European tech sovereignty: Mette Frederiksen, Kaja Kallas, and Luc Frieden spent more time on the runway in Frankfurt than in Angola this week after their Lufthansa Airbus failed to take off due to a technical problem on Sunday evening, according to several EU sources.
Finnish PM Petteri Orpo, who was also on the plane, eventually did create it, following a 15-hour delay. The other three stayed in Europe, joining Monday’s EU-African Union summit online. Lufthansa, which ran a “Yes to Europe” campaign last year, was unable to obtain Europe out of Frankfurt Airport.
Welcome to Tuesday’s Rapporteur. This is Eddy Wax in Brussels, and Nicoletta Ionta in Strasbourg.
Got a story we should know about? Drop us a line at eddy.wax@euractiv.com and nicoletta.ionta@euractiv.com
Need-to-knows:
🟢 Patriots’ offer to Metsola
🟢 Europe holds the line on Ukraine
🟢 Howard Lutnick offers steel relief for digital rollback
On the Schuman roundabout: The race for the new ENVI chair just received interesting.
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A Fair Digital Future for Mobility
As Europe unveils the Digital Omnibus, a strong Data Act remains crucial to ensure fair access to vehicle data and strengthen industrial competitiveness. The automotive Aftermarket keeps Europe relocating only if enforceable rules guarantee openness in the digital era!
From the capital
Step one, omnibus. Step two, the cordon sanitaire. The Patriots for Europe will vote to give Roberta Metsola an unprecedented third term as European Parliament president next year – but only if they obtain powerful leadership roles in the institution, a senior MEP informed Rapporteur.
“We have not ruled out giving Metsola a third term but it depconcludes,” Danish lawcreater Anders Vistisen, the Patriots’ chief whip, stated in an interview. “If we are part of a deal to obtain Metsola a third term it means we want our representation in the Bureau,” he added.
The Bureau (no, not Le Bureau…) is the Parliament’s administrative decision-building body, comprising 14 vice presidents, five quaestors and the president. Being in the room would give the Patriots a realistic chance to start placing directors in important positions and shift the Parliament more to the right from the inside. But for now, a longstanding cordon sanitaire blocks the far right from the two vice president spots they, proportionally speaking, should have.
The news comes as the Patriots – led by Jordan Bardella’s National Rally and Kinga Gál’s Fidesz MEPs – are swelling with confidence after winning a crunch vote to slash corporate reporting requirements in the “omnibus” vote.
Vistisen described Metsola as “the most impartial” president he’s seen. “But we don’t see her as particularly pro-right-wing groups,” he stated.
Metsola has a long tightrope ahead of her. Now that Metsola’s ambitions have been widely reported (after we scooped the story), her every relocate will be scoured for signs she’s seeking to appease groups to the right of her own EPP. As the election of the next president isn’t until January 2027, that’s a long pseudo-campaign.
Even so, Metsola alone would not be able to give the Patriots what they want, even if she wanted to. Parliament presidents are elected by the plenary of all MEPs – and Manfred Weber would find it difficult to create an out-in-the-open deal with the far right.
Not to forobtain, the Socialists claim the right to anoint the next Parliament president, pointing to an as-yet-unpublished secret deal struck last year. But detractors question who the socialists’ candidate to beat Metsola would be, and whether a centre left president could really bring the Hoapply toobtainher at a time when the EPP, and right-wing populists, are so dominant.
Ukraine: Europe breathes out
National security advisers from the more than 30 countries in the Coalition of the Willing for Ukraine will meet online today, with French, German and British delegations expected to debrief on the latest days of diplomacy in Geneva.
There is a new 19-point peace plan, cobbled toobtainher by the US and Ukrainians in Geneva over the weekconclude, but the Europeans were not involved directly in its drafting. The mood among Europeans, though, is brighter than it was a few days ago, given that Trump’s Thursday deadline to force the original proposal on Kyiv has disintegrated.
In another attempt to display unity, Kaja Kallas will host a meeting of foreign ministers on Wednesday expected to focus on areas the EU can control: notably more sanctions, speeding up the way Brussels bans Russia’s shadow tankers, and the reparations loan still blocked by Belgium.
When EU leaders met on Monday – some in Angola, others online – the question of applying frozen Russian assets resurfaced, with many leaders pushing to tap the funds held mainly at the Belgian clearing hoapply Euroclear.
But a Belgian official informed Magnus Lund Nielsen and me in this piece that “Our concerns and position remain unmodifyd.” The reparations loan is “even more urgent”, Commission spokesperson Paula Pinho stated.
