BRUSSELS — The European Union needs to draft in Mario Draghi, the mastermind behind reforms to revive its single market, to ensure that member countries rally behind efforts to boost growth and prosperity, a senior European lawmaker said Tuesday. Member countries should “mandate Draghi” to build political consensus for reform and pierce through national “deep state” resistance to force a radical rethink of the single market project, Pascal Canfin, a French Renew MEP, told POLITICO’s Competitive Europe Summit in Brussels. “We need somebody that could do so at the very top level, with heads of state and government and quite deep state level,” Canfin said, arguing that the bloc has reached a “historical crossroads” where it must choose between deeper integration or economic irrelevance. In 2024, the former Italian Prime Minister and head of the European Central Bank delivered a report on Europe’s competitiveness deficit that one commissioner has referred to as the “bible” for Ursula von der Leyen’s second Commission. EU leaders backed a plan to relaunch the 30-year old single market — with its freedoms in the movement of goods, capital, services and people — at a summit earlier this month. According to Canfin, Draghi’s work is not yet done, and the former Italian leader could build a “coalition of the willing” of member states willing to integrate their economies. Canfin also suggested that the requirement for consensus among all 27 member states has become a challenge.  “It’s not an objective not to do it at 27, but maybe at the end, we will not be able to do it for political reasons,” Canfin said, specifically citing the frequent vetoes and disruptions caused by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.  The move toward a multi-speed Europe is increasingly viewed by proponents of integration as the only way to compete with the massive industrial subsidies and streamlined decision-making of the United States and China. Canfin described a recurring cycle of political failure where national leaders travel to Brussels and make commitments, only to see them disassembled at home. “They go to Brussels … then they go back home, and there are all the people locally, in Paris, in Berlin, in Rome, in Madrid, saying the opposite,” Canfin said. “Including in the deep state, including in some companies that have built the knowledge to manage and navigate complexity.” Canfin identified three obvious candidates for accelerated integration: defense, energy, and finance.  “The political will has always been in the hands of the capitals,” Canfin said. “Technical, yes, but today, would we be politically able?”

LONDON — Emergency support to help Brits grappling with rising bills should go to “those who need it most,” Chancellor Rachel Reeves said Tuesday — all-but ruling out a Liz Truss-style universal bailout in response to the Iran war. Pledging to “learn the mistakes of the past,” Reeves told MPs Tuesday that, while “contingency planning” is underway for “every eventuality,” the government will be “responsible” with public finances in any new state intervention. Oil and gas prices have soared since the conflict began, leading to higher fuel prices in the U.K. and sparking fears of a sharp increase in family and business energy bills when a regulated price cap period ends in July. Reeves said that, while the full impact of the crisis is not yet known, “the challenges may be significant.” In response to the 2022 energy crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the government of then-Prime Minister Liz Truss subsidized the bill of every household in the country — a policy backed by the Labour Party at the time. But Reeves today criticized the “unfunded, untargeted” 2022 package, saying it had pushed up borrowing, interest rates and inflation. Between 2022 and 2024, households in the top income decile received an average £1,350 of direct energy bill support, Reeves said, contributing to national debt “still being paid today.” However, the chancellor stopped short of explicitly ruling out a similar approach. She said: “Contingency planning is taking place for every eventuality so that we can keep costs down for everyone and provide support for those who need it most, acting within our ironclad fiscal rules to keep inflation and interest rates as low as possible.” The government has already announced a £53 million package of support for households that use heating oil, which are not protected by the energy price cap. The majority of households that use gas and electricity will not see prices rise until July, when the next price cap period ends. The latest expert projections suggest the average annual bill could rise by more than £200 from current levels. On fuel pricing, Reeves said the government would give an update “within the next month,” amid pressure from opposition parties to extend a longstanding five pence tax relief on gasoline and diesel — the fuel duty cut — beyond its expiry date in September. U.K. gasoline prices have have risen by nearly 16 pence per liter since the war began, while diesel has risen by more than 31 pence.

