In Finland, the ruling centre-right National Coalition Party was forced to walk back its support after coalition partners said they had not been consulted. The backlash now threatens the government's stability.
In Belgium, right-wing parts of the government – the Flemish nationalist N-VA and French-speaking liberal MR – are resisting recognition, clashing with the left-leaning Les Engagés, Christian Democrats and Flemish socialists.
Portugal’s centre-right PM Luis Montenegro, under pressure from the populist far-right Chega party, has opted for caution, pledging to seek consensus before making any decisions.
France argues that recognising Palestine could jump start the moribund two-state solution, pointing to an unprecedented agreement among Arab and European nations last week that conditions Palestinian statehood on Hamas disbanding and relinquishing control of Gaza.
Hamas, however, insists it will only lay down arms once it has a state. Israel and the US warn that recognition now would only embolden Hamas to avoid pursuing peace in negotiations – which remain deadlocked.
Meanwhile, the war intensifies. Last night, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu pushed to expand the offensive in Gaza, citing newly released, gruesome videos of hostages Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David as proof Hamas' intransigence. He again vowed to secure the release of hostages – 20 of whom are believed to be alive – by military force.
Netanyahu is clinging to power with the support of far-right ministers who have threatened to bring down the government if he ends the war. But his hardline approach has drawn rare condemnation from Israel’s former military and security establishment, which recently issued a joint plea for a ceasefire – an appeal that was ignored.
At the EU level, foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas led the bloc’s response, denouncing the hostage videos from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian militant group. France’s Emmanuel Macron decried Hamas’ “unlimited inhumanity,” while Germany’s Friedrich Merz said the group was torturing hostages, terrorising Israel, and "using Gaza’s population as a human shield.”
Belgium’s Hadja Lahbib, Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid, later urged Israel to let aid flow and stop obstructing access for EU humanitarian officials.
Kallas was first to react from Brussels, and a comment by Estonian MP Marko Mihkelson, a senior member of the Reform Party once led by Kallas, captures her sentiment: “The barbarity of Hamas makes it impossible for Estonia and like-minded countries to recognize Palestine.”
Estonia and other Baltic nations, as well as Germany, Italy, Austria, and the Czech Republic do not recognise Palestine.
As the countdown to September’s UN meeting begins, Europe's internal debate is likely to intensify. Until then, Netanyahu holds fast, buoyed by Donald Trump, while hostages remain underground and the war drags on.
Ukraine uncovers corruption scheme in drone procurement
Kyiv’s anti-corruption agencies announced Saturday that they had uncovered a major graft scheme involving overpriced contracts for military drones and signals jamming equipment.
Four individuals have been detained so far, though none have been publicly identified yet. The arrests come just days after Ukraine’s Parliament restored the agencies’ independence following widespread protests sparked by a law that had attempted to curb their autonomy.
A sitting lawmaker, two local officials and an unspecified number of the country’s national guard personnel were implicated in the scandal, according to officials, receiving kickbacks of up to 30% on inflated contracts. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the discovery “absolutely immoral.” Read more.
EU probes Minsk-Benghazi flights amid migration fears
The European Commission is investigating a series of unusual flights from Minsk to Benghazi amid growing concern that Russia may be helping to drive a new wave of irregular migration to southern Europe, an EU official told Euractiv.
The flights, operated by Belarusian carrier Belavia, have raised suspicions in Brussels of possible coordination with authorities in eastern Libya – a region controlled by strongman Khalifa Haftar, who maintains close ties with the Kremlin.
“The frequency and nature of these flights raise questions about potential facilitation of irregular migration flows,” the EU official said. Between January and June 2025, more than 27,000 migrants arrived in Italy from Libya, while over 7,000 reached the Greek island of Crete – triple the number from the same period last year.
Europe has faced a similar situation before. In the summer of 2021, Belarus was at the centre of a migration crisis on its borders with Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.
Russia was believed to have been indirectly involved in that crisis, with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko playing a central role – facilitating the issuance of visas, organising flights, and transporting migrants from the Middle East and Africa to Minsk. Read more.
