Looking forward to our session today! 🗣️🎤👇🏻

Such a privilege to be in Brussels last week with the bright young minds studying European Social & Political Studies at UCL. They loved the interactive talks with leading think-tankers @heathergrabbe.bsky.social, senior fellow @bruegel.org & @sophia-russack.bsky.social, researcher @ceps.eu.

To round up this week, here is my flash analysis of this month's EP plenary. This includes: - Power: Who won the votes? - Coalitions - Far-Right Watch: Votes on which the far-right was decisive - Group Coherence - The national view: How often MEPs from each EU country are part of the majority

Two-speed Europe, coalitions of the willing, core Europe - all different labels currently circling in the debate for same idea that way forward is no longer at EU27. But the how is important, and I think different people understand different things by the concept. Quick thread on legal options:

In the discussion on using Enhanced Cooperation for single market deepening seem to forget that the EU treaties put a clear limit on Enhanced Cooperation - that it shall not undermine the single market or the economic cohesion of the EU:

A small bombshell on rule of law conditionality from Luxembourg today: Advocate-General Capeta finds in her opinion that Commission was not allowed to unfreeze EU funds to Hungary in December 2023 and proposes that the Court of Justice annul the decision: curia.europa.eu/site/upload/... Thread:

#Merzoni, with the willing participation of 🇪🇺President von der Leyen, have formed a pact to dilute the power of the European Union and return it to national capitals in order to carry out corporate wishes. It is the opposite of Draghi's vision. Yet they are citing him as their inspiration.

Aside from the MSC, Secretary of State Rubio is visiting only two countries in Europe: Hungary and Slovakia. The threat of „civilizational erasure“ doesn’t seem quite so acute there.

President von der Leyen's 🇪🇺Commission took more meetings with American companies last year than companies from any other country. table.media/europe/analy...

THÜRINGEN | Sonntagsfrage Landtagswahl INSA/TA, OTZ, TLZ AfD: 38% (-1) CDU: 24% LINKE: 14% BSW: 7% SPD: 7% (+1) GRÜNE: 3% Sonstige: 7% Änderungen zur letzten Umfrage vom 11. Dezember 2025 Verlauf: whln.eu/UmfragenTH #ltwth

Required watching for the EU bubble - investigative format "ARD Monitor" has done a research on the omnibus vote in the European Parliament and the origins of majority of the centre-right EPP with the far-right groups last November:

Last week, Manfred Weber put forward institutional reform ideas to strengthen the EU’s unity (both neither nor new nor realistic): 1. Expand qualified majority voting in foreign policy; 2. merge the offices of the Commission and European Council presidents. /1

Guys, why why why why does European media so routinely repeat this falsehood?? Most 🇪🇺Council votes are by qualified majority, not unanimity, which is only reserved for foreign policy and taxation. This voting method on Monday for the Russian gas ban was in no way exceptional.

These disciplinary measures are interesting - and potentially another sign of the EU's party-politicisation and the EPP's current cross-institutional domination

What a week! So much happened that the motion of censure brought forward by the PfE against von der Leyen almost went unnoticed. Admittedly, there is a clear inflation effect: this was already the 4th motion in just half a year 🗳️ (1/6)

"The European Democracy Shield is an important step, but the Commission’s level of ambition does not yet match the scale of the threat we face." Yesterday, the EP rapporteur Tobé published his draft report on the European Democracy Shield. www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/pres...

Today, the European Parliament voted to put the Mercosur trade agreement to the European Court of Justice for review. It was a politically momentous decision, very tight and carried by an unusual majority, so it is worth looking a bit deeper into it.

Hello Bluesky - glad to finally be here! I will post EU institutional and democracy stuff, especially Commission presidentialisation, the (party-)politicisation of EU decision-making, inter-institutional dynamics, and the growing influence of far-right actors in the European Parliament and beyond!🇪🇺