Euractiv.com

As leaders convene for the second day of the EU summit in Brussels, the spotlight is on Giorgia Meloni’s latest chess moves.

Georgia's accession to the bloc has 'de fact' been halted after the country's authorities passed a controversial Russia-style 'foreign agent' law, EU leaders warned on Thursday (27 June).

EU leaders on Thursday gave their political approval to a trio of names - Ursula von der Leyen, Antonio Costa, and Kaja Kallas - to lead the EU's three major institutions over the next five years.

France's President Emmanuel Macron will try to nominate Thierry Breton for the European Commission, angling for an expanded portfolio around economic security and defence, Le Monde reported on Thursday (27 June).

Poland’s conservative PiS party has reached an agreement with Giorgia Meloni's Fratelli d'Italia (FdI) about the division of key posts within their EU political family, the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR), Polish Press Agency (PAP) reported on Thursday (27 June).

The EU requires €500 billion in defence investments over the next decade, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told EU leaders, as the bloc searches for ways to ramp up funding for its new top priority.

A group of European NGOs announced on Thursday (27 June) they will take the European Commission to the EU’s top court over the 10-year re-authorisation of glyphosate, a widely used weedkiller.

The next European Parliament must address voters' economic grievances to prevent the rise of the far-right in future EU elections, the assembly's incumbent president, Roberta Metsola, said on Thursday (27 June) after the first talks with EU leaders in Brussels following the June European polls.

A large majority of EU countries have yet to adequately adopt an electricity market reform conducted by the European Commission under Claude Juncker, which poses a challenge as the grid must accommodate new renewables and electric devices.

As negotiations among EU leaders kick off in Brussels, recent messaging from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her government’s sources threatened a rejection of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s bid for a second term. 

The head of the Czech ANO movement, former prime minister Andrej Babiš, has said that his party, which quit the Liberals' ranks last week, is establishing a new group in the European Parliament - but it is still unclear with whom he will team up.

We can only second-guess what Vladimir Putin’s goals were when he started the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. We can see that in the meantime, NATO has become bigger and stronger, and today, the EU may agree a lineup of new leaders considered “hawks” towards the Kremlin.

While pushing back against the moves to hoard most top EU jobs by the election-winners, the centre-right EPP, European Socialists are simultaneously rushing to clean their own house and rearrange the internal balance of power in their European Parliament group to reflect the election results. 

EU leaders arriving in Brussels on Thursday (27 June) made last-ditch efforts to placate Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni but gave little indication that they will change the proposed EU top job package, which had been agreed without her.  .  

National and EU experts are discussing new legally binding limits for acrylamide in food, EU sources told Euractiv, reopening a file that has sparked intense discussions.

EU leaders are expected to agree a package deal on the EU's top jobs and discuss the geostrategic and policy priorities for the coming years during a busy two-day summit on Thursday and Friday.

In response to the farmer protests that rocked Europe earlier this year, the governing parliamentary groups in Germany have agreed to introduce a relief package for the agriculture sector, amid dissatisfaction from farmers' organisation.

Euractiv has seen the Hungarian EU presidency's detailed plans for the Environment, Energy and Transport Council meetings in the second half of 2024, which outline when Budapest plans to advance individual existing legislative proposals, agree a COP29 position, and present its plans for geothermal energy.

Ahead of the meeting of EU heads of states and governments on Thursday and Friday (27-28 June), car manufacturers, energy companies and environmental NGOs have issued an “urgent” warning against revoking the EU’s 2035 de facto ban to sell new petrol and diesel cars.

As the European Union launches accession negotiations with Ukraine, Hungary's presidency of the EU Council from 1 July  to 31 December risks stalling the process, with minority rights being the key point of contention.