European Union

After his appearance at the Munich Security Conference, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio paid visits to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Orbán spoke of a "golden age" in Hungarian-American relations, and Rubio assured him of the US government's support in the upcoming election, saying: "Your success is also our success."

Russian telecommunications authority Roskomnadzor has throttled data streams and further tightened restrictions on the country's most popular messaging service Telegram, causing major disruptions. Russian soldiers have protested the crackdown as they also use the service for coordinating military actions on the front lines. What is behind the move?

Several European countries which had been declared "measles-free" by the World Health Organisation (WHO), including Spain, the UK and Austria, have recently lost that status following major outbreaks in the last year. According to the WHO and UNICEF, a vaccination rate of 95 percent is needed to prevent the virus from spreading. Commentators in several countries look at vaccination rates and scepticism.

The future of the global development architecture will be defined by choices made among competing visions already present today. A turn toward nationalist and transactional approaches risks further fragmentation and diminished support for the most vulnerable countries. More selective forms of multilateralism may preserve existing institutions while narrowing their ambition. Pluralist cooperation offers flexibility but weakens coherence and shared standards. A renewed emphasis on global solidarity would strengthen collective capacity to address global public goods, but requires sustained political commitment and institutional reform.

The Council formally adopted the directive to expand and update the list of pollutants affecting surface water and groundwater, including pesticides, pharmaceuticals and PFAS.

Die Zukunft der globalen Entwicklungsarchitektur entscheidet sich zwischen schon heute konkurrierenden Visionen. Eine Entwicklung hin zu nationalistischer und transaktionaler Zusammenarbeit birgt das Risiko weiterer Fragmentierung und geringerer Unterstützung für die verletzlichsten Länder. Selektivere Formen des Multilateralismus können Institutionen erhalten, verengen aber ihr Mandat. Pluralistische Kooperation bietet Flexibilität, verringert jedoch Kohärenz und gemeinsame Standards. Eine neue Betonung globaler Solidarität stärkt die kollektive Fähigkeit, globale öffentliche Güter bereitzustellen, verlangt aber dauerhaftes politisches Engagement und Reformen.

Is today’s global turbulence a sign of collapse, or of overdue rebalancing? There is little doubt about the relevance of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos. It was a strong intervention, not least because it drew on Eastern European experience through its explicit reference to Václav Havel’s 1978 essay The Power of the Powerless. Carney’s call for “building coalitions that work” resonated widely especially because, without mentioning President Trump, he spoke with unusual clarity and candour as a Western leader about the state of the international system and the pressures it is currently under.