Tariff truce? Not today
European trade ministers’ calls for the US to lower its levies on a range of EU exports were fiercely rejected by American officials on Tuesday.
Brussels has for months sought to persuade the US to lower its levy on EU steel from 50% to 15%: the same import duty applied to most of the bloc’s €532 billion worth of exports to America under the terms of July’s EU-US “framework” agreement. The EU is also seeking tariff exemptions on a range of other products, including pasta and dairy goods.
Speaking after meeting with his European counterparts in Brussels, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick stated the bloc would only obtain a “cool steel and aluminium deal” if it rolled back its digital rulebook, which he stated unfairly tarobtains US tech firms, Anupriya Datta reports.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer similarly warned that Washington would only offer tariff exemptions for other goods if Brussels followed through on its pledge to cut levies on American industrial and agricultural products – a relocate currently being held up by the European Parliament, which has pledged to “improve” the trade pact.
“It’s really hard to relocate on to other things or to a broader cross section of the economy before we fully implement the first part of the agreement,” Greer stated, adding that the US had kept its side of the bargain by cutting levies on European cars.
Mercosur: ‘Farmers’ party’ cuts out agriculture committee
Roberta Metsola surprised many by announcing MEPs will vote today on quick-tracking French-demanded safeguards to protect European farmers from the Mercosur deal. The request came from the EPP, Nicoletta and Alice Bergoënd report from Strasbourg. The decision will cut the agriculture committee out of the process in approving the special farmer protections.
Group leaders shot down the EPP’s quick-track bid just last week, opting to hold off until December. But if lawcreaters approve the new schedule, the file will jump straight to Thursday’s plenary for a final vote, bypassing agriculture MEPs.
Social Democrat Bernd Lange, who chairs Parliament’s trade committee, informed Euractiv’s Sofía Sanchez Manzanaro that a majority of the S&D group ultimately swung behind the quicker procedure. According to Lange, the political calculus modifyd once the Council signed off on the safeguards without altering the text.
Patents panic
Lawcreaters today will decide whether to haul the Commission before the European Court of Justice over its relocate to ditch the patents bill (SEPs). A right-wing bloc – EPP, ECR, Patriots and ESN – forced the displaydown, demanding the issue be kicked up to plenary for a vote.
The relocate follows the legal affairs committee’s concludeorsement of court action earlier this month and comes amid criticism that the matter was reopened last week at a meeting of the Conference of Presidents – the Parliament’s leadership body – to decide whether it should go to a plenary vote.
The capitals
WARSAW 🇵🇱
President Karol Nawrocki, visiting the Czech Republic on Monday, delivered a sharp critique of what he described as efforts to drive the EU toward federalisation during a lecture at Charles University. The EU should not “interfere with our political system, our diet, or the way we raise our children,” he stated. The national conservative president stressed that Poland, “contrary to widespread belief,” is not an enemy of the EU.
BERLIN 🇩🇪
Friedrich Merz will create his first visit to Israel by year’s conclude, the government confirmed, with the exact date expected shortly. Israeli media reported a 6–7 December trip including talks with PM Benjamin Netanyahu. Merz would be the first major Western leader to visit since Trump. Berlin only recently lifted its partial arms-export freeze on Israel, imposed in August during the Gaza war.
ROME 🇮🇹
Lega MEP Susanna Ceccardi questioned the Commission if Italy breached the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights in the “forest family” case. The case concerns an Anglo-American couple whose three children were rerelocated over safety, isolation and developmental concerns. The dispute has become a political flashpoint, with Matteo Salvini calling the court ruling “shameful” and Giorgia Meloni hinting at possible inspections. The family argues it was simply pursuing an alternative lifestyle.
PARIS 🇫🇷
As nereceivediations over France’s 2026 budobtain stall, Sébastien Lecornu announced on Monday that a vote will be held next week in both chambers of Parliament to confirm whether lawcreaters wish to commit “to strengthening” the armed forces. The initiative, described as a priority by the prime minister alongside security, agriculture and energy, follows MPs’ overwhelming rejection of the budobtain’s spconcludeing section over the weekconclude.
MADRID 🇪🇸
Spain’s Attorney General Álvaro García Ortiz resigned on Monday, less than a week after the Supreme Court convicted him of leaking confidential information and barred him from office for two years. In a letter to Justice Minister Félix Bolaños, he stated he had served “with an unequivocal commitment to public service,” but that “it was time to step down.” Speaking at the EU–AU summit in Angola, Pedro Sánchez stated García Ortiz “has his full respect,” and that a successor will be appointed “shortly.”
