed reporting from Brussels, Berlin and London.

This article has been updated.

Eva Hartog – POLITICO

Sat, 20 Jun 2026 04:05:21 +0000

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Putin’s attack dogs target ‘almost naked’ pop stars in Russia’s new culture war – POLITICO

Sat, 20 Jun 2026 04:05:21 +0000

Putin’s attack dogs target ‘almost naked’ pop stars in Russia’s new culture war

Moscow’s cultural elites can’t count on the Kremlin to leave them alone anymore.

AI generated Text-to-speech

News of an extravagant night of revelry in Moscow supposedly reached President Vladimir Putin, who took offense at the scenes | Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images

January 8, 2024 4:00 am CET

By Eva Hartog

As New Year dawned in Moscow, some of Russia’s top celebrities will have woken up with a hangover — of the worst, political kind.

When top influencer Anastasia Ivleyeva invited the beau monde of Russian pop culture to an “Almost Naked” theme party in late December, she unknowingly crossed a new red line.

The scandal that followed — in which one partygoer was jailed and others were pressured to make grovelling public apologies — reveals a dramatic shift in the Kremlin’s attitude toward the showbiz elite.

It comes at a critical moment for Russia, ahead of the second anniversary of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine next month and a presidential election in March.

Though extravagant, the private party at a Moscow nightclub on December 20 was hardly revolutionary — even in Soviet times, Russia’s political center doubled as the debauchery capital for the privileged elites.

But while revelers shared photos online of their scanty outfits — sheer lingerie, expensive jewelry and lots of skin — a rumbling of disapproval began among military bloggers.

Soon, patriotic officials chimed in.

Yekaterina Mizulina, the ultra patriotic head of the Safe Internet League, a pseudo-NGO, called the bash “a cynical act … at a time when our men are dying in the special military operation, and many children are losing their fathers.”

“The party,” she continued in her post on Telegram, amounted to a “shot in the foot” of the government.

Picking up the ball, State Duma deputy Maria Butina, once convicted in the U.S. as a Russian agent and then deported, called on law enforcement to investigate for signs of “LGBT propaganda” and the undermining of traditional values. Though the guests were long gone, Moscow’s Mutabor club was raided by police.

Russia’s assault on Ukraine has gone hand in hand with a renewed crackdown on its LGBTQ+ community at home, including an expanded law against the promotion of “non-traditional” sexual relations. Authorities present it as an existential battle against degenerative Western values.

News of the night of revelry supposedly reached President Vladimir Putin.

Russian influencer Anastasia Ivleyeva invited the beau monde of Russian pop culture to an “Almost Naked” theme party in late December | Creative commons via Wikimedia

Of particular offense to the president, according to the investigative outlet Agentsvо, were images of party guests faking oral sex on rapper Nikolai Vasilyev (stage name Vacío), whose costume consisted of only a white sock covering his genitals.

Defending himself, Vasilyev said the costume was inspired by a Red Hot Chili Peppers performance, and in a confessional video from custody specified he did not support the LGBTQ+ community and had not intended “to make propaganda” for it.

Nonetheless, a Moscow court still gave him a 15-day sentence for petty hooliganism and a fine of 200,000 rubles — the equivalent of about €2,000 — for “LGBT propaganda.”

On Monday, the state-run news agency TASS reported Vasilyev had been handed his draft papers to Russia’s army after having his jail time extended by another ten days.

According to a state-linked prison monitor cited by TASS, the rapper said he was unfit to serve for health reasons but expressed his support for Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Putin’s spokesperson refuses to comment on the affair. But whatever the Kremlin’s direct role, zealous officials, the state apparatus and patriotic vigilantes have now joined forces to amplify the outcry in what looks like an attempt to distract the population from the economic and human toll of the war and discipline the raucous urban elite.

Ivleyeva, who organized the party and has more than 18 million followers on Instagram, appears to be the prime target. In a matter of weeks, she has been dropped by two major advertisers and presented with a 130-million ruble bill — the equivalent of some €1.3 million — in outstanding taxes.

A Moscow court also gave her a fine of 100,000 rubles for “offending human dignity and propagandizing non-traditional sexual relations in a public place.”

Another lawsuit, supposedly initiated by a group of civilians, demands some 1 billion rubles in moral damages from her to be donated to Russia’s military.

Initially defending her right to dress as she pleased, Ivleyeva has since issued an extensive and tearful mea culpa video, appealing to Russians’ sense of forgiveness.

One after another of her celebrity guests have followed suit.

“In the life of every person there are moments when you take the wrong door,” Philipp Kirkorov, a mainstay of Russia’s entertainment scene, said in his own video.

