Ukrainian MP describes how Zelensky’s bid to rein in graft-busting agencies backfired under public pressure, exposing a fierce domestic power struggle that Brussels rarely sees behind Ukraine’s heroic war narrative.
Conflict over Ukrainian Insurgent Army actions during World War Two recently escalated into biggest tension between Ukraine and Poland in decades. Now leaders of both nations keep returning each other’s honours and medals.
Two years after opening its doors to Ukrainians, Poland is now quietly rewriting the rules, leaving many refugees scrambling to understand why the help they relied on is suddenly disappearing.
The casual cancellation last week of the long-planned nine-month rotation of a brigade combat team to Poland exemplified everything that European allies find baffling and repellent about the Trump administration. ‘Irrational incompetence’ seems best to sum up Trump’s Europe policy, writes Edward Lucas.
As Poland faces mounting pressure to recognise same-sex marriages registered in the EU, one young activist from Warsaw tells EUobserver how conservative forces are trying to resist reform and what it means for LGBTQ+ rights in the country.
Global military expenditure hit a record high last year, after rising for more than a decade. Poland leads the way in the eastern flank of Nato, despite a steep budget deficit.
Responsibility for Europe reads differently from Bratislava than from Brussels. The new German defence strategy is worth reading carefully, particularly from the capitals whose security still depends on German territory. Responsibility for Europe will be defined in the next decade by what Berlin does if Washington no longer underwrites European defence at previous levels. Germany has now stated, in writing, that this is the planning horizon.
Gulf countries have fired at least 2,400 interceptor missiles, close to their estimated pre-Iran war stockpiles of 2,800 units, but Poland and Ukraine declined to help due to Russian threat.
Whatever happens on 12 April, the EU will emerge after the Hungarian elections without a suitable plan for the country and its future relations with the Union. Its entire Hungary strategy amounts to a single wager: that Orbán loses, writes Alberto Alemanno.
A blocking minority of member states is pushing to weaken the bloc’s carbon pricing mechanism — which requires industries to pay for their pollution.
The Polish government is reaching for a workaround to access European loans for rearmament after president Karol Nawrocki vetoed a historic law enabling the EU’s SAFE programme. Meanwhile, an information campaign is spreading narratives of a ‘Narva separatist republic’ in Estonia, and a spy scandal is unraveling Slovenia’s election campaign.
Poland’s own accession path in 2004, and its unique relationship with Kyiv, provides lessons and strategy on Ukraine’s EU membership process. No other EU member has been so intertwined with Ukraine and understands the specific post-Soviet structural hurdles it now faces
Ukraine has backed US action against Iran, seeking favour with Donald Trump and strategic gains against Russia, despite risks of reduced US support and Patriot shortages. Meanwhile, Emmanuel Macron has expanded France’s nuclear umbrella to Europe, including Poland — while disputes intensify over Ukraine’s Druzhba pipeline shutdown.
Poland isn’t just preparing for war — it’s rewriting the rulebook on how to get ready. Meanwhile, the rest of the EU is slowly catching up on defence. What can we learn from Poland’s approach?
At the start of last year, all 27 EU member states were signed up to the Ottawa Convention, banning the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of anti-personnel mines. Now Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Finalnd have withdrawn — with silence from Brussels.
Poland considers developing its own nuclear capabilities amid rising Russian threats, while the EU approves €43.7bn from the SAFE programme for defence modernisation. Meanwhile, allies including Germany and France show growing interest in Polish weapons such as the Piorun system.