Magical news: A man dressed as a wizard joined an EU citizens’ panel on “intergenerational fairness” this week. The Merlin of the Berlaymont, also known as Patrick, waved his wand to charm politicians into taking care of the planet and older generations. 150 participants were randomly chosen to draft recommendations over three weekends.
Welcome to Thursday’s Rapporteur. This is Eddy Wax, with Nicoletta Ionta in Brussels.
Got a story we should know about? Drop us a line at eddy.wax@euractiv.com and nicoletta.ionta@euractiv.com
Need-to-knows:
🟢 Mercosur’s turbulent landing
🟢 Whip-round for Palestinian Authority
🟢 The Competitiveness Fund is getting … competitive
On the Schuman roundabout: Merz’s pick for the Court of Auditors gets grilled.
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From the capital
The fate of an EU-South America trade deal, 25 years in the making, is set to hinge on one frenzied week next month.
Farmers and populists in France, Poland, and Spain still cast the agreement as a threat to domestic agriculture. In the face of such massive opposition, it’s eye-of-the-needle stuff for getting it over the line.
Timing, however, may still work in its favour. The Europeans want to get it done this year while Brazil still holds the rotating Mercosur presidency, a trade bloc that also contains Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay. The careful sequencing of the EU’s pre-Christmas political calendar gives its supporters, particularly the Germans, reason to be hopeful.
The Parliament in Strasbourg is due to vote on 16 December on a safeguard mechanism clinched by France to protect farmers. National ministers will then – perhaps that same day – cast a decisive vote on the trade part of the deal, requiring a qualified majority.
If that proves too fraught, top EU leaders could take up the file at their 18-19 December meeting in Brussels, ahead of a 20 December slot the EU is quietly targeting for signing in Brazil.
Emerging from a Parliament meeting room last night, António Costa ignored me when I asked if he was confident of clinching the deal in December. Roberta Metsola, as she stepped into the lift, said everything was “fine and dandy.”
But there’s a joker. A group of MEPs recently tried to launch a legal coup by getting an EU court to assess its legality, only to have the move ruled inadmissible by Metsola after legal advisers dismissed it, according to my colleague Sofía Sánchez Manzanaro – a decision criticised by the MEPs involved and even questioned by one of Parliament’s own legal experts, three sources said.
The same Francophone lawmakers intend to renew their push after governments have voted, which, if accepted by Parliament and the Court would suspend the deal pending judicial review.
Much will depend on political momentum. If a majority of EU governments backs the pact, pressure on Parliament to fall in line will be immense. Metsola’s institution – increasingly dominated by the hard-right Patriots, who hate the Mercosur deal – may yet prove the decisive obstacle in the final ratification vote next year.
EU’s diminishing Palestine role
If you thought the EU’s role in Gaza couldn’t get any smaller, think again. Brussels today launches a pledging push to raise funds for the Palestinian Authority – but the focus of the long-awaited Palestine Donor Group has drifted far.
When Ursula von der Leyen trailed the initiative in New York in September, she talked about a “dedicated instrument” to fund Gaza’s reconstruction. Now, with the Trump peace plan endorsed by the UN Security Council and Egypt positioning itself to lead rebuilding efforts, the EU – desperate for a seat on the new Board of Peace – is retreating to familiar grounds: funding the Palestinian Authority and nudging it towards reform.
Expectations are as low as they can be. The only confirmed non-Western participants ahead of the meeting were Indonesia and a Saudi vice-minister. Much will depend on how junior the US representative turns out to be. One senior EU official urged reporters this week not to take the word “donor” too literally – it could also mean pledges of political support or previously announced money, they said. Hmm.
Israel, still withholding tax revenues from the PA, wasn’t invited to today’s meeting. But Kaja Kallas had some sharp words this week on who should pay for Gaza. “The fundamental principle of the law is that whoever causes the damage should also pay for it,” she told MEPs, in little remarked comments.
Exclusive: Sharp elbows over competitiveness fund
EU countries want more control over a major new chunk of the bloc’s next seven-year budget, the €234 billion Competitiveness Fund. According to a document seen by Nicoletta and Budget Brief’s Jacob Wulff Wold, capitals are resisting the Commission’s plan to steer the industrial cash pot as it sees fit. The fund aims to close Europe’s massive investment gap and lift sluggish productivity relative to the US and China.
In Parliament, the ECR has officially complained about how the EPP’s Christian Ehler became king of the fund. In a letter to Metsola, the group said the manoeuvring set a “damaging precedent.” But no further action is expected. The ECR got played by the EPP: it helped hand the file to Ehler’s industry committee, only to be frozen out of the leadership role.
Brussels unveils plan to mobilise savings
The Commission will unveil its “supplementary pension package” today – but, for those who can’t wait, Thomas Møller-Nielsen has read it already.
The plan marks Brussels’ latest effort to channel household savings into productive investment. A fully-fledged “savings and investment union,” the Commission claims, could generate up to €470 billion in additional annual investment across the EU.
Thursday’s proposal aims to “enhance” transparency around costs and returns, “reinforce” risk-management rules, and “remove” barriers that discourage efficient investment, according to the draft.
