BRUSSELS — After years of being treated as an outlier for its hardline stance on migration, Denmark says it has finally brought the rest of the EU on board with its tough approach. Europe’s justice and home affairs ministers on Monday approved new measures allowing EU countries to remove failed asylum seekers, set up processing centers overseas and create removal hubs outside their borders — measures Copenhagen has long advocated. The deal was “many years in the making,” said Rasmus Stoklund, Denmark’s center-left minister for integration who has driven migration negotiations during his country’s six-month presidency of the Council of the EU. Stoklund told POLITICO that when he first started working on the migration brief a decade ago in the Danish parliament, his fellow left-wingers around the bloc viewed his government’s position as so egregious that “other social democrats wouldn’t meet with me.” Over the last few years, “there’s been a huge change in perception,” Stoklund said. When the deal was done Monday, the “sigh of relief” from ministers and their aides was palpable, with people embracing one another and heaping praise on both the Danish brokers and Ursula von der Leyen’s European Commission that put forward the initial proposal, according to a diplomat who was in the room. Sweden’s Migration Minister Johan Forssell, a member of the conservative Moderate party, told POLITICO Monday’s deal was vital “to preserve, like, any public trust at all in the migration system today … we need to show that the system is working.” Stockholm, which has in the past prided itself on taking a liberal approach to migration, has recently undergone a Damascene conversion to the Danish model, implementing tough measures to limit family reunification, tightening rules around obtaining Swedish citizenship, and limiting social benefits for new arrivals. Forssell said the deal was important because “many people” around Europe criticize the EU over inaction on migration “because they cannot do themselves what [should be done] on the national basis.” The issue, he said, is a prime example of “why there must be a strong European Union.” SEALING THE DEAL Monday’s deal — whose impact will “hopefully be quite dramatic,” Stoklund said — comes two years after the EU signed off on a new law governing asylum and migration, which must be implemented by June. Voters have “made clear to governments all over the European Union, that they couldn’t accept that they weren’t able to control the access to their countries,” Stoklund said. “Governments have realized that if they didn’t take this question seriously, then [voters] would back more populist movements that would take it seriously — and use more drastic measures in order to find new solutions.” Stockholm has recently undergone a Damascene conversion to the Danish model, implementing tough measures to limit family reunification, tightening rules around obtaining Swedish citizenship, and limiting social benefits for new arrivals. | Henrick Montgomery/EPA Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner, the Danish Council presidency and ministers were at pains to point out that Monday’s agreement showed the EU could get deals done. After the last EU election in 2024, the new Commission’s “first task” was to “bring our European house in order,” Brunner said. “Today we’re showing that Europe can actually deliver and we delivered quite a lot.” WHAT’S NEW The ministers backed new rules to detain and deport migrants, including measures that would allow the bloc and individual countries to cut deals to set up migration processing hubs in other nations, regardless of whether the people being moved there have a connection with those countries. Ministers supported changes that will allow capitals to reject applications if asylum seekers, prior to first entering the EU, could have received international protection in a non-EU country the bloc deems safe, and signed off on a common list of countries of origin considered safe. Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India, Kosovo, Morocco and Tunisia are on that latter list, as are countries that are candidates to join the EU. But the deal also leaves room for exceptions — such as Ukraine, which is at war. Asylum seekers won’t automatically have the right to remain in the EU while they appeal a ruling that their refuge application was inadmissible. The next step for the measures will be negotiations with the European Parliament, once it has decided its position on the proposals. Max Griera contributed reporting.

