EU Insider News

Sep 16, 2026

Kosovo outscores three EU candidates on EPIC's index. It still isn't one

Albin Kurti's fourth government, confirmed on 13 September after three months of deadlock, has made EU candidate status its top priority. EPIC's Integration Readiness Index puts Kosovo at 3.61 for 2025, above Georgia, Bosnia and Türkiye, all of which hold the status Pristina is asking for.

News & Analysis

Sep 16, 2026

France's Usmanov demand leaves EU Russia sanctions on a one-week clock

Paris wants the oligarch delisted to free French nationals held in Azerbaijan. Slovakia wants him and Mikhail Fridman off the list too. Ambassadors bought seven days, to midnight on 22 September, before nearly 3,000 listings lapse.

Business & Economy

Sep 16, 2026

Scale, not capital rules: Brussels rebuffs banks as Berlin sets its terms for UniCredit

On the same Monday, Commissioner Maria Luís Albuquerque refused to split the EU's banking package, Germany's finance minister handed UniCredit his conditions for Commerzbank, Euronext floated a tie-up with Deutsche Börse, and Europe's first consolidated tape went live.

News & Analysis

Sep 16, 2026

EU leaders back joint icebreakers as Arctic summit calls the High North vital to security

More than ten EU member states signed a joint statement in Rovaniemi naming Russia a persistent Arctic threat and backing shared icebreaker capacity, weeks before the Commission unveils its first Arctic strategy since 2021.

The Europe Debate

Sep 15, 2026

Two years after Draghi's Strasbourg speech, only six EU acts count as structurally significant

EPIC's Draghi Implementation Index found that of 38 laws adopted in the first four months after the index launched, just six changed anything structural. As the report's second anniversary arrives on Thursday, the count of laws is rising faster than the count of reforms.

News & Analysis

Sep 15, 2026

Sweden's election ends in a dead heat as the far right loses ground

Preliminary figures from the Swedish Election Authority give Magdalena Andersson's centre-left bloc 176 seats to 173 for Ulf Kristersson's right. Late and overseas ballots could still erase that margin before the final count on Wednesday.

Latest News

Kosovo outscores three EU candidates on EPIC's index. It still isn't one

France's Usmanov demand leaves EU Russia sanctions on a one-week clock

Scale, not capital rules: Brussels rebuffs banks as Berlin sets its terms for UniCredit

EU leaders back joint icebreakers as Arctic summit calls the High North vital to security

Two years after Draghi's Strasbourg speech, only six EU acts count as structurally significant

Sweden's election ends in a dead heat as the far right loses ground