Europe ministers will chew over the Commission’s new ideas to expand the Union over lunch in Luxembourg today.

Given the groaning agenda for Thursday and Friday’s summit in Brussels, there is already talk that enlargement might get squeezed off the leaders’ agenda – again. 

But many are already looking past EUCO.

On 28 October, Marta Kos, the EU enlargement chief, will unveil a date for each frontrunner: Ukraine, Moldova, Albania and Montenegro. 

It’s not an entry date; rather, it’s a date by which the Commission believes each country can finish accession talks, provided it has completed its reforms. The EU could well spend more years ratifying the membership after those dates. 

The Commission’s plan is to “provide an anchor for the negotiations” without pre-determining the speed at which they will progress. 

Caveats aside, the Berlaymont is taking a political risk by introducing dates into enlargement – even at an early stage – as it’s a policy Brussels has little control over. 

Ursula von der Leyen, who is allergic to self-imposed enlargement deadlines, pushed back on Kyiv’s demand for a 2027 entry pledge in February.

But it’s also a way of putting pressure on EU countries to stop holding up candidates’ progress because of unrelated bilateral disputes (as Croatia is now doing to Montenegro).

Claudia Bauer, Austria’s Europe minister, told Rapporteur it was not a good idea to set any dates, even for closing clusters. “There is a clear process, and it is based on merit. Ukraine must now carry out the necessary reforms,” she told my colleague Victoria Becker.

The good news for Kyiv is that the EU will today open two more of the six clusters, allowing more areas of formal negotiations to begin.

It follows a vote in Ukraine’s parliament on Monday to approve amendments to improve minority rights, as demanded by Hungary. 

“Ukraine is doing its homework and delivering on its commitments, and it is only fair that the European Union responds by advancing Ukraine’s path towards membership,” Yevheniia Kravchuk, a senior MP from Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s party, told me.

But there’s no guarantee that Hungary – or any other country – won’t find fresh grounds to stall Ukraine’s talks.

Budget: We can wait, warns Austria

Claudia Bauer, Austria’s EU affairs minister, said her country is under no pressure to rush a deal on the EU’s 2028-2034 budget.

“A bad compromise does not become any better simply because we adopt it more quickly,” she told Victoria Becker.

Austria, Germany and the Netherlands are pushing for cuts of several hundred billion euros to the Commission’s initial €2 trillion proposal. Read the full story.

France plays both sides

Paris is keeping its options open as the battle over the EU’s next long-term budget heats up. 

French minister Benjamin Haddad joined a meeting organised by Spain in Luxembourg last night with the 17-strong group of countries pushing for a larger EU budget, known as the “Friends of Cohesion”. 

Today, Haddad will be breaking bread with their bitter rivals, who want a smaller budget, at a meeting organised by the Netherlands that will include Germany, Austria, Finland, and Sweden, as well as Denmark and Belgium.

France has so far maintained a non-aligned position in the negotiations, as Marine Le Pen seeks to put the debate front and centre of the presidential campaign. It wants both a more modern budget and to protect agricultural subsidies.

Ireland faces aid ‘cuts’ backlash

Irish politicians and development groups have criticised their government’s proposed €38 billion cut for spending outside the EU as part of the bloc’s next seven-year budget.

Barry Andrews, who hails from the same Fianna Fáil political party as Thomas Byrne – the minister and architect of the Irish proposal – warned it could be a “serious error.”

Byrne has justified his compromise, saying it still increases the funding for ‘external action’ by 31% compared to the current budget. Read my full story.

Give us a brake!

Friedrich Merz, Giorgia Meloni and Bart De Wever are returning to a February request for the Commission to provide an “emergency brake” on EU bureaucracy, in an effort to prevent regulatory burdens from eroding Europe’s industrial capacity. 

In a letter to António Costa ahead of this week’s summit – seen by Rapporteur – the three leaders call for a mechanism to rein in unnecessary regulatory costs, with the European Council able to intervene as a last resort.

They also want faster approvals for strategic investments in energy, defence, digitalisation and AI, alongside sweeping cuts to reporting requirements, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses.

Eickhout exit prompts Green reforms 

Green MEPs voted to change their rules last month in the wake of Bas Eickhout’s resignation as co-leader. The group’s new statutes have shifted the ultimate responsibilities for hiring and firing staffers out of the hands of the two top MEPs and over to the secretary general, three sources told Rapporteur.

Eickhout stepped down in May after staffers came forward to reveal they had had workplace relationships with him. He admitted to having “relationships that were not appropriate”. Last week a replacement co-leader, Nicolae Ștefănuță, was elected.

One Green official insisted the change was long in the offing and was unrelated to Eickhout’s sudden departure. But another insider said this was untrue and that the rule change was directly linked to Eickhout’s ignominious exit.

