The biggest winner of the 4 October general election in Bosnia and Herzegovina is someone who did not run. In Republika Srpska, the vote was framed as a test of Milorad Dodik's political future. The former president of the entity was ousted from office last year following his conviction for defying the decisions of the High Representative.

In the days preceding the arrival of around 72,000 people from Morocco into Ceuta between 30 and 31 July 2026, information and misinformation circulated widely through social media and messaging platforms, including content encouraging people to travel to Ceuta and suggesting that the border could be crossed. The scale and speed of the movement showed how difficult it can be to establish what role digital platforms play in large-scale irregular cross-border movements. While the available evidence indicates that digital communication contributed to the movement, it does not establish who initiated or coordinated it, who amplified particular messages, or with what intention. Similar patterns of online activity can reflect peer-to-peer information-sharing, commercial smuggling, coordinated mobilisation or, potentially, deliberate instrumentalisation by state actors. These are not interchangeable explanations: they involve different actors and different degrees of responsibility and therefore require different policy responses.

As EU leaders call for further migration reforms, implementation gaps risk remaining unresolved. The hotspot in Lampedusa illustrates why the priority should be resilient systems, rather than repeatedly rewriting rules.

The next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) is being negotiated in a radically different economic and geopolitical environment. Yet negotiations risk focusing once again on familiar questions: the size of the budget, national contributions and established spending programmes.

Spain is something of a political paradox. Its economy has been growing faster than most other major European economies, while Pedro Sánchez’s governments can point to a substantial progressive record, from the green transition and expanded social policies to LGBTQ+ rights, development aid and the regularisation of migrants. Many of these measures have been fiercely criticised by the right. Yet, in the end, it was an issue on which the left should theoretically have had the political advantage – housing – that pushed Sánchez to call an early election.

The European maritime area, our ocean, is a critical domain where economy, sustainability, culture and security intersect. At the same time, EU ocean governance is deeply fragmented along the lines of national jurisdictions, sectoral agendas and investment priorities.

The Commission’s pre-enlargement policy reviews are expected this autumn, three years after the Granada Declaration and several missed dates later. Their content is unknown but their form is not – and that is already telling.

On 25 September, the members of the new Dutch party ‘Progressief Nederland’ (PRO), founded as a merger between GroenLinks (the Dutch Greens) and the Social Democrats, decided in a party ballot join the Party of European Socialists (PES). Progressief Nederland’s choice cost the European Greens one of their founding parties. The merger was initially embraced as an example of further collaboration between the Greens and PES, but it ended chaotically, with both European parties campaigning to win PRO. This puts future collaboration under pressure and shows the limits of the European party system.

Fifteen years ago, mass demonstrations across Spain culminated in thousands of people occupying Madrid’s central Puerta del Sol square. The Indignados movement helped inspire mobilisations across Europe and Occupy Wall Street by pitting the “people” against the “casta”, the “one per cent” or the “elites”. This political division was then adopted by the populist parties on the left and right that greatly upended the political establishment.

The Commission’s proposal could make cross-border work easier and more transparent. However, the EU must address the structural conditions that lead to vulnerabilities and labour shortages.

As a think tanker, I have to admit impact failure. I have not managed to nip the discussion over the EEAS in the bud. No surprise, given Brussels’ penchant for political drama. This one has many ingredients for a successful story: two powerful member states allegedly floating far-reaching ideas for a reform feeding institutional rivalry, competition between the Commission and the EEAS over who holds the pen on an upcoming security strategy, and leaders fighting over power and resources.

With the opposition jailed, exiled, excluded or dead, the ruling United Russia party’s “victory” in the September 18–20 Duma elections was a foregone conclusion. The Kremlin will use the result to claim public backing for its war in Ukraine and a mandate to further escalate.

The explosives-laden drones discovered near a runway at Leipzig/Halle Airport and the recent attack on a Warsaw-bound train just kilometres from the Ukrainian–Polish border point toward a new escalation in Russia’s behaviour toward Europe.

Amid high attention on migration in the EU, recent political debates have focused on the integration and inclusion of newcomers across member states. Diverse regional experiences with integrating third-country nationals suggest different levels of support for more liberal or more restrictive immigration policies. While Western European models have commonly explained immigration attitudes through left–right ideological stances, recent research on public attitudes suggests that such frameworks do not translate seamlessly into Central and Eastern European contexts. Rather, restrictive attitudes tend to vary due to political environments, historical immigration trajectories, social determinants and dominant migration narratives.

Donald Trump has inadvertently done Europe and Canada a favour. By describing Canada becoming an Associate Member of the EU as potentially “hostile” and threatening retaliation, he has shown that the initiative matters.

From the UK to Japan, so many countries need to quickly be brought inside the European tent without the rigours of full membership, says economist Fabian Zuleeg

State of the European Union SOTEU

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the European Union address comes at a moment when the EU is once again navigating overlapping challenges — from security pressures and industrial competitiveness to the political turbulence shaping the transatlantic relationship.

From the UK to Japan, so many countries need to quickly be brought inside the European tent without the rigours of full membership, says economist Fabian Zuleeg

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the European Union address comes at a moment when the EU is once again navigating overlapping challenges — from security pressures and industrial competitiveness to the political turbulence shaping the transatlantic relationship.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the European Union address comes at a moment when the EU is once again navigating overlapping challenges — from security pressures and industrial competitiveness to the political turbulence shaping the transatlantic relationship.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the European Union address comes at a moment when the EU is once again navigating overlapping challenges — from security pressures and industrial competitiveness to the political turbulence shaping the transatlantic relationship.