Such apology videos are becoming increasingly frequent in Russia amid growing repression as “a means of pre-trial or extrajudicial prosecution,” anthropologist Alexandra Arkhipova, a researcher at the Laboratoire d’Anthropologie Sociale EHESS in Paris, told POLITICO. “The goal is to humiliate the person and to depict them as weak, while demonstrating they accept the government’s value system which is being imposed on them.”

But public humiliation did not save the almost naked party guests.

State Duma deputy Maria Butina called on law enforcement to investigate for signs of “LGBT propaganda” | Kirill Kudryavstev/AFP via Getty Images

In a cultural purge reminiscent of Stalin’s time, the partygoers, some of whom have been a fixture of holiday festivities for years, saw their concerts canceled, scenes cut from state television shows and films, and names removed from promotional material.

Аccording to Telegram channel Ostorozhno Novosti, Moscow’s city authorities were even told to scrap their songs from holiday festivities’ playlists.

Battling the darkness

Some three months before Putin is set to use an election to extend his rule by another six years, the episode has been presented by Kremlin mouthpieces as proof of popular power.

In an interview with Sputnik radio, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described the furor as the result of “the entire country” standing up against “darkness.” She added the “ordeals” faced by those who had attended the party were “not a punishment, but medicine.”

The main takeaway for the creative classes in Russia, however, is that they can no longer expect to escape politics.

Until now, those artists and music stars who stayed in Russia and kept out of the political fray would have been rewarded with lucrative deals or, at least, left alone.

This allowed some of the wealthy urban elite like Ivleyeva to be sheltered from the Kremlin’s increasingly conservative and homophobic policies, despite several carefully critical posts on Instagram.

The Kremlin also stood to gain from this laissez-faire approach, eager as it has been to maintain a facade of normality despite the war.

But those days are over.

As the war has become the new normal, the impunity of the elites looks like a political liability for Putin, who faces a small but vocal group of ultranationalists who are frustrated at Russia’s lack of progress on the battlefront and demanding an escalation.

Seen that way, Ivleyeva’s naked bash represents an act of defiance against the Kremlin, placing it in the same category as the mutiny of renegade mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, says Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. “They violated the sacred rules of how a person should behave in wartime,” he told POLITICO.

These days, that no longer means just avoiding explicit criticism of Russia’s military or the Kremlin, but also embracing a new wartime morality of frugality and conservatism — at least in public.

Ivleyeva’s naked bash represents an act of defiance against the Kremlin, placing it in the same category as the mutiny of renegade mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin | Pool photo by Sergei Ilnitsky via AFP/Getty Images

As summarized by Andrei Nechayev, a former economics minister turned Putin-critic: “Orgies are not forbidden, but you shouldn’t flaunt them.”

Bullfighter

While the partygoers are being publicly bludgeoned, Putin’s cheerleaders are offering routes to absolution.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman leader of Chechnya, invited the revelers to sign up as volunteers to the front-line.

Russia’s practice of recruiting criminals into the army was evidence that everyone deserves a second chance, “including these people,” a state TV journalist cited a Russian soldier as telling her.

Margarita Simonyan, editor in chief of state-controlled broadcaster RT, gave out the company’s bank account number, saying redemption did not require “blood,” but could also come in the form of donations to charity.

Those with a longer memory, however, recall a story from 24 years ago.

In December 1999, amid the Second Chechen War, a younger Vladimir Putin, then-prime minister, reportedly sat in the front row for an erotic dance show involving a half-naked bull fighter at a St. Petersburg club.

Six days later he was named acting president.

This story has been updated.

Russia arrests head of election watchdog, shuts human rights group – POLITICO

Sat, 20 Jun 2026 04:05:21 +0000

Russia arrests head of election watchdog, shuts human rights group

Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on democratic opposition continues.

According to Grigory Melkonyants' lawyer, he is accused of working with the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations | Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images

August 18, 2023 11:57 am CET

By Laura Hülsemann and Claudia Chiappa

The head of Russia’s last independent election-monitoring campaign group has been arrested and a human rights group was shuttered, as the Kremlin carries out a major crackdown on democratic bodies.

“Grigory Melkonyants, co-chairman of the ‘Golos’ movement, has been detained and is being questioned by the Investigative Committee as a suspect,” the Russian vote-monitoring group Golos announced Thursday. Melkonyants’ home was searched Thursday morning and he was then detained.

The crackdown has not only targeted Melkonyants but also “14 of his associates in eight regions, including Moscow, Kazan and St. Petersburg,” Russian state newswire RIA Novosti said, citing an anonymous source.

According to the AP, which spoke with Melkonyants’ lawyer, the watchdog chief will appear in Moscow’s Basmanny District Court on Friday. He faces a maximum sentence of six years in prison for working with what Russia branded “undesirable” international organizations.

