MADRID — A train collision that killed 45 people in southern Spain this month is piling even more political pressure on the struggling, Socialist-led government of Pedro Sánchez. Sánchez is already weaker than at any point during his eight years in power thanks to a string of corruption and sexual harassment scandals that have rocked his party over the past year. Sensing its moment to open another line of attack, the opposition is now seizing on the rail tragedy of Jan. 18 to accuse the government of neglecting vital public services. “It’s a general symptom of the fact that essential public services that depend on the government are not working,” said Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the conservative opposition People’s Party (PP). “It’s proof of their collapse. The state of the railway track reflects the state of the country.” The far-right Vox party also slammed the accident as “criminal incompetence” on the part of the government. Political analysts did not expect the political tussles over the rail disaster would be an immediate breaking point for Sánchez’s government, but noted the subject could harm the Socialists’ chances in regional elections in Aragón in the northeast of Spain in February, and in Castilla y León in the northwest in March. RAILWAY FEARS Trains are a major component of Spain’s logistical and economic infrastructure. Its high-speed network is the second-largest in the world after China, and carried some 40 million passengers over 2024, an increase of 22 percent compared with the previous year. In all, Spain’s rail network carried 549 million passengers in 2024. This month’s crash, near the town of Adamuz, was the country’s worst since 2013. A high-speed train derailed along a straight section of track and collided with an oncoming train. Investigators are focusing on a crack in the welding between an old section of track and a newer one as the potential cause of the derailment, although their probe continues. Crucially, the accident is being linked to broader fragility within the rail system, for which Sánchez’s government has to take some responsibility. Only two days after the Adamuz smash, a trainee driver died on a regional train in Catalonia after a wall collapsed onto the line near Barcelona. Several days of chaos ensued in the northeastern region as drivers demanded safety guarantees before returning to work and technical faults caused further disruption.  Safety precautions have led to temporary speed reductions on a number of high-speed routes across the country, including between Madrid and Barcelona after a crack in the track was discovered. “The challenge is not just to ensure reliable infrastructure, but also to restore Spaniards’ confidence” in the rail system, said El País national daily. POLITICAL IMPACT The sheer number of Sánchez’s allies that have been afflicted by scandals has sparked repeated speculation that his coalition, which no longer commands a stable parliamentary majority, might be about to collapse.  In November, the attorney general, Álvaro García Ortiz, was removed from office after being found guilty of leaking confidential information in a court case involving the boyfriend of a prominent right-wing politician. A number of Sánchez’s current and former allies are facing corruption probes, and some senior Socialists have been the target of sexual impropriety allegations. In November, the attorney general, Álvaro García Ortiz, was removed from office. | Fernando Sanchez/Europa Press via Getty Images Compounding all this, the rail crisis has now handed critics a different kind of ammunition against the government. “There is now a line of attack against the government which is not directly linked to either its alliances with [Catalan and Basque] pro-independence parties or corruption,” said Pablo Simón, a political scientist at Carlos III University. “It’s the idea that the government is not able to adequately manage public services under its remit.” The opposition zeroed in on that same weakness last year after an energy blackout hit the country for several hours in April. Much of the latest criticism has been aimed at Transport Minister Óscar Puente, who has been the government’s frontman on the Adamuz crash. A divisive figure, nicknamed “Sánchez’s Rottweiler,” he is a natural lightning rod for opposition ire. In the immediate aftermath of the accident, Puente insisted it hadn’t been caused by poor maintenance, obsolete infrastructure or a lack of investment. But the opposition is demanding his resignation, claiming he misled the public by suggesting that the whole line on which the accident occurred had been replaced recently, which was not the case. Government spokesperson Elma Saiz said Puente “has been where he has to be and is still there, giving explanations in search of the truth and always with empathy and accompanying the relatives of victims.” REGIONAL TENSIONS Meanwhile, the rail chaos in Catalonia has revived a longstanding grievance of nationalists there: that the Spanish state has chronically underinvested in their regional network. The Catalan Republican Left (ERC), a parliamentary ally of the government, has also called for Puente to step down. The tensions of recent days bear some similarity to the fallout from the flash floods that killed 237 people in eastern Spain in October 2024. The PP-led local government’s apparent mishandling of that tragedy, under the leadership of Carlos Mazón, then president of Valencia, is believed to have eroded support for the conservatives in the region and hurt them on the national level. Simón said it will only become apparent how damaging the railway problems are for Sánchez when more details of the Adamuz crash investigation emerge. He added he did not expect the prime minister to resign or call an election over it. But with an election looming on Feb. 8 in Aragón, before Castilla y León the following month, the rail system has been thrust onto the campaign trail. Simón said the crisis “could have a negative impact on an electoral level” for Sánchez’s Socialists. “Above all because it’s clear [the central government] is responsible, and over the last three years there have been frequent problems with trains in Spain, and that affects a lot of people,” he said.

