Welcome to Rapporteur. This is Nicoletta Ionta in Brussels.
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Need-to-knows:
- MFF: Parliament’s unified front against €2 trillion plan splinters after Ursula von der Leyen tweaks proposal
- Omnibus: EPP-Patriots alliance looms as MEPs vote on scaling back corporate due diligence rules
- Brussels: Staff union condemns Commission review chief’s comments on ending ‘lifetime’ EU jobs
On the roundabout: A far-right bid to scrap Parliament’s cafeteria fast lane sparks an angry email chain, with MEPs trading barbs over “shortcuts” and clogged lunch lines.
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From the capital
For a fleeting moment, Parliament’s warring clans found common cause: to take down Ursula von der Leyen’s €2 trillion budget plan. But as soon as the Commission president tweaked her proposal to avert a rebellion, the pro-European coalition’s fragile unity shattered.
Von der Leyen’s “rural target” proposal and her offer to give Parliament a stronger say were supposed to defuse anger over her plan to merge farm and regional funds in the next seven-year spending framework. Instead, they reignited old feuds.
On Wednesday, Socialist leader Iratxe García dismissed the revisions as “window dressing,” warning that key social programmes such as ESF+ remain underfunded and that cohesion spending, along with Parliament’s budgetary prerogatives, are being sidelined. The Greens and Renew applauded the concessions but grumbled that they fell short of expectations.
The only ones smiling were in von der Leyen’s camp. “We see many of our priorities reflected,” said EPP boss Manfred Weber, who only a week earlier had threatened to block the plan.
Asked by my colleague Jacob Wulff Wold whether the Commission’s changes catered more to EPP talking points than to Parliament’s broader concerns, EPP negotiator Siegfried Mureșan dismissed the charge. “The analysis saying the Commission pleased the EPP more or the S&D more is wrong,” he said.
If Monday’s climbdown revealed a Parliament at odds over the EU’s purse strings, today’s vote on business sustainability rules will show just how deep those divisions go.
MEPs are set to decide on rolling back corporate due diligence obligations, with the EPP courting support from the far-right Patriots for Europe, my colleagues Magnus Lund Nielsen and Nikolaus J. Kurmayer write. Such a deal would mark an unprecedented level of cooperation between the mainstream centre-right and the nationalist hard right.
“I am preparing the vote under the presumption that we will not find a compromise with EPP between now and tomorrow,” Rene Repasi, the Socialists’ negotiator, said last night.
Secret vote clouds 2040 climate target
Parliament takes up another crucial green file today – a plan to cut EU emissions by 90% from 1990 levels by 2040 – under a cloud of secrecy.
A Polish-led faction of the EPP, joined by MEPs from Hungary, Italy, France and even Germany, wants to water the target down to 83% and delay the EU-wide CO₂ price on fuels until 2030. The move would openly defy party boss Manfred Weber, who endorsed the original deal on Tuesday.
At the request of the hard-right ECR and far-right PfE, the vote will be held in secret – the second such procedure this month. The rule is meant to allow MEPs to vote in line with their conscience, but the provision is now being used to sow division, progressive lawmakers said.
Russian assets row could cost the EU
EU capitals will shoulder a “substantial financial burden” if the Commission’s plan to use €140 billion worth of immobilised Russian assets to support Ukraine falls through, EU economy chief Valdis Dombrovskis warned late on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels, Dombrovskis said the EU executive was still pressing Belgium to drop its veto on the so-called reparation loan, while also examining fallback options. He cautioned that these alternatives would place a “heavy fiscal burden on member states.”
Options under discussion include issuing joint EU debt or providing bilateral national grants.
Commission’s review lead triggers staff backlash
Renouveau & Démocratie, the Commission’s progressive civil-service union, has sounded the alarm over remarks from Catherine Day, a former top EU civil servant now leading a high-level staff review under Commissioner Piotr Serafin.
Last month, Day floated ending “lifetime” EU civil service jobs, saying Brussels should hire more engineers and tech experts instead of lawyers and economists.
