Just days ago, a similar group of 10 doubled down and issued a new letter to von der Leyen and pressured the Commission to weaken the ETS, in a clear sign they’re willing to be a blocking minority in the Council if new ETS legislation doesn’t satisfy them.

Polish Secretary of State Krzysztof Bolesta told POLITICO the letter shows the 10 countries are prepared for constructive ETS debates, but also described it as a “gentle reminder” that there is a “significant group whose weight cannot be ignored.” He added: “The bazooka is there in case we might need it at some stage.”

But the big question is where France and Germany fall on the issues. The two giants of the EU have previously avoided publicly denigrating the ETS, but the ongoing uncertainty around the Strait of Hormuz and U.S. tariffs have led them to quietly lean closer to the “dirties,” as one EU diplomat, granted anonymity to speak openly like others in this article, referred to the gang of 10.

“I think it’s more the French working and the Germans supporting them, than the other way around,” the diplomat claimed. “The French are much more active, and the Germans are following them […] But I think nobody now and nobody in the near future is questioning the ETS as a system as such… [needs] fine tuning.”

On the other side is a seven-country alliance of ETS-purists, led by Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands, who jointly published a letter demanding the Commission resists meddling with the current legislation and hold the course on the linear reduction factor. In perhaps a bad sign for the defenders of the ETS, three people familiar with that letter told POLITICO Germany pulled out from signing it at the last minute.

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A Fidesz loyalist since the late 1990s, Szijjártó served as Orbán’s spokesperson before he became foreign minister in 2014 — a position he held until earlier this year. As Hungary’s top diplomat, he became one of the strongest advocates for closer ties with Beijing and Moscow. In March, he acknowledged liaising with senior Russian officials while EU governments debated fresh sanctions against the Kremlin.

BYD has grown central to China’s manufacturing push in Europe. The EV company is expected to begin assembling cars at its new Hungarian factory later this year after prioritizing the site as its main European production hub.

Szijjártó is not the only European politician headed for the automotive business either. Former German Finance Minister Christian Lindner, who left politics after his party’s election defeat, is set to become chief executive of Germany’s largest car dealer, Autoland AG, in 2027.

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The bill’s main provision, a Made in Europe preference, would favor locally made goods. Its supporters say it’s high time for the EU to defend its industry, but others want to hit the brakes on what they see as a protectionist measure.

Critics find the proposal risks turning into a legal maze for companies and driving up prices for EU-made products, while potentially shutting out friendly trading partners such as Canada, the U.K. or Japan.

“What is happening at Volkswagen is alarming, but it is not an isolated case. It is the consequence of years of European naivety while our global competitors pursued clear and aggressive industrial strategies,” said French liberal lawmaker Christophe Grudler, one of the three leaders on the file in the European Parliament.

Negotiations involving EU countries and lawmakers are only now getting underway after the European Commission presented its proposal with a three-month delay in March. Officials privately acknowledge that time is already running short to secure a compromise by the end of the year, as prescribed by the EU’s One Europe, One Market roadmap.

Who’s to be trusted

The toughest challenge ahead is agreeing on which countries should be included on a list of “trusted partners,” whose products will be likened to European ones in some areas of public procurement and funding.

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Global capital increasingly sees Europe as a place to build, not simply to consume, frontier technologies.

The momentum is already building. European venture capital volumes have grown roughly four- to five-fold over the past decade. Private equity fundraising reached record levels in 2024. Private credit assets have grown fivefold in a decade to more than €430 billion. Global capital increasingly sees Europe as a place to build, not simply to consume, frontier technologies. The task now is to accelerate what is already working. We see four themes that could help do exactly that.

The first is giving world-class European companies the ecosystem they need to scale at home—backed by concrete public-private investment. When ASML committed to expanding its semiconductor cluster in Eindhoven, the Dutch government and regional partners responded with a €2.5 billion public-private investment covering energy, transport, housing, and talent. This is an inspiring model: targeted partnerships around an anchor company that build a world-class ecosystem faster than broad regulatory reform alone ever could. Europe would benefit from more of these.

Imagine if Europe’s single market were as seamless as it sounds.

The second is unlocking Europe’s internal market as a genuine home advantage. Like so many others before and after Spotify, a Swedish company with a world-class product, had to navigate 27 different licensing regimes before it could operate across Europe as a single business—and ended up scaling through the United States first. Imagine if Europe’s single market were as seamless as it sounds. Estimates suggest remaining barriers are equivalent to a 44 percent tariff on goods and more than 100 percent on services—meaning there is enormous upside simply in completing what has already been started.

The most promising path is a Europe-wide “28th regime” of common, investment-friendly rules that scale-ups and multinationals can opt into. Progress on EU Inc. is encouraging; leaders could extend it into other arenas, for example, incorporation law into labor rules and product-market regulation.

Third, Europe can mobilize more of its own considerable capital—starting with pension allocations to venture and growth funds. European households collectively hold more than €30 trillion in financial assets. Directing even a modest additional share toward growth companies, innovation, and infrastructure would transform the funding landscape. SoftBank’s plan to back what could become Europe’s largest AI facility in France shows the appetite is there. Progress on the Savings and Investment Union is promising; the same momentum can now unlock pension and institutional capital for venture and growth investment, as reforms in Sweden have shown, but at a European scale that matches broader ambition.

