Why Armenia?
Over 40 European leaders, and Mark Carney, have flown into Yerevan, Armenia for a meeting today and Tuesday. First there’s a meeting of the European Political Community, or EPC, a rather blank space for leaders to meet every so often, and then a formal EU-Armenia summit.
As Cristina Vanberghen writes in an op-ed today, the EPC is a political prototype that was launched before Europe has decided what it actually wants it to become. The focus in Armenia must shift from broad declarations to concrete cooperation in the South Caucasus, she argues.
The EU summit marks the apex of Armenia’s deepening ties with the EU, a process that has been accelerating, reports Neil Hauer. Historically a close ally of Russia in its first few decades since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Nikol Pashinyan, the prime minister, has steered the country closer to Europe following his election in 2018. He is chasing candidate status – which will allow Armenia to join the long waiting list to join the EU.
Nacho Sánchez Amor, a Spanish socialist MEP whose main focus is on Turkey, questioned the timing of the EU summit, so close to the next election, saying it could give ammunition to those who like to accuse Brussels of election interference. “The timing of the summit could be used by others to introduce some doubts about the … attitude of the European Union,” he said.
Who ombuds the Ombudsman?
Stamping out conflicts of interest is slap bang in the remit of EU Ombudsman Teresa Anjinho. But her appointment of her former head of cabinet, Lampros Papadias, as the institution’s new secretary general risked creating “perceptions of a conflict of interest,” MEPs have said.
Euractiv first reported that appointing her longtime senior aide could raise questions over perception of favouritism. While deputies acknowledged the recruitment procedure complied with formal rules and included external oversight, they questioned the Ombudsman’s dual role in both chairing parts of the selection board and making the final appointment herself.
MEPs also pushed back against the Ombudsman’s refusal to share key recruitment documents, arguing Parliament is entitled to them.
Questions over EU body’s €149 Zoom fee
MEPs want answers over a €149 daily allowance paid to members of the European Economic and Social Committee for attending meetings online.
The committee’s 329 members, drawn from unions, employers and civil society, do not receive salaries but can claim the fee even when joining remotely via video link.
Last week, MEPs backed a report urging tighter transparency and proportionality rules to “reinforce public trust,” arguing that remote attendance payments must be strictly justified. The EESC spent €259,669 on remote participation in 2024, alongside more than €6 million for in-person attendance.
Reality dawns on divided Eurogroup
Eurozone finance ministers gather in Brussels today to discuss the economic impact of the Iran war, amid a growing realisation its impact is likely to be long-lasting, Thomas Møller-Nielsen writes.
“There's still a great deal of uncertainty, but we know that this won't be over soon,” said a senior European official, adding that the EU is now facing a “tangible risk” of supply shortages.
“This realisation wasn’t there in the early days of the conflict,” the official said. “But now it is. And it creates a new basis for these discussions.” The official downplayed the likelihood of any concrete outcomes.
The remarks come amid deep disagreements among EU capitals about how to respond. Italy and Spain have urged Brussels, without success, to suspend its fiscal rules to allow capitals to better support EU firms and households. Both also called for a bloc-wide tax on energy companies’ ‘windfall profits’ – a proposal backed by Germany, Austria, Portugal, and Belgium.
Exclusive: More CO2 permits for everyone
The European Commission is set to hand out more free CO2 permits than originally planned in the coming years following pressure from Berlin and Rome, my colleague Nikolaus J. Kurmayer reported. EU heavy industry, covered by the bloc’s Emissions Trading Scheme, has long benefited from free allowances tied to efficiency improvements.
The latest overhaul of the ETS benchmark system would have reduced free allocations for sectors such as chemicals and paper from 2026 to 2030, partly due to stringent Nordic biomass-based standards. To address the concerns raised by the industry, the EU executive is now shifting its methodology to also factor in indirect emissions.
The change is expected to increase free allocations by around €4 billion, according to a document seen by Nikolaus.
