Author: staff
He’s known as the man to call to get things done in Brussels. He leans on party bosses to exert his sway over the European Parliament. And he manages the European Commission, an institution of 32,000 employees, like an extension of his brain, watching over everything from social media posts to mid-level staff appointments. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s right-hand man, Bjoern Seibert, is the ultimate behind-the-scenes Brussels power broker. Never heard of him? That’s exactly how he likes it. At von der Leyen’s side for about a decade, the soft-spoken 45-year-old has built up a reputation as a…
By Euronews with AP Published on 08/07/2025 – 5:30 GMT+2President Donald Trump said that the United States will have to send more weapons to Ukraine. The decision comes just days after pausing key arms deliveries to Kyiv.His comments marked a sudden change of course. Last week, the Pentagon announced it would delay shipments of air defence missiles, precision-guided artillery and other weapons, citing concerns about falling stockpiles.However, on Monday, Trump said, “We have to,” adding, “They have to be able to defend themselves. They’re getting hit very hard now. We’re going to send some more weapons — defensive weapons primarily.”The pause came at…
Pro tips on crushing a right-wing insurgency, from Emmanuel Macron* to Keir Starmer – POLITICO Skip to main content
EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič has been in contact with the U.S. administration following a call on Sunday between U.S. President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Stressing the sensitivity of those talks, Šefčovič debriefed with EU ambassadors and said the Commission was not expecting to receive one of those letters, two diplomats said. The contours of a trade agreement are still very much a moving target, the diplomats stressed, with any deal subject to Trump’s blessing to move forward. Washington gave no indications it would exempt politically sensitive industries such as cars, steel and aluminum or…
“The vessel was en route to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia when it was struck. Its crew includes 22 Filipinos and three Indian armed guards,” an official from Cosmoship, the Greek company that owns the vessel, told POLITICO. It was not clear whether the attack had ended, as the comms were impacted and the crew could not be contacted, the official added. Two senior Greek government officials confirmed the attack and the nationalities of the people on board. The attack came hours after Houthi militants claimed responsibility for a similar assault on another Greek-owned ship in the Red Sea, the Liberian-flagged…
“In fact, let us call it by its name – it is simply a lie.” 6. Socialists and liberals are seizing the chance to assert themselves “He who laughs last, laughs longest” may have been in the heads of Socialist and liberal lawmakers. While both factions feel sidelined and humiliated since last summer’s EU election, they saw in this debate an opportunity to reassert their power, showing the EPP it needs them to govern Europe ― because they think rightward forces, which supported the motion, are not reliable. “If you betray us again, be clear that social democracy will lead…
Lavrov, the longtime Kremlin top diplomat, praised Hungary for a “pragmatic course” despite “constant pressure from NATO and the EU.” He regurgitated the Kremlin’s unsubstantiated grievance that Kyiv has declared war on “the Russian language and culture,” leading to discrimination against Russian minorities in the country. That “forced Ukrainization,” in Lavrov’s telling, should also be of concern to minorities such as Hungarians, Armenians, Belarusians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Poles and Romanians, he said, in a nudge to Budapest. According to the last official census conducted in Ukraine in 2001, there were about 150,000 Hungarians living in Ukraine, mainly concentrated along the Hungarian-Ukrainian border,…
Published on 07/07/2025 – 20:35 GMT+2The growing phenomenon of “donor fatigue” is raising alarms across the global health and development sectors, as longstanding financial donors, particularly in the United States under the Trump administration, scale back their commitments. In an interview with Euronews, José Manuel Barroso, Chair of the Board of the Vaccine Alliance GAVI and former President of the European Commission, acknowledged the mounting concerns over the future of international aid.”There is some concern in the development community about continued support for development in general, and particularly in public health,” Barroso said. “That said, I believe we will overcome…
“It is no secret that I was in contact with top representatives of the companies producing the vaccines that would get us out of the crisis … just as I sought advice from the best epidemiologists or virologists in the world,” she told the European Parliament on Monday. While the Commission had argued that the texts were too boring to warrant being released, the case became a flashpoint for transparency activists and right-wing groups. They argued that it demonstrated von der Leyen’s Commission was a particularly unaccountable one. “The implication that these contracts were somehow inappropriate against the European interests is,…
François-Joseph Schichan, ancien diplomate français et directeur du cabinet de conseil Flint Global, partage l’idée que cette semaine peut être considérée comme un “sommet de réconciliation”, mais reconnaît qu’il y aura néanmoins des “différences sur certaines questions, sur la manière de faire avec Trump”. Comme l’a dit un universitaire français proche d’Emmanuel Macron, le Premier ministre britannique est “beaucoup plus prudent” lorsqu’il s’agit de traiter avec la Maison-Blanche. Emmanuel Macron a “fait quelques caresses, mais pas autant que nous” pour flatter l’ego de Trump, estime l’ancien diplomate britannique précité. Il qualifie d’“éhontée, mais nécessaire” la stratégie toute en douceur de…