BRUSSELS — Eurostar services between London and mainland Europe resumed on Wednesday after a major disruption in the Channel Tunnel left thousands of passengers stranded a day earlier. The high-speed rail operator had canceled most of its London-bound and outbound services on Tuesday after an overhead power supply fault inside the tunnel was compounded by a failed Le Shuttle train, which transports passengers and vehicles through the crossing. The incident blocked all routes through the tunnel, causing hours-long delays and widespread cancellations. Some trains in Europe that do not use the Channel crossing, such as the Paris-Brussels route, were also suspended due to the overall delays. A Eurostar spokesperson told POLITICO that services were to resume at 7 p.m. Brussels time (6 p.m. London time) on Tuesday evening, after a “partial reopening of the Channel Tunnel.” Getlink, the company that operates the Channel Tunnel, said work continued through the night to fix the power issue, allowing rail traffic in both directions to restart early Wednesday, BBC reported. Eurostar apologized to passengers for the disruption and warned of possible knock-on delays and last-minute cancellations on Wednesday as services return to normal. Travelers were urged to check their journeys before heading to stations. On Tuesday, Eurostar “strongly” advised passengers to postpone travel where possible and not to head to the train station if their train had been canceled.

International high-speed rail service Eurostar, which connects Brussels and London, canceled all services Tuesday because of technical problems in the Channel Tunnel. “Due to a problem with the overhead power supply and a subsequent failed Le Shuttle train the Channel Tunnel is currently closed. Unfortunately, this means we have no choice but to suspend all services today until further notice,” the company said in a service update on its website. Le Shuttle, the rail service that transports vehicles and passengers through the Channel Tunnel, is experiencing delays of up to three-and-a-half hours, according to an update on its website. Eurostar also urged passengers not to travel to stations, which include Brussels-Midi, Gare du Nord in Paris and St Pancras in London. British media reported there were traffic jams in front of the tunnel terminal in Folkestone, England and stations crowded with stranded passengers in London and Paris. Eurostar denied reports about stranded train passengers in the tunnel. “It is a broken shuttle (LeShuttle) that has now been moved out of the tunnel,” a spokesperson told POLITICO. The Channel Tunnel links Great Britain with mainland Europe. Under normal conditions, the journey from London St Pancras to Brussels-Midi takes about two hours.

