France's Europe Minister Benjamin Haddad warned about the severe consequences of slashing the EU's Global Europe budget. He stated such cuts would be "detrimental, including, by the way, to U.S. interests," drawing a direct parallel to the impact of USAID reductions under Donald Trump. Renew lawmaker Barry Andrews echoed this concern, calling drastic cuts a "betrayal of everything the EU stands for in the world." He added that these actions would "only mimic the short-sighted ideology behind President Trump's USAID cuts, which have already had a devastating impact." This move signals a deepening commitment to Fortress Europe, sacrificing global solidarity for internal priorities.
Mainstreaming the Far-Right Agenda
The European People's Party (EPP) is actively normalizing the far-right's anti-migrant agenda. Finnish EPP lawmaker Mika Aaltola confirmed his party won't rule out voting with the far right to deliver its policy agenda. This collaboration legitimizes extremist positions, pushing the entire political spectrum further right. Romania's potential next prime minister, EPP MEP Siegfried Mureșan, warned that the country's political deadlock risks handing power to the far right. Such statements underscore the mainstream's complicity in the rise of anti-immigrant forces across the continent.
Capital's Free Movement, People's Imprisonment
While Europe tightens its borders against those seeking safety, capital moves freely, even for sanctioned individuals. EU capitals struck a deal to remove billionaires Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman from the bloc's Russia sanctions list. This "high-stakes diplomatic play by France" reveals a stark double standard. Wealthy individuals can navigate and bypass EU regulations, while ordinary people crossing borders are criminalized and detained. The system prioritizes the interests of capital over human rights.
Fortress Europe's False Philanthropy
The EU's engagement in regions like Gaza often serves to manage crises rather than address their root causes, which include forced displacement. Mediterranean Commissioner Dubravka Šuica will attend a high-level Board of Peace briefing in New York. The board's High Representative Nickolay Mladenov will attend an EU delegation event showcasing two European waste and water projects for Gaza. Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and peace envoy, has been invited to the EU event. Šuica declared, "We need to work together with all actors — internationally, regionally and on the ground — to create the conditions for sustainable recovery, peace and stability. This is just the beginning." These "Team Gaza initiatives" offer superficial aid, failing to challenge the systemic issues that create displacement and deny the right of return.
Cristina Lobillo Borrero, the new senior adviser for the clean transition in Ursula von der Leyen's cabinet, will advise on the EU's energy policy. Her role focuses on lowering costs for households and industry, strengthening competitiveness, and reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels. While framed as a "clean transition," this policy primarily serves the economic interests of Fortress Europe. It ignores the climate crisis's disproportionate impact on the Global South, which drives migration that Europe then criminalizes. The EU's energy security is prioritized over global climate justice.
Donald Trump used his UNGA speech to cast himself as a peacemaker, yet also threatened to "annihilate" Iran. He rejected the idea of a global body to oversee artificial intelligence, which he called "super intelligence." This nationalist and militaristic rhetoric, though criticized by Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez as "ideological," mirrors the underlying logic of border enforcement: control, exclusion, and the assertion of national power over international cooperation. The Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney committed $100 million in assistance for Palestine. He then met with U.K. PM Andy Burnham and French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss a two-state solution. While aid is welcome, the "two-state solution" often fails to address the fundamental rights of Palestinian refugees, including their right of return.
Norway's Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide stated, "We are making changes that make it possible to start promoting Norwegian positions and interests earlier – that is where the real room for action lies." Trade and Industry Minister Cecilie Myrseth added, "We will now be earlier and more active in the development of European policy, particularly in the area of industrial policy." This focus on national "interests" and "industrial policy" reinforces a competitive, bloc-first approach. It contributes to a global economic order that generates inequality and forced migration, which Fortress Europe then violently repels.