LONDON — Countries focused on reopening the Strait of Hormuz will meet for a security summit in the near future, which the U.K. has offered to host. More than 30 nations including United Arab Emirates, the U.K., France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands have now signed a joint statement agreeing to work on “appropriate efforts” to safeguard the major trade route. A British official, granted anonymity because they are not authorized to speak on the record, said Tuesday the U.K. wanted to help “build this coalition and develop momentum” in order to “open a route safe through the Strait of Hormuz, and provide that reassurance to merchant shipping.” They added that cooperation between like-minded partners would include a security conference on the topic, which could be hosted in London or Portsmouth, the home of the Royal Navy on the south coast of England. NATO chief Mark Rutte and British PM Keir Starmer now appear to be leading the push to restart traffic through the Strait, despite skepticism from other allies. The same British official discussed options for securing the channel, such as deploying autonomous minehunting systems from a mothership in the Gulf, while conceding this would not be possible while the current level of hostilities continue. They expressed confidence that “we will see different nations coming forwards with different offers to support us”and “we will be able to find in the right conditions a coalition that will be able to provide that assurance to the merchant shipping industry.”

BERLIN — German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Tuesday condemned U.S. President Donald Trump for going to war with Iran, calling the conflict a violation of international law and warning of a transatlantic rupture comparable to Germany’s break with Russia. Steinmeier’s role in German politics is largely ceremonial, but his sharp criticism of the war and the U.S. president is likely to put additional pressure on German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has stopped short of other European leaders in calling the war illegal even as he has grown increasingly critical of what he sees as the lack of an exit strategy on the part of the U.S. and Israel. “This war violates international law,” said Steinmeier, who is a member of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), which rules in a coalition with Merz’s conservatives and has been more critical of the ongoing attacks. “There is little doubt that, in any case, the justification of an imminent attack on the U.S. does not hold water,” he added. Steinmeier, speaking in front of an audience of German diplomats in Berlin, criticized Trump for withdrawing from the nuclear deal with Iran during his first term in office. The president, who served as Germany’s foreign minister from 2013 to 2017, had helped negotiate that deal. “This war is also — and please bear with me when I say this, as someone directly involved — a politically disastrous mistake,” said Steinmeier. “And that’s what frustrates me the most. A truly avoidable, unnecessary war, if its goal was to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.” Despite the president’s largely symbolic role, his strident criticism is likely to fuel a growing domestic debate over Germany’s stance on the Iran war and its relationship with the U.S. Merz and his fellow conservatives were initially far more supportive of the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran than many other EU countries, arguing that Germany shares the goal of regime change in Tehran. But as the conflict has expanded and the economic and security effects on the EU’s biggest economy have become clearer, the chancellor has become far more openly critical, saying the war has raised “major questions” about Europe’s security. Steinmeier, who refrained from criticizing Israel directly, also compared the transatlantic rift during Trump’s second term to Germany’s divorce from Russia in the wake of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. “Just as I believe there will be no going back to the way things were before February 24, 2022 in our relationship with Russia, so I believe there will be no going back to the way things were before January 20, 2025 in transatlantic relations,” Steinmeier said, referring to the day of Trump’s second inauguration. “The rupture is too deep.” Steinmeier then urged his country to become more independent of the U.S., both in terms of defense and technology, arguing that such autonomy is necessary to prevent Trump administration interference in his country’s domestic politics. The German military “must become the backbone of conventional defense in Europe,” he said. “In the technological sphere, our dependence on the U.S. is even greater. This makes it all the more important that we do not simply accept this situation.”