The momentum is real and building.

Fourth, Europe can use its public demand more strategically to propel technology leaps. At €2 trillion a year, EU public procurement dwarfs any venture capital or private equity pool—and it can more proactively spur new industries. Defense already demonstrates the power of this approach: since 2021, European defense spending has risen by roughly 75 percent, driving investment, innovation, and industrial expansion across sectors. What began as a security imperative is now strengthening advanced manufacturing, supply chains, skilled jobs, and frontier technologies. The same logic applies in healthcare, energy, digital infrastructure, and emerging technologies—coordinated procurement can create the demand that scales promising companies into global leaders while strengthening both competitiveness and resilience.

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“It would be very radical,” Helena Wisbert, professor of automotive economics at Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences, said of a possible spinoff attempt. Wisbert said such a step would be extremely difficult to pull off — in great part because the current supervisory board would have to approve a spinoff. Still, she added, if such a step were truly under consideration, “it would really show just how intense the pressure to cut costs is right now.”

In an emailed statement to POLITICO sent on Friday, VW said it would “not comment on internal, confidential documents,” but added that “the entire Group — including its brands and subsidiaries — must undergo a profound transformation. To this end, the Group Executive Board has been working intensively over the past few months on a strategic plan for the company’s restructuring.”

VW’s woes became clear in 2024, when management announced a plan to close three factories in Germany for the first time in the automaker’s then 87-year history. But after marathon negotiations at the end of that year — which labor unions hailed as a “Christmas miracle” — factory closures were averted. Both parties agreed that 35,000 jobs would be cut by 2030.

But as the company’s outlook soured, VW announced this March it would increase job cuts to 50,000 by 2030 — an announcement met with relatively muted reaction. Now, plans to cut double that amount are facing far stiffer resistance.

“As a state, we have a clear expectation that VW management will put forward a viable plan for the future,” Grant Hendrik Tonne, the SPD economy minster of the state of Lower Saxony, told POLITICO. “Plant closures are not a plan for the future and are therefore unacceptable.”

Romanus Otte contributed reporting.

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“We have done simulations that showed that more and more houses will get too hot even if we provide some [sun] screening and ventilation,” he added. “Somewhere in the future, those houses might need active cooling.”

While air-conditioning is on the rise, it remains uncommon in Europe. Only about one-fifth of European households have AC installed, compared to 90 percent in the U.S.

Europe’s high heat mortality is down to “a combination of factors, but definitely, air-conditioning is a life-saving facility,” said Monasso. “In Europe, there’s much less coverage, so that is a serious issue and it would make a difference if that’s better.”

It’s not only homes either: Factories, schools, trains and even hospitals lack sufficient cooling.

Heat deaths in the workplace are up 42 percent in the EU since 2000, prompting the European Trade Union Confederation to call on Brussels to enshrine mandatory cooling breaks and maximum working temperatures in labor legislation.

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Chinese and European officials discussed setting up a trade and investment consultation mechanism at a lower-level meeting earlier in the month. Two Commission officials, granted anonymity to speak freely, indicated that the EU’s executive is keen on the idea.

What shape the mechanism might take, and how binding it would be, has yet to be decided. A previous “EU-China High Level Economic and Trade Dialogue,” launched in 2008, achieved no lasting breakthroughs.

Any workable solution would require sweeping changes to the EU-China trade relationship that go beyond dialogue. The thinking in the Berlaymont is that China needs to understand that the status quo is unsustainable and that it faces a choice between a negotiated agreement and a potentially damaging confrontation.

Šefčovič is already preparing new trade defense tools, such as a “diversification instrument” that would require European companies to have at least three suppliers of critical inputs to ease reliance on China. New sectoral import quotas, which would limit foreign competition in industries like chemicals or machine tools, are also in the works.

According to a second EU diplomat, when von der Leyen presented her strategy to EU leaders in Brussels this month, she didn’t rule out activating the Anti-Coercion Instrument, the EU’s trade “bazooka” that allows the bloc to restrict access to its market in response to economic coercion.

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The Labour leader was also wrong about needing to win over Brexit supporters to reach Downing Street in the first place. The Tories, who had governed for 14 years straight, had imploded — and Labour was returned with a vast parliamentary majority of 160 seats.

“Labour’s stance on Brexit reflects a belief that, to win the 2024 election, the party would need to reconnect in particular with those of its former supporters who voted Leave in 2016 and went on to back Boris Johnson in 2019,” the authors of the study, including veteran psephologist John Curtice wrote. “In practice, however, Labour’s support came overwhelmingly from those who say they would vote to rejoin the EU.”

Curtice, who spent the evening of the 2016 referendum crunching the numbers for the BBC, told POLITICO he had realized the pro-Brexit campaign was on course to win after Sunderland, a Labour heartland, declared for Leave. In 2024, Starmer’s Labour won every parliamentary seat in the city.

Going for growth

Given the scale of Labour’s 2024 victory, it’s unlikely that this technicality bothered the new prime minister at the time. But it would have enduring practical consequences for his government.

Despite serving no discernible political purpose, the red lines on single market and customs union membership have effectively bound Starmer to the basic framework of Boris Johnson’s Brexit settlement — one which economists now estimate has cost the U.K. six to eight percent of GDP per head by 2025.