Europe’s night trains were hailed as a pillar of the EU’s green-mobility future, but the promised renaissance has stalled — leaving a handful of cash-strapped startups trying to keep the dream alive. The national rail giants best placed to invest see night services as money losers, while the newcomers hungry to run them can’t finance the expensive, highly specialized equipment. “The demand is there,” said Chris Engelsman, co‑founder of startup operator European Sleeper. “People like night trains. They think they’re better for the environment or more efficient — that’s not the issue. The problem is the limitations and bureaucracy of the railway system.” It’s a stalemate that has frozen the revival. “Those that could act don’t want to — and those that want to don’t have the means,” said railway expert Jon Worth. “Try booking a night train months ahead. You can’t. Demand is through the roof. But customer demand doesn’t drive railway behavior.” What does drive it are balance sheets — and most night services lose money. By definition, sleeper trains can run only once per night per trainset, need extra staff on board, and require rolling stock that is highly specific and very expensive. “A coach costs around €2 million, that’s pretty expensive,” said Thibault Constant, founder of French startup Nox Mobility. “Investors look at the history of night trains and say: ‘No way this can be profitable.’” European Sleeper, a Belgian-Dutch company, currently runs with carriages “basically saved from the scrap heap,” Worth noted. “You can’t scale up night trains without building more night trains,” he added. “But no one is making those orders.” Constant described the same chicken‑and‑egg problem. “There is no proof that night trains can be commercially successful right now, so investors don’t believe in the product. We have to show them that we can do better than existing operators — which is a challenge, but there is a way to do so.” Even Austrian state railway operator ÖBB — Europe’s most committed night‑train operator — acknowledged the crunch. “Long delivery times for new vehicles, high personnel costs, and increased night construction sites are major challenges,” an ÖBB spokesperson said. “Night trains are a good addition to daytime rail services … and there is sufficient demand for night trains, and there is a need for more night trains. [But] the costs of operation are limiting the service offering,” they added. German railway operator Deutsche Bahn sounded the same alarm. Even if someone finds the money for new trains, actually running them is another battle. | Alex Halada/Getty Images “Under current political conditions, operating night trains poses a major economic challenge,” said Marco Kampp, DB’s head of international long‑distance transport. “Passenger trains must no longer be disadvantaged compared to air travel and cars — the niche market of night trains is particularly affected by this.” And even if someone finds the money for new trains, actually running them is another battle. Engelsman described constant operational hurdles, including last‑minute messages from rail network managers that effectively say “sorry, your train can’t run for a month,” and a general reluctance from incumbents to help newcomers. Cross‑border bureaucracy makes things worse. “Timetabling is still national,” Engelsman said. When European Sleeper tried to plan its new Brussels–Milan service, it had to negotiate with each country separately. Belgium would first assign a border time that made the whole route commercially useless; then the process had to start again from scratch. “You can’t optimize the whole stretch — you’re stuck adjusting country by country. It’s very inefficient,” he said. Over time, he added, relationships with individual staff in these organizations improve — “they like trains, they like our projects” — but the structures they work within remain slow and rigid. “It’s not the individuals. It’s the bureaucracy.” According to Worth, the promised renaissance of night trains never materialized because it wasn’t grounded in rolling stock, financing or real coordination. “There was lots of hope, but not much planning,” he said. Even the flagship Paris–Vienna route run with ÖBB fell apart once French government subsidies vanished. “[French rail operator] SNCF didn’t want to run it. The moment the subsidy disappeared, they walked away,” he said. START-UP TIME Despite all this, a new wave of operators is still trying. Startups such as European Sleeper are expanding cautiously. Nox Mobility is experimenting with leased coaches to lower capital costs and redesign how a sleeper service works — from ticketing and pricing to onboard offerings. “We’re essentially rethinking the whole ecosystem,” Constant said. For European Sleeper, Worth noted, the key question is whether it can squeeze a break‑even operation out of its patched‑together, aging trains long enough to build the financial footing needed to buy new ones. For Nox, the equation is even starker: “How does Nox get the money?” Worth said. “That’s the most important question by quite some distance.” On paper, there is a list of potential routes and projects that could form the backbone of a real revival — if the money and the trains materialize. Worth pointed to plans in Central Europe as the most realistic starting point. “If they start by focusing in Central Europe, not France and Spain but Germany and its neighbors, then they have a real chance of success,” he said. Beyond that, the picture is hazier. A proposed overnight service by the Swiss Federal Railways from Basel to Malmö will not go ahead as planned after Swiss lawmakers scrapped the funding needed to support it. There are “odds and ends,” as Worth put it: some carriage renovations in Slovakia and Poland that may or may not turn into viable services. Rail Baltica, the new north-south line through the Baltics, is supposed to host night trains to Tallinn when it opens around 2030, but, Worth noted, “no one knows where those trains are going to come from,” and he was skeptical it will happen as advertised. Constant said “it will get easier” as more private players enter the market and infrastructure managers adapt. Worth said new projects “will happen” — but only in minimal form until someone funds large‑scale carriage production. Thijmen van Reijsen, an urban mobility researcher at Radbout University, summed it up: “There’s demand. People want night trains. But for now, the problems are structural — rolling stock, funding, cooperation, infrastructure.” Even ÖBB admitted to the limits: “Night trains are a niche market and will remain so.” All of these dysfunctions can be explained, Worth concluded, “but the question is: who’s going to step up and fix it?”

