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.”

BRUSSELS — Elon Musk’s X has met its deadline for the €120 million fine issued by the EU in December, a European Commission spokesperson confirmed. The cooperation with the EU comes as X continues a legal challenge against the decision. Under the ruling announced in December, X had a deadline this month to pay the fine and to offer remedies on the design of blue checkmarks for verified accounts on its service. “Both of them have been done,” Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said. Meeting the deadline means X either paying the fine or offering a financial guarantee that it will do so should its appeal against the fine fail. “One of the two options” has been met, Regnier said, adding: “The Commission is really not in the habit of communicating about financial transactions happening between private businesses and the Commission.” X declined to comment for this story. The Commission in December found X in breach of the EU’s platform law, the Digital Services Act, for the design of blue checkmarks and for failing to meet transparency obligations. Both Musk and U.S. Republicans expressed strong dissatisfaction with the fine when it was issued, describing it as an attack on free speech. The company is appealing the decision at the Court of Justice of the European Union. It also submitted a proposal to address the design of its blue checkmarks on March 10. X has until April 28 to submit remedies on the other two counts where they accuse the platform of breaches: advertising and data transparency. The Commission will analyze X’s proposal to see if it addresses the concerns and could impose further penalties should X fail to implement them.

The EU has failed to hold the U.S. accountable for breaches of international law, its former diplomacy chief has warned, accusing European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen of a power grab and calling for the trade pact she negotiated with Washington to be rejected. In comments to POLITICO’s Brussels Playbook, Josep Borrell — who served as von der Leyen’s vice president and high representative for foreign affairs from 2019-2024 — said the U.S. war against Iran “is illegal under international law [and] not justified by an imminent threat as some claimed.” According to Borrell, von der Leyen has “continued to overstep her functions” by conducting foreign policy, which he insists the EU’s foundational treaty “clearly states” is not within her competence. “She is systematically biased in favor of the U.S. and Israel,” he went on, despite Europe “suffering from the consequences in terms of energy prices, while [U.S. President Donald] Trump gloats that this is good for the U.S. because they are oil exporters.” Trump has given several different rationales for the start of the war with Iran, including removing the country’s repressive regime and preventing it from gaining offensive nuclear capabilities. Borrell, a Spanish socialist who since leaving office has served as the president of the Barcelona Center for International Affairs, praised the approach of Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, who has been Europe’s fiercest critic of Trump’s strikes on Iran. Borrell argued that his successor as the EU’s chief diplomat, former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, should “be clearer on condemning breaches of international law, whether done by Russia, Israel or the U.S.” because “we lose credibility [when] we use selectively international norms.” Representatives for Kallas did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The former top diplomat, who has long been critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza and has increasingly turned fire on the Commission since finishing his mandate, said the EU should not move ahead with the ratification of the trade agreement von der Leyen and Trump struck in Scotland last summer. “The deal was unfair from the beginning,” Borrell said. “They imposed 15 percent tariffs on us and we reduce our tariffs on them.” The criticism comes as von der Leyen faces a growing rebellion from Spanish socialists from Sánchez’s party, who form an important part of her own dominant coalition in the European Parliament. Senior lawmakers last week condemned comments from the Commission president in which she declared “Europe can no longer be a custodian for the old-world order, for a world that has gone and will not return.” Representatives for von der Leyen declined to comment. Von der Leyen has measured her criticism of the U.S. and Israel, saying that the Iranian regime deserves to fall but urging diplomatic solutions to the conflict. The European Commission President used her State of the Union speech in September to say she would halt bilateral payments to Israel and sanction “extremist ministers.” Spain will hold parliamentary elections by August next year at the latest, and von der Leyen’s center-right European People’s Party is hoping to take control of the government — with its national affiliate, the Partido Popular, polling consistently ahead of Sánchez’s socialists. Borrell also weighed into the EU’s dilemma over how to unblock €90 billion in much-needed funds for Ukraine after Hungary and Slovakia vetoed the plan at the last moment, having called on Kyiv to repair a pipeline carrying Russian oil to their countries via Ukrainian territory. The two governments, he said, “openly breached the principle of sincere cooperation which is part of the Treaties” by reneging on their agreement. “The is an issue for the Court. The other 25 could provide a bridge loan until the EU loan is approved,” Borrell said, dismissing the charm offensive employed by the bloc’s current leadership. Representatives for von der Leyen declined to comment, while representatives for Kallas did not immediately respond.

