A series of meetings in Brussels, Damascus and Jordan this week will test how far the EU can move beyond humanitarian aid and support Syria’s recovery. The talks come amid continuing Russian influence in the region and follow a Jordanian fighter-jet attack last month.
A quarter of a million nationalists marched through Warsaw on Wednesday, 11 November, for Poland’s 108th Independence Day, as the national holiday laid bare divisions over the country’s institutions and political direction.
Ukraine’s battlefield communications rely on SpaceX satellites that could be switched off, while Europe has no comparable low-orbit network at similar scale. Existing and planned European systems may reduce that dependence, but their fleets are far smaller and key capabilities are still years away.
In the West Bank, the olive harvest—an annual source of income and a longstanding part of Palestinian identity—has become a period of heightened danger, with attacks by Israeli settlers backed by Israeli forces reported as families head to their groves.
The European Commission’s proposed Digital Fairness Act would address manipulative online design and other consumer protection gaps, but turning the ambitious plan into EU law will take time, consumer law academic Christoph Busch told EUobserver.
“I cannot be optimistic,” French climatologist Jean Jouzel says, pointing to rising global carbon dioxide emissions and a lack of solidarity between states. He argues that climate action must accelerate, warning that decisions made over the next 15 years will shape conditions in the second half of this century.
A proposed EU envoy for Ukraine peace efforts is set to take centre stage at two Dublin summits, as European leaders weigh the latest US-led push to end the war. The gatherings will bring together about 55 European Political Community leaders on Thursday, 12 November, followed by the 27 EU leaders on Friday.
Claims that Ukraine’s EU accession would be futile or make the country a financial burden are among the narratives identified by Ukrainian journalists. Media and fact-checkers in Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia say online campaigns also portray EU membership as a threat to sovereignty, national values and economic security.
At Abu Dhabi peace talks, Russian officials reportedly insisted that their forces had taken far more Ukrainian-held territory in Donbas than Kyiv says they control. President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian delegates challenged the claims with video and images, while the dispute echoes conflicting maps of the front near Lyman.
Slovakia’s 2003 referendum on joining the European Union took place after the country had signed its accession treaty, and its result was not legally required to complete membership. Prime Minister Robert Fico has nevertheless claimed the vote was rigged and would otherwise have failed.
Unfair online practices are estimated to cost European consumers close to €8 billion a year, according to the source article. Its authors say the European Commission’s proposed Digital Fairness Act must go further than existing rules to curb manipulative design, protect consumers and reduce the financial harm caused by digital services.
EU greenhouse gas emissions fell by 1.6% in 2025, but the bloc is not cutting them fast enough to meet its 2030 climate targets, according to the European Commission’s latest progress report. Nine member states are behind on their goals, and the Commission will ask them to submit corrective action plans.
Two years after floods killed 234 people in Spain’s Valencia region, questions remain over why authorities did not warn residents in time. The storm had been forecast days ahead, and a phone alert system was available, but no official warning came until lives had already been lost.
Linking the UK and EU carbon markets could spare companies millions of euros in carbon border taxes, as officials seek closer economic ties ahead of a post-Brexit summit in Dublin next week. The agreement would let permits be traded between the two emissions trading systems.
European governments want to reduce irregular migration and deport more people, but employers in countries such as Spain and Italy still need workers to harvest fruit and vegetables. That tension, sociologist Hein de Haas argues, helps explain why restrictive policies may not remove the economic pull to Europe.
EU trade with Russia fell from €253 billion in 2021 to €58 billion last year, but sanctioned goods continue to cross the bloc’s borders, according to a report by the European Court of Auditors. The Luxembourg-based watchdog points to uneven monitoring, enforcement gaps and legal ambiguities.
European security and conflicts in Africa are closely connected, says Patricia Llombart Cussac, the European External Action Service’s managing director for Africa. The EU wants to act not only as a donor but as a geopolitical partner, she said, as its ambassadors gathered in Nairobi to discuss relations with sub-Saharan Africa.
A dispute over which countries qualify as “European” is holding up the EU’s Industrial Accelerator Act, as deputy ambassadors prepare to debate its rules on public contracts and subsidies on Wednesday, 11 November. The law is intended to build demand for cleaner, European-made industrial products.
A leaked draft of the European Commission’s Digital Fairness Act would require influencers to label paid promotions clearly and ban several online design tactics that steer consumers toward choices benefiting companies. Digital rights advocates welcomed binding rules but said the proposal leaves gaps, including on addictive features such as autoplay and infinite scrolling.
A trove of data said to have been taken from Russia’s statistics agency indicates that 74,000 Russian soldiers had been killed near Pokrovsk by December. The figures, published by Belarusian and Ukrainian hacking groups, also suggest Russia’s total military deaths since the invasion began have reached 400,000.
At least 35 aircraft faced bomb threats across Europe last week, prompting a European Commission meeting on Wednesday, 11 November. Experts from EU member states and Norway, Switzerland and Iceland will review the incidents and discuss whether additional measures are needed.
The killings in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski and Kraków prompted a rapid response from Russian propagandists, who seized on an image of the suspect’s vest and misidentified its patch. The episode, an analysis of Russian information warfare argues, shows how Moscow’s messaging reframes tragic events to suit the Kremlin’s foreign-policy interests.
Giorgia Meloni is Europe’s strongest prospect for drawing Vladimir Putin into talks on a workable Ukraine peace deal, according to a retired Russian intelligence officer. But Sergei, whose full name was withheld, said there was no sign the Russian president wanted to end the war.
Twenty-six EU member states backed a tobacco tax overhaul, but Malta withheld approval at a meeting in Brussels on Monday, 9 November. The impasse left the bloc without agreement on a reform package described in the source headline as worth €13 billion.
European Union representatives are expected to join this week’s Ukraine peace discussions in Abu Dhabi, after being left out of the February talks in Geneva. Their presence comes as European leaders worry that negotiations could shape not only Ukraine’s future but the wider security arrangements of the continent.
Nearly 40 percent of Syrians deported with Frontex’s help between March 2025 and April 2026 did not receive assistance promised through the EU Reintegration Programme, despite €7.1 million in agency spending on their returns, an investigation co-published by EUobserver found.
Five of England and Wales’s seven inland border facilities built for post-Brexit checks never became operational, according to the National Audit Office. The UK’s post-Brexit Conservative governments spent more than £100m (€120m) on the sites, which were intended to support checks on goods.
Flooding has compounded the danger for Palestinians in Gaza who hold Belgian visas, prompting 17 MEPs to press Belgium and the European Commission to arrange their evacuation. The lawmakers’ letter cites 1,800 visa-holders, including students admitted to Belgian universities, still unable to leave the war zone.
Russian pro-war channels have largely stopped highlighting alleged advances along the front and instead list Ukrainian cities struck by drones and missiles, while Ukrainian soldiers report continued ground attacks. The shift comes as Russian forces appear to be making little progress at a high cost, according to a Russian military-focused Telegram channel.
More than 70 bomb warnings sent to European airlines, newsrooms and other targets last week were hoaxes, but they still triggered diversions, evacuations and disruption. A separate threat to Europe’s security, an opinion article argues, came from Jared Kushner’s proposal for a broader security architecture.