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The “controversy of the Northern Ireland border … in essence wrecked May’s attempt at a deal,” says David Davis, who served as her Brexit secretary but quit in 2018 over her draft plan for a closer customs relationship with the EU.

The problem was compounded by May’s disastrous political gamble to call a snap general election in 2017, in a bid to strengthen her hand negotiating Brexit. The Conservatives lost their majority and survived only with backing after the election from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) — Northern Ireland’s leading unionist party, which would brook no move weakening the region’s standing as part of the United Kingdom.

By 2018, the EU was proposing a “backstop” deal on Northern Ireland, which would avoid a hard Irish border by keeping the region effectively inside EU customs territory unless the bloc struck a new, future trade deal with the U.K.

But that would have required customs barriers in the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. No U.K. prime minister could accept that deal, May said.

“I think she was very committed to [the U.K. union] personally. I have no doubt at all about that,” said Rycroft. “[But] clearly she was under a lot of scrutiny from that point of view … because the DUP was essentially propping up her governments after the 2017 election.”

May’s solution was a Brexit deal applying a “backstop” to the entire U.K. MPs, including her own backbenchers and the DUP, voted it down three times in 2019. In the EU, leaders could see her power was “sort of draining away,” said Montgomery.

By 2019, she was gone from office, full of regret over failure to land a deal that worked for “a union of people — all of us.” Brexit “over-ran [May’s] whole administration,” said Baker.

Boris Johnson: ‘A Brexit for Britain’

Boris Johnson, the bombastic leader of the U.K.’s campaign to leave the EU, then took over No. 10 — and a promise to “get Brexit done” propelled him to a majority in another general election in 2019.

That allowed the Tories to shake off the DUP, freeing Johnson to make “a Brexit for Great Britain,” according to Rupert Yorke, a former Downing Street advisor to May, Johnson and Sunak.

Johnson’s solution to the Irish border was the Northern Ireland Protocol, agreed in 2019 and signed with the EU in 2020.

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He said it was an “urgent matter.”

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tried to find out from EU leaders how far they were ready to accept Chinese retaliation, as the bloc grapples with how to shield Europe’s factories from China’s cheaper high-end goods.

There will be a “short term analysis of existing tools and how to be used in a more efficient way,” a second official said, stressing that developing new tools would take time to deliver and then get through the legislative process.

Officials and diplomats, who were briefed on the summit discussion and were granted anonymity to speak about the confidential meeting, said the consensus was growing around the table to strengthen the EU’s trade defenses and develop new instruments to protect markets.

The issue is that China is very good at producing many things, including high-end goods like cars that used to be a preserve of Europe. It’s selling those products into the European market at low prices that European producers can’t compete with and that’s driving them out of business.

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The deal is the largest trade pact the U.K. has forged post-Brexit and is expected to boost U.K. GDP by £4.8 billion annually.

Implementation follows last-minute wrangling over Britain’s new steel protections between the U.K.’s Kyle and his Indian counterpart, Piyush Goyal, in New Delhi on June 2.

Kyle flew to New Delhi after Indian officials said they would resist implementing the deal.

India sought reassurances about access to the U.K. market for its exporters as the government moves to reduce its tariff-free quotas on steel imports and raise tariffs outside those caps to 50 percent by July 1.

“Steel has come up in those discussions, and obviously part of that is determining what size quota India will have in all of this,” said a senior steel industry source. “The Indians have been quite tough negotiators on that point.”

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Meanwhile, 250 kilometers away in Luxembourg, Justice Commissioner Michael McGrath was relaying similar worries to Europe ministers, saying the executive is “concerned that the simplification ambition is often reduced” during negotiations.

The Commission has promised to cut red tape for businesses by 25 percent and save the EU economy €37.7 billion a year in annual administrative costs by 2029. So far, it has presented 10 simplification packages — also called ‘omnibus’ bills — reviewing laws on everything from defense and industrial permitting to agriculture and car safety, with three more proposals expected by the end of the year.

The bills could save businesses €15 billion in costs, the Commission estimates.

But a year and a half into the effort, the level of ambition on simplification is going “substantially down,” warned Dombrovskis.

Both Dombrovskis and McGrath listed ongoing talks on the Commission’s proposals to roll back laws on chemicals, digital, environmental and pesticides rules as particularly problematic.

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Getting the deal onto the EU’s books has taken longer, with top trade lawmaker Bernd Lange demanding additional safeguards after Trump threatened in January to annex Greenland and later menaced Spain with a trade embargo for opposing U.S. air strikes on Iran.

In a hard-fought compromise reached last month, it was agreed that Parliament can ask the Commission to suspend the deal if Washington fails to lower duties on steel and aluminum products by the end of 2026. The EU’s tariff concessions will also expire at the end of 2029 — after Trump is due to leave office.

The delay has tested Washington’s patience, to the point that the U.S. president in early May threatened to hike tariffs again should the EU institutions not reach a deal by July 4.

The Council of the EU — representing EU governments — is now expected to rubber-stamp the texts on June 26, before they are officially published in the EU’s Official Journal and enter into force.

This report has been updated.

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“He was tough, and there was a moment when Bernd had the feeling that the Commission played a lot of theater and put a lot of pressure on us,” Anna Cavazzini, the lead negotiator on the file for the Greens, told POLITICO.

