BRUSSELS — After decades spent lambasting European politicians, Michael O’Leary is now targeting Donald Trump and Elon Musk. In less than a week, the outspoken Ryanair boss slammed both the U.S. president and his on-again, off-again supporter Musk. The latter hit back on social media, launching a feud and threatening to buy the Irish airline just to fire O’Leary, a proposal the airline CEO called “Twitshit.” Everyone involved is a seasoned infotainment warrior — they’ve all used outrageous attacks and language to further their financial and political goals. But this fight is putting O’Leary into a different league; his targets are a lot richer and more powerful than his normal punching bags of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, officials from Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium or UK Reform leader Nigel Farage. After telling POLITICO that Trump was “a liar” and taking aim at the U.S. president’s foreign policy and tariffs he said were harming business, O’Leary told Irish radio that Musk was “an idiot” in response to the world’s richest man calling him “misinformed” about the cost of installing Starlink systems on its fleet. Ryanair has publicly ruled out installing Starlink across its more than 600 Boeing 737s, arguing the external antennas would increase drag and fuel consumption. O’Leary’s keenness to scrap with Trump and Musk contrasts sharply with the approach taken by most of his fellow CEOs, who often balk at crossing the powerful. But insulting politicians and rivals is part of O’Leary’s DNA. He’s also insulated from blowback because his airline doesn’t fly to the U.S.; because it’s one of Boeing’s largest customers; and because Ryanair is protected against a hostile Musk acquisition by EU rules mandating that airlines have to be majority-owned by EU shareholders. The online scuffle escalated quickly, with Musk calling O’Leary “a retarded twat” and O’Leary telling Musk on Wednesday “to join the back of a very, very, very, very long queue of people who already think I’m a ‘retarded twat,’ including my four teenage children.” The airline said it was “launching a Great Idiots seat sale especially for Elon and any other idiots.” So far, Trump hasn’t responded to needling from O’Leary. But the dissing contest is more than a casual brawl among tycoons. It reflects what O’Leary has been doing for a long time in Europe: offending anyone who crosses his path, getting public attention and selling more tickets. After days of mutual insults between the flamboyant airline chief and his quasi-equivalent in the space industry with come-and-go ties to the White House, O’Leary offered Musk “a free ride air ticket, to thank him for the wonderful boost in publicity which has seen our bookings rise significantly.” “They’re up about 2 or 3 percent in the last five days,” he added at a press conference in Dublin. The company’s shares were also up over 2 percent on Wednesday. “O’Leary’s complaint about Starlink was an absolutely classic Michael O’Leary complaint: operationally driven, cost-based, almost certainly technically correct, quite probably an attempt to negotiate the price down by Musk,” said Andrew Charlton, managing director of the Aviation Advocacy consultancy. O’Leary confirmed on Wednesday that he had been in talks for over a year with Starlink and its rivals Amazon and Vodafone to provide Wi-Fi on Ryanair planes at no extra cost to passengers. This is just the latest cost-cutting crusade taken by the Irish businessman, who spent the first weeks of the new year threatening to slash flights to and from Belgium over a ticket tax increase of less than €10. “He’s the Trump of aviation, the same kind of idiot,” said Toto Bongiorno, a former union leader from Belgium’s now-defunct flag carrier, Sabena. “He’s the guy who once said he was going to allow standing seats on planes. He’s the one who said people would have to pay to use the [onboard] toilets at some point,” Bongiorno told the Belgian TV channel LN24. “He invented a different way of doing aviation.” CURSING DOESN’T COST In a market previously dominated by flag carriers that offered larger seats and free luggage, drinks and snacks — but also charged higher prices and occasionally received state aid from governments — Ryanair and other low-cost European airlines, such as easyJet and Wizz Air, have gained market share thanks to cheaper airfares and minimal extras. However, O’Leary built Ryanair not only by slashing costs at the expense of the passenger experience; he also harangued European leaders, demanding fewer rules and lower taxes. Von der Leyen is often referred to as “Derlayed-Again” by Ryanair due to her alleged failure to guarantee the right of airlines to overfly countries affected by air traffic controller strikes. After Ryanair was fined by Spain’s Minister for Consumer Affairs Pablo Bustinduy for unfair practices, O’Leary called him “a crazy Spanish communist minister” and showed a cardboard cutout of Bustinduy dressed as a clown and wearing an apron with the words “I raise prices.” Now it’s Trump’s turn. “If Trump threatens Europe with tariffs, Europe should respond in like measure and Trump will chicken out. He generally does,” O’Leary said on Wednesday. 

