Virkkunen on Tuesday took a quintessential Brussels approach to the issue, sticking to her script and spelling out the same, legalistic answer all evening: Any company operating in Europe must abide by its rules. She said she wanted to speed up the investigations under the DSA, but the work needed to be “evidence-based.” She stopped … Read more
Former European Commissioner Thierry Breton said on Sunday that no one had forced him to resign from the EU executive but that he’d felt he “had to do it.” In his first public comments since unexpectedly quitting last week, Breton reiterated his criticism of the Commission’s “dubious governance.” Breton, who served as commissioner for the … Read more
“I cannot say it because it’s a sort of open secret but yes, it became clear at some point that the name [of Thierry Breton] was part of the negotiation,” a French official with knowledge of the talks said on condition they remain anonymous. The rumor that Macron would eventually drop Breton circulated for weeks, … Read more
Surprising? Not really. While the EU accounted for over 27 percent of the world’s GDP in 1990 — more than the U.S. at the time — today, its share is a little over 17 percent. And as Europe’s economic strength shrinks, the less it can project regulatory power on the world stage — a fact … Read more
The deadline for putting forward names for the next European Commission is the end of August. With that date approaching fast, and now that Ursula von der Leyen is back from her summer holiday in Germany, here are the nominees so far (remember that all of them, except for von der Leyen herself, need to … Read more
ICEYE is a small company — founded in 2014 and with only about $100 million in revenue last year, but it owns a network of more than 30 small surveillance satellites — each weighing less than 100 kilograms. Rafał Modrzewski, the CEO of ICEYE, said that an example of what not to do was the … Read more
Under the bloc’s regulatory structure, European commissioners, who are nominated by national leaders, have a say in how rules are implemented, but typically do not meddle in how officials enforce the law. Last year, just as Europe’s social media rules came into force, Breton also urged enforcers to focus on potential harm at both X … Read more
But Trump didn’t take the bait when Musk attempted to goad him into attacking Brussels over its stance on misinformation. Referring to an open letter addressed to Musk from the European Union’s digital enforcer Thierry Breton, published ahead of the interview and reminding the X owner of the EU’s rules on promoting hate speech, Musk … Read more
The EU in July charged X, which Musk bought in 2022, for failing to respect its social media laws. The platform faces multimillion euro fines. “As the relevant content is accessible to EU users and being amplified also in our jurisdiction, we cannot exclude potential spillovers in the EU,” Breton said in a statement posted … Read more
Brussels might seem empty, but high-stakes games are afoot behind the scenes. From air-conditioned government suites (and the occasional vacation villa), leaders are working the phones, trying to convince European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to give their country the most prestigious posts in the EU executive. In this week’s edition of EU Confidential podcast, host … Read more
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