America’s ambassadors in Europe are targeting just one person with their charm offensive: President Donald Trump. Everyone else — including key U.S. allies — can expect little charm and plenty of offense.  The American president’s friends, fellow real estate developers and political donors who have been awarded EU ambassadorships during Trump’s second term are ruffling feathers in their host capitals.  Their coarser style of diplomacy — America’s answer to China’s wolf warriors, who also relished defying convention and skewering their hosts — is not a bug in the system. It is the new system.  For Trump’s envoys, “the target audience is always one person. One person only,” said Eric Rubin, the former head of the American Foreign Service Association who served as ambassador to Bulgaria during Trump’s first term. The feelings of their hosts are incidental to the key tasks: courting Trump’s attention and approval — and shifting the center of European politics sharply toward the right.  The two most conspicuous envoys riling European governments are Charles Kushner in Paris and Tom Rose in Warsaw. When Charles Kushner decried French antisemitism in a letter to President Emmanuel Macron, he didn’t send it to the Élysée Palace but wrote it in the Wall Street Journal. | Julien De Rosa/AFP via Getty Images Rose tagged Trump twice in a post announcing he was severing ties to the speaker of Poland’s parliament, Włodzimierz Czarzasty, over “outrageous and unprovoked insults.” Czarzasty had said that Trump did not deserve to win a Nobel Peace Prize.  When Kushner, the ambassador to Paris who is father-in-law to Trump’s eldest daughter, decried French antisemitism in a letter to President Emmanuel Macron, he didn’t send it to the Élysée Palace, nor to Le Monde. He wrote it in the Wall Street Journal.   Last week the relationship soured further after the U.S. embassy in Paris offered pointed political commentary during the aftermath of the killing of a far-right activist. Kushner further angered the French by ignoring a summons to the foreign ministry, before a “frank and amicable” phone call smoothed things over, according to the U.S. mission in Paris on Monday.   U.S. Ambassador to Belgium Bill White, who describes the president as a friend, set three Trump-friendly priorities for embassy staff for 2026, according to two people with knowledge of the internal dynamics at the mission. Like others in this article, they were granted anonymity to protect their jobs or relationships.  Fully in line with Trump’s emphasis in his State of the Union address on commemorating the 1776 declaration of independence, White insisted on big parties to to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary. He also hosted a February screening for a film about first lady Melania Trump and has prioritized media appearances that will keep him on the president’s radar. Similarly keen to keep a high profile on the channels Trump favors, NATO Ambassador Matthew Whitaker, widely viewed as one of Trump’s least abrasive ambassadors in Europe, prefers to appear on Fox News and Newsmax above other media. Visitors to the residence of the U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg Stacey Feinberg, who was a close friend of the slain rightwing activist Charlie Kirk, will find red MAGA hats adorning the furniture, according to photos shared with POLITICO.   Multiple U.S. embassies in Europe and the State Department either declined to comment for this article or did not respond. UNDIPLOMATIC CORPS U.S. diplomats stepping on European toes is nothing new. During Trump’s first term ambassadors Richard Grenell in Berlin and Gordon Sondland in Brussels kicked hard against diplomatic norms. While Joe Biden’s man in Hungary David Pressman repeatedly criticized the government of Viktor Orbán. Nor is it unusual for the U.S. to hand plum European posts to big donors and other political appointees, rather than career diplomats. But State Department officials, former and current, complain these latest breaches of diplomatic behavior go a step further and undermine American interests and relationships nurtured for over two centuries.  “If you refuse to go to a meeting when summoned so you can work on improving the relationship, why are you even there? It’s childish, it’s embarrassing, and it drops any pretense you’re there to help your country,” one U.S. diplomat said.   “I mean, frankly, it’s rude,” a former senior State Department official added.  In the past, policy decisions and public statements would be carefully calibrated and run through multiple departments via the National Security Council and the huge State Department bureaucracy.   That process has largely been replaced by freelancing ambassadors communicating with a small group of political appointees in the White House, said Rubin.   “This is the first time in certainly our history, but probably in modern history, where a big power is attempting to conduct diplomacy without diplomats and without experts and without analysts,” he said.  The marching orders for every flashpoint involving U.S. ambassadors can be found in the lines of the National Security Strategy, published in December. It set American diplomats the task of “cultivating resistance” to the path set by Europe’s current set of leaders and celebrated the rise of “patriotic” far right parties, seen as aligned with Trump’s MAGA movement.  It takes two to have a diplomatic fight, however, and not all European countries have taken the bait.  U.S. ambassador to the U.K. Warren Stephens has “key themes he is keen to speak on” including energy and free speech, according to one U.S. official, and is “not afraid to speak his mind.” He voiced many of those during a dinner speech while standing within arms reach of British Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy in November. These interventions have raised eyebrows inside the British establishment, but so far the U.K. government has soaked up the punches.  In Greece too, Kimberly Guilfoyle the former fiancée of Trump’s son Donald Jr., has charmed and bemused in equal measure. Despite goading the Greeks over the sale of the port of Piraeus to China, her relations with her hosts in Athens are, in her telling, exceptionally rosy.   “We see each other probably three or four times a week,” she said of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during an event last week. The same went for multiple government ministers, she added. “They always take the call. It doesn’t matter if it’s the weekend, they will come over if we meet at my house, they show up.”  Esther Webber contributed reporting from London, Nektaria Stamouli from Athens and Victor Jack from Brussels.