BRUSSELS — The European Commission is cracking down on two Chinese companies, airport scanner maker Nuctech and e-commerce giant Temu, that are suspected of unfairly penetrating the EU market with the help of state subsidies. The EU executive opened an in-depth probe into Nuctech under its Foreign Subsidies Regulation on Thursday, a year and a half after initial inspections at the company’s premises in Poland and the Netherlands. “The Commission has preliminary concerns that Nuctech may have been granted foreign subsidies that could distort the EU internal market,” the EU executive said in a press release.  Nuctech is a provider of threat detection systems including security and inspection scanners for airports, ports, or customs points in railways or roads located at borders, as well as the provision of related services.  EU officials worry that Nuctech may have received unfair support from China in tender contracts, prices and conditions that can’t be reasonably matched by other market players in the EU.  “We want a level playing field on the market for such [threat detection] systems, keeping fair opportunities for competitors, customers such as border authorities,” Executive Vice President Teresa Ribera said in a statement, noting that this is the first in-depth investigation launched by the Commission on its own initiative under the FSR regime.  Nuctech may need to offer commitments to address the Commission’s concerns at the end of the in-depth probe, which can also end in “redressive measures” or with a non-objection decision.   The FSR is aimed at making sure that companies operating in the EU market do so without receiving unfair support from foreign governments. In its first two years of enforcement, it has come under criticism for being cumbersome on companies and not delivering fast results.  In a statement, Nuctech acknowledged the Commission’s decision to open an in-depth investigation. “We respect the Commission’s role in ensuring fair and transparent market conditions within the European Union,” the company said. It said it would cooperate with the investigation: “We trust in the integrity and impartiality of the process and hope our actions will be evaluated on their merits.” TEMU RAIDED In a separate FSR probe, the Commission also made an unannounced inspection of Chinese e-commerce platform Temu.  “We can confirm that the Commission has carried out an unannounced inspection at the premises of a company active in the e-commerce sector in the EU, under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation,” an EU executive spokesperson said in an emailed statement on Thursday.   Temu’s Europe headquarters in Ireland were dawn-raided last week, a person familiar with Chinese business told POLITICO. Mlex first reported on the raids on Wednesday.  The platform has faced increased scrutiny in Brussels and across the EU. Most recently, it was accused of breaching the EU’s Digital Services Act by selling unsafe products, such as toys. The platform has also faced scrutiny around how it protects minors and uses age verification.  Temu did not respond to a request for comment.

EU countries are taking a harder look at who builds, owns and works on key infrastructure like ports, IT and rail — and that concern is now spilling into a wave of legislation aimed at countries like China. Sweden is the latest to move, proposing this week to give local authorities new powers to block “hostile states” from bidding on infrastructure if their involvement could threaten national security. “It’s part of a defense issue,” a Swedish official told POLITICO, describing growing worries about countries like China gaining access to public infrastructure. “We are acting very quickly on that, since we see a risk that hostile states might try to infiltrate infrastructure such as ports, but also IT solutions and energy infrastructure.” It’s also a worry in Poland, Austria and inside EU institutions — all of which are rushing to put in safeguards to block, or at least monitor, third-country investment in key tech and transport infrastructure. What accelerated Sweden’s move was a recent EU court ruling involving Turkish and Chinese companies bidding on two railway projects. Judges concluded that suppliers from countries without a free-trade agreement with the EU do not enjoy the same rights as EU firms — a reading Stockholm took as both a green light and a warning signal. Sweden’s new rules are due to take effect in 2027. No specific cases were cited, but the investigation repeatedly pointed to China — which also sits at the center of very similar concerns in Poland. Warsaw has long been uneasy about the scale of Chinese involvement in its ports. A new draft bill put forward by the country’s president would “adapt the existing regulations concerning the operation of ports, and in particular the ownership of real estate located within the boundaries of ports.” The president argued that the current model — state-owned port authorities holding land and infrastructure and leasing it long-term to terminal operators — needs tightening if the country wants to maintain control over assets of “fundamental importance to the national economy.” Gen. Dariusz Łuczak, former head of Poland’s Internal Security Agency and now adviser to the Special Services Commission, told Polish media late last month that “the most important provisions are those concerning the early termination of perpetual use agreements.” However, it’s unclear if the legislation will pass as President