“There was a lot of shouting,” said Cavazzini, who was in the room. “Most of the time, he stood firm. In the end, he gave up.”

The final text states that the Commission may suspend the trade deal if Washington fails to lower duties on European steel and aluminum products by the end of 2026. There is no reference to protecting the EU’s territorial integrity, and the deal’s expiry date was pushed back to the end of 2029 — later than Lange had wanted.

While his wins on the revised texts are ultimately non-binding, leaving the Commission a lot of leeway in implementing the commitments made, they nonetheless create political accountability on both sides of the Atlantic and send a signal to a partner the EU no longer trusts.

“My favorite phrase to answer this is of course [from] the Rolling Stones: You can’t always get what you want,’” Lange said.

“But the second phrase is: ‘If you try hard, you get what you need,’ and that’s the crucial one.”

Camille Gijs and Max Griera reported from Brussels and Nette Nöstlinger reported from Berlin.

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“That’s why they set fire to the car. To punish us,” the sole survivor of the attack told Corriere della Sera. “They wanted to kill us all.”

Police have arrested two suspects, named as Safeer Ahmed and Ali Raza, in connection with the crime.

Italy’s caporalato system provides cheap, illegal labor for farms in southern Italy.

Traffickers often recruit vulnerable migrants, paying them low wages and exposing them to inhumane working conditions. Based on research by the Rizzotto foundation, in 2022 around 430,000 farm workers were victims of caporalato and 56 percent of Italian farm workers were “partially or completely illegal.”

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European commissioners are annoyed their Strasbourg trips involve a pit stop in a Luxembourg service station to recharge their electric vehicles — whose batteries cannot quite manage the 440-kilometer haul from Brussels.

The roadside break has become a growing source of irritation for some of Ursula von der Leyen’s top team, officials from three commissioners’ cabinets told POLITICO, as the EU executive’s green fleet struggles to make the regular trip to the European Parliament in one go.

The cars — provided by the Commission to ferry President von der Leyen and her commissioners to official duties — need around 20 to 30 minutes plugged in by the side of the road, turning an already lengthy five-hour drive into an even longer slog, officials from a total of eight cabinets said.

Their complaints echo political groups and industry lobbyists who say the Commission is pushing for a green transition to happen faster than consumer habits — or charging infrastructure — allow.

While the Commission wanted to phase out the new sale of combustion engine vehicles from 2035 onward, the automotive industry and its policial backers have consistently said infrastructure and buying habits are not on that timeline. Consumers often cite range anxiety as a key reason for not purchasing an electric vehicle.

The cars are part of the Commission’s efforts to green its operations — a 2022 push during von der Leyen’s first term, reaffirmed last December, to make its 128-vehicle fleet fully zero-emission by 2027. Roughly 80 percent of the fleet is now electric, according to a Commission spokesperson.

The fleet includes large BMW models ill-suited to long-distance travel without recharging, another official said. The Commission did not confirm the vehicle model used in the fleet.

The Commission has caved on the emission targets for European automakers, allowing all types of powertrains past 2035 so long as the brands incorporate climate offsets. But the relaxation has yet to reach its own staffers.

The issue of having to make recharging stops was raised during a College of Commissioners meeting earlier this year, another official said, after one commissioner complained about the inconvenience of the EVs. They were told to take it up with Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin, who handles administration.

The alternative to stopping is to drive at a crawl along the motorway to conserve battery power. “But it doesn’t really work,” said one official working for an irritated commissioner, granted anonymity to speak frankly like others in this article. The trip can stretch to as much as seven hours that way, another official said.

Commissioners are reluctant to take the train to Strasbourg because they may need to conduct sensitive phone calls en route, an official working for a second annoyed commissioner said. But they are also unhappy about having to pull over to recharge, sometimes late at night, after long plenary weeks when they are eager to get back to Brussels, they said.

One commissioner appears to have found another way around the problem: Three officials said Hungary’s Olivér Várhelyi has at times traveled to Strasbourg in a van with his team, ditching the official car. Várhelyi’s cabinet did not respond to POLITICO’s request for comment.

Von der Leyen is also exempt from the EV headache. The Commission president’s car must be armored for security reasons, one official said, adding that no suitable armored electric model is currently available.

The Commission is due to present its long-awaited electrification plan in July, after the package slipped from its original mid-June timeline. As part of the plan, the EU executive is expected to unveil what officials describe as an “ambitious electrification target.”

The package was first announced in April by von der Leyen as part of the EU’s broader effort to reduce dependence on fossil fuels in the wake of the Middle East crisis. “We also need to accelerate the electrification of our economy, of our industrial operations, of how we heat our homes, of our mobility,” the Commission president said at the time.

Jordyn Dahl and Gabriel Gavin contributed reporting.

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What do right-wing transport minister Matteo Salvini, former Ferrari boss Luca Cordero di Montezemolo and opposition lawmaker Carlo Calenda have in common?

They all hate the design of the new fully electric Ferrari “Luce” unveiled on Tuesday.

“Electric, extremely expensive (550,000 euros!), and, aesthetically speaking, it speaks for itself … It looks like anything but a [Ferrari] car. And is that supposed to be ‘innovation’? I wonder what Enzo Ferrari would say … ?” Transport Minister Matteo Salvini wrote in a social media post, slamming Ferrari’s latest model.