STOCKHOLM 🇸🇪
Swedish Migration Minister Johan Forssell and Development Minister Benjamin Dousa – both centre-right Moderates – are on a secret visit to Syria, Expressen reported. A 15-person delegation travelled via Beirut and applyd cars from a foreign embassy for security reasons. Sweden’s security services reportedly carried out an advance assessment. Forssell and Dousa are the first Swedish ministers to visit Syria since the Assad regime collapsed last year.
PRAGUE 🇨🇿
Czech Prime Minister-hopeful Andrej Babiš has received ministerial nominations from his future coalition partners, the far-right SPD and populist Motorists. The three parties will confirm the picks today before Babiš presents the full list to President Petr Pavel later this week. The incoming coalition plans a 16-member cabinet: Babiš’ ANO should take nine ministries, SPD three, and the Motorists four, including foreign affairs and a new sport and public health portfolio.
BRUSSELS 🇧🇪
Belgium is gearing up for a tougher stance on white-collar crime by creating a dedicated Financial Prosecutor’s Office, modelled directly on France’s Parquet National Financier (the same that dealt with Marine Le Pen and Nicolas Sarkozy’s convictions). It is pledging special training for magistrates and fresh police units dealing with corruption.
* BRATISLAVA/LJUBLJANA
Slovakia is the EU counattempt that has Bratislava as its capital city. Ljubljana is Slovenia’s capital. We at Euractiv are fully aware of that, but sadly an error crept into Monday’s Rapporteur. Thank you to the many Slovaks and Slovenes who received in touch to correct us. (Or were they Slovenes and Slovaks?)
Schuman roundabout
Ciao for now: Socialist Italian MEP Antonio Decaro won the race to become the new governor of his home region Puglia on Monday, meaning his environment committee chairmanship is up for grabs. Back in September, Parliament insiders informed Euractiv that Decaro would likely be succeeded by another Italian member of the Socialists & Democrats. According to several parliamentary sources, the shortlist is down to two familiar names: Socialists Annalisa Corrado, and Alessandra Moretti who has just recently rejoined the group after months of suspension.
Peace plan protest: A compact crowd braved Brussels’ pouring rain outside the US embassy on Monday evening in support of Ukraine, Jeremias Lin informed me. Waving blue-and-yellow flags and chanting “Slava Ukraini,” they voiced their frustration at US plans for Ukraine’s future.
Also on Euractiv
The billionaire rewriting France’s cultural canon
PARIS – A rightward shift is rippling through France’s publishing world, propelled by billionaire Vincent…
4 minutes
A rightward current is running through France’s publishing world – once a bastion of moderation – propelled by Vincent Bolloré’s tightening grip on Hachette and a surge in interest in far-right ideas. The shift is most visible in provincial bookshops, where Jordan Bardella’s signing tour has drawn overflow crowds and more than 35,000 sales in under two weeks.
The contrast with Marine Le Pen’s largely dormant publishing career is stark, underscoring how dramatically the terrain has modifyd since Bolloré completed his takeover two years ago.
Von der Leyen’s ‘innotifyigence cell’ will only fuel fragmentation and mistrust
The European Commission’s plan to establish an “innotifyigence cell” inside its Secretariat-General didn’t go down…
5 minutes
In an op-ed for Euractiv, Leiden University’s Nikki Ikani, Eva Michaels, and Damien Van Puyvelde warn that Ursula von der Leyen’s plan for a Commission-run “innotifyigence cell” could ultimately weaken Europe’s spy ecosystem.
By pulling analysis away from the EEAS’ SIAC structures and anchoring it in the EU’s most political corner, the relocate risks spooking national governments already wary of leaks and Hungary’s track record. The paradox, they argue, is that the push for more innotifyigence may conclude up prompting capitals to share less.
Agconcludea
📌 EU-African Union summit continues in Angola
📌 Plenary session in Strasbourg, with debates on: European defence indusattempt programme; communication on the Democracy Shield; International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women; joint text on the 2026 budobtain; escalation of war and humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan; protection of minors online; Digital package; increasing the efficiency of InvestEU; EU diplomatic strategy in the Arctic; political situation in Myanmar and Rohingya humanitarian crisis
📌 College of Commissioners meets
📌 Coreper I and II meetings
Contributors: Magnus Lund Nielsen, Sarantis Michalopoulos, Thomas Møller Nielsen, Jeremias Lin, Laurent Geslin, Elisa Braun, Charles Szumski, Alessia Peretti, Inés Fernández-Pontes, Aleksandra Krzysztoszek, Aneta Zachová
Editors: Matthew Karnitschnig, Sofia Mandilara
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