Pedro Sánchez is the prime minister of Spain. It’s no secret the world is going through a time of turbulence. The principles that held it together for decades are under threat; disinformation is spreading freely; and even the foundations of the welfare state — which brought us the longest period of prosperity in human history — are now being questioned by a far-right transnational movement challenging our democratic systems’ ability to deliver collective solutions and social justice. In the face of this attack, Europe stands as a wall of resistance. The EU has been  — and must remain — a shelter for the values that uphold our democracies, our cohesion and our freedom. But let’s be honest, values don’t put a roof over your head. And at any rate, these values are fading fast in the face of something as concrete and urgent as the lack of affordable housing. If we do not act, Europe risks becoming a shelter without homes. The figures are clear: The housing crisis is devastating the standard of living across Europe. Between 2010 and 2025, home prices rose by 60 percent, while rental prices went up by nearly 30 percent. In countries like Estonia or Hungary, prices have tripled. In densely populated or high-tourism cities, families can spend over 70 percent of their income on rent. And individuals with stable jobs in Madrid, Lisbon or Budapest can no longer afford to live where they work or where they grew up. Meanwhile, 93 million Europeans — that’s one in five — are living at risk of poverty or social exclusion. This isn’t just the perception of experts or institutions: Around half of Europeans consider housing to be an “urgent and immediate problem.” Housing, which should be a right, has become a trap that shapes peoples’ present, suffocates their future and endangers Europe’s cohesion, economic dynamism and prosperity. The roots of this problem may differ from country to country, but two facts are undeniable and shared throughout our continent: First, the need for more houses, which we’ve been falling behind on for years. For nearly two decades now, residential construction in the EU has fallen short of demand. After a period of strong growth in the 1990s and early 2000s, the 2008 financial crisis triggered a collapse in housing investment, and the sector never fully recovered. The pandemic only widened this gap, halting permits, delaying materials and worsening labor shortages that further stalled construction. Second, and just as urgent, is that we must ensure both new construction and existing housing stock serve their true purpose: upholding the fundamental right to decent and affordable housing. Because as we continue to fall short of guaranteeing this basic right, homes are increasingly being diverted to fuel speculation or serve secondary uses like tourist rentals. In fact, according to preliminary European Parliament data, there were around 4 million short-term rental listings on digital platforms across the EU in 2025. In my home country, cities like Madrid and València have witnessed the displacement of residents from their historic centers, which are transforming into theme parks for tourists. For nearly two decades now, residential construction in the EU has fallen short of demand. | David Zorrakino/Getty Images At the same time, housing is increasingly being treated as a financial asset instead of a social good. In Ireland, investment funds have acquired nearly half of all newly built homes since 2017, while in Sweden, institutional investors now control 24 percent of all private rental apartments. Just as no one would dare justify doubling the price of a bowl of rice for a starving child, we cannot accept turning the roofs meant to shelter people into a vehicle for speculation — and citizens overwhelmingly share in this view. Seventy-one percent of Europeans believe that the places they live would benefit from more controls on property speculation, like taxing vacant rentals or regulating short-term rentals. This is what the EU stands for: When it’s a choice between profit and people, we choose people. That choice can’t wait any longer. Thankfully, with yesterday’s Affordable Housing Plan, the European Commission is starting to move on housing, taking steps that Spain has long advocated. Brussels now increasingly recognizes the scale of this emergency and acknowledges that specific market conditions may require differentiated national and local responses. This will help consolidate a shared policy understanding regarding housing-stressed areas and strengthen the case for targeted measures — which may include, among others, restrictions on short-term rentals. Crucially, the plan also stresses the need for EU financing to boost housing supply. The time for words is over. We need urgent action. A growing outcry over housing is resonating across Europe, and our citizens need concrete solutions. Any failure to act with ambition and urgency risks turning the housing crisis into a new driver of Euroskepticism. After World War II, Europe was built on two founding promises: securing peace and delivering well-being. Honoring that legacy today means taking decisive action by massively increasing flexible funding to match the scale of the housing crisis, and guaranteeing member countries can swiftly implement the legal tools needed to adopt bold regulatory measures on short-term rentals and address the impact of nonresident buyers on housing access. The true measure of our union isn’t just written in treaties. It must be demonstrated by ensuring every person can live with dignity and have a place to call home. Let us rise to that promise — boldly, together and without delay.