Salvini’s comments are likely to heighten tensions between the Italian government and the Agnelli-Elkann family, the largest single shareholder in Ferrari and the global carmaker Stellantis.

The controversial Luce — the first Ferrari model to be fully electric and to have five seats — immediately sparked outrage among purists in Italy.

It also didn’t immediately convince investors, with Ferrari’s stock dropping by more than eight percent on Tuesday.

The four-door Ferrari, branded as “the most comfortable Ferrari ever” — hardly an on-brand endorsement for a carmaker synonymous with speed, style and passion — was co-designed by Jony Ive, the former chief design officer at Apple.

Some jokingly noted a resemblance between the new Ferrari, available in an unusual light blue, and the iconic Apple products designed by Ive’s team.

POV: You’re charging your new Ferrari Luce pic.twitter.com/L86GfLVzSV

— Apple Design (@TheAppleDesign) May 25, 2026

Di Montezemolo, who led Ferrari for over two decades, also slammed the car.

“We risk destroying a legend,” Montezemolo said on Tuesday, arguing that the car does not deserve to display Ferrari’s badge, the famous Prancing Horse.

“At least, this is definitely a car the Chinese won’t imitate,” Montezemolo, who worked with the company’s eponymous founder Enzo Ferrari since he was in his twenties, joked.

Carlo Calenda, a centrist opposition lawmaker, took the opportunity to attack the Elkann-Agnelli family once again, accusing it of undermining Italian industrial jewels like Ferrari.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella was among the first to see the car on Monday, guided by Ferrari president John Elkann, the scion of the Agnelli family.

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WARSAW — Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk suffered a major setback on Sunday as voters in Kraków overwhelmingly backed a right-wing campaign to remove liberal Mayor Aleksander Miszalski — a result that could inspire similar efforts elsewhere in Poland.

Miszalski, a Civic Coalition politician and the head of the party’s regional office, was elected in 2024 on an agenda that centered on green urban policies similar to those enacted by Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski.

Noting growing discontent over planned environmental restrictions and rising parking fees, earlier this year the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party and the far-right Confederation launched a grassroots campaign and collected more than 130,000 signatures to recall the mayor, whom they characterized as an out-of-touch, elite technocrat.

Nearly 30 percent of eligible voters took part in Sunday’s referendum, which had a 26.98 percent validity threshold. Of those who voted, 97.93 percent backed removing the mayor, while just under 2.1 percent opposed it. In a post on X, Miszalski accepted the results, emphasizing “local democracy is precisely about residents having the final say.”

“Not everything was achieved as I had intended,” he added. “I also know that some decisions, and the emotions surrounding them, caused many residents to lose trust in me.”

The referendum results represent a major victory for PiS and Confederation, who are casting the recall in Kraków as the first in a broader campaign to challenge liberal urban governments. Tusk’s Civic Coalition party controls the capital city Warsaw and the majority of regional capitals, and by taking aim at the local administrations, Poland’s right-wing sees a way of challenging the prime minister’s rule at the national level.

In a rare post on X, PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński hailed the results in Kraków, which he said were “only the beginning.”

“This government is destroying and questioning everything democratic,” he wrote. “That is why the people of Kraków showed them the red card. I congratulate all Kraków residents who refused to be intimidated and are fighting for their city.”

A pre-referendum survey by pollster OGB found that more than 28 percent of voters cited the city’s Low Emissions Zone (LEZ) — a system introduced by Miszalski’s center-left predecessor Jacek Majchrowski, to limit polluting vehicles access to Kraków — as their top grievance. Even though Kraków’s residents are exempt from the zone’s rules, campaigners succeeded in presenting the scheme as an undue burden on “ordinary” citizens.

The political harnessing of LEZ anger in Kraków reflects a broader European trend. In 2019 Madrid’s current center-right mayor, José Luis Martínez Almeida, succeeded in ousting his center-left predecessor, Manuela Carmena, by promising to eliminate an LEZ that his government ultimately kept. Fury over Good Move, a collection of measures to reduce car traffic in residential areas and build new bike lanes, similarly led to huge losses for the Greens and center-left parties in Brussels 2024.

More than 14 percent of surveyed voters also expressed frustration with Miszalski’s perceived stacking of municipal posts with political cronies. The mayor systematically rejected those allegations, insisting the appointments were based on qualifications.

Although voters indicated they were also displeased by Kraków’s debt, which is the highest among Polish cities, they ultimately focused their anger on the mayor. Electors had the option of dismissing the entire city council, in which Civic Coalition holds a majority of seats, but turnout in that ballot fell short of the 30.59 percent threshold required for the result to be valid.

The city will now be managed by an interim commissioner before a new mayoral vote, which must happen in three months’ time.

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BRUSSELS — The European Commission wants to capitalize on the crisis facing German industry to try to convince Berlin to give Brussels tougher powers to protect the economy from cheap Chinese imports.

Germany has for a long time been reluctant to jeopardize its trade ties with Beijing, fearing retaliation if it imposes restrictions, but the Commission is betting Chancellor Friedrich Merz will struggle to justify that stance in the face of sluggish growth, four European diplomats and officials with knowledge of the discussions in Brussels told POLITICO.