The union said her remarks “strike at the heart” of the service’s independence and contradict the Commission’s assurances that the Staff Regulations will remain untouched. It has demanded urgent talks with staff and a clear roadmap for the review, warning reforms must follow defined goals, “not ad hoc declarations.”
Mercosur deal faces court referral vote
The European Parliament could vote later this month on whether to refer the EU-Mercosur trade agreement to the bloc’s top court, if a cross-party initiative secures the support of at least 72 MEPs, parliamentary sources told my colleague Alice Bergoënd.
The motion for a resolution – expected to be tabled today – seeks a legal opinion from the EU Court of Justice on whether the draft deal complies with EU law, a move that would effectively freeze ratification until a ruling is issued.
The initiative has already attracted broad backing and is likely to surpass the threshold, said liberal lawmaker Pascal Canfin, one of the MEPs behind the effort. A vote is expected at Parliament’s late-November plenary.
Science Great Wall rising on China
The Commission might extend existing restrictions on Chinese participation in its €93.5 billion Horizon Europe research programme, according to a draft work plan.
As first reported by Science Business, Chinese companies and institutions could be excluded from projects in health, security, technology, and climate research. Chinese entities such as Huawei and ZTE are already barred from sensitive telecoms research.
“Exceptions may be granted on a case-by-case basis for justified reasons,” the draft reads, citing “substantive concerns” about the transfer of intellectual property to China. The Commission has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Belgium-USAID stockpile standoff nears end
A large share of US-funded contraceptives that Belgium had desperately sought to save from destruction now appears bound for the incinerator, Flemish Minister Jo Brouns confirmed this week.
Twenty of the 24 truckloads of birth control supplies – part of a €10 million stock owned by the US Agency for International Development – were moved to a warehouse that failed to meet medical storage standards, rendering them unusable.
Belgium has spent months in quiet talks with Washington to salvage the shipment, but the mishandling may have sealed its fate. While intrauterine devices and syringes stored in Kallo could still be rescued, most of the stockpile will go up in smoke, my colleague Thomas Mangin reports.
The capitals
PARIS 🇫🇷
France’s lower house voted on Wednesday to freeze Emmanuel Macron’s contentious pension reform until 2028, in a rare left-right alliance that exposed deep fractures within the governing camp. The suspension – folded into the Social Security Financing Bill to avert a no-confidence vote – reopens the debate that fuelled months of street unrest. For the Socialists, who pushed the measure through with backing from the Greens and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, it’s a chance to make pensions central to the 2027 race.
STOCKHOLM 🇸🇪
Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch has rebuked her centre-right coalition partner, the Moderate Party of Ulf Kristersson, after suggesting she could back Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson as prime minister in the event of a political deadlock. The remark infuriated the Moderates, prompting Busch to defend herself, saying she is willing to “make deals with anyone” to serve Sweden and accusing the Moderates of trying to “destroy” her party’s voter base and “spread chaos” through media attacks.
ROME 🇮🇹
Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara sparked uproar in parliament after shouting “Shame on you” at opposition MPs who accused his proposed sex education bill of undermining efforts to fight femicide. The League later softened its proposal, limiting the ban on sex education to nursery and primary schools but still requiring parental consent for lessons in middle and secondary schools. Valditara said he was sorry “if anyone felt offended,” as the row reignited Italy’s culture war over respect, consent, and gender equality.
MADRID 🇪🇸
In a seven-hour parliamentary debate, Pedro Sánchez vowed to stay in office until the 2027 elections, defying corruption allegations surrounding his entourage. The pro-independence Basque party Bildu warned that the legislature stood “at a critical juncture,” while Catalan separatist group Junts branded Sánchez “a cynic and a hypocrite.” The premier accused the centre-right Popular Party of “surrendering to the far right,” as VOX said his political fate now “lies with the courts.”