Karol Nawrocki is broadly opposed to the government led by Prime Minster Donald Tusk. The EU is also moving. Ana Miguel Pedro, a Portuguese member of the European Parliament with the center-right European People’s Party, told POLITICO in the spring that the growing presence of Chinese state-owned companies in European port terminals “is not just an economic concern, but a strategic vulnerability.” Those concerns appear in the bloc’s new military mobility package, which calls for member countries to put in place “stricter rules on the ownership and control of strategic dual use infrastructure.” Transport Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas also flagged the Chinese presence in ports and said it will feature in the European Commission’s upcoming ports strategy, due in 2026. Austria has also been pushed into the debate after long-distance trains built by Chinese state-owned manufacturer CRRC rolled onto the Vienna-Salzburg line for the first time — triggering a political backlash. The country’s Mobility Minister Peter Hanke said the EU must tighten procurement and digital-security rules for state-backed rail purchases — and Vienna plans to propose new legislation before the end of the year. The Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Industry is pushing Brussels to go even further. The European Rail Supply Industry Association argued that the bloc’s procurement rules are relics of an earlier era and asked the Commission to update them so companies from countries that shut out EU bidders cannot freely compete for European contracts. Sweden’s investigators saw the same risks. “Third-country suppliers without an agreement should not be given a more advantageous position than they have today and than other suppliers have,” Anneli Berglund Creutz, who led the Swedish government’s procurement review, told reporters. Contracting authorities, she added, should have the ability “to take into account the nationality of suppliers and to select suppliers from hostile states” — possibly excluding them “when that protects national security.”

BRUSSELS — When the colonial governments of Belgium and Portugal ordered the construction of a railway connecting oil- and mineral-rich regions in the African interior to the Atlantic, their primary objective was to plunder resources such as rubber, ivory and minerals for export to Western countries.  Today, that same stretch of railway infrastructure, snaking through Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola to the port of Lobito, is being modernized and extended with U.S. and EU money to facilitate the transport of sought-after minerals like cobalt and copper. Just this month, Jozef Síkela, the EU commissioner for international partnerships, signed a €116 million investment package for the corridor, often hailed as a model initiative under Global Gateway, the bloc’s infrastructure development program. This time around, however, Brussels says it’s committed to resetting its historically tainted relationship with the region — a message European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa will stress when they address African and EU leaders at a Nov. 24-25 summit in Luanda, Angola, which is this year celebrating 50 years of independence from Portuguese rule.  “Global Gateway is about mutual benefits,” von der Leyen said in a keynote speech in October. The program should “focus even more on key value chains,” including the metals and minerals needed in everything from smartphones to wind turbines and defense applications.  The aim, she said, is to “build up resilient value chains together. With local infrastructure, but also local jobs, local skills and local industries.”  Yet Brussels is scrambling to enter a region only to find that China got there first. Batches of copper sheets are stored in a warehouse and wait to be loaded on trucks in Zambia. | Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images African countries are already the primary suppliers of minerals to Beijing, which has secured access to their resource wealth — unhindered by any historical baggage of colonial exploitation — and is now the world’s dominant processor. Europe’s emphasis on retaining economic value in host countries — rather than merely extracting resources for export — answers calls by African leaders for a more equitable and sustainable approach to developing their countries’ natural resources.  “The EU has been quite vocal, since the beginning of the raw minerals diplomacy two years ago, saying: We want to be the ethical partner,” said Martina Matarazzo, international and EU advocacy coordinator at Resource Matters, a Belgian NGO focusing on resource extraction, which also has an office in Kinshasa, DRC.  But “there is a big gap” between what’s being said and what’s being done, she added, pointing out that it is still unclear how the Lobito Corridor can be a “win-win” project, rather than just facilitating the shipping of minerals abroad.  Brussels finds itself under growing pressure to diversify its supply chains of lithium, rare earths and other raw materials away from China — which has demonstrated time and again it is ready to weaponize its market dominance. To that end, it is drafting a new plan, due on Dec. 3, to accelerate the bloc’s diversification efforts.   In African countries, however, Brussels is still struggling to establish itself as an attractive, ethical alternative to Beijing, which has long secured vast access to the continent’s resources through large-scale investments in mining, processing and infrastructure.  