The parliamentary elections in the Netherlands on 29 October brought a major and pleasant surprise to liberal Europe and to Ukraine as well.

On 21 October 2025, former French president Nicolas Sarkozy entered La Santé prison to begin a five-year sentence in the "Libya financing" case.

Authoritarian regimes consolidated power by sharpening their methods of control, from electoral engineering and digital surveillance to legal and institutional manipulation.

On 29 October, a new trade agreement between Ukraine and the EU came into effect, replacing the annex to the Association Agreement that outlined the schedule for liberalising import duties.

The previous elections in the Netherlands took place in November 2023. However, the coalition government led by Dick Schoof lasted less than a year.

Catherine Connolly claimed victory in Ireland’s presidential election on 24 October. A staunch left-wing politician, she is a firm supporter of Ireland’s neutrality, a critic of NATO and an opponent of sending weapons to Ukraine.

European Pravda has reported that Ukraine is expecting a critical European Commission report. The document will be released very soon.

On 23 October, the European Council meeting in Brussels put a key question on its agenda: how to finance Ukraine in 2026-2027 and whether frozen Russian assets could be used for that purpose.

The Moldovan parliament is set to officially approve the composition of the new government this week.

Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine and the risk of new Kremlin-driven threats in other regions have radically changed how European countries approach national security and defence.

As the European Union tries to put together a large loan for Ukraine, sovereign guarantees and the risk they pose to member states' credit ratings have become a stumbling block.

On Thursday, 23 October, EU leaders will meet at the European Council in Brussels to discuss plans to strengthen the Union’s defence capabilities by 2030.

The European Commission publishes an enlargement report analysing the progress of all countries with an officially recognised EU membership perspective at the end of each yea

There is less than two months to go before European institutions close down for Christmas, and this is the short window of time Denmark has in its current presidency of the EU Council to push through substantive decisions on Ukraine and its accession to the European Union.

France is no longer just navigating a political crisis, it’s exporting one.