The Spanish government will present a progressive draft budget for 2025 next week, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez (PSOE/S&D) announced on Wednesday, asserting that his coalition government will complete the three years left of its mandate amid opposition calls for it to resign.

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström unexpectedly announced his resignation on Wednesday evening, halfway through a term marked by his country's accession to NATO, amid speculation of a rift between him and Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.

The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog said a cooling tower at Ukraine's Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant had been badly damaged in a fire last month and would probably have to be demolished.

Italy approved on Wednesday (4 September) a plan to put 28,000 concessions for lucrative beach bars and clubs up for bidding by June 2027, in a long delayed response to a European Union demand for Rome to open the sector to newcomers.

Mario Draghi’s presentation of his long-awaited report on the future of Europe’s competitiveness to EU officials on Wednesday (4 July) was light on details and policy proposals - with Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen signalling she hasn't accessed the full document yet.

Untreated dossiers like hydrogen, nuclear energy, and carbon capture are piling up on the desks of absent ministers, as France remains without a government since the July elections. Industry fears this governmental paralysis puts the country's energy and climate goals and associated investment at risk.  

The Swedish Medical Products Agency is pushing for the creation of a state-run pharmaceutical production company to deal with shortages of critical medicines.

The Bulgarian government has been accused of illegally blocking exports of insulin and antibiotics despite having enough stockpiles. The European Commission has been urged to intervene.

A sharp increase in preventive screening points to a post-pandemic silver lining as Czech citizens seek to futureproof their health, including a 73% year-on-year increase in claims for voluntary vaccinations.

The Strategic Dialogue on Agriculture’s final recommendations suggest agricultural policy needs to fundamentally change. What does this shift look like?

Court proceedings from the Irish Data Protection Commission against X are officially over as of Wednesday (4 September), after the company agreed to permanently stop processing some personal data collected in the EU to train artificial intelligence (AI).

On World Sexual Health Day, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) calls for urgent measures to stifle the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STI) in the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA) amid rising diagnoses. 

Resistance to the Hungarian presidency's approach to the EU's draft law to combat online child sexual abuse material (CSAM) was still palpable during a member states' meeting on Wednesday (4 September).

Poor soft wheat harvests in Europe and increased demand in third countries could intensify the ‘Russification of the market’ to the detriment of the EU, according to experts.

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has a delicate political balance to strike in her picks for the most important jobs in the EU's executive, in addition to the one-on-one back-room talks with the national leaders who nominate commissioners, she also needs to consider the overall party-political makeup of both national governments and the European Parliament.

The leader of Forza Italia (EPP) in the European Parliament, Fulvio Martusciello, confirmed that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen plans to grant Italy an executive vice presidency despite the ECR not being part of the pro-European majority in the Parliament. 

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is likely to look at restructuring government responsibilities after requesting a slew of top ministers to resign as part of the biggest shake-up of the wartime government, expected for Thursday.

The conclusions of the roundtable on the future of EU agriculture call for a shift away from land-based subsidies towards more support for small farms and incentives for producers who go green while supporting demand for healthy and sustainable diets. 

A day after the EU’s top court issued a ruling seemingly limiting the Commission’s authority to halt ‘killer acquisitions,’ influential think tank Bruegel said that EU’s competition regulator should have a stronger regulatory strategy reviewing these.

Commissioner hearings in the European Parliament are some way off. Nominations are in but there is no obvious contender for the health portfolio.