To enter the minerals space, the EU needs to walk the talk in close cooperation with African leaders — doing so may be its only chance to secure resources while moving away from its extractivist past, POLITICO has found in conversations with researchers, policymakers and civil society.  RESOURCE RUSH Appetite for Africa’s vast natural riches first drew colonizers to the continent — and laid “the foundation for post-independence resource dependency and external interference,” according to the Africa Policy Research Institute. Now, the continent’s deposits of vital minerals have turned it into a strategic player, with Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema last year setting a goal of tripling copper output by the end of the decade, for instance. Beijing has often used Belt and Road, its international development initiative, to secure mining rights in exchange for infrastructure projects. Washington, which lags far behind Beijing, is also stepping up its game, with investments into Africa quietly overtaking China’s. President Donald Trump has extended the U.S. security umbrella to war-torn areas in exchange for access to resources, for example brokering a — shaky — peace deal between Rwanda and the DRC. EU companies are “really trying to catch up,” said Christian Géraud Neema Byamungu, an expert on China-Africa relations and the Francophone Africa editor of the China Global South Project. “They left Africa when there was a sense that Africa is not really a place to do business.” DOING THINGS DIFFERENTLY Against this backdrop, the key question for the EU is: What can it offer to set itself apart from other partners? On paper, the answer is clear: a responsible approach to resource extraction that prioritizes creating local economic value, along with high environmental and social standards.  “We want to focus on the sustainable development of value chains and how to work with our African partners to support their rise of the value chains,” said an EU official ahead of the Luanda summit, where minerals will be a key topic. “This is not about extraction only,” they added. But so far, that still has to translate into a concrete impact on the ground. “We are not at the point where we can see how really the EU is trying to change things on the ground in terms of value addition in DRC,” said Emmanuel Umpula Nkumba, executive director of NGO Afrewatch. “I am not naïve, they are coming to make money, not to help us,” he added.  Not only has offtake from the Lobito Corridor been slow, but the project has also come under fire for prioritizing Western interests over African development and agency, and for potentially leading to the destruction of local forests, community displacement and an overall lack of benefits for local populations.  The 2024 Lobito Corridor Trans-Africa Summit | Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images The EU, however, views the corridor as “a symbol of the partnership between the African and European continent and an example of our shared investment agenda,” according to a Commission spokesperson, who called it “a lifeline towards sustainable development and shared prosperity.” Finally, while “value addition” has become a catchphrase, it’s unclear whether EU and African leaders see eye to eye on what the term means.  African industry representatives and officials often point to building a domestic supply chain up to the final product. EU officials, by contrast, tend to envision refining minerals in the country of origin and then exporting them, according to a report published by the European Council on Foreign Relations. A SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS CASE? The second component of the EU’s approach — strong sustainability and human rights safeguards — faces major trouble, not least in the name of making the EU more competitive.  In Brussels, proposed rules that would require companies to police their supply chains for environmental harm and human rights violations are dying a slow death, as conservative politicians channel complaints from businesses that they can’t bear the cost of complying. An investigation by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre of the 13 mining, refining and recycling projects outside the bloc labeled “strategic” by the EU executive — including four in Africa — identified “an inconsistent approach to key human rights policies.”  However, under pressure from African leaders, stricter safeguards are slowly becoming more important in the sector: “high [environmental, social and governance] standards” are a core component of the African Union’s mining strategy published in 2024.  The Chinese, too, are adapting quickly.  “China’s also getting good with standards,” said Sarah Logan, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations who co-authored the assessment of African and European interpretations of value addition. “If they are made to, Chinese mining companies are very capable of adhering to ESG standards.”  Therefore, besides massively scaling up investment, the EU and European companies will need to turn their promise of being a reliable and ethical partner into reality — sooner rather than later. “The only way to distinguish ourselves from the Chinese is to guarantee these benefits for communities,” Spanish Green European lawmaker Ana Miranda Paz told a panel discussion on the Lobito Corridor in Brussels. This story has been updated with comment from the European Commission.