The European Parliament is postponing making a call on whether to ask a far-right group to pay back €4 million until the EU’s prosecutor concludes its investigation into the group’s alleged mismanagement of funds. The Parliament’s Bureau, composed of President Roberta Metsola and the 14 vice presidents, will on Monday evening rubber-stamp the recommendation from the Parliament’s secretary-general to delay closing the 2024 accounts of the now-defunct Identity and Democracy group, according to a note seen by POLITICO. The Parliament’s administration found irregularities in public procurement and donations to the ID group — former home to France’s Marine Le Pen, Austria’s Herbert Kickl and Italy’s Matteo Salvini — to the tune of €4.3 million between 2019 and 2024, after which the European Public Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation into the matter, as reported by POLITICO. What makes the affair complicated is that the ID group dissolved after last year’s EU election, with a majority of its members and staff absorbed into the new Patriots for Europe group. While the Parliament’s budgetary control committee considers the two groups to be related — and therefore, the Patriots potentially liable to pay back the cash — the Patriots have pushed back, arguing that they are two separate legal entities. “The absurd claim that the Patriots are the legal successors to the ID group is baseless,” Patriots MEP Tamás Deutsch said in September, after the budgetary control committee instructed the secretary-general to look into recovering the allegedly misspent funds. The secretary-general should “assess the potential liabilities of the responsible [lawmakers] and hierarchy for intentional or gross-negligent authorization of irregular expenditure,” the committee said in a letter addressed to Metsola. A spokesperson for EPPO declined to give a timeline for the results of its probe. “The investigation is ongoing and will take as long as necessary to examine all relevant elements, both incriminating and exculpatory,” they said.

STRASBOURG — The center-right European People’s Party President Manfred Weber on Tuesday refused to commit to handing the European Parliament’s presidency to the Socialists as scheduled in 2027. In what would be a major blow to the stability of the EU’s governing coalition, Weber hinted he could be seeking a third term for Roberta Metsola, a Maltese conservative and incumbent president of the Parliament. The president of the Party of European Socialists, Stefan Löfven, said last week that the EPP needs to abide by the accord it signed after the European election in 2024, agreeing to hand over the Parliament presidency to the center-left in 2027. During a press conference in Strasbourg Tuesday morning, Weber snarked back at Löfven. “It was also agreed that the socialists are ready to work together, and I think the next one and a half years the socialists can show their reliability,” he said, after being asked by POLITICO whether he committed to upholding the deal. Weber referred to a vote on a green simplification package scheduled for Wednesday in which some Socialist MEPs will break the group line to vote against it, despite an earlier agreement to support it with the EPP. “The socialists are grabbing for jobs but not delivering on what the people really expect from them,” Weber added. The Socialists say there is a written power-sharing agreement signed between the EPP, Socialists & Democrats and centrist Renew Europe divvying up the EU’s top jobs — with the Parliament presidency remaining split between the center right and the center left. “We have a deal, the deal was made after the election, and that deal is still valid,” Löfven said Friday, warning that the EPP needs to comply “if they still want a decent working environment in Brussels.” But behind the scenes, many center-left MEPs and staffers expect that the EPP will try to breach the agreement to give a third term to Metsola. Their fears are growing because the Socialists also have the top post at the European Council, where Portugal’s former Prime Minister António Costa runs the show, and it is unlikely the EPP would let the center-left — which has lost political heft across the bloc in recent years — lead two of the three EU policymaking institutions. “About Roberta Metsola’s future … let me first of all underline that I think I can, as EPP representative, be proud about the job Roberta Metsola has delivered,” Weber said. “She’s a great president of the European Parliament, very respected, the institution can be proud to have such a personality in the lead.” “When the time comes to make decisions regarding the midterm, I think it will also be the time when we all demonstrate if we are people of word and where we demonstrate if agreements are respected,” S&D group chair Iratxe García said in reaction to Weber’s comments. “I think we now have very important issues about which to work and in which citizens are really attentive and waiting for us… housing, decent employment, public services, a Europe that defends peace, and that is where we are.” This article has been updated.

