You're reading Wednesday’s Rapporteur, your daily briefing on EU politics. This is Nicoletta Ionta in Brussels, with Eddy Wax, freshly recovered from a bout of flu.

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Need-to-knows:

🟢 Brussels’ migration ‘innovative solutions’ seek budget backing

🟢 Commissioners flee to medieval nunnery for competitiveness talks

🟢 20th package of Russian sanctions expected to be unveiled

The term “innovative solutions” has become the Commission’s guiding idea for its tougher migration turn, and one of the most elastic concepts in Brussels.

The phrase now sits beneath virtually every proposal from the home affairs directorate, stretching from offshore asylum processing and longer “safe country” lists to plans for EU return hubs, facilities where rejected asylum seekers would be sent well beyond the bloc’s borders.

But rhetoric alone will not make such schemes viable. If the new approach is to move from talk to practice, several capitals argue it must be anchored in the EU’s next long-term budget.

Diplomats negotiating the bloc’s sprawling Global Europe regulation – its main external funding instrument, worth €200 billion – are pushing to insert an explicit reference to “innovative solutions” into the text, three officials told Rapporteur.

The fund already allows development aid to be used as leverage on migration, enabling the European Commission to withhold non-humanitarian aid from countries that fail to curb departures or readmit rejected nationals. Adding the term "innovative solutions” to the text could open new avenues to similarly creative migration measures, diplomats said.

Last month, 19 EU countries urged the Commission to establish a dedicated funding framework for “innovative solutions,” explicitly including the possibility of handling asylum claims or returns outside the bloc through partnerships with non-EU countries.

Not all governments are convinced of such inclusion in the text. France, confident in its domestic returns system, declined to sign the letter and opposes the move. Spain has also voiced objections in recent talks.

Supporters – including Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Italy, Sweden, Cyprus and Bulgaria – argue that without budgetary hooks, the concept risks remaining largely theoretical.

The Commission itself appears ambivalent. One Commission official told capitals that there’s no “legal reality” for “innovative solutions” – an awkward position given how often the term features in the Commission’s own strategy decks.

Diplomats describe a cultural split inside the Commission. DG INTPA, the international partnerships arm that guards the Global Europe funds, is sceptical of migration shortcuts, while DG HOME is more willing to experiment operationally. Which vision makes it into the budget remains to be seen.

20th sanctions package due

The Commission is expected to present its latest sanctions package against Russia to EU ambassadors today, four EU diplomats told Rapporteur.

The measures – the bloc's 20th since Moscow’s full-scale invasion – were initially expected to be unveiled yesterday, the officials said.

Proposals could include a comprehensive ban on maritime services for Russia’s so-called shadow fleet of oil tankers, as well as tighter restrictions on luxury goods exports and Russian fertiliser imports, championed by Finland and Sweden.

The bloc aims to formally greenlight the measures by 24 February, the fourth anniversary of the war in Ukraine. António Costa and von der Leyen are scheduled to be in Kyiv that day, EU spokespeople confirmed on Tuesday.

Competitiveness retreat

Von der Leyen is convening commissioners today at the Great Beguinage in Leuven, a medieval Flemish nunnery, for a competitiveness retreat ahead of next Thursday's European Council, four officials told Rapporteur.

The seminar will feature a lecture from IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, a former Commission vice-president. Commissioners have been asked to present proposals to improve economic performance within their portfolios, one official said.

Not everyone will attend. Internal market chief Stéphane Séjourné is in Washington discussing a proposed global alliance on critical minerals and will submit his ideas remotely.

The meeting will also review how the second von der Leyen Commission is functioning. While less rowdy than the Thierry Breton-Josep Borrell era, some officials complain that the interservice consultation process, meant to coordinate legislation across departments, has become increasingly perfunctory.

More substantive reform talks are taking place elsewhere. Björn Seibert, von der Leyen's head of cabinet, has been hosting a series of dinners with senior officials to discuss internal restructuring, two sources told us.

