The US “Ambassador” now demands that the Belgian government condemns one of its political leaders. This kind of political interference is unacceptable. Bill White’s accreditation should be revoked. The 🇪🇺 should issue a statement supporting 🇧🇪.

Stuur deze man weg. Hij is geen diplomaat maar een provocateur die Trump’s agenda van politieke inmenging in Europa uitvoert. Ook @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu @kajakallas.bsky.social @eucopresident.consilium.europa.eu zouden België moeten steunen

One of the rare cases in Europe on the abuse of spyware that made it to court. On February 26th a Greek court will rule on #PredatorGate

Nee, niet omwille van haar man, maar omwille van een gezonde verhouding tussen de regering en het parlement dat haar hoort te controlleren. Democratie=macht+tegenmacht. Het is verontrustend hoe dat elementaire democratische instinct afwezig lijkt in de grootste partij.

Again a journalist has been targeted with #Predator spyware by a government. While Predator is used to crush democracy, manufacturer #Intellexa enjoys tax breaks and government favours in Europe. Still no reason to act @michaelmcgratheu.bsky.social @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu @eppgroup.bsky.social?

This reports shows how the MAGA playbook is being rolled out in Europe, with @eppgroup.bsky.social as the enabler in Chief. Time for Europeans to stand up for democracy! We cannot allow our civic space to be taken over by far-right extremists and broligarchs. www.enop.eu/publications...

This guy is not an ambassador but Trump's agent, seeking to interfere in European politics. Belgium should recall his letter of credence and make it very clear this is intolerable.

Just a little reminder for those who think Meloni is a moderate centrist

Dat worden boeiende gesprekken aan de ontbijttafel.

Cost of Brexit: 6-8% less growth. Cost of national barriers in the EU internal market: 5-8% less growth. Do we see a pattern here? Political leaders sacrificing prosperity to their own vanity and electoral gain.

The Lisbon Treaty is dead. It created an - imperfect - institutional balance, checks and balances, accountability, separation of powers. But the constitutional framework has effectively ceased to function. Unclear how the vacuum will be filled. The EU’s democracy is on a precipice

Language matters. The use of the term “EU leaders” for national leaders is deeply misleading. It might be labelled “disinformation” as it allows national government leaders to duck responsibility and shift blame. Transparency and accountability would be better served by using the correct term.

Internal market, energy and economic policies are subject to the ordinary legislative procedure. #EUCO is explicitly barred from legislative activity. With the flimsy pretext of an industry "emergency" EUCO is vastly overstepping its powers in Alden Biesen. EU Treaties reduced to a pick&choose menu

If confirmed by @eucourtofjustice.bsky.social this would be a massive slap in the face for @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu. It would confirm how enforcement of EU laws has become a currency in political horse-trading. Not invented by VDL, but certainly taken to whole new levels 1/

💥 Oorvijg voor @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu: Advocaat Generaal van Het Europese Hof van Justitie stelt dat de Commissie onterecht de bevroren subsidies voor Hongarije heeft vrijgegeven. M.a.w: de Commissie reduceert het rechtsstaatsmechanisme tot politiek ruilmiddel. 1/

“Het is een zaak van grote urgentie dat Europa onafhankelijk wordt” stelt het coalitieakkoord, maar die urgentie leidt tot geen enkel concreet voorstel voor hervorming en vernieuwing van de EU. Maar de status quo is niet meer houdbaar, betoog ik in @volkskrant.nl www.volkskrant.nl/columns-opin...

The problem is: national leaders are calling for “European autonomy” without giving it autonomy. They try to sell the fiction of Europe becoming autonomous without powers and means shifting from the national to the European level.

Multi-speed Europe is a false good idea sophieintveld.substack.com/p/when-pragm...

When EU leaders meet tomorrow to discuss the EU’s competitiveness agenda, they should stop chasing ghosts and confront the real problem Europe‘s economy is facing. Our latest for @politico.eu with @nilsredeker.bsky.social and @sandertordoir.bsky.social 👇

De Top in Antwerpen mag niet de hoogmis van de onmacht worden. De weg om de industrie weer een groene toekomst te bieden, is verre van pijnloos. Maar hem niet bewandelen dreigt ons zowel ecologisch, geopolitiek als economisch kwetsbaar tot irrelevant te maken. Rake analyse van Bart Haeck in @tijd.be

🤦‍♀️ Exhibit 1.999.999.000 as to why intergovernmental Europa doesn't work. Will Alden Biesen become a starting point for a truly federal and powerful Europe, or will national leaders carry out Trump's playbook?

"De geopolitieke en economische realiteit maakt onontkoombaar dat EU-lidstaten soevereiniteit moeten opgeven". Klaas Knot pleit dringend voor verdere Europese integratie en een hogere EU begroting. Intussen wordt de EU door nationale leiders stilletjes ontmanteld. Hoe lang blijven we toekijken?

The problem is not speed but direction. Two-speed implies that everyone is moving in the same direction, but at a different pace. That is not the case. “Two-speed Europe” sounds nice but it creates more problems than it solves. What we need is a clear, explicit political choice for a strong Europe.

