The EU has signaled it won't give in to pressure from Washington to tear up its green rules in order to firm up a deal on tariffs, the bloc’s top trade official has told member countries.
10.10.2025 07:21 — 👍 148 🔁 41 💬 5 📌 5@gabrielgavin.bsky.social
Writing about energy, the EU, Brussels and the world with POLITICO. Author ‘Ashes of our Fathers: Inside the Fall of Nagorno-Karabakh.’
The EU has signaled it won't give in to pressure from Washington to tear up its green rules in order to firm up a deal on tariffs, the bloc’s top trade official has told member countries.
10.10.2025 07:21 — 👍 148 🔁 41 💬 5 📌 5The provocations of Vladimir Putin and the semi-detachment of Donald Trump are forcing the EU to radically transform itself.
This week's summit of European leaders will offer the starkest evidence yet the bloc as it once was is no more.
Moldova’s pro-Western government is set to secure a renewed majority after an election in which the campaign was marred by reports of widespread Russian interference.
But the victory presents a new challenge for the EU.
Brussels Playbook has more 👇
🚨 BREAKING: The pro-EU Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) is firmly in the lead of Moldova’s election, with around half of votes counted so far and PAS-sympathetic constituencies still to tally.
Full story: www.politico.eu/article/poll...
Moldovans voted today in a landmark parliamentary election that could determine whether the country stays on course to join the European Union, amid widespread warnings of interference by Russia.
28.09.2025 19:00 — 👍 57 🔁 13 💬 2 📌 0Voters and officials were rushed out of the Moldovan embassy today in central Brussels after reports were received of a bomb in the building, which proved to be false.
28.09.2025 13:54 — 👍 66 🔁 28 💬 4 📌 2Various European leaders have tried to position themselves as Donald Trump’s confidante.
But only one has been silently successful. For the US President, Ursula von der Leyen is Europe’s hotline.
Brussels Playbook has more 👇
Estonia is calling on its Western allies to show unity in the face of growing aggression, the Baltic nation’s foreign minister said today after three Russian fighter jets entered its airspace.
19.09.2025 19:00 — 👍 113 🔁 37 💬 11 📌 2The EU is planning more sanctions on China.
Will it be enough for Donald Trump to persuade Donald Trump to finally press Russia to end the war in Ukraine?
If Donald Trump is going to slap sanctions on Russia over its war on Ukraine, there are a few things he’d like his European allies to do first.
Some are easier than others.
Quit stressing about climate change — it'll all be fine.
That was the message from two of US President Donald Trump's top government appointees during a trip to Brussels last week.
US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright has called on the EU’s remaining buyers of Russian fossil fuels to drop their campaign against the bloc’s efforts to end dependency on Moscow and buy from America instead.
12.09.2025 08:52 — 👍 57 🔁 21 💬 15 📌 3A coalition of European leaders has convinced US President Donald Trump that Russia is not interested in ending its war in Ukraine and must be forced to the negotiating table.
Now they have to persuade an unpredictable White House to agree on how to make that happen.
The EU can continue to count nuclear power, and in some cases fossil gas, as “environmentally sustainable,” after the bloc's top court ruled the European Commission was not breaching its obligations to tackle climate change.
10.09.2025 08:53 — 👍 31 🔁 11 💬 6 📌 3European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's crusade against red tape has reached her own institution. The question is, how far will it go?
10.09.2025 07:05 — 👍 19 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 2🍿 In just a few minutes Commission President will start her State of the Union Speech!
Follow @politico.eu's LIVE BLOG here:
www.politico.eu/article/ursu...
With ace colleagues @l-guillot.bsky.social @maxgriera.bsky.social and @gabrielgavin.bsky.social reporting on the ground from Strasbourg ⭐
The EU’s most prominent hard-right pressure group has received millions of euros in financial support from sources linked to Hungary’s populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, new financial disclosures show.
04.09.2025 15:59 — 👍 51 🔁 32 💬 8 📌 6A creeping barrage of Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian oil infrastructure has knocked out a major share of the country’s crude refining capacity in recent weeks, triggering domestic shortages and leaving the Kremlin’s most important strategic industry teetering on the brink.
03.09.2025 06:57 — 👍 207 🔁 48 💬 10 📌 8The leaders of France, Germany and Poland are converging today on tiny Moldova to urge voters to keep turning away from Russia and support their country’s pro-EU government.
27.08.2025 06:52 — 👍 174 🔁 43 💬 8 📌 4The EU is drafting new measures designed to squeeze Russia’s ailing war economy.
But, having already committed to a phaseout of oil and gas imports, the bloc is increasingly aware it is Washington, not Brussels, that is best placed to turn the screws.
European leaders don’t believe Vladimir Putin is sincere about a peace deal — so their strategy is to humor and praise Donald Trump until he finally reaches the same conclusion and realizes he will need to get tougher on the Kremlin.
19.08.2025 20:15 — 👍 135 🔁 36 💬 23 📌 4Zelenskyy has arrived in Washington ahead of a potentially momentous showdown with Trump later today — and this time, he’s not alone.
But will the presence of other European leaders in the Oval Office actually help?
Brussels Playbook unpacks it all 👇
Ukraine is ready to talk about territorial changes as part of a peace agreement to end Russia’s invasion, but Kyiv won’t give up land that Moscow’s forces do not occupy, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said today.
17.08.2025 13:59 — 👍 82 🔁 15 💬 16 📌 4Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is taking top European leaders with him to Washington for crunch talks with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday.
17.08.2025 10:46 — 👍 198 🔁 41 💬 16 📌 9Russia has no intention of backing down from its brutal war in Ukraine, the EU’s top diplomat said today, just hours after American President Donald Trump insisted he could be close to brokering a truce.
16.08.2025 11:48 — 👍 298 🔁 111 💬 10 📌 17US President Donald Trump began a flurry of diplomatic outreach to Western partners following his high-stakes talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Alaska, as capitals weigh up what might come next from Washington’s bid to end the war in Ukraine.
16.08.2025 08:33 — 👍 48 🔁 22 💬 23 📌 3European leaders can now breathe a little easier after receiving assurances from US President Trump that he’s not going to realize their worst nightmares and sell out Ukraine at a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.
13.08.2025 20:59 — 👍 55 🔁 25 💬 46 📌 12Russia is ramping up efforts to influence Moldovans living abroad across Europe to try to sway critical elections next month, the EU candidate country’s security chief has warned.
04.08.2025 07:10 — 👍 483 🔁 181 💬 14 📌 10There's a widening fear on the EU’s eastern fringe that Donald Trump will offer Vladimir Putin huge concessions and economic deals to end his war.
It’s the sledgehammer that could smash the West’s economic firewall around Russia — and take American energy with it.
After a nail-biting weekend of high diplomacy on the sidelines of Trump’s golfing trip to Scotland, the EU and the US finally managed to agree on a landmark trade deal.
But the bloc has a busy week ahead as it scrambles to lock in the agreement.
Brussels Playbook explains 👇