LONDON — U.S. President Donald Trump has U-turned on his threat to raise new global tariffs to 15 percent, sparing Britain and the European Union from higher rates. Tariffs on exports to the United States will, for now, remain at 10 percent under the White House’s new regime, which took effect on Tuesday morning. Trump’s decision not to follow through on the threat means continuity for British businesses. U.K. exports already faced 10 percent duties, plus Most Favored Nation (MFN) rates, under Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs. It also sees a similar level of tariffs applied to exports from the European Union. Products coming from the EU previously paid 15 percent, or the MFN rate, depending on which was higher. The European Parliament froze ratification of the EU’s trade deal with the U.S. on Monday amid concerns that Trump’s latest tariff broadside breaches the terms of the transatlantic accord struck last summer. Speaking with USTR Jamieson Greer over the weekend, U.K. trade chief Peter Kyle “underlined his concerns about further uncertainty for business” and reinforced “the need to honor the U.K.-U.S. deal” reached last May, a No. 10 spokesperson told reporters on Monday. The deal lowered Trump’s sectoral tariffs on steel and aluminum, autos and aerospace. Trump’s new duties will apply to exports not covered by the Economic Prosperity Deal (EPD). Trump’s latest tariffs will be imposed for 150 days from today under Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act as Greer and his department carry out further investigations using tools like Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to impose additional sectoral tariffs. After the 150 days expire, Congress could also vote to extend the 1duties. “What will happen when the 150-day period allowed by the act expires?” asked Duncan Edwards, CEO of BritishAmerican Business. Congress, he said, “will have to decide whether the trade policies promised by this administration during the election become enshrined in law. Given the narrow margins in both houses of Congress, a definitive answer looks unlikely, so business would be wise to expect continued uncertainty.”

The European Commission on Tuesday launched a wide-ranging probe into Chinese online marketplace Shein after child-like sex dolls and weapons were sold on the site. The marketplace has been under fire from regulators across Europe and particularly in France after the items were found among its listings in November. Announcing its first formal investigation of the company, the Commission said it is investigating whether Shein violated the Digital Services Act, the EU’s law regulating online platforms, in numerous ways. Probes can take years to conclude, but breaches can lead to 6 percent fines of the company’s annual global revenue. The EU executive suspects the marketplace breached the law because it didn’t properly assess and mitigate the risks of illegal goods being sold on the platform, a senior Commission official said in a briefing with journalists. These goods also include unsafe toys and cosmetics. The Commission is also investigating the addictive design of Shein’s platform — specifically its bonus point programs and the gamification of the shopping experience — which may harm consumers’ mental and physical wellbeing, the official said. The scrutiny also extends to Shein’s recommender system and its transparency. Shein takes its “obligations under the Digital Services Act seriously and have always cooperated fully” with European regulators, said company spokesperson Martin Reidy. Reidy said the platform has in the last few months made investments “significantly in measures to strengthen” its compliance, such as “comprehensive systemic-risk assessments and mitigation frameworks, enhanced protections for younger users, and ongoing work to design our services in ways that promote a safe and trusted user experience.” Shein said in January it was putting age checks in place to make sure underage users can’t access items they shouldn’t — a bid to address concerns that the site was failing to protect children from adult items such as regular sex dolls. The Commission is monitoring how Shein puts these age checks in place, another official said. But it doesn’t have enough evidence to start an investigation into whether the platform also violated provisions around the protection of minors. Ireland’s regulator, Coimisiún na Meán, is also sending a request for information to Shein on Tuesday, specifically looking into its protections for minors, the first Commission official said. Ireland has jurisdiction over Shein because the platform’s EU headquarters are located there. Tuesday’s announcement comes as the Commission is accelerating the enforcement of its DSA platforms law. It announced this month that TikTok is in breach of the rules and should make significant changes, including to infinite scrolling, to avoid penalties.