European countries should not rush into social media bans for children, human rights adviser Michael O’Flaherty told POLITICO. The comments come as many EU countries push to restrict minors’ access to social media, citing mental health concerns. In France, the parliament’s upper house is this week debating restrictions that President Emmanuel Macron has said will be in place as soon as September. Such bans are neither “proportionate nor necessary,” said O’Flaherty, the commissioner for human rights at the Council of Europe, the continent’s top human rights body, adding that there “are other ways to address the curse of abusive material online.” The debate on how to protect children from the harms of social media “goes straight to bans without looking at all the other options that could be in play,” he told POLITICO. Restricting access to social media presents “issues of human rights, because a child has a right to receive information just like anybody else.” O’Flaherty’s concerns come amid live discussions on the merits and effectiveness of bans in Europe. Australia became the first country in the world to ban minors under 16 from creating accounts on social media platforms like Instagram in late 2025, and Brazil moved forward with its own measures last week. Now France, Denmark, Spain and Greece are among the EU countries heading toward bans, albeit on different timelines. Proponents argue that age-related restrictions setting a minimum age for the most addictive social media platforms are vital to protect children’s physical and mental health. Critics say that bans are ineffective and are detrimental to privacy because they require users to verify themselves online. O’Flaherty argued that — while children’s rights to access information could be curtailed if that overall limited their risks — any restrictions need to be proportionate and necessary. That must follow a serious effort by the EU to tackle illegal and harmful content on social media, he said, which hasn’t happened yet. “We haven’t remotely tried hard enough yet to ensure effective oversight of the platforms.” The human rights chief praised the EU’s digital laws as world-leading, including the Digital Services Act, which seeks to protect kids from systemic risks on online platforms — but said it wasn’t being policed strongly enough. “We have a very piecemeal enforcement of the Digital Services Act and the other relevant rulebook right across Europe. It’s very much dependent on the goodwill and the capacity of the different governments to be serious about it,” he said. Governments have “an uneven record” in that regard, he said. The European Commission, in charge of enforcing the DSA on large social media platforms, is considering its own measures. | Thierry Monasse/Getty Images EU countries must make sure they have exhausted all other solutions before heading for the extreme measures of bans, he said. “I don’t see much sign of that effort.” Still, Denmark, Spain and Greece are among the EU countries heading toward bans, although they are on vastly different timelines. The European Commission, in charge of enforcing the DSA on large social media platforms, is considering its own measures. Countries like Greece have called on the Commission to go forth with an EU-wide ban to avoid fragmentation across the bloc. President Ursula von der Leyen has convened a panel of experts to advise her on next steps, which is expected to give its results by the summer.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said he speaks to his counterparts in Russia, Serbia, Israel, the United States and Turkey both before and after EU meetings on foreign affairs. “I speak not only with the Russian foreign minister, but also with the U.S., the Turkish, the Israeli, the Serbian ones, and our other partners before and after the meetings of the Council of the European Union,” Szijjártó said at a campaign rally Monday evening. “The situation is that many decisions are being made in the European Union that influence the relations and cooperation of Hungary with other countries outside the EU,” he said, adding: “That’s what foreign policy is about. Perhaps I’m saying something rough, but diplomacy is about us talking to leaders of other countries.” A report at the weekend in the Washington Post claimed Budapest maintained close contacts with the Kremlin throughout the war in Ukraine and that Szijjártó used breaks during EU meetings to update his Russian counterpart.  Szijjártó on Sunday accused Donald Tusk of “spreading lies and fake news” when the Polish prime minister wrote on X that the revelations about calls with Russia were not a surprise. “We’ve had our suspicions about that for a long time,” Tusk said. Hungary’s Europe Minister János Bóka also denied the report, telling POLITICO: “It is fake news that is now being spread as a desperate reaction to [Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s] Fidesz gaining momentum in the election campaign.” The reports are “greatly concerning” as trust between member countries and the bloc’s institutions is fundamental to the EU’s functioning, Commission foreign affairs spokesperson Anitta Hipper said Monday. The Commission is waiting for “clarifications” from the Hungarian government, she added.