From Lisbon to Tallinn, Europeans are overwhelmed by soaring home prices. This week, Brussels intends to do something about it. “This is a real crisis,” said European Commissioner for Housing Dan Jørgensen in an interview with POLITICO, ahead of the approval of the bloc’s first-ever Affordable Housing Plan. “And it’s not just enough to talk about it.” To that end, the package will seek to free up public cash for the construction of new homes, track speculation in the housing market, and give regional and local governments tools to rein in the short-term rentals contributing to the housing shortage. “The plan will be a mix of concrete actions at the EU level and recommendations that member states can apply,” Jørgensen said, adding that the European Commission wants to give national, regional and local governments ways to make real changes on the ground — while not overstepping its role in an area over which it has no official competence. “This is a real problem affecting millions of people, and the inaction is playing right into the playbook of right-wing populists,” Jørgensen noted, citing the ultranationalist parties that have stoked discontent over sky-high home prices to score major victories in countries like the Netherlands and Portugal. “Normally the EU has not played a big role here,” he added. “That needs to change.” CASH, TOOLS AND TRANSPARENCY The most concrete action set to be announced this week is a revision of state aid rules to make it easier for national governments to build affordable housing. Member countries have long complained they can only use public cash to provide homes for low-income families. Reflecting the fact that even middle-class earners are now struggling to pay for shelter, the new regulations will allow funds to be used for all groups priced out of the housing market. The package will also give national, regional and local authorities tools to target the tourist flats exacerbating the housing shortage in cities like Barcelona, Florence and Prague. “I’m not on the side of the people who call for banning short-term rentals,” Jørgensen clarified, adding that such platforms have offered travelers the ability to experience Europe differently, and provided some families with a needed source of income. But the model has grown at a rate “no one could have imagined, with short-term rentals accounting for 20 percent of homes in some very stressed areas,” he noted. It has turned into a “money machine instead of what it was intended to.” The commissioner stressed that national, regional and local leaders would ultimately be the ones deciding whether to use the tools to rein in short-term rentals. “We’re not going to force people to do anything,” he said. “If you think the status quo is fine, you can keep things as they are.” In another first, a more abstract section of the package will also aim to address speculation in the housing market. “This is a real crisis,” said European Commissioner for Housing Dan Jørgensen in an interview with POLITICO. | Lilli Förter/Getty Images While insisting he’s “not against people making money,” Jørgensen said Europe’s housing stock was being treated like “gold or Bitcoin and other investments made for the sole purpose of making money” — an approach that ignores the vital role of shelter for society at large. “Having a roof over your head, a decent house … is a human right,” he argued. As an initial step, this week’s package will propose the EU track speculation and determine the scope of the problem. However, Jørgensen acknowledged that using the resulting data for concrete action to tackle the market’s financialization might prove difficult. “While no one is really arguing this problem doesn’t exist, there’s a political conflict over whether it’s a good or a bad thing.” But regulation is essential for the proper functioning of the internal market, he added. THE COMPETENCE QUESTION The Commission’s housing package will also include a new construction strategy to cut red tape and create common standards, so that building materials manufactured at competitive prices in one member country can be easily used for housing projects in another. Additionally, there will be a bid to address the needs of the over a million homeless Europeans, many of whom aren’t citizens of the countries in which they are sleeping rough. “We want to look at what rights they have and how these are respected,” Jørgensen said. “We’re talking about humans with needs, people who deserve our help and compassion.” The commissioner explained the complexity of the housing crisis had required a “holistic” approach that led him to work in tandem with Executive Vice Presidents Teresa Ribera and Roxana Mînzatu, as well as internal market boss Stéphane Séjourné and tech chief Henna Virkkunen, among others. He also stressed the package didn’t constitute a power grab on the Commission’s part, and that national, regional and local governments are still best positioned to address many aspects of the crisis. “But,” he said, “there are areas where we haven’t done anything in which we can do something.” While much of the plan will consist of recommendations member countries won’t be required to implement, Jørgensen warned against ignoring them. The Commission is providing solutions, he said, and “policymakers need to answer to their populations if they don’t do something that’s pretty obvious they could do.” “Normal citizens will use every opportunity to make their demands known, be it in local, national or European elections,” Jørgensen explained. “I’m respectfully telling decision-makers all over Europe that either they take this problem seriously, or they accept that they’ll have to hand over power to the populists.”

