Great piece by @alemannoEU: EU leaders pretend they need unanimity to ban Israeli settlement products. They don’t. The call for unanimity is not a legal requirement, but a political alibi! euobserver.com/221647/eu-lea…

Saving the automotive industry and having an EU industrial policy for mobility are not the same thing. One protects incumbents. The other builds the next generation of European champions in EVs, software & clean transport. Taxpayers deserve the second, not lobbyists asking @EPP to scrap the combustion engine ban

EU leaders pretend they need unanimity to ban Israeli settlement products. They don’t – my latest for @euobs euobserver.com/221647/eu-lea…

Europe: “We must reduce dependency on US tech.” Also Europe: queues up to buy SpaceX shares at $135/piece. The “vassalage” isn’t just structural but voluntary. 🛰️ ft.com/content/1890e552-aa7e…

One in five Israeli-labeled food shipments entering the European Union are actually from illegal settlements but consumers have now way of knowing their origin. This can be stopped by a QMV as part of trade policy politico.eu/article/food-occ…

Time to rethink entirely EU diplomatic service and operations

Regulation matters: Ryanair is the only airline making parents pay extra to seat with their kids theguardian.com/business/202…

Lobbying spending has more than doubled (!) in the EU since 2020. And it's paying off: the von der Leyen 2 Commission, with the support of a right-wing majority in the European Parliament, has embarked on the biggest rollback of EU standards in history - from digital, consumer and food rights to environment and climate protection. The Commission has already delivered 10 omnibus deregulation packages - single proposals bundling multiple rollbacks, designed to minimise scrutiny. New data from @corporateeurope and @lobbycontrol puts hard numbers on what many suspected: the top 173 industry lobbyists now spend €381.75 million annually on influencing EU institutions. Tech giants alone account for €73M. Energy majors: €52M. Chemicals and agribusiness: €46.5M. This further injection of corporate money is set to deepen the power asymmetry between corporate interests and the general interest across public health, consumer protection, digital rights and climate action. EU deregulation bypasses both the procedural safeguards meant to keep power accountable (no public consultation, no impact assessments) and the substantive Treaty standards meant to ensure high levels of consumer, environmental, and public health protection. The EU deregulation agenda is set to backfire, as lower standards of protection hit people and reinforce foreign domination over our individual and collective life. 🔗 EU Corporate Lobby League 2026

Another legal challenge to the EU deregulation agenda. If it succeeds, it will prove what we’ve been saying all along: the Omnibus doesn’t simplify EU law but it rewrites it - @foodwatch_de @TheGoodLobby @Teresaribera

When national interest primes over European general interest, again and again

Here’s how Europe’s far-right governs the EU with @EPP - exactely as predicted in June 2024 politico.eu/article/the-woma…

« In practice, Ukraine is being offered everything except membership itself,” Ukraine’s Ambassador to the EU Vsevolod Chentsov told Playbook @POLITICOEurope

Italy’s political tectonic plates are shifting ahead of 2027: 1. Pro-European PD moderates moving to liberals in the EU Parliament 2. Hard-right defectors from Lega & FI rallying behind Vannacci’s Futuro Nazionale: sovereigntist, homophobic, pro-Putin. Result: a cleaner but more fragile left, and a right flank Meloni can no longer contain ahead of 2027 elections (francesization of Italian right)

Here’s the Spanish opposition leader calling for more EU deregulation, as Merz, Meloni do non stop asking von der Leyen to deliver. Only Trump wins, we Europeans lose and will soon find out

A new @POLITICOEurope investigation reveals that Czech MEP Alexandr Vondra (ECR) failed to disclose his chairmanship of The Prague Centre for Transatlantic Relations, a think-tank with links to the defence, automotive and fossil fuel industries. Vondra is actively shaping EU defence, climate and transport policy. He is a shadow rapporteur on the CO2 standards for cars and vans, as well as on the Defence Omnibus and Military Mobility files. Despite these responsibilities, he declared no conflict of interest and tabled amendments that would benefit corporate interests. Why does this matter? This is the DEREGULATION playbook in action: 1. rolling back on existing standards of protection 2. doing so in the name of competitiveness 3. while failing to disclose industry ties. EU's ethical and integrity rules are not fit for purpose: MEPs self-declare conflicts of interest, but in the absence of an independent verification body, there barely no sanctions for omissions. Time to stop pretending that self-regulation in the European Parliament is sufficient when the stakes: defence policy, climate law, industrial standards, are this high. A complaint drafted by Transparency International and supported by The Good Lobby LobbyControl & co was submitted to the EU Parliament lnkd.in/eyw2yaRk

After years of institutional paralysis, the Authority for EU Political Parties has finally discovered its monitoring mandate. The target? The @AfD - the @EPP 's biggest headache in Germany. I've been trying to activate this mechanism since 2018. Funny how it works when the right people want it to. Here's my account substack.com/home/post/p-199… cc: @MaxGriera @davcarretta

Europe doesn't need to become America to succeed: Supporters of deregulation want Europe to be more like the US. But that would serve only American interests. My latest in @guardian today theguardian.com/commentisfre…

Europe rolls out the red carpet for AI data centres, as water‑and‑energy backlash spreads across America Read my latest in @euobs euobserver.com/217320/europe…

Italy threatens to sanction Ben-Gvir while blocking suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. Dear @Antonio_Tajani, that’s a fig leaf! Italy is protecting Israel’s trade immunity while performing outrage. #Flotilla #Gaza

Le plan des conservateurs allemands pour démanteler la « bureaucratie européenne » cache une démarche bien plus profonde et dangereuse visant à renationaliser l’Union au pire moment de l’histoire de l’intégration Analyse pour @Grand_Continent legrandcontinent.eu/fr/2026/…