It is more than unhelpful: in these times we urgently need a strong Europe. We can not afford anymore to shrug indifferently at national leaders indulging in Brussels bashing. It is time to actively and loudly take a stance for Europe and call out the lies about the EU.

What's really happening this week when EU leaders meet in a Belgian castle? This Thursday’s EU Council extraordinary summit is officially about 'boosting competitiveness.' But it’s a Member States’s power grab from EU Source: the German-Italian Input for the Leaders’ Retreat on February 12 2026

Yeah, no kidding. This should have been obvious to anyone who understands this field since the beginning. The prospect of data transfers to the US has always been a trojan horse and should never have been subjected to an equivalency decision. Schrems and @noyb.eu proved this already.

Europe needs doctors, not quacks. Will national leaders at Alden Biesen come up with the right medicine to revive the single market or will they stick to their magical belief in “deregulation”? My blog open.substack.com/pub/sophiein...

Pot, kettle. National governments have blocked all progress of the EU internal market for 20 years. Deregulation is not the answer, breaking down national barriers is.

Very good! Now we need EU citizens to follow. #PalantirOut.

Bannon werkte nauw samen met @christenunie.bsky.social en #SGP, oa bij het Dignitatis Humanae Institute in Rome, en de European Christian Political Movement (nu ECPP), gevestigd in Amersfoort. Enige opheldering over die nauwe samenwerking is aangewezen.

So is this kind of foreign interference acceptable? www.ft.com/content/f869... @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu @michaelmcgratheu.bsky.social #DemocracyShield. Of course American money supporting the European far-right is not new: www.epfweb.org/node/837.

Instead of eagerly scrolling for the latest juicy bits on the Epstein scandal, we should ask for full transparency on Thiel's contracts with governments in Europe, notably Palantir.

Kinda ironic that Bannon, while hanging out with convicted sex offender Epstein, was embraced as a “Patron” by a (very dodgy) European fundamentalist Christian outfit. It was clearly meant to serve as a springboard for Bannon’s far-right take-over of Europe.

That might refer to Bannon's 2018 efforts to set up a "Gladiator school" for far right politicians in the Trisulti Charterhouse, an old benedictine monastery not far from Rome. But the local Italians would not have it and Bannon & Co were chucked out of the building by the Italian government.

Same for the European Union: get Palantir out. And Peter Thiel’s ties with European politicians, ao Sebastian Kurz should be scrutinised.

De Belgische democratie is aan vernieuwing toe. Wees erbij en bespreek samen hoe het beter kan!

If Mandelson is being investigated for his Epstein connections, he must also be investigated for his Thiel connections, because they ran a joint fund when Mandelson fixed Starmer's visit to Palantir bylinetimes.com/2025/04/25/p...

Orbàn-style witch hunt of NGOs. But @eppgroup.bsky.social @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu will not touch the Greek government.

Indeed! Not only is it insane to expand access to European personal data for US authorities, but the existing schemes for access to data should be suspended. Those schemes were never compliant with EU law in the first place. It is dangerously naive to think our data are safe

While national leaders are squabbling over just about everything, Draghi has a clear vision for the future of Europe: "Power requires Europe to move from confederation to federation". Read his full Leuven speech: federalists.eu/federalist-l...

De democratie is van ons allemaal! Daarom gaan @dejongliberalen.bsky.social @jonggroen.bsky.social @jsgent.bsky.social #JONGCD&V @voltbelgium.org in debat over de broodnodige democratische vernieuwing, na key-note speech van #Jan-Baptist-Lemaire. Kom ook en discussieer mee op 18 februari in Gent!

Hear! Hear!! “Europe does not need a Superpresident, it needs a fully fledged parliamentary democracy, with a Prime Minister at the head of a government accountable to parliament, mirroring the system in most member states.” open.substack.com/pub/sophiein...

Europe does not need a double-hatted Superpresident, as proposed by Manfred Weber. A presidential system is alien to Europe. Instead we need a fully fledged parliamentary democracy, with full accountability and checks and balances. My blog: open.substack.com/pub/sophiein...

Spot on! Ad hoc initiatives and coalitions of the willing sound nice but in reality they are gutting the EU as a constitutional framework. @lucasguttenberg.bsky.social

Very good article by @insidestory.gr about #Palantir and why it is such a massive threat to Europe. No European government should be working with Palantir.

Wat een beschamend record. Al 600 dagen partijpolitiek gekift, terwijl de noden van #Brussel zo hoog zijn.

Random jargon post: can we please stop mixing up "European cooperation" and "European integration"? They are two entirely different things!

Transfert de données personnelles vers les États-Unis : « On n’accepterait pas cela avec la Chine » - Lire l'itw de @sophieintveld.bsky.social dans @ouest-france.fr

“Coalition of the willing” is a euphemism for “sidelining the EU”. Much of the recent activity is non-EU. The EU as a constitutional framework is on life-support. Throttled by national politicians who think it is better to be a big fish in a small pond, rather than a small fish in a big pond.

New revelations on the Greek #Predator spyware scandal. Solid investigative journalism bringing to light what the government party is frantically trying to cover up (while @ec.europa.eu @hennavirkkunen.bsky.social 🙈🙉). 👏 @etriantafillou.bsky.social @insidestory.gr