According to Melkonyants’ lawyer, he is accused of working with the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), though German media reported that Golos co-chair Stanislaw Andrejtschu said the group hasn’t worked with ENEMO for two years. Golos operates in 40 Russian regions and has monitored election fraud in past elections.

“We see this as a form of political pressure and an attempt to stifle our activities in Russia,” David Kankiya, governing council member of Golos, said.

Golos, which has operated since 2000, detailed election fraud in Russia’s 2011 elections, which triggered opposition protests. In 2013, the watchdog was classified by Russia’s Ministry of Justice for the first time as a “foreign agent” and subsequently changed its status from NGO to an unregistered civil movement.

On Friday, the Moscow City Court also liquidated human rights group Sakharov Center, reported Russian news agency Interfax. The court said it found “systematic gross and irremediable violations of the law” during an inspection of the activities of the center, including operating in regions it did not have a branch in.

The center, named in honor of Soviet dissident and 1975 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov, hosted permanent and temporary exhibitions and spaces for debates, seminars, public lectures and panel discussions. On its website, it states it promotes “values of freedom, democracy, and human rights.” In the past few years, the center had been designated as a “foreign agent,” fined multiple times and earlier this year evicted from its space in Moscow.

Since President Vladimir Putin launched Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin has stepped up its attacks on civil society and free media. This week, POLITICO reporter Eva Hartog was expelled from Russia after 10 years of reporting there, as was Anna-Lena Laurén, a correspondent for Scandinavian media outlets.

This story has been updated.

Putin ‘wins’ rigged Russian election with 87 percent of the vote – POLITICO

Sat, 20 Jun 2026 04:05:20 +0000

Putin ‘wins’ rigged Russian election with 87 percent of the vote

Preliminary results indicate a huge victory for Vladimir Putin but thousands protest at polling stations and Russian embassies worldwide.

Putin’s victory was never in doubt | Pool photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AFP via Getty Images

March 17, 2024 7:12 pm CET

By Denis Leven

BRUSSELS — Vladimir Putin tightened his grip on power, claiming another six-year term as Russian president after a brutally distorted election in which all serious challengers were wiped out before voting began.

With 50 percent of ballots counted, Putin’s tally stood at 87.3 percent of the vote, election officials announced. Turnout was 73.33 percent, according to the latest figures from Russian authorities.

Putin’s victory was never in doubt but this is the biggest share of the vote he has claimed in any of his five presidential election wins since his first in 2000. At 71, he is already the longest serving Russian leader since Josef Stalin and could go on to beat that record. An official celebration is scheduled for Monday.

Speaking after the early results were announced, Putin vowed to lead Russia to victory in achieving his goals, saying “nobody in history has ever succeeded” in suppressing the will of Russians. “They failed now and they will fail in the future,” he said.

The result more than met the objective of an overwhelming win to buttress Putin’s claim that Russians wholeheartedly back their leader and his invasion of Ukraine. The three days of voting were an exercise in pro-Putin mobilization and a test of loyalty for Russia’s state apparatus.

Nikolai Petrov from the Chatham House foreign affairs think tank in London said the result made Russia a “totally consolidated autocracy.”

The election campaign, which saw three other candidates refrain from criticizing the president, was overshadowed by the death last month of Putin’s key opponent, Alexei Navalny.

Even with Navalny out of the way, Putin was taking no chances. On the first two days of voting, thousands of public sector employees, students, and workers from Russian corporations were compelled to cast their ballots.

Turnout was monitored by management — civil service employees were required to report back once they had voted. In some regions, they were even expected to bring relatives and share their geolocations with supervisors via a specially designed app.

Fire and paint

But Putin didn’t have it all go his way. The intended image of unanimity was marred by dozens of attacks on polling stations. In about 20 Russian regions, individuals either set voting booths ablaze or poured paint into the ballot boxes.

Authorities assert that the assailants — many of whom were elderly women — were acting on instructions from abroad. All involved now face the prospect of being sentenced to up to five years in prison.

The most significant pushback against Putin occurred on Sunday at noon, when the Russian opposition rallied its supporters for a “Noon Against Putin” protest. The initiative encouraged people to go to the polls at 12 p.m. and simultaneously vote for any candidate other than the incumbent.

The noon demonstration was aimed at challenging Putin’s legitimacy, both domestically and internationally. Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya joined a protest in Berlin after encouraging the noon opposition move. She told journalists after voting herself that she had written her late husband’s name on the ballot paper.

“It cannot be that a month before the election, during the campaign, that Putin’s main opponent, who was already in prison has been killed,” she said.

Thousands joined in similar action around the world. Unusually large crowds were seen at polling stations across Russia, from the smallest Siberian towns to Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as at Russian embassies and consulates worldwide — from Phuket to Paris and Brussels.