AMSTERDAM — Socialist lawmakers expect the center-right European People’s Party to try to keep the European Parliament presidency despite a power-sharing agreement signed after the 2024 EU election. Under the 2024 power-sharing arrangement, the top Parliament job would be shared — the first half of the term for the EPP, second half for the Socialists. But Socialist lawmakers now doubt that the center-right EPP — which holds the highest representation in the European Commission, the Council and the Parliament — will let them take the job, according to nine MEPs, aides and senior officials who were granted anonymity to speak candidly with POLITICO. That is because the Socialists also have the top post at the European Council with Portugal’s former Prime MinisterAntonio Costa, and it is unlikely the EPP would let the Social Democrats — which have lost political weight across countries in recent years — lead two out of the three EU policymaking institutions, the lawmakers said. The lawmakers also said it is likely the EPP will try to have incumbent Parliament President Roberta Metsola reelected for a third term — a first in the parliament’s history — especially after she refused to go back to Maltese politics as the leader of her Nationalist Party. Publicly, however, the Socialists are holding their ground. The president of the Party of European Socialists (PES) Stefan Löfven said Friday night that his political family will not support a third term for Metsola. “If you and I make a deal, you expect me to keep it … if they still want a decent working environment in Brussels, they need to stick to the deal,” Löfven told POLITICO ahead of the Socialist leaders dinner on Friday night during the PES congress. MIDTERM RESHUFFLE He added that the 2024 deal also includes a second term for European Council President Antonio Costa, Portugal’s former Socialist prime minister — though EPP officials contest that it was not explicitly part of the agreement, opening the door to use Costa’s reelection as leverage to keep control of the Parliament president position. Ahead of the 2027 midterm reshuffle, where all top jobs within the Parliament are up for grabs, Socialist lawmakers make it a given that Spain’s Iratxe García will remain as the chair of the Socialists and Democrats group in the chamber. “If Metsola stays on, Iratxe will stay on, for consistency,” said one MEP. “I don’t see Iratxe being challenged,” said a second lawmaker, who added that García can only be ousted if the Italians turn against her — which is unlikely given both Italy and Spain traditionally stick together. “Otherwise if they are united, any challenger would need to first match their votes together, which is a lot,”  this person said. The Italians and Spaniards hold 41 out of 136 seats. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and García are meeting with Italian Democratic Party leader Elly Schlein on Saturday, as part of a busy agenda with many bilateral meetings.  “Oh, so that’s the agenda for the meeting?” Schlein laughed when asked by POLITICO whether she would support García as she walked into the room. The Italians, who are the largest national delegation within the Socialists and Democrats (S&D), are unlikely to claim the presidency as they are very divided and there is no clear candidate among their ranks for the job. Instead, they are expected to keep group Secretary-General Fabrizia Panzetti for another term as part of a power-sharing agreement among the national party leaders. “They are trying not to open the debate and just keep everything as it is,” said a third MEP. “I wish there would be a change, not necessarily about Iratxe, but we should have an open debate internally, and not just between leaders,” this person added. While everyone assumes publicly that García will stay on — as long as Sánchez stays in power — some leaders remain tight-lipped on whether they will support her. “Iratxe has done a good job,” Swedish Social Democratic leader Magdalena Andersson — who is topping the polls one year away from national elections — told POLITICO. But “no, it has not been decided” if the Swedish delegation will support her, Andersson said. The EPP did not reply to a request for comment in time of publication.