US-India deal ripples beyond Washington

Indian and US officials have offered different accounts of a trade deal announced on Monday by President Donald Trump, my colleague Thomas Møller-Nielsen reports.

New Delhi has declined to confirm claims that it will dismantle all trade barriers for US goods, commit to more than $500 billion in purchases of American energy, agricultural, and technological products, or “stop” all imports of Russian oil. Trade Minister Piyush Goyal also contradicted Trump’s assertion that India would open up its protected agricultural sector.

Sony Kapoor, a former European University Institute professor of climate, finance and geoeconomics, said the most likely outcome was that bilateral trade would revert to roughly the levels before Trump's trade war, launched last April.

Parliament restarts EU-US trade talks

EU trade lawmakers will resume work today on the stalled EU-US trade deal, reopening internal discussions after talks were paused amid tariff threats from Donald Trump and only revived following a provisional “framework” understanding over Greenland.

Socialists and liberals are pushing for amendments that would automatically suspend the deal if Washington renewed pressure on Greenland or challenged Denmark’s territorial sovereignty, two MEPs told my colleague Sofia Sánchez Manzanaro and me.

The centre-right European People’s Party, however, is urging speed. “Our businesses cannot wait,” said Željana Zovko, the group’s lead on transatlantic trade. Parliament President Roberta Metsola confirmed last week that talks were restarting.

Parliament offered Mercosur crumbs

MEPs may be granted an informal vote on the provisional application of the EU-Mercosur trade deal that most of them dislike, according to EU farm chief Christophe Hansen.

The gesture would give the Conference of Presidents, which brings together the leaders of the Parliament’s political groups, a voice but not a veto, my colleagues Maria Simon Arboleas and Sofia Sánchez reported. The agreement could still be applied provisionally, even after Parliament sent it to the EU’s top court last month.

Patriots lose heavyweights

The European Parliament’s third-largest group, Patriots for Europe, is set to lose its Vice-President Roberto Vannacci after the Italian lawmaker left his national party, Lega, to form his own movement, National Future. Lega has slipped below 8% in polls.

Patriots chief Anders Vistisen is expected to stand for Denmark’s national parliament later this year – a seat he is likely to win. He would be replaced in Brussels by Majbritt Birkholm, a city councillor in Holstebro.

The far-right group recently gained a member when former EPP lawmaker Laurent Castillo defected.

BERLIN 🇩🇪

The new youth organisation set up by the far-right Alternative für Deutschland shows “clear continuity” with its dissolved predecessor, which had been designated right-wing extremist, Germany’s Interior Ministry said on Tuesday. The party replaced the Junge Alternative with a new group, Generation Germany, in November. Authorities said the successor body featured rhetoric hostile to Germany’s constitutional order and maintained links to other extremist networks. The country’s intelligence agency had already classified the former youth wing as extremist. The AfD, which is polling above 20% nationally, remains particularly strong in eastern states ahead of upcoming regional elections.

– Charles Szumski

ROME 🇮🇹

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said violent clashes in Turin over the weekend reflected a deliberate effort to “raise the level of confrontation with institutions,” accusing centre-left parties of encouraging protesters by offering “a prospect of impunity." Speaking to the lower house on Tuesday, Piantedosi said the unrest echoed, “albeit with differences,” the squadrist and terrorist violence of Italy’s past and argued a firmer state response was needed. The remarks came ahead of a cabinet meeting on Thursday to examine a new security package. The Democratic Party rejected backing any joint parliamentary action.

– Alessia Peretti

MADRID 🇪🇸

Spain will ban social media use for under-16s under legislation to be introduced as early as next week, Pedro Sánchez said at the World Government Summit in Dubai, as Madrid steps up efforts to curb online risks to children. Platforms will be required to introduce “real” age-verification barriers, while the government also plans to hold executives legally responsible for unlawful or harmful content left online. Spain joins France and Denmark in tightening controls, enabled by the EU’s Digital Services Act.

