India heats up in the “more realistic” EU

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EU parents support parental approval of the App Store *

Three out of four parents support a law forcing parents to approve of teenagers under the age of 16 to download an application (* Parents survey from the morning consulting through France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Denmark).

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À la carte

India in town

India Eyes major concessions on the EU trade agreement: “The idea that part of the world will establish standards for everyone is something we are against which we are,” said the Minister of External Affairs of India yesterday, S. Jaishankar in an interview. Translation: The EU carbon border adjustment mechanism, or CBAM, is always a burden for the EU brand in the world – even among the potential allies.

Jaishankar’s visit to Brussels is involved while India is negotiating a free trade agreement with the EU, presenting its country of 1.4 billion people as a skilled source of work and a more reliable economic partner than China.

“We are interested in a deeper and stronger relationship with the EU and I have good reasons to believe that the reciprocal EU,” he told me, and the editor-in-chief of Euractiv, Matthew Karnitschnig on Monday. Jaishankar will meet Ursula von der Leyen and Kaja Kallas today.

Barter with Bharat: Commercial negotiations are stalled between 2013 and 2022, but geopolitical tensions push India and the EU together. India is frightened by the closer relationship between Russia and its neighbor China, while the EU faces enormous prices from its nearest trade partner, the United States. This could suggest why India can allow itself to seem bullied to maintain its high agricultural prices while marking major exemptions from the Commission in a trade agreement that von der Leyen praised Like the biggest of its kind. “Europe becomes much more realistic,” said Jaishankar.

Part of New Delhi’s requests is a special processing with regard to the global ambitions of the European green agreement, including the CBAM, which is a climate sample on imported goods intended to encourage lower emissions outside the EU while retaining the competitiveness of companies within the block.

Stay in your way, Brussels: “We have very deep reservations on CBAM, and we were quite open on this subject,” said Jaishankar.

This could suggest that it will be difficult to conclude an agreement, but Jaishankar said that the two parties had already agreed 10 of the 20 negotiation chapters. “I think we have a good possibility to close it by the end of the year,” he said. And he suggested that there is new flexibility and pragmatism on the side of the EU. It turns out that Europe – who knew? – is “not a fixed point with defined requests and expectations”.

But isn’t it the same von der Leyen, we have underlined, who has been in charge since 2019? “People change,” replied Jaishankar.

India pitch: The aging EU and the stagnant economy would get a boost from an agreement that has released more visas for Indian professionals, especially those with technology and health care skills. Without named China, he said that European companies sought partners who can be trusted to store their data and not steal their IP.

Leaf of my dictionary: Jaishankar said that the world was heading for a “multipolar” system of competing powers – rather than being dominated by some superpowers. He welcomed that the EU only wakes up, but said that India has been prepared for a long time – unable to depend on the Americans, the Soviets, the British or someone else. “What I mean today in Europe are words such as strategic autonomy. These are words in our lexicon. “

Under the threat of American prices, India is parallel trade Speak with the United States. Asked Blank if he trusted Donald Trump, Jaishankar said: “I take the world by getting him.”

Quoted

“We don’t want to leave the table. We want to finish the match and win, take power in France and Europe and return it to people” – Marine Le Pen

Italy referendums collapse after the right boycott

The long Italian weekend: The Italians went to the polls on weekends to vote on five referendums aimed at reforming labor laws and granting faster citizenship to immigrants.

Meloni wins by not playing: The coalition of Giorgia Meloni has not raised her finger and has always won large, after having urged voters to refrain from referendums. The five proposals crashed and burned on Monday while the participation rate was blocked at around 30%, well below the quorum of 50% + 1 required for the results to count.

THE proposals Pushed by unions and progressive parties, included the abolition of the limits of compensation ceilings for unfair dismissal in small businesses and the reduction of the residence requirement for Italian citizenship from 10 to 5 years – a change that would affect approximately 2.5 million foreign residents, militants said.

Meloni appeared – in a way: The Prime Minister went to the polling station, but refused to receive the ballots, a legal tactic which records his presence without voting.

“IF”: The “Yes” camp was cleaned among those who voted – up to 85% in favor of work issues, 65% on the relaxation of citizenship rules for foreigners not of the EU – but that was not enough.

Brothers of Italy (ECR) sprang on social networks: “You have lost”, splashing the faces of opposition leaders through a victory post. “The only real objective of this referendum was to lower the government of Meloni,” said the party, targeting the leader of the Senate of the Democratic Party of Center-Gauche, Francesco Boccia, who had described the vote “first notice of expulsion for Giorgia Meloni”. “In the end, it was the Italians who made you fall,” said the party.

Meanwhile, the head of PD Elly Schlein supervised the 14 million participants as a moral victory: “They celebrate people who do not vote. We have brought 14 million to the polls. See you soon in the next general elections.”

Change the rules: THE referendum had succeeded in the field last year, the activists collecting more than 500,000 signatures in less than a month, enough to force a national vote.

But the poor participation rate prompted Antonio Tajani, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, to suggest that it may be time to rethink the rules. “Probably more signatures should be necessary,” he told Rai state diffuser. Learn more.

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Around the block

GERMANY

The trial begins on the question of whether the extreme right magazine is prohibited. The case, carried by the Ministry of the Interior of Germany, is considered to be a major test how far the state can go into the reduction of extremism without breaking the freedoms of the press.

POLAND

Electoral protests develop in the midst of fraud complaints. The National Electoral Organization of Poland is investigating the potential votes which count the irregularities after the presidential runoff of this month. Learn more.

Slovakia

The Czech FM heads towards Bratislava in the middle of the rift deepening. The Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský, is in Bratislava in order to stabilize Czech-Slovak relations, which have deteriorated in recent months on the differences in foreign policy and the climbing of political tensions. Learn more.

Between

Energy drink: Spotted with a glass at the Cocq bar in Ixelles during the long weekend: the energy commissioner Dan Jørgensen.

Have you seen something fun, interesting or downright strange in Brussels? Send advice.

Agenda

• European Sustainable Energy Week (Eusew) Begins in Brussels, bringing together public authorities, private companies, NGOs and consumers. Strengths on the agenda this year include clean industrial agreement, energy efficiency, emerging security threats, etc.
• THE European Defense and Security Summit 2025 Today includes panels on the white paper for European defense, the future of NATO partnership, industrial preparation, etc.
• Chairman of the Commission Ursula von der Leyen meets the Indian Minister of External AffairsSubrahmanyam Jaishankar;
• The 3rd United Nations Conference on the Ocean (UNOC3) takes place from June 9 to 13, 2025 in Nice, in France, focusing on ten action panels under the global theme “accelerate action and mobilize all actors to keep and use the ocean sustainably”;
• THE Visegrad 4 Business Conference 2025 Open in Bratislava, in Slovakia. The highlights of the agenda include “V4 and the United States: commercial relations – which wins?”, “The automotive sector at the crossroads”, and more.

Reporters: Aneta Zachová, Aleksandra Krzysztoszek, Alessia Peretti.

Publishers: Vince Chadwick and Sofia Mandilara.