The conservative German CSU elects current EPP leader Manfred Weber to lead the party in the 2024 European elections. Belgian and Spanish Prime Ministers Alexander de Croo and Pedro Sánchez travelled to Israel. The Austrian platform Eversports was one of the winners of the European Commission’s #BeActive Awards.
Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders, known for his anti-EU rhetoric, has won a landslide victory in the 2023 Dutch general election. Albanian Finance Minister Ervin Mete said the country will benefit with one billion euros from EU Growth Plan for the Western Balkans. The European Parliament has rejected the Commission’s proposal to reduce the use of chemical pesticides.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki used campaign ads for this month’s general election to condemn the European Union’s “tragic, irresponsible migration policy” but many of the images were taken out of context or had nothing to do with migration to the bloc. The videos had been viewed more than 10 million times on social media ahead of the vote on October 15, 2023 – which saw the opposition win a parliamentary majority — and showed scenes of attacks on women, unnamed burning cities or long marches of men in the desert. Although supposedly linked to the recent migrant crisis on the Italian island of Lampedusa, an AFP investigation found that the provocative footage in fact came from as far away as the United States and dated as far back as 2016. The jumble of violent scenes was mixed with genuine images of migrants on Lampedusa.
Slovakia sends firefighters to the Greek island of Rhodes to fight a forest fire. The first European Summer School on Artificial Intelligence opens in Slovenia. No party won a clear majority in Sunday’s general elections in Spain.
The Flemish government calls on the European Commission to focus on meeting the 2030 CO2 reduction targets before discussing goals for 2040. Kyriakos Mitsotakis wins Greek elections by a landslide. Austria and Italy join forces to fight illegal migration and reshape EU migration and asylum policies.