STRASBOURG — A battle for the European Parliament’s most senior posts is underway. More than a year out from a planned midterm reshuffle that will see the Parliament’s leadership posts reallocated in early 2027, the plotting and jostling has already begun. Groups of lawmakers are adding top jobs talks to their agendas in anticipation of plum positions — from the president to committee leadership to key roles in the political groups — coming up for grabs. This time, the Parliament’s two biggest factions are on a collision course over who gets the coveted president post. Meanwhile, the far-right firewall sees its latest challenge in the contest for powerful roles, and a new Russia-friendly grouping is in the works. Here are five flashpoints to watch: THE BATTLE FOR PARLIAMENT PRESIDENT It’s no secret that current Parliament President Roberta Metsola would like a third term (which would make her the longest-serving president of the assembly) — neither Metsola nor European People’s Party chief Manfred Weber denies it. The S&D has not yet pushed a candidate to replace Metsola — a fact that hasn’t escaped some of the party’s own allies. | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images Parliament presidents are elected for two-and-a-half-year stints, which are renewable. Each Parliament term is five years. Metsola signaled that a third term remained a possibility last June after she ruled out going back to Malta to become her national party’s leader. When asked by POLITICO whether she intended to run again at a press conference in October, she replied: “We are still 15 months away from the midterms and I’m here to deliver every day for the job that I was elected to do.” Several lawmakers and officials said Metsola is working toward securing another term. “She’s in full campaign mode, giving favors to MEPs and officials,” said a liberal Renew MEP, granted anonymity to speak freely, as were others quoted in this piece. The push would put Metsola and the EPP on a collision course with the Socialists and Democrats, the Parliament’s second-biggest group, which claims it should get the presidency as part of a power-sharing arrangement signed at the beginning of the term. But the EPP has remained vague about whether they committed to any such deal. The S&D hasn’t yet pushed a candidate to replace Metsola — a fact that hasn’t escaped some of the party’s own allies. One Green lawmaker, when asked whether they would support the Socialists, said “I will think about it when they have a candidate, I cannot support a vague claim for a post.” All the infighting between the EPP and S&D has opened the door for Renew Europe, the third member of the centrist coalition, to start thinking about suggesting a compromise candidate, two Renew lawmakers said. WILL FAR RIGHT SECURE LEADERSHIP POSITIONS? The reshuffle will again test the so-called cordon sanitaire, an informal arrangement among centrist forces to keep the far right out of decision-making. In practice, that rule no longer applies when it comes to passing laws — the EPP has in the past year voted with the far right on topics such as migration and deregulation. However, Weber said in an interview with POLITICO last year that it was a “red line” for him and his political family “to give any role for right-extreme politicians here in this house, to represent the institution, to be power holders on the administrative side, and also on other aspects where you have an executive role.” Liberal and center-left groups say they don’t trust Weber because of the cooperation between the EPP and the far right, and suspect he could use the Parliament’s vice-presidencies and committee leaderships as bargaining chips to secure support for another term for Metsola. The EPP’s ranks are also beginning to wonder whether it’s possible to keep far-right groups from power in Brussels while they govern in national capitals. “What are we supposed to do when [Jordan] Bardella is president of France?” asked an EPP MEP, noting a country as big as France can’t be sidelined from top positions in Brussels. Weber has a solid grip on the EPP after 12 years at its helm — even if critics point out that his long rule is precisely why the leadership needs refreshing. | Thierry Monasse/Getty Images After big gains in the 2024 EU election, the far-right Patriots and Europe of Sovereign Nations groups weren’t given any Parliament vice-presidencies or committee chairmanships and vice-chairmanships. Although those decisions were taken through democratic votes, the Patriots — the third-largest group in the Parliament — have challenged them before the Court of Justice of the EU. They argue that it is discriminatory and breaks the Parliament’s own internal rules, which say that leadership positions should