AMSTERDAM — Everyone’s talking about migration. Apart from Europe’s center left. The Party of European Socialists (PES), Europe’s second-biggest political family, is holding a three-day get-together in Amsterdam starting Thursday to fire up the troops as they push back against a right-wing surge. But for all the fanfare, they won’t be spending much time talking about one of the hot-button issues fueling that populist rise. How to handle migrant flows into Europe has divided the center left, with some, such as the Nordics, opting to harden their stance and back tough deportation rules, while others, especially the Spanish, continue to defend taking a softer approach. As a result, the PES congress will tiptoe around the issue. “Migrants are increasingly criminalized and used as a scapegoat for social and economic hardships and to justify discriminatory policies,” reads the sole reference to the topic in the final declaration of the congress, obtained by POLITICO and set to be voted on Friday. A Social Policy program, to be approved the same day, mentions the need to ensure “the protection of migrants, asylum seekers and undocumented people.” Migration is not mentioned in a document setting out the party’s priorities and campaign talking points for the years to come, also obtained by POLITICO, and there are no scheduled debates on the topic. Even those relatively minor mentions of the protection of undocumented migrants raise questions about the unity of the party, as the Danish Socialists have prioritized establishing a tough deportation scheme during their EU Council presidency, which began in July and runs to the end of December. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen will not be at the PES jamboree. Instead of addressing migration, the Socialists are turning to their traditional core subjects — health care, job creation, affordable housing and renewable energy — as the core of their campaign program, according to their priorities for the years to come, to be voted on by party delegates on Friday. TAKING ON TRUMP During the past five years, the center left has seen its support slump across European countries and its number of EU lawmakers fall, with a right-wing bloc in command of the European Parliament and most members of the College of Commissioners hailing from the center right. The PES congress — which brings together left-wing political movements, NGOs, unions and activists — is meant to set the principles socialists across Europe will defend in taking on “Reactionary International.” (The term was popularized by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and other leaders to describe the transatlantic populist right-wing movement led by U.S. President Donald Trump.) “Only by standing united can we have the critical mass needed to reverse the dangerous course charted by Trump and his allies,” reads a congress declaration, yet to be adopted but pre-approved by PES leadership. “We call for the launch of a Global Progressive Mobilization.” Yet only one of the three socialist prime ministers in the EU — Sánchez — will be showing up. Apart from Denmark’s Frederiksen, Malta’s Robert Abela is also not on the list of attendees. Migrants from various detention centers across Italy are escorted by police as they disembark an Italian Navy Offshore Patrol Vessel. | Adnan Beci/AFP via Getty Images “All our leaders are invited and may join at the last moment,” PES spokesperson Catarina Faria told POLITICO. She added that Frederiksen is not attending “due to elections in Denmark” — even though the next scheduled elections in the country are local ballots on Nov. 18. Frederiksen and Abela’s offices did not reply to requests for comment. “I don’t think there is any reason for concern … It’s natural sometimes for leaders to have different kinds of agendas, but I think what is essential for us to achieve is this mobilization of our political family and that’s why we our leaders will be, of course, very much involved in the years to come,” said PES Vice President and Romanian MEP Victor Negrescu. Sánchez, who is facing mounting challenges to his leadership in Madrid, will headline the congress, joined by European Council President António Costa, German Vice-Chancellor Lars Klingbeil, Austria’s Vice-Chancellor Andreas Babler and national party leaders.  HOPING TO MAKE GAINS Negrescu said the center left is hoping to do well in upcoming elections. “The most important one is the one in the Netherlands,” he said of the vote scheduled for Oct. 24 in which the Labour Party is on course to enter government. Party leader Frans Timmermans (a former Commission Green Deal chief) could even end up as prime minister if his party finishes ahead of the Christian Democrats. Negrescu also noted that center-left parties in Sweden and Finland are leading in the polls (those countries elect new governments in 2026 and 2027, respectively). Despite a bruising past few years at the ballot box, the PES is sticking with the old guard as its leadership. PES President Stefan Löfven — a former Swedish prime minister who runs the party from Stockholm while also working for consultancy Rud Pedersen — is running to be re-elected unopposed. Secretary-General Giacomo Filibeck will also stay on, and Löfven has proposed keeping the center left’s top two members of the European Parliament — Iratxe García and Katarina Barley — in place as vice-presidents. Sarah Wheaton contributed reporting.

