What Europe will do with its money in 2026: next year’s budget to be approved by the European Parliament
The European Parliament's plenary session is debating the new draft of the European Union's 2026 budget, approved by the committee earlier this month. Negotiations with the Council will follow. The focus is on innovation, agriculture, defense, and cooperation. The Erasmus+ and EU4Health programs are at risk due to the €4.3 billion in borrowing costs for NextGenerationEU.
International Women’s Day: Conversations on Opportunity and Support with Roberta Metsola
Marking International Women's Day alongside the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, brought together young women for an evening of discussion and connection. Through an open panel and networking session, participants reflected on opportunity, competition, and the importance of women supporting one another.
Decolonising Language: How Words Shape Power, Identity, and Freedom
Language is never neutral. Everyday terms like “Middle East,” “Third World,” and “ethnic” still echo colonial perspectives that place Europe at the centre and cast other cultures as the “other.” Decolonising language means recognising these hidden power structures and rethinking the words that shape how we see the world.
Dealbreaker: How EU Asylum Policy is Changing
The European Union’s new Asylum Pact is designed to make it easier for member states to shift the responsibility for asylum seekers elsewhere. But these externalisation processes raise important questions that continue to go unanswered.
Before the Rubicon: Southern Europe, the Iran War and the logic of hegemony
Europe, neighboring the Middle East, was not asked. It was not called, not consulted. The operations were decided in circles of power from which Europe was absent — and their consequences, the waves of instability — it will be Europe that is called to manage them. Rubicons, however, are never announced; they are recognized only after they have already been crossed. And when that moment comes, there will be no 'protocol' left to invoke, because we will have helped erode it ourselves.
The EU Migration & Asylum Pact 2026
The EU Migration and Asylum Pact, taking effect on 12 June 2026, seeks to standardize asylum rules across Europe through unified procedures, shared responsibility, and minimum living standards. As someone who fled Syria in 2013, I know the impact that safety and opportunity can have, access to education and programmes like the JA Company Programme allowed me to grow in ways that would have been impossible without protection.
Communities in Places You Wouldn’t Expect
If you’ve ever wondered where to stay up to date on what’s happening in your town, neighborhood, or even your street, the answer may be closer than you think.
The Czech Republic bans communism: a politics of memory at work
With one signature, Czech President Petr Pavel outlawed communism, equating it with Nazi propaganda. Framed as justice, the ban turns memory into a battlefield and enforces a Cold War logic that narrows democracy into a struggle of extremes.