BRUSSELS — EU foreign ministers will be briefed on Thursday about a spate of sabotage attempts and airspace incursions that Russia’s neighbors say marks a “very dangerous phase of escalation” by the Kremlin, and one that endangers civilians. Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys told POLITICO that the Kremlin’s shadowy campaign of subversion shows “we are reaching the hot phases of escalation.” The comments come after Poland concluded that a Sunday explosion that damaged railway tracks in the east of the country had been an act of sabotage backed by the Kremlin. “This is a very dangerous phase of escalation and we should address it really seriously because we are minutes from big casualties here,” said Budrys, who will present his concerns his counterparts at Thursday’s Foreign Affairs Council. “If it would be successful, these operations, this sabotage that was conducted in Poland, we would be talking in a different environment, with dead people as a consequence.” Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski will give ministers an update during the session in Brussels, as an investigation gets underway into the suspected railway sabotage. Warsaw said Tuesday that military-grade C-4 explosives had been used in what appeared to be an unsuccessful attempt to derail a train and film the ensuing carnage. It suspects two Ukrainian nationals working for Russia who have fled to Belarus. Despite the Polish incident, Budrys said the scope of the Kremlin’s actions is far wider. “Everyone thinks that on the eastern front line it is always more intense — it is not — when you count the real cases of sabotage elsewhere in continental Europe, there were more than there were in the Baltics and in Poland.” Suspicious drones have been reported across the EU, sparking alerts from Copenhagen to Belgium, while hundreds of incidents have been probed as potential efforts to destabilize countries and intimidate the public. Globsec, a Prague-based think tank, calculated there were more than 110 acts of sabotage and attempted attacks carried out in Europe between January and July, mainly in Poland and France, by people with links to Russia. Speaking on Wednesday, the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said: “Russia is trying to do two things: On one hand to test us, to see how far they can go … And next they also try to sow fear within our society.” Earlier this week, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto called on European countries to react to Russia’s provocations. “We are under attack and the hybrid bombs continue to fall: The time to act is now,” he said. Lithuania also sounded the alarm after balloons sent from Russia’s ally Belarus repeatedly grounded planes in EU airspace. At Thursday’s meeting it will present a paper — seen by POLITICO — citing assessments that the incursions, ostensibly by cigarette smugglers, had the backing of Belarus’ authoritarian regime, which “is fully aware of these hybrid attacks and unwilling to prevent them.” The EU ministers will also consider a new package of sanctions against Russia — the 20th since the start of Moscow’s full-scale war in Ukraine — as well deterring Belarus from hybrid tactics with additional economic and political penalties.

Top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas sounded the alarm for Europe on Wednesday after Warsaw accused Russian-backed operatives of carrying out an explosion targeting a Polish railway. “It is clear that these kinds of attacks are an extreme danger also for our critical infrastructure,” Kallas told journalists in Brussels on Wednesday. “We have to have a strong response because what Russia is trying to do is two things. On one hand to test us, to see how far they can go … And next they also try to sow fear within our society,” she said. Kallas was speaking hours after Poland said it was shutting down Russia’s last consulate in the country due to the railway sabotage, which Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said had been executed by Ukrainians working for Russia. The Polish incident is just the latest in a string of so-called hybrid attacks to hit European countries in recent weeks, from airspace violations by Russian warplanes to drone disruption at airports across the continent to cyber attacks and acts of disruptive vandalism. EU countries are debating how to respond to such attacks, with some leaders calling for a more robust response clearly attributing the attacks to Russia while others warn against coming out too strongly and spooking the public. “Now our response is also dependent on those two factors,” added Kallas. “They want to sow fear inside our societies … if our response is too strong then the fear increases, which is what Russia wants. So we really have to have a balanced approach,” she said. She added that Europe should “send a message of unity to Russia that they cannot get away with these attacks but at the same time give assurances to our society that there is nothing to be afraid of.” Her message echoed what Finnish President Alexander Stubb told POLITICO earlier this week: “My recommendation is to stay calm. Have a little bit more sisu [grit]. Don’t get too flustered.”