Denmark is prepared to face down the European Parliament over tougher migration rules, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told lawmakers as her country takes up the six-month presidency of the Council of the EU. “We have to lower the influx of migrants to Europe,” she said in Strasbourg on Tuesday. Frederiksen has built a reputation as the black sheep of European social democrats because she often sides with the right in pushing forward tougher rules on asylum and border checks. “What has been mainstream among our populations for quite many years is now mainstream for many of us politicians as well, finally,” she said. “Maybe not in Parliament, but gladly, and I am really happy about that, in the European Council,” where several leaders of EU countries leaders are determined to address migration problems. In pushing for a tougher approach Frederiksen finds herself on the same side as right-wing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and center-right Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The Parliament ― the bloc’s only directly elected body ― is more divided than Europe’s governments, however. With a right-wing bloc pushing for stricter rules, and a center-left bloc opposing them, it will be complicated for the house’s centrist political families to come to any agreement on legislation. Following the EU election in June last year, which saw a surge in support to right-wing and far-right parties elected on an anti-migration base, the European Commission announced it would propose rules that would increase deportations, as well as a revision of the safe third country concept to allow for easier returns of migrants to countries they are not originally from. It would also make it easier for countries to set up so-called return hubs. TOUGH PRIORITY Migration is one of the topics where the center-right European People’s Party could bypass its traditional mainstream allies and use the support of right-wing and far-right groups. “It is challenging Europe, affecting people’s lives, and the cohesion of our societies,” Frederiksen said. “We saw it very clearly in the European Parliament elections last year. Migration was a tough priority for many Europeans, including myself.” Denmark, whose EU presidency will run until the end of 2025, will prioritize the proposals the Commission has already set out, and also “provide a much more effective response to Russia,” which, Frederiksen said, was “using migration as a weapon at our eastern borders.” “Our citizens expect us politicians to find new solutions with a good reason and European citizens have a right to feel safe in their own countries,” she said. “That is why we need to strengthen our external borders.”

Ursula von der Leyen came out on the attack when she appeared before MEPs on Monday. Their debate on the European Commission president’s leadership threw up tons of fascinating insights into the current state of EU politics. It was merely the amuse-bouche before a vote of confidence on Thursday (even though she’ll almost certainly survive that because her centrist opponents say they’ll back her.) Von der Leyen spoke first, before heads of political groups took the floor. Here are some things we noticed. 1. VON DER LEYEN’S COALITION IS IN DISARRAY In fact, at this point we are even doubting whether to keep calling it a coalition. (It’s never been formal, of course, simply the group of centrist parties that supported her and keep her afloat.) As the debate went on, she got slap after slap from Socialists, Greens, and the liberals of Renew. Between them they didn’t like her decision to drive a deregulation agenda targeting last term’s Green Deal, criticized the way she bypasses the Parliament to pass measures such as billions of euros in loans for defense spending, and as Socialists chief Iratxe García put it, “for looking the other way” when her own center-right European People’s Party does deals with the far-right. 2. SHE’S NOT AFRAID OF DISHING OUT LOW BLOWS TO CRITICS Von der Leyen didn’t stop at picking apart her opponent’s arguments. She came with knives out: Calling out fake news, talking about “the oldest playbook of extremists” and branding her critics “conspiracists,” “anti-vaxxers” and “Putin apologists.” 3. IN FACT, SHE’S PARTIAL TO SHOWING A BIT OF SASS Occasions are few when you get to see the 66-year-old politician really attack her political opponents. But this time was different. Cornered by the Parliament’s fury, she came out all guns blazing. It was the initiator of the motion of no confidence, right-wing MEP Gheorghe Piperea, she labeled an “extremist.” “There is a choice here,” she said. “We can follow Mr. Piperea down his world of conspiracies and alleged sinister plots by what he calls ‘Brussels,’ or we can clearly call this out for what it is ― another crude attempt to drive a wedge between our institutions, between the pro-European, prodemocratic forces in this house.” 