OVERNIGHT: After several days of tense talks, EU negotiators struck a late-night agreement to open previously civilian-only research funding to projects with military applications, Charles Cohen and Kjeld Neubert report. The compromise will extend Horizon Europe, the bloc’s €93.5 billion research and innovation programme, to cover dual-use projects.
Welcome to Rapporteur. This is Nicoletta Ionta, with Eddy Wax in Brussels.
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Need-to-knows:
- Budget: Parliament presses for MFF rewrite after fruitless €865 billion talks
- Ukraine: EU drafts alternative funding options as €140 billion reparations loan stalls
- Business: EPP eyes far-right support after red tape reform plan rejected
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From the capital
The European Parliament left Wednesday night’s meeting with the Commission all smiles, but empty-handed.
After two hours of polite back-and-forth, lawmakers insisted there was “progress” on the €865 billion plan to merge farm and regional subsidies under the next seven-year EU budget. Progress – for MEPs – now looks like a promise that something might happen next week.
Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin said he would consider legal changes to address lawmakers’ concerns but stopped short of confirming whether the Commission was willing to amend the MFF. Lawmakers and officials said a proposal could finally land before next week’s mini-plenary. Two Parliament sources told Rapporteur they expect the Commission to unveil it later this week.
Parliament had drawn a red line last week, threatening to reject the Commission’s entire €2 trillion spending package unless seven specific demands were met by 12 November. Lawmakers reject the Commission’s “national plans” and warn that the new MFF would centralise power over regions.
Wednesday’s meeting, attended by group leaders and top negotiators from all major political families, was meant to avert that rebellion.
But by the end of the night, lawmakers hadn’t seen a single line of text. “Only political declarations of intention are not sufficient,” Siegfried Mureșan, co-lead negotiator from Ursula von der Leyen’s EPP, said earlier in the day. Inside the meeting, those declarations were exactly what he got, as my colleague Jacob Wulff Wold reports.
Still, the smiles held. “We saw declarations of intention to accommodate the Parliament,” Mureșan said after the talks. S&D negotiator Carla Tavares insisted the Commission “needs to amend the proposal.”
Behind them, group leaders Weber, García, Reintke, and Hayer huddled briefly before slipping away without comment. “In EU politics, Wednesday next week is in the distant future,” one source familiar with the talks said – meaning everything can still go wrong.
And then, more budget
The Danish presidency, already frustrated by Parliament’s uncompromising stance, could prove a tough negotiating partner as three-way budget talks begin. According to a draft Council document seen by Jacob, Denmark has rejected calls – echoing Parliament’s own – to pull agricultural subsidies out of the new national plans.
The text carves up the most sensitive budget lines for discussion at the highest political level, leaving the rest to technical negotiators. It marks the second draft without any structural changes, effectively locking in the Commission’s merger of farm and regional funds unless countries decide otherwise.
Diplomats will review the text on Thursday, with the possibility of elevating one of Parliament’s core demands to the top of the EU’s agenda.
From Russia with loans
The European Commission is weighing plans to plug Ukraine’s colossal funding gap with money raised through common EU debt and bilateral grants from member states, three people familiar with the discussion told my colleague Thomas Møller-Nielsen.
The two options – to be outlined in a Commission “options paper” for Kyiv expected to circulate capitals in the coming weeks – come on top of the so-called “reparations loan” plan.
The €140 billion loan remains the Commission’s preferred approach to supporting Ukraine’s war effort, despite Belgium’s refusal to back the scheme at last month’s EU summit in Brussels. Ukraine faces a total budget shortfall of around $65 billion (€55 billion) for 2026 and 2027. The options paper is still under review and subject to change.
Red tape is tough to cut
The centre-right European People’s Party may have to look right for support in its bid to cut supply-chain red tape. Far-right Patriots for Europe MEP Anders Vistisen said the EPP must move to the right after its rapporteur, Jörgen Warborn, saw his proposal rejected.
In late October, several socialist lawmakers dismissed Warborn’s plan to ease reporting requirements for firms. On Tuesday, lead socialist René Repasi, backed by Renew and the Greens, offered a compromise: exemptions for companies with fewer than 3,000 employees in exchange for watering down civil-liability rules, according to texts and emails seen by Euractiv.
That leaves Warborn at the mercy of far-right lawmakers, who appear eager to seize the moment and cement a more lasting alliance.
Brussels convicts two in Farage-linked case
A Belgian court has convicted two individuals for misusing EU funds linked to Brussels-based eurosceptic organisations connected to Nigel Farage. The men were found guilty of diverting more than €100,000 through forged loan agreements and false certificates, and must reimburse Parliament and pay fines unless they appeal, my colleague Elisa Braun reports.
The case centres on the Institute for Direct Democracy in Europe and the pan-European party Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe, two organisations tied to Farage and his political network.
Time out for trees
Brussels’ flagship green law – the Deforestation Directive (EUDR) – faces fresh uncertainty amid mounting political pressure for a one-year delay.
Austria’s call to “stop the clock” gained support from 15 countries at Wednesday’s Environment Council, leaving Spain as the only member defending the current schedule, which would see the rules take effect by year’s end.
Member states are still digesting the Commission’s proposal and must reach agreement by mid-December, making a postponement increasingly likely as capitals seek more time for further simplification. Industry leaders, however, warn that delays could punish compliant firms.