WARSAW 🇵🇱
Nationalist President Karol Nawrocki has escalated his standoff with PM Donald Tusk’s pro-EU government, vowing to refuse 46 judicial nominations on the grounds the candidates back “unconstitutional actions.” Government spokesperson Adam Szłapka called the move – backed by the opposition PiS party – “a power grab and an effort to weaken the justice system.” The dispute could revive years of tension between Brussels and Warsaw over rule-of-law issues under the former PiS government, which the EU had said eroded judicial independence.
PRAGUE 🇨🇿
Acting Interior Minister Vít Rakušan on Wednesday formally asked the European Commission to exempt Czechia from contributions to the EU’s migration solidarity mechanism. The request follows a Commission report listing Prague among capitals under “significant migratory” pressure from Ukrainian refugees. Rakušan said his letter seeks a full waiver of any payments. The incoming populist government, meanwhile, has pledged in its draft programme to reject the EU migration pact outright.
Schuman roundabout
Queue wars: A proposal by unaffiliated far-right MEP Alvise Pérez to scrap the “Fast Lane for Members” in Parliament cafeterias has set off an unusually sharp exchange of emails between lawmakers, seen by Euractiv.
EPP’s Tomáš Zdechovský dismissed the plan as “theatre over cafeteria queues,” prompting Pérez to accuse colleagues of defending “shortcuts for a political class.” ECR’s Assita Kanko then asked to be removed from the thread altogether, saying she had “more than enough emails to handle.” EPP’s Željana Zovko briefly floated extending the fast lane to lifts during the pre-vote rush hour.
New think tankers in town: Former French EU minister Clément Beaune was back in Brussels last night to expand his network – and France’s intellectual reach – with the launch of a local branch of the Commissariat au Plan, the strategic foresight body he now heads.
Pitching the outpost as a hub for the “import–export of ideas,” Beaune drew a crowd of familiar faces, including Renew Europe leader Valérie Hayer, S&D’s Aurore Lalucq, and members of Stéphane Séjourné’s team. First on the agenda: mapping eurosceptic right-wing think tanks, alongside new studies on migration, climate, and – naturellement – la souveraineté.
Also on Euractiv
EU countries deadlocked over changes to deforestation rules
EU countries failed to reach a common position on proposed changes to the bloc’s landmark…
2 minutes
EU countries deadlocked on Wednesday over reopening the bloc’s deforestation rules, as a Danish proposal to delay the EU Deforestation Regulation to December 2026 failed to win a majority amid splits on whether to add a “review clause.”
Sweden’s plan – also delaying implementation but going further on simplification – drew support from around 10 states but ran into opposition from France and Spain, with Germany unclear and the Commission rejecting any review clause. With a mid-December deadline looming, the Danish Council presidency is now racing to produce a new compromise.
Europe’s debt trap: Why the IMF’s warning cannot be ignored
There were good reasons why some EU members insisted that the International Monetary Fund should…
5 minutes
In a stark assessment, Euractiv columnist Simon Nixon warns that Europe faces an increasingly unsustainable debt path.
IMF modelling shows debt ratios could surge as pressures to spend on defence, health, pensions, and climate intensify – while new ECB bond-buying facilities may be muting the market signals that traditionally keep governments in line, Nixon writes in his latest op-ed.
Structural reforms could lift growth, but without confronting the scale and scope of Europe’s social model, governments risk putting off tough choices until bond markets force their hand.
Agenda
📍 Meeting of EU economic and finance ministers in Brussels
📍 Mini-plenary session in Brussels, featuring debates on the conclusions of the 23 October European Council and a vote on the “Omnibus 1” package on sustainability and corporate due diligence
📍 Roberta Metsola attends a ceremony honouring Bataclan victims in Paris
Contributors: Jacob Wulf Wold, Nikolaus J. Kurmayer, Thomas Møller-Nielsen, Magnus Lund Nielsen, Elisa Braun, Thomas Mangin, Maximilian Henning, Alice Bergoënd, Sofia Sanchez Manzanaro, Laurent Geslin, Alessia Peretti, Inés Fernández-Pontes, Aleksandra Krzysztoszek, Natalia Silenska, Aneta Zachová
Editors: Christina Zhao, Sofia Mandilara