Viktor Orbán’s block on a loan for Ukraine is not the United States’ issue, said Washington’s ambassador to the EU, days after Donald Trump endorsed the Hungarian prime minister’s reelection campaign. “This is an internal EU issue, this isn’t a United States issue; they need to resolve the issue of how they’re going to finance Ukraine to the extent to which they’re gonna finance it,” Andrew Puzder told POLITICO in an interview. The U.S. has stepped up pressure on Europe to increase its financial aid to Ukraine since Donald Trump returned to office. All EU countries agreed on a €90 billion loan to Ukraine, but Orbán changed his mind after Russian oil stopped flowing through the Druzhba pipeline. Despite Trump’s close ties to Orbán, Puzder said it’s up to the EU to find a way to finance Kyiv. “Whether that loan goes through and the condition in which it goes through is something for the EU to resolve internally, and I have every confidence that they will resolve it,” Puzder said. He added that the U.S. is “happy” to sell more weapons to Ukraine that Kyiv could pay for with the EU loan. Trump on Saturday endorsed Orbán ahead of the April 12 election, in a video streamed at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Budapest. “He’s a fantastic guy, and it’s such an honor to endorse him. I endorsed him last time he won, and he did a fantastic job for his country,” Trump said. Asked if accusations that Hungary’s foreign minister informed Moscow about internal EU talks would change Washington’s stance toward Orbán, Puzder said that’s “obviously a decision that the president has to make,” but that Trump “likes” the Hungarian prime minister. “They’ve been supportive of each other, and that’s certainly the president’s call.” Puzder declined to comment on the allegations but said he has “very good relationships” with Hungary’s representatives in Brussels. “I think Hungary has been very friendly to the United States, and we do share views on certain issues with Hungary,” he said, citing migration as a key point of convergence. He said the EU is now adopting the Hungarian model by hardening its migration policy.  “I think a lot of the dust that’s been thrown in the air with respect to Hungary and its relationship with the European Union will settle down after the election. No matter which party wins, I think a lot of this will settle once the election’s over,” Puzder added.

BRUSSELS — The European Union should loosen its “rigid” adherence to climate neutrality and allow itself to miss its 2050 net-zero goal by up to 10 percent, Germany’s minister for energy and economy told a major oil and gas conference in the United States. Speaking at the annual CERAWeek conference in Texas late Monday, Katherina Reiche called the EU’s goal to slash its planet-warming pollution to net zero by mid-century into question. Europe, for a long time, “had left a corridor, there wasn’t a net-zero … it was, for Europe, a goal [to reduce emissions] between 85 and 95 percent,” she claimed, likely referring to a non-binding European Commission roadmap from 2011. “There is a flexibility we have to get back, accept not 100 percent solutions but allowing different solutions and technologies and accept that there might be a gap of maybe a 5 or 10 percent by 2050,” she added. “If you have strict and rigid goals, you bind yourself, it ends up that you lose industries that you need … and we can’t afford that we lose our energy-intensive industries in Europe and in Germany.” Reiche’s comments mark a rare departure from the EU consensus. The bloc set itself a net-zero by 2050 goal in 2019, with only Poland not formally committing to the new milestone. Last year, EU governments agreed on an intermediate target to slash the bloc’s emissions by up to 90 percent by 2040. Germany has set itself even stricter goals, aiming to become climate neutral by 2045. Throughout her remarks at CERAWeek, Reiche stressed that economic growth must come before green targets. “At the end of the day, it is good to have a goal of sustainability — but if sustainability crashes your economy, you have to readjust,” she said. “And that’s what we’re doing right now.” In Germany, Reiche has in recent months unveiled plans to build out gas power plants, scrap the previous government’s gas boiler phaseout, remove subsidies for rooftop solar panels, and deprioritize the connection of renewables from the country’s power grid. She also told the Texas audience that Germany should drill for fossil fuels in the North Sea, saying: “We have a gas field in the North Sea, which we don’t want to explore. I think we can’t stick to this attitude. We have to also go into our own reserves.” And she insisted: “I am not speaking against sustainability, and not against a climate target. But if a climate target ignores other things you have to think of, especially affordability and abundance … you have to change course.” Mike Lee contributed to this report from Texas.