Europe’s security does not depend solely on our physical borders and their defense. It rests on something far less visible, and far more sensitive: the digital networks that keep our societies, economies and democracies functioning every second of the day. > Without resilient networks, the daily workings of Europe would grind to a > halt, and so too would any attempt to build meaningful defense readiness. A recent study by Copenhagen Economics confirms that telecom operators have become the first line of defense in Europe’s security architecture. Their networks power essential services ranging from emergency communications and cross-border healthcare to energy systems, financial markets, transport and, increasingly, Europe’s defense capabilities. Without resilient networks, the daily workings of Europe would grind to a halt, and so too would any attempt to build meaningful defense readiness. This reality forces us to confront an uncomfortable truth: Europe cannot build credible defense capabilities on top of an economically strained, structurally fragmented telecom sector. Yet this is precisely the risk today. A threat landscape outpacing Europe’s defenses The challenges facing Europe are evolving faster than our political and regulatory systems can respond. In 2023 alone, ENISA recorded 188 major incidents, causing 1.7 billion lost user-hours, the equivalent of taking entire cities offline. While operators have strengthened their systems and outage times fell by more than half in 2024 compared with the previous year, despite a growing number of incidents, the direction of travel remains clear: cyberattacks are more sophisticated, supply chains more vulnerable and climate-related physical disruptions more frequent. Hybrid threats increasingly target civilian digital infrastructure as a way to weaken states. Telecom networks, once considered as technical utilities, have become a strategic asset essential to Europe’s stability. > Europe cannot deploy cross-border defense capabilities without resilient, > pan-European digital infrastructure. Nor can it guarantee NATO > interoperability with 27 national markets, divergent rules and dozens of > sub-scale operators unable to invest at continental scale. Our allies recognize this. NATO recently encouraged members to spend up to 1.5 percent of their GDP on protecting critical infrastructure. Secretary General Mark Rutte also urged investment in cyber defense, AI, and cloud technologies, highlighting the military benefits of cloud scalability and edge computing – all of which rely on high-quality, resilient networks. This is a clear political signal that telecom security is not merely an operational matter but a geopolitical priority. The link between telecoms and defense is deeper than many realize. As also explained in the recent Arel report, Much More than a Network, modern defense capabilities rely largely on civilian telecom networks. Strong fiber backbones, advanced 5G and future 6G systems, resilient cloud and edge computing, satellite connectivity, and data centers form the nervous system of military logistics, intelligence and surveillance. Europe cannot deploy cross-border defense capabilities without resilient, pan-European digital infrastructure. Nor can it guarantee NATO interoperability with 27 national markets, divergent rules and dozens of sub-scale operators unable to invest at continental scale. Fragmentation has become one of Europe’s greatest strategic vulnerabilities. The reform Europe needs: An investment boost for digital networks At the same time, Europe expects networks to become more resilient, more redundant, less dependent on foreign technology and more capable of supporting defense-grade applications. Security and resilience are not side tasks for telecom operators, they are baked into everything they do. From procurement and infrastructure design to