4. SHE’S STILL NOT REALLY IN THE MOOD TO REVEAL ‘PFIZERGATE’ SECRETS While she devoted more minutes to the defense of the text message exchange with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla than she’s ever done in public before, and more than most observers expected, there was less substance than on first appearance. She basically just stuck to the Commission’s previous line, without giving any additional information on what was actually included within the texts ― which we still may never get to see. You can read all about the Pfizergate issue here. 5. BUT SHE CLEARLY DOESN’T THINK ‘PFIZERGATE’ HAS ANY SHADE OF GRAY Any accusation that national governments didn’t know about the vaccine contracts the Commission was negotiating, or how much they would cost, was “dishonest,” she said. “In fact, let us call it by its name – it is simply a lie.” 6. SOCIALISTS AND LIBERALS ARE SEIZING THE CHANCE TO ASSERT THEMSELVES “He who laughs last, laughs longest” may have been in the heads of Socialist and liberal lawmakers. While both factions feel sidelined and humiliated since last summer’s EU election, they saw in this debate an opportunity to reassert their power, showing the EPP it needs them to govern Europe ― because they think rightward forces, which supported the motion, are not reliable. “If you betray us again, be clear that social democracy will lead the resistance against your drift,” said S&D chief Iratxe García, who, despite the harsh words, said her group would not support the no-confidence motion. Over and over, the EPP has counted on far-right support in the Parliament to set the agenda, kill reports, or pass through measures, with the helpless Socialists and liberals unable to stop it. 7. THERE’S NOTHING WORSE THAN A FRIEND WHO FEELS DISAPPOINTED IN YOU “We ask you clearly: Who are your allies in this Parliament? Your real allies?” Valérie Hayer, of liberal Renew, asked von der Leyen. “You are witnessing the impasse that you and your political family are facing, by having allowed the EPP to favor alliances of convenience with the far right.” 8. EVEN THE CENTRISTS ARE WOBBLING ON VDL The discontent among the Socialists is so ripe that the German delegation is considering abstaining during the vote on Thursday. “We will decide on Wednesday but it is an option,” the German delegation chief, René Repasi, told POLITICO. 9. MAYBE THE ONLY REAL VICTOR IN ALL THIS WAS PUTIN The division in the European Parliament must have been music to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ears. Both von der Leyen and the EPP’s chief Manfred Weber argued the motion of no confidence was an attempt by far-right forces to destabilize the EU. “Putin will like what his friends are doing here,” Weber said, branding the far-right parties Romanian AUR and Alternative for Germany — both signatories of the motion — “Putin’s puppets.” Von der Leyen said, “we see the alarming threat from extremist parties who want to polarize our societies with disinformation,” and there is ample proof “that many are supported by our enemies and by their puppet masters in Russia or elsewhere.” 10. THERE WAS SOME EVER-SO-SUBTLE MISOGYNY COMING OUT OF THE KREMLIN Before the debate, former Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called von der Leyen an “evil gynecologist” and “toxic old woman.” Never one to cross a line on tiptoe when he can take a massive leap over it, Medvedev, the current deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said the Commission president had “annoyed everyone,” claiming that she was “dishonest” and had committed “fraud” in the purchasing of Pfizer vaccines during the Covid-19 pandemic. 11. THE EU’S RIGHT-WING CAMP IS DIVIDED The co-chair of the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists group, Nicola Procaccini, took to the podium to lash out at his own political family, especially against the Polish and Romanian delegations, which promoted the motion of censure. The wedge shows how the EPP’s strategy to bring parts of the ECR, namely Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, into the Brussels mainstream fold by giving them posts of power and including them in negotiations, has worked. Procaccini signaled he though he motion to censure von der Leyen is a strategic blunder. The vote would only serve allow Greens and socialists to reassert the “Ursula majority,” just as a “center-right majority” was making headway, he said. He argued the current Commission is the most right-wing in history, with an executive vice president belonging to the ECR faction, and that the right-wing camp is achieving major victories in the fields of deregulation and migration. Predicting that the motion would fail, Procaccini added, “unfortunately some people like to lose, both at home and here” — an apparent reference to the loss of AUR leader George Simion in Romania’s presidential election.  12. FARAGE IS BUT A DISTANT MEMORY Brexit definitely did mean Brexit, at least if Weber’s not-too-subtle blast at the British style of debate had anything to go by. “We are the oldest group in this house, we respect its political culture,” the EPP leader said. “The European Parliament is not Westminster!” 13. SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE (SEE ALSO: POINTS 4, 6, 9 ABOVE) There can be much ado when it looks like one EU institution is trying to throw the legitimacy of another under the bus. But at the end of the day, the debate was classic EU fare: lawmakers trotted out their usual lists of grievances, von der Leyen was the lady not for turning, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, who chaired the debate, had to plea with rowdy MEPs to please shut up. Eh bon. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. See you on Thursday. Nicholas Vinocur, Sarah Wheaton and Mari Eccles contributed reporting.