Midterms: S&D chief tacks to the centre 

In her re-election manifesto, Iratxe García, the Spanish MEP leading S&D, called for a deal with the pro-European forces, suggesting her preference is not to go into full-blown opposition mode against the EPP. 

“I want to openly seek a real coalition agreement with a pro-European majority, not as a technical arrangement, but as a genuine discussion on content,” she said. 

S&D will decide collectively whether to pursue a deal at a future group retreat, García said.

Here are three new stories from Rapporteur:

• Europe's carbon pricing overhaul just got a lot more complicated

• Ministers urged to ease packaging rules before Black Friday

• Hemp complicates deal on agricultural market rules

ENLARGEMENT – VERTICALLY? Marta Kos cracked a joke at a press conference alongside Milojko Spajić, the very tall Montenegrin prime minister last night in Luxembourg.

“Your people are the second tallest people in the European Union after [the] Dutch,” she said. “I think it’s good that we also know some nice statistics about our hopefully-soon newcomers to the EU,” she said.

BERLIN CALLS: Katharina von Schnurbein, the EU’s coordinator on combatting antisemitism and fostering Jewish life, has been tapped as the German government’s new antisemitism adviser, meaning she will leave her post in the European Commission after over a decade.

🇲🇪 PODGORICA

Montenegro provisionally closed three EU accession chapters, rather than just the two initially expected, at Monday’s intergovernmental conference in Luxembourg. EU member states agreed to close Chapter 17 on economic and monetary policy, Chapter 18 on statistics and Chapter 19 on social policy and employment. This brings Montenegro’s total to 21 of 33 chapters provisionally closed, as it aims to conclude accession negotiations by the end of the year. 

– Bronwyn Jones

🇩🇪 BERLIN

Labour Minister Bärbel Bas announced her resignation, which followed the death of her stepdaughter and “public attacks” that also came from Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democrats. Bas also stepped down as co-leader of the Social Democratic Party, a coalition partner of the CDU. She has been criticised for impeding social reforms and did not attend the most recent meeting of the coalition committee as she was taking time to grieve.

– Orlando Whitehead

🇪🇸 MADRID

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia will visit Ceuta and Melilla on Tuesday and Wednesday – their first trip to the Spanish exclaves in North Africa. Spanish monarchs have traditionally avoided visiting the territories to avoid diplomatic friction with Morocco, which claims sovereignty over both cities. Ahead of the visit, Moroccan King Mohammed VI warned last week against “pressure, threats or blackmail” from Madrid, as tensions remain high in the wake of July’s Ceuta border crisis.

– Inés Fernández-Pontes

🇦🇹 VIENNA

Interior Minister Gerhard Karner defended the temporary detention of two Ukrainian journalists in Vienna, saying police acted proportionately. The pair was investigating former prosecutor general Ruslan Kravchenko when they were detained over suspected links to Ukrainian intelligence operatives accused of spying on Austria. Authorities have not clarified the connection and both journalists, who worked for Ukrainska Pravda, remain under investigation. Ukraine demanded an explanation, while Ukrainska Pravda condemned the detention as unlawful.

– Jakob Ploteny

🇸🇪 STOCKHOLM

Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson has once more sought to form a government, postponing her meeting with parliamentary speaker Andreas Norlén until Tuesday. Four weeks after the election, coalition talks remain deadlocked between the Centre and Left parties. Norlén has warned that Andersson will face a parliamentary vote regardless of whether she secures an agreement – possibly as soon as Thursday, although parliamentary procedures have yet to be initiated. Andersson has herself acknowledged that winning a vote is unlikely.

– Charles Szumski

🇬🇷 ATHENS

US media reports suggest that Donald Trump is considering replacing Kimberly Guilfoyle as US ambassador to Greece after she allegedly told a private gathering that Washington could destabilise any government, including Greece’s. Guilfoyle also reportedly asked a Trump donor and supporter to settle a $100,000 credit card bill.

– Sarantis Michalopoulos

🇧🇬 SOFIA

Foreign Minister Velislava Petrova urged EU counterparts in Luxembourg on Monday to back a moratorium on attacks against merchant shipping in the Black Sea, six days after the cargo vessel Alfa Watan sank in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone, with all crew members presumed dead. Black Sea security “is not only regional policy; it concerns everyone in the EU”, said Petrova, calling for greater European coordination and highlighting a maritime security centre Bulgaria is developing with Romania under the EU’s 2025 Black Sea strategy.

– Konstantin Karadjov

Contributors: Victoria Becker, Nikolaus J. Kurmayer, Bruno Waterfield, Pietro Guastamacchia, Florent Servia

Editors: Orlando Whitehead, Sofia Mandilara, Charles Szumski