daily operations, operators treat these efforts as core principles shaping how networks are built, run and protected. Therefore, as the Copenhagen Economics study shows, the level of protection Europe now requires will demand substantial additional capital. > It is unrealistic to expect world-class, defense-ready infrastructure to > emerge from a model that has become structurally unsustainable. This is the right ambition, but the economic model underpinning the sector does not match these expectations. Due to fragmentation and over-regulation, Europe’s telecom market invests less per capita than global peers, generates roughly half the return on capital of operators in the United States and faces rising costs linked to expanding security obligations. It is unrealistic to expect world-class, defense-ready infrastructure to emerge from a model that has become structurally unsustainable. A shift in policy priorities is therefore essential. Europe must place investment in security and resilience at the center of its political agenda. Policy must allow this reality to be reflected in merger assessments, reduce overlapping security rules and provide public support where the public interest exceeds commercial considerations. This is not state aid; it is strategic social responsibility. Completing the single market for telecommunications is central to this agenda. A fragmented market cannot produce the secure, interoperable, large-scale solutions required for modern defense. The Digital Networks Act must simplify and harmonize rules across the EU, supported by a streamlined governance that distinguishes between domestic matters and cross-border strategic issues. Spectrum policy must also move beyond national silos, allowing Europe to avoid conflicts with NATO over key bands and enabling coherent next-generation deployments. Telecom policy nowadays is also defense policy. When we measure investment gaps in digital network deployment, we still tend to measure simple access to 5G and fiber. However, we should start considering that — if security, resilience and defense-readiness are to be taken into account — the investment gap is much higher that the €200 billion already estimated by the European Commission. Europe’s strategic choice The momentum for stronger European defense is real — but momentum fades if it is not seized. If Europe fails to modernize and secure its telecom infrastructure now, it risks entering the next decade with a weakened industrial base, chronic underinvestment, dependence on non-EU technologies and networks unable to support advanced defense applications. In that scenario, Europe’s democratic resilience would erode in parallel with its economic competitiveness, leaving the continent more exposed to geopolitical pressure and technological dependency. > If Europe fails to modernize and secure its telecom infrastructure now, it > risks entering the next decade with a weakened industrial base, chronic > underinvestment, dependence on non-EU technologies and networks unable to > support advanced defense applications. Europe still has time to change course and put telecoms at the center of its agenda — not as a technical afterthought, but as a core pillar of its defense strategy. The time for incremental steps has passed. Europe must choose to build the network foundations of its security now or accept that its strategic ambitions will remain permanently out of reach. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT * The sponsor is Connect Europe AISBL * The ultimate controlling entity is Connect Europe AISBL * The political advertisement is linked to advocacy on EU digital, telecom and industrial policy, including initiatives such as the Digital Networks Act, Digital Omnibus, and connectivity, cybersecurity, and defence frameworks aimed at strengthening Europe’s digital competitiveness. More information here.

