Author: staff

Meloni shot back the same day, standing by Mattarella’s remarks. “The insults of the spokeswoman … offend the entire Italian nation, which the head of state represents,” Meloni said. “I express my full solidarity, as well as that of the entire government, to President Mattarella, who has always firmly condemned the aggression perpetrated against Ukraine.” The tense exchange came at the end of a fraught week that left European leaders scrambling over the next steps in the Ukraine war. Leaders rushed to show solidarity with Ukraine and adjust to a post-American protection world in the hours since the Trump administration’s…

Vance railed against establishment politics, urged Europe to curb migration and compared EU leaders to Soviet commissars because they had criticized far-right leaders. The tongue-lashing cemented fears among Europe’s security elites that the United States was diverging from the transatlantic status quo at a rapid pace, and there was little they could do to stop it. “This is a new United States and it’s clear the old one Europe’s been used to for decades is gone,” said one former senior U.S. diplomat. “It could be this is the one wake-up call that actually wakes Europe up.” POLITICO spoke to 14…

“Looking at what Trump is saying, looking at what [Defense Secretary] Pete Hegseth is saying, they’re not betraying Ukraine,” Johnson argued. “They’re not walking away from Ukraine. They’re saying Ukraine’s got to be a sovereign, prosperous country. They’re saying that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin can’t win. They’re saying that they’ll continue to support Ukraine.” Since leaving office in 2022, Johnson has regularly visited the United States and lobbied top Republicans to maintain support for Kyiv amid signs of wavering. He has held talks with Trump on Ukraine, and met him at the Republican National Convention last July. Johnson defended the…

The vice president also criticized high levels of immigration, echoing themes that fueled Donald Trump’s return to power in the U.S. Vance said he’d pray for the victims of Thursday’s attack in Munich, where a migrant drove a car into a crowd, injuring dozens of people. But with Europe clamoring for clarity after comments from Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that cast serious doubts on America’s security commitment to Ukraine and Europe, Vance’s speech barely mentioned Ukraine and defense spending, the topics preoccupying European leaders in meetings with U.S. officials here. “It was stunning in it failing to address…

After Trump and Russian leader Putin sidelined Ukraine, announcing the start of peace talks before presenting the plan to Kyiv, Zelenskyy is bidding to win back a leading role at the negotiating table. “Trump is stronger than Putin, I think so. But these phone calls with Putin are risky to us,” Zelenskyy said. In 2019 Zelenskyy held direct talks with Putin about a cease-fire and prisoner exchange, as the Kremlin’s long-running war raged in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. While Putin indeed agreed to release 100 Ukrainian prisoners from Russia, his troops violated the cease-fire right away. “He will not stick…

With electricity set to play an ever more central role in Europe’s energy system, the trade association Eurelectric has called on Brussels to urgently update a security of supply strategy that dates back to 2014. Soaring costs linked to rocketing gas prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and, more recently, suspected sabotage of undersea power lines have underlined the need for the EU to overhaul its decade-old European Energy Security Strategy, electricity companies have warned.“With the threats faced by our sector, security of supply is becoming an urgent priority that policymakers and regulators must acknowledge,” president of the trade association…

The head of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), Jorge Moreira da Silva, made the appeal on a visit to Gaza on Thursday. The head of UNOPS told Euronews that the ceasefire must hold in Gaza as the Palestinian territory remains in the midst of a humanitarian disaster.The UN agency is providing fuel to Gaza, which is the only source of energy, and now also facilitates all aid into Gaza after Israel declared the previous agency doing the work, UNRWA, illegal.”Seventy percent of all infrastructure is destroyed,” Jorge Moreira da Silva said.”It’s fundamental to bring all humanitarian aid that is needed…

Blindsided In her speech on Friday, von der Leyen said Europe was “now in another period of crisis which warrants a similar approach” to that of the Covid pandemic. To the surprise of many, she first floated using the emergency clause during a closed-door meeting with national leaders last week, as POLITICO first reported. Her move, at the time, left national Treasury officials and the Commission’s own economy department blindsided, as they had never considered using this option. So far, finance ministries only discussed expanding the definition of defense investment to military staffing and equipment maintenance. While this would allow countries more leeway to…

Latvia’s parliament on Thursday took a step toward banning travel agencies from providing tourism services in Russia and Belarus, with the aim of reducing the risks of possible human rights violations of Latvian citizens in those countries, as well as to prevent their recruitment as spies.The legislature sent proposed amendments to the law on tourism to the relevant committee.“Travel to Russia and Belarus is currently a security issue,” said Gatis Liepiņš, a parliamentarian from the New Unity party, which initiated the law. “We cannot allow holiday trips to continue to be organized and buses full of our citizens to travel…

Rather than talk about defense budgets and Russia, Vance instead said he was witnessing “the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values.” The speech focused largely on culture war issues and populism, with Vance accusing European governments and the European Union of being “commissars” more interested in stifling free speech than in providing security for their citizens. He also attacked high levels of migration, touching on the same themes that animated Donald Trump’s return to power in the United States. He said he was praying for the victims of Thursday’s attack in Munich, when a migrant drove…