reflect the composition of the chamber. If the court decides in their favor (no date has been given for that ruling), the Patriots could make big gains. PLOTS TO DETHRONE POLITICAL GROUP LEADERS When positions are uncertain and lawmakers sense an opportunity, talk of coups tends to surface — and left-wing and liberal groups appear most vulnerable. For the Greens, the current co-chairs — Terry Reintke and Bas Eickhout — both hail from the pragmatist wing of the group, willing to compromise to secure incremental wins. But the more idealistic faction is increasingly frustrated with what they see as a too-soft approach to opposition in the Parliament, and is pushing for a stronger voice — setting the stage for a potential internal clash. Similarly, Renew Europe is divided between a left-leaning, greener faction and a more economically liberal right-leaning wing. Both factions think the other is planning to challenge the incumbent, Valérie Hayer, whose position is weakened by French President Emmanuel Macron’s fading support in polls, according to four liberal officials. The Slovak, Dutch and Belgian delegations have been floated as potential alternatives, but no name has yet emerged as a viable contender. In The Left group, an early-term agreement held that a Greek lawmaker would succeed Germany’s Martin Schirdewan as co-chair. But the Greek delegation has lost half its four members over the past year, opening the door for others to stake a claim, two group officials said.  The rest of the group leaders seem more secure.  Weber has a solid grip on the EPP after 12 years at its helm — even if critics point out that his long rule is precisely why the leadership needs refreshing. The right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists and the far-right Patriots for Europe groups are also likely to keep the same leadership.  For the S&D, everything hinges on whether they can secure the Parliament presidency — a prize that would be fought over by the bloc’s national heavyweights: the Spaniards, the Italians and the Germans. Renew is currently the Parliament’s fifth-largest group and is eyeing fourth place, currently held by ECR. | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images If the S&D doesn’t get the presidency, those national camps could instead fight over who chairs the group, currently Spain’s Iratxe García. But as long as Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s fragile left-wing government doesn’t fall, García is likely to be safe as she will have the backing of one big EU country. LAWMAKERS ON THE MOVE Lukas Sieper, from the German Party of Progress, announced last week that he’ll be joining the Renew Europe group — pending confirmation by members of his party. He’ll move from the ranks of non-attached MEPs. The move kicked off what is shaping up to be a year of backroom bargaining and political horse-trading, as groups court lawmakers they believe can be peeled away from rivals with the right mix of promises. “Obviously, each of the groups in this Parliament has an interest in growing to gain influence,” Renew chair Hayer said at a press conference last week when asked by POLITICO. “Of course we have an interest in gaining members.” Elisabetta Gualmini, an Italian MEP from Italy’s center-left Democratic Party, on Monday announced she was jumping ship from the S&D and joining the liberals of Renew. Renew is currently the Parliament’s fifth-largest group and is eyeing fourth place, currently held by the ECR. Renew is now just two seats away from matching the ECR’s MEPs total. All groups want more MEPs, as it brings more funding, more speaking time and determines the order of priority for speakers in meetings and debates. “Groups are reaching out to every single MEP that could flip; the MEP shopping is all over the place,” said a Greens parliamentary assistant. A NEW POLITICAL GROUP THAT’S CLOSE TO RUSSIA Cypriot YouTuber-turned-politician Fidias Panayiotou, along with the MEPs of Slovakia’s leftist-populist Smer party, are planning to start a new group, as first reported by POLITICO in June and confirmed by Fidias to Cypriot media last week. The lawmakers, along with those from Germany’s Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, visited Moscow for Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s Victory Day celebrations last year. While they currently lack the 23 MEPs from seven different countries that are required to form a group, the midterm reshuffle could make it possible.  The group’s unifying theme will be “peace and social justice,” and they are “pretty close” to reaching the needed number of lawmakers, an official with knowledge of the talks told POLITICO. “The idea is not to launch it with the minimum [number of MEPs], they want it to be stable.” 