“This is a great opportunity to create the appearance that there are people who are not satisfied with the current state of affairs, who are willing to unite for collective action, and there are many of them,” said Daniel, who voted in the Russian consulate in Almaty, Kazakhstan. He declined to give his full name amid concerns over potential reprisals.

Counterfeit events

From the moment the planned demonstration was announced, the Russian state mounted a concerted attempt to undermine it. Local authorities in Russia organized counterfeit public events at noon to distract voters.

In addition, there were several rounds of deceptive mailings targeted at opposition voters in Russia. The first, on Wednesday, falsely claimed to be from Navalny’s team, announcing a postponement of the action. Navalny’s team quickly denied any delay.

The second mailing, sent on Saturday, aimed to intimidate voters with a message saying, “Hi! Despite the fact that you support the ideas of an extremist organization, we are pleased you will vote in Moscow, as every vote matters! We urge you not to succumb to the ideas of those seeking to deceive you, and to vote calmly, without queues or provocations.”

Yekaterina Duntsova and Boris Nadezhdin — two potential candidates who advocated for immediate peace negotiations and an end to the war — were barred from running against Putin in the contest.

Foreign governments voiced their derision at the staged pro-Putin vote. “The pseudo-election in #Russia is neither free nor fair, the result will surprise nobody,” Germany’s foreign ministry posted on X. “Putin’s rule is authoritarian, he relies on censorship, repression & violence. The ‘election’ in the occupied territories of #Ukraine are null and void & another breach of international law.”

The White House National Security Council spokesperson said: “The elections are obviously not free nor fair given how Mr. Putin has imprisoned political opponents and prevented others from running against him.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: “These days, the Russian dictator is simulating another election. It is clear to everyone in the world that this figure, as it has already often happened in the course of history, is simply sick for power and is doing everything to rule forever.”

This developing story is being updated. Eva Hartog contributed reporting from Brussels and Tim Ross contributed reporting from London. Denis Leven is hosted at POLITICO under the EU-funded EU4FreeMedia residency program.

POLITICO

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 06:50:36 +0000

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Dear Microsoft, enough is enough – POLITICO

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 06:50:16 +0000

Dear Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella,

As browser developers, we believe PC users’ choices should be free and respected, not controlled, distorted or ignored.

That principle unites the Browser Choice Alliance in advancing a digital world where PC users control their own online experience, can choose their preferred browser without manipulation or interference, trust their preferences will be honored and participate in a marketplace where browsers compete on merit.

The approach Microsoft has taken is markedly different.

Microsoft leverages its immensely powerful position as the supplier of the ubiquitous Windows PC operating system, as well as many productivity and other must-have apps, to push users towards its first-party browser, Edge, through tactics that restrict, distort and subvert user choice. These include:

Economically coercive “all-or-nothing” rebates that foreclose rival browsers from preinstallation opportunities on Windows devices.
Preventing the uninstallation of Edge.
Showing intrusive and confusing messages to users in Microsoft’s exclusive promotional areas when they are attempting to download competing browsers.
Using system updates to push users back to Edge or deploying manipulative interface design that confuses users into switching their default browser back to Edge.
Ignoring user choice of default browser for links in Teams and Outlook.
Hardwiring Edge to key access points on Windows (including Windows Search and Widgets).
Blocking rivals’ “one click switch” functionality for switching the default browser.

Microsoft’s actions make it unnecessarily difficult and, in many cases, impossible, for PC users to select and use their preferred browser across all touchpoints.

PCs are a major access point to the web, playing a critical role in work, productivity and other high-value online activities. What’s more, the importance of PCs is only increasing in the age of generative AI, with PCs particularly well-suited for key AI use cases such as coding, deep research and more.

When Microsoft uses its Windows ecosystem to steer users toward its own browser in such ways, it restricts user choice, undermines web freedom and unfairly tilts the playing field in its favor and away from fair competition and innovation. For many years, these practices have frustrated users and have now begun to draw scrutiny from regulators across the globe.

Microsoft’s practices vary over time and between jurisdictions. They may be inconsistently applied or appear intermittently, sometimes differing from one user to another. Nevertheless, Microsoft’s basic approach remains constant: leveraging its dominant Windows OS and productivity software to favor its own browser to the exclusion of others.

We call on Microsoft to respect its users and implement the following changes immediately and on a worldwide basis:

Allow browser suppliers to compete for preinstallation and default deals with Windows PC manufacturers.
End dark patterns targeted at users seeking to download and effectively use other browsers (including as system level default).
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Open all web links in users’ selected system-level browser of choice.
Eliminate manipulative Microsoft-exclusive banners pushing Edge in Windows, including when users are searching for other browsers.
Stop using operating system updates to push users back to Edge.
Remove the restrictive configurations of existing S mode devices that block usage of third-party browsers.

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We look forward to meaningful progress by Microsoft in support of user choice.

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The Browser Choice Alliance

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