European consumer group Euroconsumers along with Football Supporters Europe have filed a complaint with the European Commission accusing FIFA of abusing its monopoly over World Cup ticket sales to impose excessive prices and unfair conditions on fans. The complaint, obtained by POLITICO, alleges breaches of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which prohibits abuses of a dominant market position. “FIFA has a complete monopoly over World Cup ticket sales,” said Romane Armangau, a spokesperson for Euroconsumers. “They are using that power to charge prices that would not exist in a normal competitive market, while hiding information from buyers and manipulating them into rushed decisions.” The groups point to a range of alleged abusive practices, including limited transparency on ticket categories and seat allocation, a “variable pricing” system that can push prices higher over time, and the actual scarcity of tickets advertised from $60. “When you buy that ticket, you don’t actually know what you’re buying,” Armangau said. “It means attending the 2026 World Cup has become financially out of reach for most ordinary supporters,” she added, pointing to tickets to the final that now start at more than $4,000. Fans can also face additional costs, including resale fees of around 15 percent, according to the complaint. The groups further accuse FIFA of using “dark patterns” — design and marketing tactics that create artificial urgency — to pressure fans into buying tickets. The filing lands as pressure on FIFA is already building in Brussels. In an interview with POLITICO earlier this month, EU Sports Commissioner Glenn Micallef warned of the safety risks for fans travelling to the 2026 World Cup, citing concerns linked to the war in Iran. He said FIFA had yet to provide renewed assurances for supporters, stressing that “since one of the hosts of this biggest sporting event in the world is party to a war, it’s only legitimate that assurances are given.” Micallef also criticized FIFA’s partnership with U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace,” a body widely seen in Europe as an attempt to sidestep the United Nations. The complaint to the EU leans on a December 2023 Super League court ruling, which said FIFA and UEFA can fall under EU competition law when they organize and market competitions as economic activities. The filing argues that reasoning applies here too, because FIFA is the sole seller of World Cup tickets and is allegedly abusing that dominant position. While Brussels has previously scrutinized sports governing bodies, targeting FIFA’s ticketing and pricing practices would open a new front. Euroconsumers and its partners are urging the European Commission to intervene, including by imposing price caps and forcing greater transparency over ticket sales. “We are asking the Commission to act immediately with interim measures,” Armangau said. “Once those matches are played, the harm to fans cannot be undone.”

PARIS — C’est un petit séisme rue de Montpensier, siège du Conseil constitutionnel. Sa secrétaire générale, Aurélie Bretonneau, a été remerciée par Richard Ferrand, a appris POLITICO auprès de quatre sources internes. Dans un courriel envoyé en interne lundi 23 mars en fin de journée — et que POLITICO a pu consulter — Aurélie Bretonneau indique : “Le président Ferrand m’a annoncé avoir proposé au président de la République de mettre fin à mes fonctions en raison de divergences de vues sur la conduite de l’institution.” Ce limogeage inattendu doit désormais être officialisé par un décret en Conseil des ministres. Si les relations entre le président et sa secrétaire générale n’étaient pas au beau fixe d’après deux sources internes, aucun signe avant-coureur ne laissait présager une telle décision. Celle-ci surprend d’autant plus que la nomination d’Aurélie Bretonneau, fin mars 2025, avait été validée par Richard Ferrand, tout juste installé à la tête du Conseil constitutionnel. DES TENSIONS SUR LES ORDONNANCES Entre les deux, des “divergences” ont toutefois émergé ces derniers mois, notamment “sur la place du droit”, d’après deux sources internes. Selon l’une d’elles, des tensions sont apparues à la fin de l’année dernière. Le gouvernement envisageait alors de recourir aux ordonnances pour faire adopter son budget. Un débat entre spécialistes a rapidement émergé sur la compétence de la Rue de Montpensier dans pareil cas. La secrétaire générale a détaillé sa position dans une note, estimant d’une part que le contrôle du texte reviendrait au Conseil d’Etat et non au Conseil constitutionnel et d’autre part que ces ordonnances devaient se borner à la copie initiale présentée par le gouvernement, et donc sans la possibilité de conserver des amendements. Deux points dont le sens a déplu à Richard Ferrand. “Aurélie Bretonneau n’est pas du genre à transiger sur la défense de l’Etat de droit, ni sur la rigueur du raisonnement juridique, ni sur l’indépendance de l’institution. Si c’est cela qui a dérangé, c’est un problème majeur”, confie une haute fonctionnaire, qui dit son “immense perplexité”. Après trois années comme numéro deux du Secrétariat général du gouvernement, cette conseillère d’Etat avait succédé à Jean Maïa, qui avait épaulé Laurent Fabius pendant près de huit ans comme secrétaire général. A ce poste stratégique, elle pilotait le travail juridique de l’institution, supervisait l’instruction des dossiers et veillait à la solidité des décisions rendues rue de Montpensier. Contacté lundi soir, Richard Ferrand n’a pas répondu à l’heure où nous publions ces lignes. Aurélie Bretonneau n’a pas non plus souhaité commenter.