LONDON — The European Commission is looking into whether former British politician Peter Mandelson broke EU rules over his contact with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Even though the U.K. left the EU six years ago, Mandelson remains bound by obligations that he signed up to during his time as a commissioner, from 2004 to 2008. Newly released files suggest Mandelson in 2010, while he was a senior minister in the U.K. government, may have given Epstein advance notice of a €500 billion bailout to save the euro at the height of the spiraling Greek debt crisis. European finance ministers agreed the deal overnight amid fears that the failing Greek economy could trigger a wider crisis across the eurozone. According to the files released in the U.S., Epstein, who was a financier, sent Mandelson an email the previous night saying: “Sources tell me 500 b euro bailout , almost complete.” Mandelson replied: “Sd be announced tonight.” The cabinet minister then said he was just leaving 10 Downing Street and “will call.” The British government decided not to take part in the bailout for the euro but was part of the talks that paved the way for the emergency measure, so would have known how events were progressing. On Tuesday, Balazs Ujvari, a spokesperson for the Commission said: “We have rules in place emanating from the treaty and the code of conduct that commissioners, including former commissioners, have to follow.” When there is an indication that the rules may not have been followed, the Commission looks into any potential breaches, he said. “We will be assessing if, in light of these newly available documents, there might be breaches of the respective rules with regard to Peter Mandelson.” Mandelson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He has previously said he was wrong to have continued his association with Epstein and apologized “unequivocally” to Epstein’s victims.

BRUSSELS — The European Commission on Friday announced an investigation into Slovakia over the dismantling of its whistleblower protection office. In its latest rule-of-law spat with Bratislava, the EU executive criticized leftist-populist leader Robert Fico for trying to replace the office with a new institution whose leadership would be politically appointed. “The Commission considers that this law breaches EU rules,” it wrote in an official note on Friday. Brussels’ move comes amid strong pressure from lawmakers and NGOs to act against Fico’s crackdown against independent institutions and suspected fraud involving EU farm funds. Zuzana Dlugošová, the head of the whistleblower protection office, said that she had repeatedly warned Slovak officials that the plans were in contradiction with EU law. “If expert feedback had been taken into account, Slovakia could have avoided EU infringement proceedings. Still, we believe that this process itself can help foster a more professional and substantive debate on how whistleblower protection should be properly set up in Slovakia,” Dlugošová said. Slovakia’s permanent representation in Brussels and interior ministry did not immediately respond to POLITICO’s requests for comment. Brussels has given Bratislava one month to respond to its queries before taking further action — which could potentially include cutting EU payouts to Slovakia after a multi-layered process. Since returning to power in 2023 for a fourth term, Fico’s Smer party has taken steps to dismantle anti-corruption institutions, including abolishing the Special Prosecutor’s Office, which handled high-profile corruption cases, and disbanding NAKA, an elite police unit tasked with fighting organized crime. “The European Commission’s decision … sends a clear message: protecting whistleblowers is not optional — it is a core obligation of every EU Member State,” Czech MEP Tomáš Zdechovský said in written remarks to POLITICO. Before launching the probe, the EU executive had pressed Slovakia to roll back on its anti-democratic crackdown. EU Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin encouraged Fico not to dismantle the whistleblower protection office during a meeting in Bratislava in December, according to two Commission officials with knowledge of proceedings who were not authorized to go on the record. Nevertheless, in December 2025, the Slovak parliament pushed through a bill that cut short the current director’s tenure and weakened protections for whistleblowers. It was set to enter into force in on Jan. 1 but Slovakia’s top court paused the disputed decision to review whether it complies with the constitution. German Green MEP Daniel Freund welcomed the Commission’s move but urged it to go even further. “The Commission needs to do more. Fico’s government has dismantled the special prosecutor for corruption, has dismantled the national crime agency and has changed the penal code to have hundreds of convicted corruption offenders walk free,” Freund told POLITICO. Slovakia is already subject to another infringement procedure, launched by the Commission in November, over a reform that enshrines only two genders in the constitution.