The EU’s existing relations with China “cost a significant number of jobs in Europe and jeopardize prosperity,” said Engin Eroglu, a German MEP and chair of the European Parliament’s China delegation. “This is an unsustainable situation.”

Europe has deepened its reliance on Chinese appliances, components, rare earth metals and other essential goods in recent years, at the same time as more and more industrial jobs have moved overseas. While Brussels has set targets to diversify trade and find alternative suppliers, more targeted measures against China are likely to provoke retaliation — which could compound industry’s woes in the short-term.

As POLITICO reported on Friday, the Commission has drawn up plans for a “more assertive and effective trade defense policy” towards China. That would accelerate work on what it calls an “overcapacity instrument” to cut down on the volume of state-subsidized goods flooding the market.

In comments to POLITICO, Commission chief spokesperson Paula Pinho said that a debate on the issue between top officials on May 29 “is not about any individual Member State. It’s a necessary discussion at an increasingly challenging time when it comes to both geopolitics and geoeconomics. To confront these challenges, we need a European approach.”

Germany’s prized automotive sector is dependent on the Chinese market to subsidize its factories. Merz and his predecessors have been wary of provoking Beijing for fear of harming the car industry, clean tech and chemicals that are reliant on China for critical materials.

Still, Merz has called on the EU to help rescue the continent’s industries as his fragile coalition faces public discontent over the economy. The country’s manufacturing and chemicals sectors have been hammered by high energy prices as a result of the war in Iran, as well as fierce competition from the U.S. and China.

“If you look at the numbers in terms of destruction of jobs and factories in Germany, I would not understand how they [the German government] would be able to plead for the status quo,” said one diplomat from a European country supportive of the Commission push to restrict Chinese imports. The diplomat was granted anonymity because the discussions between capitals and the EU are still at the confidential stage.

Last year, Germany lost around 124,100 industrial jobs, according to an analysis from EY. Since 2019, one in 20 industrial jobs has disappeared, the research found. Only 15 percent of Germans are satisfied with Merz’s centrist coalition, according to a poll earlier this month. The chancellor was booed onstage at a trade union congress last week as he set out economic reforms.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has taken the lead in national polls in recent weeks, seeking to win over voters who fear living standards are falling. The issue is one where Merz can hope to go on the offensive — AfD leader Alice Weidel has cultivated the admiration of state media in China, where she previously lived.

Trade defense

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and top commissioners will discuss their plans on May 29, before they put them to EU leaders at a summit in Brussels on June 18-19.

The French government in February published a bleak economic assessment that warned “the Chinese steamroller” could crush key parts of the European economy. But while Paris and a handful of other EU countries are actively pushing to reduce reliance on Beijing, Germany has been publicly split on the issue.

China dumping its excess goods on the EU and Beijing’s devaluation of its currency to keep its products cheap topped the list of issues Merz brought to Chinese leader Xi Jinping during the chancellor’s first trip to the country in April.

Katherina Reiche, the country’s economy minister, will travel to China next week to brand Germany as a reliable trading partner, despite voicing concerns over dumping.

Merz’s governing Christian Democratic Union party is split on the issue. According to Nicolas Zippelius, a Bundestag member from Merz’s governing faction, “the outlook is clear: Beijing will continue to increase dependencies,” and the EU should now act to ensure its companies can compete.

Germany industry is also divided, with big companies like Siemens, BASF, Mercedes, BMW and Volkswagen reluctant to impose harsher trade measures out of fear of retaliation, while suppliers and in particular the manufacturing sector say that the EU has to act, despite the risk of Chinese counter-action.

“China is increasingly taking market share from us using unfair means,” said Oliver Richtberg from the German Engineering Federation (VDMA). He added that there are “no easy or painless solutions” to deal with this “real threat”, but “if Europe fails to respond at all, the damage to the engineering sector could be the greatest.”

The development of a standalone package of measures that can be deployed on a case-by-case basis is seen as being preferable for Germany to blanket policies like “Buy European” criteria that have previously struggled to find support from Berlin, said one of the EU officials. The latest proposals are designed to appeal to Merz, they went on, at a time when not supporting efforts to save European industry would be “unsustainable” for Germany. A German government spokesperson declined to comment.

“I don’t see China taking the initiative to address issues such as overcapacity or unfair subsidies,” said Metin Hakverdi, China coordinator for the SPD, Merz’s coalition partners “We’ll have to decide how to respond on a case-by-case basis, taking a pragmatic approach that aligns with our interests.”

Gabriel Gavin, Jordyn Dahl and Carlo Martuscelli reported from Brussels. Hans von der Burchard reported from Berlin

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BRUSSELS — The European Commission wants to capitalize on the crisis facing German industry to try to convince Berlin to give Brussels tougher powers to protect the economy from cheap Chinese imports.

Germany has for a long time been reluctant to jeopardize its trade ties with Beijing, fearing retaliation if it imposes restrictions, but the Commission is betting Chancellor Friedrich Merz will struggle to justify that stance in the face of sluggish growth, four European diplomats and officials with knowledge of the discussions in Brussels told POLITICO.

The EU’s existing relations with China “cost a significant number of jobs in Europe and jeopardize prosperity,” said Engin Eroglu, a German MEP and chair of the European Parliament’s China delegation. “This is an unsustainable situation.”