BRUSSELS — The European Commission will provide a financial band-aid next year to Baltic nations suffering collateral economic damage from EU sanctions against Russia. The region is being hit particularly hard because of falls in tourism and investment, along with the collapse of cross-border trade. Regions Commissioner Raffaele Fitto is leading the plan, which aims to kickstart the economies of Finland and its Baltic neighbors, according to diplomats and Commission officials who were granted anonymity to speak freely. The intended recipients are also heading to Brussels with a lengthy wish list, hoping Fitto’s plan will reignite their economies. Their concerns will take center stage during a summit of leaders from Eastern European countries in Helsinki on Dec. 16. “We want to have special attention to our region — the eastern flank, including Lithuania — because we see the negative impact coming from the geopolitical situation,” Lithuania’s Europe minister, Sigitas Mitkus, said in an interview with POLITICO earlier this month. “Sometimes it’s difficult to convince [investors] that … we have all the facilities in place.” But skeptics warn that any immediate financial support Fitto can provide will be meager, given the scale of the challenge and with the bloc’s seven-year budget running low. The EU has agreed 19 sanction packages against Moscow in a bid to cripple the Russian war economy, which has bankrolled the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine since February 2022. In doing so, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have all taken a hit. While the threat of a Kremlin invasion has deterred tourists and investors, the sanctions have choked off cross-border trade with Russia, and everything has been made worse by skyrocketing inflation after the pandemic. Dwindling housing prices have also made it more difficult for businesses to provide collateral to secure loans from banks. “People who had cross-border connections with some economic consequences have lost them,” Jürgen Ligi, Estonia’s finance minister, told POLITICO. A native of Tartu on Estonia’s eastern flank, Ligi has witnessed these problems first-hand as he owns a house only four kilometers from the Russian border. “Estonia’s economy has suffered the most from the war [which caused] problems with investments and jobs,” Ligi added. According to the Commission’s latest forecast, Estonia is expected to grow by only 0.6 percent in 2025 — well below the EU average — even though economic activity is expected to pick up in 2026 and 2027. The EU has agreed 19 sanction packages against Moscow in a bid to cripple the Russian war economy, which has bankrolled the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine since February 2022. | Sefa Karacan/Getty Images In another sign of financial strain, Finland breached the Commission’s spending rules in 2025 due to excessive spending and an economic slowdown caused by the war. “We will be acknowledging the difficult economic situation Finland is facing, including the geopolitical and the closure of the Russian border,” EU Economy Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis, said on Tuesday. SCRAPING THE BARREL But Fitto’s options could be limited until the bloc’s new seven-year budget, known as the multi-annual financial framework (MFF), is in place by 2028. “My sense is that the communication won’t come with fresh money but with ideas that can be pursued in the next MFF,” said an EU diplomat who was granted anonymity to discuss upcoming legislation. Mindful of dwindling resources in the EU’s current cash pot, Lithuania’s Mitkus is demanding that Baltic firms get preferential access to the EU’s new funding programs from 2028 — something that is currently lacking in the Commission’s budget proposal from July. Officials from the frontline states are exploring other options. These include Brussels loosening state aid rules so they can subsidize struggling firms, and getting the European Investment Bank to provide guarantees to companies that want to invest in the region. While the upcoming strategy will draw attention to these problems, officials privately admit that it’s unlikely to mobilize enough cash to solve them immediately. “It will build the narrative that in the next MFF you can do something for [pressing issues for Eastern regions such as] drones production,” said the EU diplomat quoted above. But until 2028, “I don’t expect any new money.”

BRUSSELS — U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright has called on the EU’s remaining buyers of Russian fossil fuels to drop their campaign against the bloc’s efforts to end dependency on Moscow and buy from America instead. Speaking on Friday at an event in Brussels, where he has held meetings this week with officials on how to increase imports of American liquefied natural gas and cut off the flow of funds for Russia’s war on Ukraine, Wright said it would be preferable for Europe to get its supplies from “its friends.” Asked by POLITICO whether countries like Hungary and Slovakia, which have opposed the European Commission’s efforts to phase out Russian gas, should finally end their dealings with the Kremlin, Wright said “absolutely.” “We want to displace all Russian gas. President Trump, America, and all the nations of the EU, we want to end the Russian-Ukraine war,” said Wright. “The more we can strangle Russia’s ability to fund this murderous war, the better for all of us. So the answer to your question is absolutely.” At the same time, Wright called for European countries to find alternatives to Russian atomic power, saying “we want to see nuclear technology coming from the United States or within the EU itself.” On Thursday, the EU’s top court ruled that the Commission was wrong to have allowed Hungary to give state aid to fund a major expansion of its nuclear power facilities with `Russian support. The Court of Justice said that officials should have determined whether construction of the Paks II plant, in partnership with Russian state firm Rosatom, breached procurement rules. Hungary’s populist prime minister and Trump ally, Viktor Orbán, has long campaigned in favor of the Paks II project — and against EU sanctions on Russia, including a plan from Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen to phase out all imports of gas from the country by 2027.