President Donald Trump is talking about taking over Greenland by any means necessary. Republicans in Congress are trying to scare him back to reality. As Trump continually threatens to bring the Danish territory into the U.S. over the objections of key global allies and the island’s elected representatives, some GOP lawmakers are stepping up their warnings and engaging in diplomacy as Democrats prepare to put the other party on record opposing a military invasion. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) predicted members on both sides of the aisle would lock arms and require congressional signoff if it became clear Trump was preparing imminent military action. “If there was any sort of action that looked like the goal was actually landing in Greenland and doing an illegal taking … there’d be sufficient numbers here to pass a war powers resolution and withstand a veto,” Tillis said. Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) went further, predicting that it would lead to impeachment and calling Trump’s Greenland obsession “the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.” The blunt public messaging comes as lawmakers try to reassure U.S. allies, including Denmark, in private. A bipartisan group of House and Senate lawmakers will be in Copenhagen Friday to try to drive home in person the message that military action does not have support on Capitol Hill. Senate Majority Leader John Thune is not joining the delegation but he largely endorsed the message the contingent plans to send in comments to reporters Thursday, saying “there’s certainly not an appetite here for some of the options that have been talked about or considered” — an apparent reference to military action. The pushback amounts to one of the most profound breaches yet seen between GOP lawmakers and the president in Trump’s second term. So far the Republican uneasiness over Trump’s brash foreign policy moves have not resulted in any successful steps to restrain him. Following the operation to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro earlier this month, five Republicans joined Democrats to advance a measure restraining Trump from future military incursions in the South American country. But on Wednesday, two of them reversed course and ended the threat after the administration made some commitments regarding future action. Democrats believe Greenland — sovereign territory belonging to a NATO ally — could be different. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, who co-authored the Venezuela measure and signaled a raft of new war-powers legislation, acknowledged to reporters Wednesday that prospects were dim that a veto-proof number of GOP senators would join Democrats’ efforts. But “we might on Greenland,” Kaine added. Thune’s predecessor as Republican leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, spoke out in a floor speech where he said military action against Greenland would be “an unprecedented act of strategic self-harm” that risks “incinerating” NATO alliances. Rep. Jeff Hurd (R-Colo.), meanwhile, said he was “deeply concerned” about the administration’s Greenland message. “I don’t think it is productive, and I don’t think this is the way to treat an ally,” he said, adding that he “would be opposed to military action in Greenland.” But even as more Republicans speak out about Trump’s Greenland ambitions, it’s not clear they could put preemptive guardrails on his actions in this Congress even if they wanted to. Instead, they appear to be hoping that Trump will read the writing on the wall and realize he doesn’t have support on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. Democrats are vowing to introduce a spate of war powers resolutions, including on Greenland, in the coming weeks and months. Yet even Tillis, who predicted overwhelming support for such a resolution in the case of “imminent” military action, said he would not currently support a measure to stop Trump from using force in the region because it would “legitimize” a threat he doesn’t think is now real. Instead, Tillis is using his megaphone as a retiring senator to launch broadsides against Trump’s top aides, whom he blames for some excesses of the administration. While a Greenland takeover might be supported by hard-line deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, Tillis said, “it’s not the position of the U.S. government.”That, he said, is “another reason I’m going to Copenhagen.” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who initially supported the Venezuela war powers resolution before backtracking, also said in an interview that he was not on board with a similar effort for Greenland. “Not prospectively,” Hawley said, adding that any such measure “needs to respond to really particular facts.” Any formal GOP pushback is likely to include Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) — co-founder of the Senate Arctic Caucus — who introduced a nonbinding resolution Thursday with Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Bacon that would affirm the U.S. partnership with Greenland and Denmark. The resolution stresses the “mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity” and that any military action would need congressional authorization. Murkowski, who met with Danish diplomats this week and is also traveling to Copenhagen, said she would support a Greenland war powers resolution if it came to that. She also introduced a bill with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) that would prohibit the administration from using funding to unilaterally blockade, occupy, annex or assert control over Greenland or any other territory belonging to a NATO country. “We are operating in times where we’re having conversations about things that we never thought even possible,” Murkowski said. “To use the name Greenland in the context of a war powers resolution is absolutely stunning.” While a war powers resolution can be fast-tracked to the floor, Greenland’s allies in the Senate can’t easily force a vote on the NATO measure or even the nonbinding resolution. And some Senate Republicans expressed skepticism that party leaders would let those latter measures go anywhere. “I’m sure Thune will jump on it like a bad rash,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said. Meredith Lee Hill and Joe Gould contributed to this report.