Cypriots optimistic on returns
Cyprus’ Deputy Migration Minister Nicholas Ioannides said “goodwill” is finally emerging among governments to settle the outstanding disputes on the new returns regulation – progress he hopes will allow trilogues to start under Nicosia’s presidency in early 2026. Capitals are expected to lock in a general approach at the Home Affairs Council next month.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, he also backed a clearer legal framework for “return hubs” in third countries, saying EU states should notify each other – and ideally negotiate collectively – when exploring such agreements.
But as capitals inch towards compromise on returns, the real storm looms over the Pact’s solidarity pool, the new system that will determine how much support each nation must provide to those facing migratory pressure. With asylum seekers making up 5% of Cyprus’ population, Ioannides warned that funding alone won’t cut it, signalling a push for hard relocation commitments in the weeks ahead.
Patently far-right
MEPs from the Parliament’s right-wing groups have agreed to put to a vote whether to sue the Commission in the European Court of Justice over its decision to scrap the patents bill, my colleague Anupriya Datta reports.
EU gives deforestation law another year
EU countries have backed a proposal to stop the clock on an incoming deforestation regulation. Capitals agreed to delay the landmark EUDR – which bans the sale of products such as cocoa, livestock, coffee, palm oil, wood, and rubber if they are linked to deforestation on the EU market – for yet another year, and to include a clause opening the door to a major rewrite next year.
Only Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain voted against the proposal on Wednesday, three diplomatic sources told Sofia.
Merz’ auditor gets an audit
The German member of the EU Court of Auditors – which scrutinises how effective the bloc’s budget is spent – will retire in February. MEP Daniel Caspary, who chairs the German EPP delegation, has been picked to replace him.
But Caspary faces headwinds ahead of his grilling in the budgetary control committee today. Greens MEP Daniel Freund pointed to resistance over “the procedure by which a party colleague of Chancellor Friedrich Merz got put forward for the job despite his obvious lack of qualifications.”
The contrast to France’s next auditor, Pierre Moscovici – a heavyweight who heads the country’s Court of Auditors – has not gone unnoticed. By comparison, the German candidate’s relevant experience is thin, beyond keeping the CDU’s budget in check.
An MEP since 2004, Caspary is only a back-up member of the budgetary control committee, and few have seen him at its meetings. “He is only a substitute after all,” one source close to the committee told Nikolaus J. Kurmayer.
The capitals
BUDAPEST 🇭🇺
Hungary’s parliament voted to ban the production and sale of lab-grown meat, defying EU novel-foods rules and prompting warnings from the Commission and several capitals. Budapest argues the move protects public health and “the traditional rural way of life,” though the law would allow meat-cell cultivation only for medical and veterinary use. With Brussels cautioning that such a ban risks breaching single-market rules and hindering innovation just as the first EU applications for cultivated products emerge, another regulatory fight with Viktor Orbán’s government appears likely.
PARIS 🇫🇷
Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin on Wednesday pressed the United Arab Emirates to extradite roughly 15 suspected drug traffickers sought by Paris amid a sharp rise in narcotics-linked violence. Marseille has borne the brunt of the surge, with Socialist mayor Benoît Payan saying he now receives near-daily death threats. Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, blamed “bourgeois city-centre dwellers who finance trafficking,” shortly before police dismantled a cocaine-processing lab in Mougins, near Cannes.
COPENHAGEN 🇩🇰
Denmark’s ruling Social Democrats suffered a major setback on Wednesday, losing their century-long hold on Copenhagen and seeing their municipal control drop from 44 to an expected 26. The party won just 12.7% in the capital, well behind the Red-Green Alliance and the Socialist People’s Party, ending a dominance that included holding the mayoralty since 1938. Sisse Marie Welling of the Socialist People’s Party is set to take over. Mette Frederiksen accepted “responsibility” for the sharper-than-expected decline.
VILNIUS 🇱🇹
Lithuania will open two Belarus border crossings on Thursday, a month after closing them over a surge of cigarette-laden balloons that disrupted flights from Vilnius and Kaunas and were condemned as a “hybrid attack.” The shutdown strained ties with Minsk, which seized about 2,000 Lithuanian trucks. Vilnius says balloon smuggling has since eased, and the move follows similar steps by Poland and talks with Belarusian officials on contraband and stranded freight.
ROME 🇮🇹
Giorgia Meloni sought to defuse a rare institutional spat on Wednesday, heading to the Quirinale for a swift clarification meeting after an unusually sharp statement from President Sergio Mattarella’s office. The row erupted when FdI group leader Galeazzo Bignami urged the presidency to deny a La Verità report alleging off-record criticism of the government by a presidential adviser, prompting a forceful rebuttal from the palace. Meloni’s office later voiced “regret” and insisted “no institutional clash exists.”
LISBON 🇵🇹
Air France–KLM has lodged an expression of interest with Parpública for the planned privatisation of TAP ahead of the 22 November deadline, underscoring what it called its “strong and continued interest” in the Portuguese carrier. Lisbon plans to sell up to 44.9% of the airline, with 5% reserved for TAP employees under the privatisation law. If that tranche is not fully subscribed, the buyer will have pre-emptive rights.
