I am heading to Latvia for a work trip focused on drones, defence and debesmanna. Making time for the Rīga Conference and other sites relevant to Latvia’s upcoming EU council presidency next year is essential.
Meanwhile, my colleagues in Brussels are holding down the fort, where one topic is stealing the spotlight. “Migration is very much back on the agenda,” a senior EU diplomat told journalists nibbling hors d’oeuvres at Monday night’s rentrée gathering.
It is evident that the migration issue has already bolted, showing no signs of easing, and the Ceuta crisis — where roughly 80,000 migrants surged into the Spanish enclave from Morocco in July — has become the new springboard for the debate.
Taking the scenic route: Mared Gwyn reports that Ceuta’s leader, Juan Jesús Vivas, visited Brussels on Tuesday to urge EU senior leadership to establish a permanent Frontex presence, involve the EU asylum agency, and provide funding for securing the Moroccan border.
Moreover, he urged a tougher EU stance toward Morocco, referencing leaked police reports that suggest Moroccan officials facilitated the crossing. His position is markedly sharper than Spain’s cooperative approach with Rabat, a point my colleague Vincenzo Genovese explores in detail.
Spain’s former foreign minister Arancha González Laya told Europe Today that the incident should be labelled a ‘hybrid attack’ using migration as a weapon. Watch.
Meet and greet: Vincenzo also notes that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will meet today with the leaders of the European Parliament’s political groups, who will share their priorities for next week’s State of the Union address — her annual outline of EU priorities for the coming year.
Cloak and dagger: According to Hungarian Foreign Minister Anita Orbán, the government expelled ten Russian diplomats on Tuesday for what it described as unacceptable activities. She stressed that this does not constitute a break in diplomatic ties with Russia, and that Hungary will continue dialogue grounded in mutual respect and rule‑of‑law compliance. Moscow has reportedly threatened a harsh and painful retaliation.
But the plot thickens as Romania faces its own espionage scandal. A Russian national suspected of involvement in a thwarted sabotage attempt was arrested on Tuesday. Euronews Romania reports that the individual is accused of photographing and filming military installations throughout the country, as well as NATO bases.
Getting Fico on board: EU ambassadors will attempt once more to win Slovakia’s approval for renewing sanctions against nearly 3,000 individuals and entities accused of bolstering Russia’s war in Ukraine, writes Jorge Liboreiro.
Envoys seek to extend the sanctions for twelve months instead of the usual six, aligning them with the economic sanctions that EU leaders prolonged for twelve months in mid‑June. The longer term aims to add predictability and shield the regime from shocks. Slovakia, however, has issued a veto and insists that Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman — two oligarchs linked to the Kremlin — be taken off the blacklist.
Diplomats do not anticipate a resolution today. Nonetheless, a bilateral meeting on Thursday between Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin — whose country holds the EU Council’s rotating presidency — could open the path to an agreement. Time is short, as the individual sanctions lapse on 15 September.
Locking horns: Yesterday, a group of European states and allies — Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom — urged Israel to adopt a two‑state solution. More significantly, they backed restrictions on trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
“France will halt trade with Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, joining eleven other nations that have taken the same stance,” said Foreign Minister Jean‑Noël Barrot in an online statement.
“Why? Because the West Bank teeters on the edge of explosion: unchecked settlement expansion breaches international law, extremist settler violence against Palestinians is rising, and acts of terror — even those condemned by Israeli authorities — are on the rise.”
British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband went further, accusing “settler terrorists” of carrying out ethnic cleansing in the region, marking the UK government’s strongest condemnation yet.
Tit for tat: Israel responded with its own measures; Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar — whose relations with the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas are strained — announced the closure of the British Consulate in Jerusalem and a ban on entry for a dozen British nationals.
“The accusations levelled today by the British Labour Government’s Foreign Secretary are outrageous lies,” Sa’ar declared, referring to the remarks of the British foreign secretary.
Brussels blacklist: A journalist queried the EU executive on Tuesday about the possibility of reviving sanctions against Israel amid rising settler violence in the occupied West Bank. European Commission spokesperson Anouar El Anouni responded that settlements violate international law and that Brussels’ stance remains long‑standing and crystal clear.
The EU has already sanctioned twelve individuals and nine entities linked to the extremist settler milieu, and further proposals are under discussion at the European Council, he added.
One final thing: My colleague Eleonora Vasques reports that the European Commission will unveil its affordable‑housing plan today. The question remains whether it will contain specific measures targeting short‑stay platforms such as Airbnb — answers will emerge at a press conference later today.
Russia’s Continued Role in the ITER Fusion Project Amid EU Sanctions
The European Union and Russia remain geopolitical rivals, with Moscow facing extensive EU sanctions that have sharply limited their bilateral ties. Nevertheless, within the framework of the world’s largest nuclear‑fusion experiment and one of history’s biggest international scientific collaborations, the two sides are still connected by a partnership established decades ago and designed to last for generations.
Although Brussels increases pressure on Moscow over its war in Ukraine and related hybrid tactics, Russian engineers keep working alongside their European peers on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). ITER is an experimental fusion device that aims to extract energy from the fusion of hydrogen nuclei.
Last Monday, EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen toured the ITER facility in Cadarache, France, describing the reactor as “essential to our decarbonisation and energy‑independence objectives.”
What does this imply? Marta Pacheco and Maïa de la Baume explain the situation in this essential read.
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We’re Also Monitoring
- Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius is set to speak at the International Space Summit in Paris.
- Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin will meet senior officials in Tokyo, including Japan’s Finance Minister, Satsuki Katayama.
That concludes today’s edition. Contributions came from Mared Gwyn, Vincenzo Genovese, Jorge Liboreiro and Eleonora Vasques.