Nearly a decade after EU leaders declared all Europeans have the right to decent housing, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday that it’s time for the bloc to deliver. “A home is not just four walls and a roof: it is safety, warmth, a place for family and friends,” von der Leyen told European Parliament lawmakers during her annual State of the European Union address in Strasbourg. “But for too many Europeans today, home has become a source of anxiety.” Citing data that shows housing prices across the bloc have increased by more than 20 percent since 2015, the Commission president vowed to do more to tackle an issue that has generated mass protests in many of Europe’s cities and become a major factor in national elections. “This is more than a housing crisis,” she said. “It is a social crisis.” Von der Leyen has made the housing affordability crisis a key priority of her second administration, tapping Denmark’s Dan Jørgensen to be the bloc’s first commissioner for housing. The latest Eurobarometer survey shows Europeans want the EU to make solving the cost-of-living crisis a top priority. During her speech, von der Leyen confirmed the Commission will unveil its European Affordable Housing Plan early next year, which will include measures to accelerate the construction of new homes, renovate existing buildings and end homelessness by 2030. Responding to long-standing demands from housing experts and national governments, she said the Commission will revise state aid rules so that EU members can use public cash to build affordable housing. Following up on last year’s EU legislation requiring the registration of all short-term rentals by 2026, she also promised to further rein in the tourist flats that are a major factor in the EU’s housing shortage. EU mayors are calling for measures that would target properties in stressed markets like those found in most of the bloc’s major cities and tourism hot spots. “Nurses, teachers, and firemen cannot afford to live where they serve,” she said. “Students drop out because they cannot pay the rent, and young people delay starting families.” “Housing is about dignity,” von der Leyen added. “It is about fairness. And it is about Europe’s future.”

BRUSSELS — Ursula von der Leyen is beefing up competition capacity in her Cabinet, as antitrust gets dragged deeper into trade tensions with the United States and the EU continues to strive for a bloc-wide industrial policy. Michele Piergiovanni, an Italian official who advised former competition chief Margrethe Vestager, is set to join the European Commission president’s Cabinet, POLITICO first reported on Wednesday. A Commission spokesperson confirmed the move and said that Piergiovanni will advise the president on competition and economic issues. The move could signal an imminent departure of von der Leyen’s current antitrust and digital adviser, Anthony Whelan. The seasoned Irish official was appointed last year to lead the competition directorate’s state aid department, but never took up the role as he has been jealously guarded by the president’s Cabinet.  Piergiovanni’s appointment also signals the president’s heightened attention to a policy area that has become increasingly political, both externally, in the context of transatlantic trade tensions, and internally, as the bloc looks to revisit rules on mergers and public industry funding in an effort to boost economic growth. Earlier this week, the Commission halted an antitrust decision targeting search giant Google under U.S. pressure in trade talks. The EU executive is also under increasing pressure to bend rules on public industry funding — or state aid — to allow EU countries to funnel cash into their industries. There are also calls to relax merger rules to allow companies to become bigger and compete on the global stage as European champions. Piergiovanni, who joined the Commission in 2011 from a top American law firm in Brussels, knows a thing or two about European champions. In 2018, he was appointed to lead the competition department’s work on the most controversial merger of the decade, the Franco-German attempt to merge Siemens and Alstom to create a continental rail giant, which was ultimately blocked. The decision to deny the deal infuriated France and Germany while becoming the poster child of the competition directorate’s strict enforcement.  A loyal and rigorous official from Italy’s northern coastal region of Liguria, Piergiovanni will be a solid link between the top of the EU executive and the competition directorate, which recently said goodbye to its top official, Frenchman Olivier Guersent. “Don’t scratch the Rolls-Royce,” were Guersent’s parting words to his successor. The Rolls-Royce, is, of course, DG COMP, which the official described as the most prized directorate to work in, but also an area which should remain immune from political interference and corporate pressure. Giovanna Faggionato contributed to this report.

