A large archive around the 2027 French presidential election: official sources, political news, institutional videos and reference content — all in one place.
The European Commission has rejected suggestions that its regulations amount to censorship, after the United States imposed visa bans on five Europeans accused of curbing free speech through restrictions on technology companies.
The US administration's renewed push “to have” Greenland, the autonomous Danish territory whose global importance has recently shifted from remote island to linchpin of Arctic security and green‑tech supply chain, has prompted the EU to push back.
In 2025, uncertainty became the dominant buzzword in economic debates — but that does not mean policymakers can afford to stop looking ahead. On the contrary, identifying the key economic fault lines that will shape 2026 is now more important than ever, writes economics columnist Judith Arnal.
The European Commission says it is working on a "new paradigm" to tackle migration, following a letter from 19 member states.
Lawyers representing a Syrian refugee say the EU's border agency Frontex fails to grasp what its own "strengthened safeguards" might look like in practice.
The story of the European democracy game "Eurocracy". The board game was invented by a democracy campaigner at the time of the foundation of the EU in 1992.
Selected by our small team of reporters and editors, these are the 10 articles (investigations, analysis, exclusives, opinion and columns) we thought best showed the breadth, depth, and originality of EUobserver over 2025, and its quest for unique, investigative, off-diary stories about European politics.
China has urged the EU to end ‘unreasonable’ investigations of its businesses operating in Europe, days after cutting import duties on the EU’s pork exports.
The EU institutions agreed on 10 legislative proposals to be top of their agenda in 2026. Their focus is on competitiveness and defence, plus the next EU budget.
Across Europe, mayors and local councillors are facing a disturbing rise in harassment, threats, disinformation, and even physical violence. These aren’t isolated incidents — they are a growing pattern. And they’re not 'just politics'. They are deliberate attempts to silence, intimidate, and push people out of public life, warns the Council of European Municipalities and Regions.
Even before the publication of the defence white paper, EU member states’ military spending for 2024 was €343bn, 2.7 times that of Russia, its stated main adversary, which spent €126.9bn. Meanwhile Britain, spent €69.6bn in 2024 and combined Nato spending was at €1,281bn — more than ten times that of Russia.
EU leaders decided to use joint borrowing instead of Russian frozen assets to support Ukraine, in a big win for Belgian prime minister Bart De Wever, who had long opposed the idea of a reparations loan amid fears of retaliation from Russia.
Pressure continues to mount to curtail asylum arrivals, as over a dozen EU states are hoping to maintain a momentum to limit rights.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated to EU leaders that there are bigger risks than lawsuits if Europe doesn't act against Russia by using its frozen assets, at the at the December European Council summit.
The size and composition of Vladimir Putin's delegation, including Roman Abramovich and the head of the Central Bank, and their red-carpet reception in Bishkek shows accelerating rapprochement between Bishkek and Moscow — and casts ominous doubt over future respect for human rights in what was once Central Asia’s most promising democracy.
Belgium is threatening to block an EU plan to fund Ukraine with frozen Russian assets, as prime minister Bart de Wever draws a red line over risks to Euroclear and national financial security ahead of a decisive European summit. "I'm not giving up,” he told Belgian MPs on Thursday morning.
“When employers and unions sit at the table early – before systems are rolled out – we avoid problems later", Oliver Roethig, a trade union leader at UNI Europa, the European federation of unions in private services, explains.
The EU’s top court has thrown out a claim filed by more than 400 former MEPs against a decision to halve the payments from their controversial voluntary pension scheme — that would landed the European taxpayer with a bill of more than €200m.
Belgium's prime minister will start his EU summit morning under pressure to say 'no' to using frozen Russian assets for Ukraine, whatever the legal guarantees.
Negotiations have been launched on the EU's 'safe country' concepts that critics say will spell the end of asylum rights in Europe. The vote in the European Parliament sparks further alarm at how in migration and other policies, the centre-right European People's Party has shifted towards working with MEPs hailing from the far-right Alternative for Germany.
The European Parliament supported the idea from a citizen's initiative to provide accessible abortion for all EU women.
The EU has unveiled plans to expand its carbon border levy to cover car parts and washing machines, in a bid to strengthen a law that is “like a good cheese with some holes in it,” said the bloc’s environment chief on Wednesday.
Rather than lowering social standards and undermining rights, the EU should defend, promote, and expand its social model.
Rather than lowering social standards and undermining rights, the EU should defend, promote, and expand its social model.
The collapse of the Bulgarian government last week following massive anti-graft protests puts in sharp relief a state captured by deep corruption that has for years served the interests of a ruling elite.
The argument is that Europe underperforms in tech and biotech because it is “too expensive” to fire people.That may sound intuitively appealing but it is profoundly misleading.
A new study found that Europe has a strong quantum ecosystem (with many strong companies with a sole focus on quantum technologies) — but lack behind in investment.
The EU Commission has unveiled its first-ever housing plan to tackle soaring prices across Europe. With housing prices up 53 percent since 2010 and short-term rentals nearly doubling since 2018, Brussels wants to see 650,000 new units annually across the bloc.
The European Commission has overturned a planned ban on European car manufacturers producing petrol-driven vehicles after 2035, in a major win for the EU’s industry lobby on Tuesday. "Clinging to combustion engines won't make European automakers great again,” warned one environmental group.
Russia's eight EU neighbours have declared it "a profound and enduring threat" at a summit in Helsinki, turning up the heat on Ukraine funding talks.
The progressive left in the European Parliament are hoping to scupper negotiations on new rules to outsource asylum.
Somehow, people are under the impression EUobserver is a way larger organisation that it actually is.
Donald Trump's new national security strategy casts overseas regulation as an attack on US interests and identifies preserving Big Tech dominance as a national security priority. It leaves no doubt about the administration’s intentions: US tech power is an asset to defend.
Being forced to navigate physical borders within the Schengen Area threatens the very essence of freedom of movement, weakens the spirit of Schengen, and ultimately undermines the EU’s identity and the shared sense of belonging.
Being forced to navigate physical borders within the Schengen Area threatens the very essence of freedom of movement, weakens the spirit of Schengen, and ultimately undermines the EU’s identity and the shared sense of belonging.
The European Court of Auditors examined the major EU anti-fraud offices and found there were communication issues between agencies, with burdensome and confusing administration. It also found the European Commission lacked proper fine-collection oversight.
The EU Commission has urged France and Italy not to derail its trade accord with the South American bloc Mercosur, which it described on Monday as a test of the EU’s “credibility”. The scene is now set for a row at the EU leaders’ summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday.
Foreign ministers from Spain, Ireland, Belgium, and Luxembourg have jointly urged the EU to use its “considerable leverage” with Israel to address what they describe as still a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, despite ceasefire efforts.
The proposed next EU budget has already caused some fuss in Brussels, especially among the bloc's regions. "All that the EU Commission is proposing is in reality ... less money, more priorities”, Jaune Duch, Catalan EU minister, told EUobserver.
With the European Commission unveiling its first ever European housing package on Tuesday, the stakes could not be higher. This housing crisis is not a force of nature, it is a political failure, which means it is within our power to fix, writes MEP Brigitte van den Berg.
EU leaders will meet this week in Brussels to discuss Russian frozen assets, the next EU budget plus the Middle East. Also this week the first-ever housing plan will be presented by the EU Commission and discussed in the plenary session in Strasbourg.