– Anupriya Datta and Inés Fernández-Pontes

ATHENS 🇬🇷

A 54-year-old Greek national has been arrested under a European warrant on suspicion of sabotaging German navy vessels in Hamburg. Local media reported that the arrest followed a joint operation by Greek and German police, during which officers seized evidence from the man’s home. He is accused, along with a Romanian suspect, of damaging military ships while working at the port in 2025, including by placing abrasive material in engines and tampering with fuel and water systems.

– Sarantis Michalopoulos

BRATISLAVA 🇸🇰

Robert Fico on Tuesday denied ever meeting Jeffrey Epstein or Steve Bannon, rejecting questions over possible contacts after newly released US court documents referenced Slovakia. Speaking at a press conference, Fico said he was unconcerned by any alleged messages, adding that he “hasn’t had a mobile phone for several years.” The questions followed US Justice Department files indicating exchanges between Epstein and Miroslav Lajčák, a former adviser and foreign minister, who reportedly suggested arranging a meeting. The opposition party Progressive Slovakia has filed a criminal complaint.

– Natalia Silenska

STOCKHOLM 🇸🇪

Two Swedish nationals have been sentenced to prison in Denmark for throwing hand grenades towards the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen, in what prosecutors described as a terrorist attack. The pair, aged 18 and 21, received sentences of 12 and 14 years respectively on terrorism and attempted murder charges after the explosives hit a nearby residential building in October 2024. Prosecutors said the case marked the first completed terror plot in Denmark carried out by Swedish nationals acting on behalf of what they described as a Middle Eastern terrorist organisation. Both will be deported to Sweden after serving their sentences.

– Charles Szumski

OSLO 🇳🇴

A high-profile trial opened at Oslo District Court on Tuesday for Marius Borg Høiby, the 29-year-old son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit and stepson of Crown Prince Haakon. Høiby faces 38 charges, including rape, threats, non-consensual filming, drug trafficking and traffic offences. He denies the most serious allegations but has admitted to multiple lesser offences. The seven-week trial adds to pressure on the royal family, already under scrutiny following disclosures that Mette-Marit had past contact with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

– Charles Szumski

KYIV 🇺🇦

Delegations from Ukraine, Russia and the US are due to meet on Wednesday for follow-up talks on a potential peace deal, with territorial disputes expected to dominate the negotiations. Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed the timing earlier this week. Zelenskyy said Kyiv remained focused on securing a “real and dignified” end to the war.

– Emiliia Ternovskaia

Maran to lead Parliament’s ENVI committee: The S&D group has agreed to nominate Italy’s Democratic Party lawmaker Pierfrancesco Maran as the next chair of the European Parliament’s environment committee, three parliamentary officials told Euractiv.

Epstein and Bannon joke about Juncker: Text messages released as part of the Epstein files show the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein exchanging jokes with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon about rumours surrounding then-Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s drinking habits. Epstein shared a Daily Mail article describing Juncker as “a drunk,” alongside a YouTube clip of Fredo in the Godfather II yelling, “I’m smart!”

“It's true brother and u know it – very stable genius,” Bannon replied.

Pulpo diplomacy: Galician MEP Adrián Vázquez Lázara has lodged a tongue-in-cheek protest after the European Parliament’s canteen served a dish labelled “pulpo a la gallega” that, he argued, crossed a culinary red line.

Trade tensions with Washington return to Brussels this week as MEPs debate whether to freeze or revive the stalled EU-US trade deal, agreed last summer to head off a tariff war. The stakes are high: goods and services flows reached €1.68 trillion in 2024, even as the EU’s surplus in goods is offset by a sizeable US lead in services.

Brussels’ plan to raise €406 billion in new EU-wide levies for the bloc’s €2 trillion long-term budget is shaping up less as policy reform than as political horse-trading between capitals. Auditors say a large portion of the proposed revenues would still come from national budgets, with the flagship corporate and tobacco taxes facing resistance and weak policy rationale.

Contributors: Thomas Moller-Nielsen, Sofia Sanchez Manzanaro, Magnus Lund Nielsen, Jacob Wulff Wold, Nikolaus J. Kurmayer

Editors: Christina Zhao, Sofia Mandilara, Charles Szumski