The leaders of France and Germany issued a joint call Friday for cuts to EU water pollution and chemical safety rules, in a bid to help European industry.   In a joint statement adopted at the 25th Franco-German Council of Ministers in Toulon, France, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz backed calls for a revision of REACH — the EU’s chemical legal framework — that’s focused on “reducing burdens” by “streamlining procedures.”  It comes months before the European Commission is due to present its long-delayed revision of REACH. The EU executive has signaled that the revision’s primary aim would be to simplify rules and speed up procedures for industry — to the dismay of civil society groups.  The two governments also pushed for an easing of financial constraints for Europe’s struggling chemicals industry. Merz and Macron pushed for an easing of recently-revised urban wastewater rules, which require cosmetics and pharmaceuticals companies to bear the bulk of the costs of cleaning up micropollutants in urban wastewater from the end of 2028. The Commission has already committed to producing an updated study on impacts of the extended producer responsibility scheme, following strong industry pushback.   The statement from the EU’s two biggest economies sends a strong message to Brussels to push ahead with its drive to cut red tape. “To unleash our companies’ full potential of growth and productivity it is … urgent to substantially ease the complexity and simplify the European Union’s regulatory environment,” the document states.  MATERIALS RECYCLING FOCUS  The two leaders repeated calls for better rules to facilitate the recycling and reuse of critical raw materials (CRM), as EU countries scramble to reduce dependency on Chinese minerals essential in defense and the energy transition.   Paris and Berlin committed to “work together on the design of the CRM aspects of the Circular Economy Act and coordinate their efforts” in the hope of “reaping the benefits” of the policy proposal, the draft reads.   The Circular Economy Act is expected in 2026 and aims to facilitate the transfer of materials waste between EU countries to boost recycling and reuse across European industries.   Back in 2023, the two EU countries had already pledged further cooperation on critical raw materials alongside Italy, including by setting up working groups for new extraction, processing and recycling projects.   Giorgio Leali contributed reporting.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen took aim on Tuesday at China’s industrial overproduction, export restrictions and its support for Russia’s war against Ukraine. In a statement to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Von der Leyen stressed that “our relations with China must be rooted in a clear-eyed assessment of the new reality.” The remarks set the stage for a contentious summit later this month at which EU leaders will raise Beijing’s “no-limits partnership” with Vladimir Putin’s Russia. “We can say that China is de facto enabling Russia’s war economy, and we cannot accept this,” she told European lawmakers. On the economic front, the relationship between Europe and China will need rebalancing, de-risking and a diplomatic boost when it comes to climate change and environmental issues, Von der Leyen argued.  She started by complimenting China as great global civilization that over the past 50 years has become a great global power. But her praise quickly gave way to criticism, as she accused Beijing of operating outside of international rules and flooding global markets “with subsidized overcapacity — not just to boost its own industries, but to choke international competition.” China runs “the largest trade surplus in the history of mankind,” she went on to say, while European companies were finding it harder to do business on the Chinese market where they faced systematic discrimination. The increasing barriers faced by European companies in China include requiring foreign companies to keep localized staff; host research and development functions; and keep all IT data in the country, according to an EU Chamber of Commerce in China survey. “I’ve always said it: Europe is fully committed to result-oriented engagement with China,” von der Leyen said, calling on Beijing to engage in a meaningful dialogue that leads to actual change. “If our partnership is to go forward, we need a genuine rebalancing.”  For all von der Leyen’s finger wagging, the EU is looking to copy some of China’s more successful industrial policies, including its own technology transfers and procurement laws.  Under its newly revised rules on state aid, EU governments are being encouraged to include European preference criteria in their bidding processes, as well as other forms of aid, particularly as the bloc looks to create a domestic battery sector. In the Automotive Action Plan — the EU’s strategy for making its carmakers competitive — the executive has said it would look into direct support for European manufacturers. The EU is making public funds available for battery makers, including for non-EU companies so long as they are in a joint venture with a domestic partner and sharing know-how, technical expertise and technology. The EU-China summit, called to mark 50 years of diplomatic relations, will be held in Beijing on July 24. A second summit day has been canceled. President Xi Jinping is not expected to attend, and the Chinese delegation will be led by premier Li Qiang.