WARSAW 🇵🇱
Poland will launch “Operation Horizon,” a nationwide effort to counter sabotage and bolster civilian security, Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said on Wednesday. The move follows recent attacks on critical infrastructure, including an explosion last weekend near Garwolin on the strategic Warsaw–Lublin rail line. Around 10,000 soldiers will be deployed as part of the operation, which is set to begin on Friday.
PRAGUE 🇨🇿
Czechia’s industry ministry has hailed the European Commission’s new digital omnibus as a significant win for its long-running push to streamline EU tech rules. Prague says several of its priorities are reflected in the package, including harmonising overlapping legislation, cutting red tape for SMEs, revising the list of high-risk AI systems, and tying key AI Act obligations to the availability of standards and guidance. Industry Minister Lukáš Vlček said the proposal should make the bloc’s digital rulebook more workable for businesses.
BRATISLAVA 🇸🇰
Robert Fico has asked three ministers to assess whether Bratislava could sue the EU over plans to halt Russian gas supplies, arguing Brussels may be breaching guarantees it previously offered. Still heavily dependent on Russian gas, Slovakia has done little to reduce that reliance, and Fico – who has met Vladimir Putin three times in under a year – earlier stalled the EU’s 18th sanctions package until von der Leyen provided assurances on diversification, state-aid approvals, and a transition task force.
SKOPJE 🇲🇰
Thirty-five people went on trial in Skopje on Wednesday over the Pulse nightclub fire in Kočani, which killed 63 people last March. Investigators say the venue was severely overcrowded and riddled with safety violations, allegedly facilitated by corruption. The defendants – including the club’s owner, local mayors, and senior officials – are all charged with “serious crimes against public safety.” For almost eight months, families of the victims have held weekly protests demanding justice.
Schuman roundabout
Pieper eyes new gig: Markus Pieper, the former EPP MEP who famously got blocked from the role of EU SME envoy after a Parliament outcry about cronyism, has landed himself a new position. Parliament is putting him forward to sit as an alternate administrative board member for ACER, a niche EU agency that works on energy regulators’ cooperation in Slovenia. His term will be four years, though it’s unclear if it’s a paid position. The timing is curious: the agency’s director has just stepped down and the hunt is underway for a successor, a job worth more than €15,000 a month.
EPP blocks Meloni scrutiny: In a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, the European People’s Party intervened to stop MEPs from the civil liberties committees from organising a fact-finding trip to Italy next year to examine rule-of-law concerns under Meloni’s right-wing government, three people in the room told Rapporteur. With right-wing support, the EPP also called off a planned 2026 employment committee visit to Italy to examine workers’ rights.
Krah vs McGrath: Maximilian Krah – the former AfD lawmaker whose aide was recently convicted of spying for China – re-emerged in Brussels on Wednesday to ask Democracy Commissioner Michael McGrath a question about free speech during Parliament’s democracy forum, according to Anupriya Datta.
“What you are doing is too far,” Krah accused McGrath over the European Democracy Shield initiative. He also praised US Vice President JD Vance for pressuring the Commission on free-speech issues.
McGrath countered that “nowhere in the world is freedom of expression safer than it is in the European Union,” and defended the bloc’s Digital Services Act – which has been criticised by the Trump administration – saying the EU should not “fall for every line that is peddled by our critics.”
OGP picks O’Reilly: The Open Government Partnership has named former EU Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly as its newest ambassador, tapping her long record on transparency and public accountability as the group steps up its profile amid concerns over democratic backsliding.
Also on Euractiv
MEPs to grill European Commission over tweaks to EU-Morocco pact
The European Parliament’s agriculture committee is poised to confront European Commission officials on Thursday over…
4 minutes
The Commission’s attempt to shore up its Morocco trade deal by extending tariff perks to Western Sahara – through a new “region of origin” label – has triggered alarm in Parliament.
Brussels argues the change is needed to comply with a 2024 EU court ruling. But NGOs and farming groups say the Commission is sidestepping the court’s requirements and risking consumer confusion. A recent UN nod to Morocco’s autonomy plan may have emboldened the EU politically, but it doesn’t change the territory’s legal limbo, or the risk of blowback over Europe’s push to keep Rabat close.
Agenda
📌 Metsola meets the Palestinian prime minister
📌 Costa and von der Leyen attend the G20 meeting in Johannesburg
📌 Foreign Affairs ministers meet in Brussels
📌 Commissioner Dombrovskis takes part in the European Economic Area (EEA) Council
📌 Hearing with Commissioner Jørgensen in the ITRE committee
📌 Hearing with Commissioner Hansen in the CONT committee
Contributors: Anupriya Datta, Nikolaus J. Kurymayer, Sofia Sanchez Manzanaro, Alice Bergoënd, Thomas Möller-Nielsen, Jacob Wulff Wold, Laurent Geslin, Alessia Peretti, Aleksandra Krzysztoszek, Aneta Zachová
Editors: Christina Zhao, Sofia Mandilara