The capitals
COPENHAGEN 🇩🇰
On his first day in office on Wednesday, new US ambassador to Denmark Ken Howery refused to rule out that America could one day claim Greenland – part of the Danish Realm – by force, despite being asked five times by reporters in Copenhagen. Howery, a billionaire PayPal co-founder and former Trump envoy to Sweden, said only that “the US respects the Greenlandic people’s right to decide their own future.”
BRUSSELS 🇧🇪
Bart De Wever has convened a meeting of the Belgian National Security Council for Thursday morning, including the ministers of defence, interior, justice, and foreign affairs, after drone sightings forced Brussels Airport to shut on Wednesday. The incident, which followed similar sightings near a military base housing US nuclear weapons, left hundreds of passengers stranded.
BERLIN 🇩🇪
Friedrich Merz will convene a high-level “steel summit” in Berlin on Thursday, bringing together federal ministers, regional leaders, and industry executives to debate the future of Germany’s struggling steel sector. Vice-Chancellor Lars Klingbeil called for a ban on Russian steel imports and “more European patriotism” in public procurement, while CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann urged tougher EU anti-dumping measures against China, saying the bloc must “get its act together” on tariffs.
PARIS 🇫🇷
A 35-year-old driver was arrested on Wednesday after deliberately ramming his car into five people on the island of Oléron, off France’s Atlantic coast. Two were seriously injured, including an aide to a National Rally MP. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said the suspect, who was known to police for previous offences, reportedly shouted “Allahu akbar” during his arrest. Authorities said they were treating the motive with caution pending further investigation.
ROME 🇮🇹
Libyan authorities have detained Osama Al-Masri Njeem, the former Tripoli prison chief repatriated by Italy in January despite an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant for war crimes. The arrest follows new evidence of torture and the death of a detainee in custody. The ICC recently said Italy had failed to execute the warrant properly. Opposition parties here condemned the episode as a “disgraceful failure” that undermines Italy’s credibility and Giorgia Meloni’s commitment to international justice.
MADRID 🇪🇸
Pedro Sánchez met Sultan Haitham bin Tariq of Oman in Madrid on Wednesday, where the two leaders signed a bilateral agreement and several memoranda to deepen cooperation in trade, investment, and energy. In a joint statement, they also reaffirmed their support for a two-state solution as the basis for lasting stability in the Middle East.
WARSAW 🇵🇱
President Karol Nawrocki visited Bratislava on Wednesday for his first trip to a Visegrád Group (V4) partner since taking office, meeting Slovak President Peter Pellegrini to discuss energy security, cross-border infrastructure, and regional cooperation. The two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to stability and economic resilience in Central Europe. Nawrocki is due to return to Warsaw to take part in the National Independence March on Tuesday.
BRATISLAVA 🇸🇰
Greenpeace Poland has filed a complaint with the European Commission over Slovakia’s plan to kill 350 bears, alleging a breach of EU law. The group said Bratislava failed to carry out the required strategic environmental impact assessment under the EU’s SEA Directive. The large-scale hunt, planned near the Slovak-Polish border, poses a threat to Poland’s small bear population of around 130 animals, Greenpeace warned. The Slovak government has yet to respond.
Schuman roundabout
WHERE DREAMS ARE MADE OF: Celebrating last night’s Democratic wins in the US elections, Renew Europe – home to the European Parliament’s liberal, centrist lawmakers – took to social media. On their Instagram page, they posted “Hope rises!” alongside a picture of Dutch election winner, Rob Jetten, from the liberal D66, Californian Gov. Gavin Newsom, and New York’s incoming mayor Zohran Mamdani – a self-described democratic socialist. The post was deleted later on Wednesday.
DO LOOK UP: To mark Outdoor Classroom Day and promote children’s eye health, Culture, Youth, and Sports Commissioner, Glenn Micallef, will join local pupils for a 15-minute jog around Parc Léopold – just behind the Parliament’s premises. If you want to see him on the run, be there at 10 a.m. this morning. The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness will offer free vision screenings after the run.
Also on Euractiv
Belgium, Netherlands push EU to punish rule-breakers under migration pact
Belgium and the Netherlands are demanding that the European Commission make adherence to the EU’s…
3 minutes
Belgium and the Netherlands have called on Brussels to withhold migration solidarity funds from EU countries that fail to apply the bloc’s Dublin asylum rules, in a move likely to reignite north-south tensions.
In a letter to Commissioner Magnus Brunner, the two governments said compliance with the rules – requiring asylum seekers to file claims in the first EU country they enter – must be a genuine prerequisite for receiving support under the bloc’s new burden-sharing scheme.
Agenda
📍 COP30 climate conference in Belém, Brazil, with Ursula von der Leyen and António Costa in attendance
📍 Kaja Kallas visits Greece
📍 Roberta Metsola meets Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares Bueno
📍 EP Budgetary Control Committee holds hearings with Commissioners Kos, Šuica, Síkela, Virkkunen, and Kubilius
Contributors: Jacob Wulff Wold, Magnus Lund Nielsen, Elisa Braun, Nikolaus J. Kurmayer, Thomas Møller-Nielsen, Sofia Sanchez Manzanaro, Angelo Di Mambro, Charles Cohen, Kjeld Neubert, Inés Fernández-Pontes, Laurent Geslin, Aleksandra Krzysztoszek, Natália Silenská, Alessia Peretti, Aneta Zachová
Editors: Christina Zhao, Sofia Mandilara