BRUSSELS — The European Commission plans to slash red tape and pour money into making it easier to move troops and weapons across the continent, according to the Military Mobility Communication obtained by POLITICO. The document is part of the upcoming military mobility package, set to be announced on Wednesday alongside a legislative proposal. “Military mobility is the crucial enabler of the defence posture and capabilities that Europe urgently needs to credibly deter its adversaries and to respond to any crisis,” reads the 15-page communication. At the heart of the plan is the new European Military Mobility Enhanced Response System, a new scheme allowing member countries — or the Commission — to propose the temporary suspension of normal transport rules during emergencies. Once triggered, EMERS would give the military priority access to infrastructure, transport assets and essential services. “Situations requiring rapid, large-scale military movement rarely come announced,” the communication says, adding that without better military mobility rules, deterring an adversary remains “theoretical.” The EU and NATO are scrambling to make it easier to shift troops, weapons, ammunition and fuel from Western Europe to the front lines of a potential conflict with Russia in the east. Currently, the bloc’s roads, bridges, railways and paperwork aren’t fit for purpose to react swiftly in the event of a threat. The communication notes that some countries require 45 days of advance notice before allowing military equipment to cross their territory. “Significant barriers to effective military mobility in the EU persist,” the communication notes. “National rules are often divergent, fragmented and non-harmonised.” Transport Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas told POLITICO earlier this month that the bloc should replicate its Schengen open-border zone for military equipment. “We need to move fast. We need to move faster than what Europe is used to or is expecting to,” Tzitzikostas said, saying the target is to get the basics in place by 2030.  German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius warned over the weekend that Russia may be capable of launching an attack on a NATO member state as early as 2028-2029. If approved, EMERS would also grant derogations from standard customs and transport rules, including limits on driving times and rest periods for civilian operators, as well as faster, dedicated customs procedures under a specific EU protocol. The framework could stay in place for up to one year, with activation approved by the Council within 48 hours of its proposal. To ensure coordination on the ground, each member state will appoint a national coordinator for military transport, serving as a single contact point for permissions, notifications and crisis response. A new Military Mobility Transport Group, bringing together national authorities, the European Defence Agency and the European External Action Service, will oversee implementation. The communication also mentions forthcoming reviews of the Rail Service Facilities Regulation and the Air Services Regulation, as well as a 2026 evaluation of the flexible use of airspace rules and a pledge to promote dual-use airports. The text also foresees the creation of a solidarity pool and a strategic lift reserve enabling the shared use of EU and national transport assets in crises. Other initiatives include a military mobility catalogue of dual-use transport assets, a digital information system for movement authorization, and support for an EU network of civil-defense drone testing centers. A big part of Europe’s military mobility push is mapping 500 hotspots — the bridges, tunnels and ports that act as bottlenecks for military transport — and updating them to military standards. The communication also foresees an effort to better link the EU’s transport infrastructure to Ukraine that will cost as much as €100 billion. The Commission wants the EU to set aside €17.7 billion for military mobility under the Connecting Europe Facility in the bloc’s next seven-year budget starting in 2027 — a tenfold jump from the €1.7 billion in the current budget. The communication also notes that the EU needs to better protect its infrastructure against cyber and hybrid attacks. The bloc has seen a proliferation of such threats, including this Sunday’s explosion on a key Polish railway that the government attributed to “sabotage.” “Europe must take decisive action,” the communication says. “While progress has been made, the EU remains shackled by fragmented approaches that undermine our ability in moving military equipment and personnel across Europe.”