China turns years of state‑backed EV strategy into a global export offensive. Europe is scrambling to defend not only Volkswagen and its satellites, but its wider geopolitical leverage in the green tech race.
Germany’s spies, long mocked as passive note‑takers, are suddenly being groomed for a far more dangerous role – one that even some of their political backers now fear has “overshot the mark”.
With the far right poised to govern parts of Germany for the first time since WWII, Boeselager warns that only bold economic fixes and fairer pension sacrifices can convince frustrated workers that democracy still delivers.
Europe’s failure to shield workers from extreme heat is becoming an €800bn threat to jobs, wages, and national budgets, as farms and construction sites grind to a halt.
Germany has betrayed its post-war moral and legal foundations by shielding Israel from accountability for alleged violations of international law, writes former EU envoy Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff.
Under the current EU budget, social spending through ESF+ amounts to nearly €96bn. According to internal calculations made by European Parliament services, total social spending could fall under the next MFF to between €63bn and €87bn.
We are told every day that we are in a mighty struggle between liberal democrats and illiberal populists. We are told that ‘we’, the former have to defend our freedoms against ‘them’, the latter.
This framing is wrong and it is a gift for semi-authoritarian parties, warns Michael Meyer-Resende.
The Azerbaijani regime has arrested investigative journalists and dismantled independent media, leaving virtually no one on the ground to report on corruption and trade violations. And yet the EU Commission and German government are placing their trust in the authoritarian petro-state.
From higher defence budgets to tighter control over social media, liberals are quietly backing a more muscular state they once resisted, arguing it is the price of keeping European freedoms alive.
In this edition, we track how officials are burying EU funding audits on Gaza, shielding judges’ financial interests and limiting access to ownership data, while watchdogs and civil society push back against weakened transparency laws and chronic delays that undermine scrutiny and journalists’ work.
German politicians duped into thinking a new subsidy scheme only benefits Chinese electric vehiclesA previous German electric vehicle subsidy scheme massively benefited Volkswagen, which had invested heavily in expensive cars that only the rich could afford. Now it’s set to cut 100,000 jobs and close four factories in Germany.
Between 2020 and 2023, Germany spent €860m subsidising the purchase of Teslas — a scheme that helped unlock Berlin’s share of the EU’s Covid recovery fund, according to internal documents obtained by EUobserver. Now, Elon Musk’s Berlin gigafactory is also receiving more than €71m in state aid.
Is Berlin about to go from conservative to hard-left?A Red-Green-Red coalition is looking the most likely outcome of September’s election in Berlin, Europe’s so-called capital of cool.
The triggers I thought were filed away — in my mind, in my chest, in the way I now glance at strangers on the U-Bahn — rose at once. Today I’m going to my work in Germany feeling, for the first time, afraid of people. Sadly.
That Germany’s Holocaust guilt matters less than Palestinian and Lebanese livesThe EU Commission will bring forward a proposal on import bans against Israeli settlers, but will it be a trade measure, which doesn’t need unanimity, or sanctions, which do?
Global resettlement figures have dropped by some 50 percent to 81,800 in a downward trend that points to the general political backlash against migration and asylum in the US and in Europe.
Relatives of ‘Ulm 5’ pro-Palestinian activists tell EUobserver of degrading prison conditions, as Germany sells tanks to Israel for Gaza warfare.
Germany’s Nazi family search app explains (some of) the guilt behind Berlin’s soft line on IsraelWith the release of the ‘Find Out What Your Family Did Under Hitler’ app by Der Spiegel, Germans can now find shocking details of their grandparents lives one tap away on their smartphones.
THIS WEEK: Magyar heads to Brussels to unlock Hungary’s frozen EU recovery money by 31 August Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar is expected in Brussels to negotiate the release of €10.4bn in frozen EU recovery funds. In Cyprus, foreign affairs ministers meet informally to discuss Iran and Russia. A new strategy on humanitarian aid will be unveiled by the EU Commission on Wednesday.
Trouble starts when the centrist parties begin to sound alike. When moderate left and moderate right converge into a governing centre, voters lose real choice within the system. When democracy loses its internal opposition, it begins producing external opposition. This is the consensus trap.