Europe has deepened its reliance on Chinese appliances, components, rare earth metals and other essential goods in recent years, at the same time as more and more industrial jobs have moved overseas. While Brussels has set targets to diversify trade and find alternative suppliers, more targeted measures against China are likely to provoke retaliation — which could compound industry’s woes in the short-term.

As POLITICO reported on Friday, the Commission has drawn up plans for a “more assertive and effective trade defense policy” towards China. That would accelerate work on what it calls an “overcapacity instrument” to cut down on the volume of state-subsidized goods flooding the market.

In comments to POLITICO, Commission chief spokesperson Paula Pinho said that a debate on the issue between top officials on May 29 “is not about any individual Member State. It’s a necessary discussion at an increasingly challenging time when it comes to both geopolitics and geoeconomics. To confront these challenges, we need a European approach.”

Germany’s prized automotive sector is dependent on the Chinese market to subsidize its factories. Merz and his predecessors have been wary of provoking Beijing for fear of harming the car industry, clean tech and chemicals that are reliant on China for critical materials.

Still, Merz has called on the EU to help rescue the continent’s industries as his fragile coalition faces public discontent over the economy. The country’s manufacturing and chemicals sectors have been hammered by high energy prices as a result of the war in Iran, as well as fierce competition from the U.S. and China.

“If you look at the numbers in terms of destruction of jobs and factories in Germany, I would not understand how they [the German government] would be able to plead for the status quo,” said one diplomat from a European country supportive of the Commission push to restrict Chinese imports. The diplomat was granted anonymity because the discussions between capitals and the EU are still at the confidential stage.

Last year, Germany lost around 124,100 industrial jobs, according to an analysis from EY. Since 2019, one in 20 industrial jobs has disappeared, the research found. Only 15 percent of Germans are satisfied with Merz’s centrist coalition, according to a poll earlier this month. The chancellor was booed onstage at a trade union congress last week as he set out economic reforms.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has taken the lead in national polls in recent weeks, seeking to win over voters who fear living standards are falling. The issue is one where Merz can hope to go on the offensive — AfD leader Alice Weidel has cultivated the admiration of state media in China, where she previously lived.

Trade defense

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and top commissioners will discuss their plans on May 29, before they put them to EU leaders at a summit in Brussels on June 18-19.

The French government in February published a bleak economic assessment that warned “the Chinese steamroller” could crush key parts of the European economy. But while Paris and a handful of other EU countries are actively pushing to reduce reliance on Beijing, Germany has been publicly split on the issue.

China dumping its excess goods on the EU and Beijing’s devaluation of its currency to keep its products cheap topped the list of issues Merz brought to Chinese leader Xi Jinping during the chancellor’s first trip to the country in April.

Katherina Reiche, the country’s economy minister, will travel to China next week to brand Germany as a reliable trading partner, despite voicing concerns over dumping.

Merz’s governing Christian Democratic Union party is split on the issue. According to Nicolas Zippelius, a Bundestag member from Merz’s governing faction, “the outlook is clear: Beijing will continue to increase dependencies,” and the EU should now act to ensure its companies can compete.

Germany industry is also divided, with big companies like Siemens, BASF, Mercedes, BMW and Volkswagen reluctant to impose harsher trade measures out of fear of retaliation, while suppliers and in particular the manufacturing sector say that the EU has to act, despite the risk of Chinese counter-action.

“China is increasingly taking market share from us using unfair means,” said Oliver Richtberg from the German Engineering Federation (VDMA). He added that there are “no easy or painless solutions” to deal with this “real threat”, but “if Europe fails to respond at all, the damage to the engineering sector could be the greatest.”

The development of a standalone package of measures that can be deployed on a case-by-case basis is seen as being preferable for Germany to blanket policies like “Buy European” criteria that have previously struggled to find support from Berlin, said one of the EU officials. The latest proposals are designed to appeal to Merz, they went on, at a time when not supporting efforts to save European industry would be “unsustainable” for Germany. A German government spokesperson declined to comment.

“I don’t see China taking the initiative to address issues such as overcapacity or unfair subsidies,” said Metin Hakverdi, China coordinator for the SPD, Merz’s coalition partners “We’ll have to decide how to respond on a case-by-case basis, taking a pragmatic approach that aligns with our interests.”

Gabriel Gavin, Jordyn Dahl and Carlo Martuscelli reported from Brussels. Hans von der Burchard reported from Berlin

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European leaders struck a triumphant tone early Wednesday after the EU finally clinched a deal to implement its long-delayed trade pact with the United States, ending months of tariff threats and transatlantic brinkmanship.

“A deal is a deal, and the EU honours its commitments,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X. “Together, we can ensure stable, predictable, balanced, and mutually beneficial transatlantic trade.”

After more than five hours of late-night talks, negotiators from the Parliament, Council and Commission finally reached a compromise on the legislation needed to enact the Turnberry accord agreed with U.S. President Donald Trump last July in Scotland.

European Parliament President Roberta Metsola called the agreement proof that “Europe is a reliable partner,” stressing that the transatlantic relationship supports 16 million jobs. “Built on mutual respect, it makes us all stronger,” she wrote.

Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič hailed the compromise as a “strong result” in negotiations. And German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called the deal “good news from Strasbourg,” saying Europe was delivering “more security and stability for our companies.” Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani noted the agreement would provide “economic stability and certainty” for businesses exporting to the U.S.

Some struck a noticeably more cautious tone.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday morning in Strasbourg, Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade, said he “wouldn’t call it a good deal.”

After writing on X that “the original blind flight has been averted,” Lange said that he personally would not have struck the agreement the same way as von der Leyen. Still, he stressed Parliament would “stand by this deal” because the Commission had negotiated it on behalf of the EU.

Lange also pushed back against suggestions Brussels had folded under Trump’s tariff threats. “We have to make clear that this is our duty to protect the European interests,” he said, while acknowledging there were still doubts over whether Washington would ultimately accept every part of the legislation.

The move to implement the deal slowed after Trump threatened to seize Greenland in January, and again earlier this month, when he said he would hike tariffs on European cars to 25 percent. That statement prompted von der Leyen to publicly remind Washington shortly after that “a deal is a deal.”

The pact commits Brussels to lowering tariffs on U.S. industrial and some farm goods, while obliging Washington to keep most tariffs on European exports capped at 15 percent.

The legislation now heads toward a closely watched final vote during the European Parliament’s June 15–18 plenary session.

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STRASBOURG — The European Union agreed early Wednesday morning to implement a trade deal with the United States, likely averting a threat by President Donald Trump to punish further delay with oppressive tariffs.

Negotiators from the European Parliament, the Council of the EU and the European Commission reached a compromise after more than five hours of talks on legislation to enact the accord struck last summer at Trump’s golf resort in Turnberry, Scotland.

Under that pact, the EU agreed to scrap tariffs on U.S. industrial and some farm goods, while Washington was to cap tariffs on most European exports at 15 percent. But the bloc slow-walked its deliberations after Trump in January threatened to seize Greenland, a Danish territory, and then again after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down much of his tariff agenda.

“The EU has demonstrated once again that we are a rather reliable trading partner that honors its commitments,” said EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič after leaving the negotiating room.

Following months of internal EU wrangling, the compromise arrived after Trump — frustrated by the wait — threatened to impose a 25 percent tariff on European cars from July 4.

That escalation risked tipping the €1.7 trillion annual transatlantic trade relationship back into crisis, just as the energy supply shock caused by the Middle East conflict weighs on European economic growth.

According to the final text of the compromise seen by POLITICO, the Commission could, at the request of the Parliament or a member country, suspend the trade deal if Washington doesn’t reduce its duties on European steel and aluminum products by the end of 2026.

The U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs go as high as 50 percent under a proclamation signed by Trump in April, and many EU lawmakers have complained the move violates the cap agreed at Turnberry. According to the deal agreed early Wednesday, the European Commission will report to the Parliament and the Council on the state of U.S. steel tariffs at the end of this year, and if the U.S. is judged not to be in compliance, the Commission will assess whether to suspend the deal.

Negotiators added a so-called sunset clause that would see the agreement expire in December 2029 — nearly a year after Trump is due to leave the White House.

The deal also includes safeguards requiring that the Commission launch an investigation, either on its own initiative or at the request of three EU countries, to determine whether imports seriously threaten certain domestic industries — which could then lead to a partial or total suspension of the deal.

However, language to void the deal if the U.S. once again threatens the EU’s territorial sovereignty — which the European Parliament had demanded after Trump threatened to annex Greenland — wasn’t included after EU capitals opposed it.

An EU official familiar with the discussions, who was granted anonymity to speak about the closed-door talks, said member countries had wanted to exclude non-trade elements from the agreement.

The text now heads to a closely watched vote expected during the June 15–18 plenary session in Strasbourg.

Parliamentary arithmetic

Some liberal and left-wing lawmakers in the European Parliament are still hostile to the deal and have warned they may vote against the Turnberry compromise.

Crucially, the deal empowers the European Commission to rule whether the U.S. is in breach of the Turnberry accord — and leaves it to the EU executive to decide whether to suspend it. The version of the proposal favored by the Parliament would have forced the Commission to automatically suspend the deal in case of a breach.

The European People’s Party — the largest group in the chamber — is keen to get the deal on the books, and negotiators hope a majority will back it.

Zeljana Zovko, the EPP lawmaker representing the center-right group in the negotiations, told POLITICO that the deal “will save our businesses and give them breathing space to continue trade with our most important trading partner.”

Failure by the Parliamentary plenary to ratify the compromise would humiliate Bernd Lange, the chair of the chamber’s trade committee and the Parliament’s chief negotiator.

Lange declared himself satisfied with the result despite the concessions. “We are ensuring stability and security for European manufacturers, fully aware that we cannot, of course, always guarantee that the U.S. will abide by the agreement,” he said.

The German Social Democrat had assembled a broad coalition of lawmakers to demand that extra conditions be attached to the accord to shield the EU from Trump’s periodic attempts to coerce America’s longtime allies. But it remains to be seen whether the text can command a majority in the Parliament in light of its significant concessions.

Sabine Weyand, the outgoing chief of the Commission’s trade department, told members of her entourage at the talks that she expected to get the deal through a meeting of ambassadors from EU member countries later on Wednesday, calling the task “a walk in the park.”

Tom Schmidtgen in Berlin and Julius Brinkmann in Washington contributed reporting.

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