Check out The Parliament Magazine’s top stories! Read the stories on our website: lnkd.in/ewzZCxS9

AI’s risks took centre stage at the UN this week, with Sam Altman and Dario Amodei warning of the dangers ahead and Emmanuel Macron calling for an open-source alternative to U.S. and Chinese dominance. But as leaders called for cooperation in New York, Trump and Xi held their own meeting in Washington. Read more in this week's newsletter: buff.ly/tJQKiob

Europe’s far right is struggling to find a common approach to defense. From Meloni’s support for EU defense cooperation to the National Rally’s objections to aspects of European support for Ukraine, positions vary sharply across the right. What does it mean for Europe’s rearmament plans? Read the full story here: buff.ly/Xr6Wu3k

As European countries bring back temporary border controls, Schengen is under growing strain. But in Europe’s borderlands, some are pushing back — and calling on the European Commission to act. Read the full story by @pedersschaefer: buff.ly/z9U4B6K

Almost two years after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, the European Union is accelerating efforts to return Syrians living in Europe with tighter asylum rules, voluntary return programs and discussions with the Syrian government. But the returns rhetoric doesn’t match the reality on the ground in Syria, where 70% of the population still needs humanitarian aid. Read the full story by @pedersschaefer: buff.ly/rt9qQcp

The European Commission proposed a revision of the Tobacco Taxation Directive that would set common minimum excise rates for e-cigarette liquids, heated tobacco and nicotine pouches. However, Giovanni Kessler, former director-general of the @EUAntiFraud, argues that without stronger customs controls on illicit imports, the wider price gap created by higher taxes could make illegal products more attractive and give their suppliers an advantage over law-abiding competitors. Read the op-ed: buff.ly/5URQhCU

Europe is under cyberattack. Is it ready? A new report by the @EUauditors says digital systems have become so complex that it is impossible to prevent every attack. "The challenge is therefore rapid detection and response." Check the full analysis on our website: buff.ly/EHv6vA5

Poland’s relationship with its large Ukrainian community is becoming more complicated. Peder Schaefer reports on the fraught history, political tensions and social pressures behind the changing attitudes towards Ukrainians who fled the war — and what it could mean as Poland heads towards parliamentary elections in 2027. Read the full story: buff.ly/8nuOBby

Dutch progressives are being asked a question which could shape the future of green politics at EU level. Progressief Nederland are asking members which EU political grouping to join - the socialists or the Greens. The referendum lands at a particularly strategic moment for the group, which is hoping to channel Europeans’ mounting fears and frustrations into greater political influence, reports Federica Di Sario: buff.ly/l1YE5Gs

The Alternative for Germany's landslide in the recent Saxony-Anhalt state election disproved the assumption that abstainers can help centrist, moderate candidates win back votes. The opposite happened, argues @Mij_Europe, managing director for Europe at @EurasiaGroup. The AfD was the party that gained from the record turnout. That result poses different questions for Marine Le Pen in France and for Giorgia Meloni and Roberto Vannacci in Italy, Rahman writes. Read the op-ed: buff.ly/Du0k9Td

Sweden’s center-left opposition has won the election. But calling it a decisive leftward shift misses what happened beneath the bloc arithmetic. The Sweden Democrats lost ground, the Left Party surged — yet most voters still backed parties around the center and center-right. So what, exactly, did Sweden vote for? Read more in this week's newsletter: buff.ly/lz4kTwE

Almost two years after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, the European Union is accelerating efforts to return Syrians living in Europe with tighter asylum rules, voluntary return programs and discussions with the Syrian government. But the returns rhetoric doesn’t match the reality on the ground in Syria, where 70% of the population still needs humanitarian aid. Read the full story by @pedersschaefer: buff.ly/srh5iTk

On Thursday, the European Commission unveiled the EU Kids Act, one of the bloc’s most ambitious technology regulations yet. It calls for restrictions on social media and AI chatbot use for under-15s. But by introducing yet another law, Brussels risks muddying an already crowded regulatory space. Read the full analysis by @pedersschaefer: buff.ly/ixAze6D

Ursula von der Leyen's State of the Union address recognized the EU's most pressing challenges but said too little about how its proposals would work in practice, argues @FabianZuleeg of the @epc_eu. The underlying problem, he writes, is the delivery gap: "the growing distance between the scale, scope, depth and speed of action required and what Europe actually implements." Closing it means setting tangible strategic objectives, using alternatives to harmonization such as mutual recognition and the proposed 28th regime, and allowing willing EU countries to move ahead when all 27 cannot agree. Read the op-ed: buff.ly/UyP0Akj

Von der Leyen's 2026 State of the Union: fewer big announcements, more bloc-flexing. A social media ban for under-13s. A push to bring Canada closer to the EU than ever. A new European Security Council. "The state of our Union is the strongest it has ever been, but it can also feel as precarious as it has ever been." Our takeaways: buff.ly/6C2JqR5

Europe’s data centers are set to triple in capacity by 2035. Yet as demand for electricity soars, Europe is still wasting huge amounts of the energy it already has. Roughly half of the EU’s energy goes to heating and cooling, with much of that heat simply escaping into the air. Jose La Loggia of @Trane_Tech and @tenBrinkPatrick of the @Green_Europe argue that Brussels is asking the wrong question as it debates electrification. Their proposals include expanding the definition of waste heat to cover on-site recovery, incorporating cooling standards into the Commission’s energy-efficiency package for data centers, and updating rules that hamper electrified transport refrigeration. Read the op-ed: buff.ly/Olz4EmL

Across Europe, the right is growing stronger and more united as parties position themselves to take power this year or next. But Poland is an outlier. Four parties are locked in a turf war over the future of the right — and the issue dividing them most could also become their biggest electoral liability in 2027: the EU. Read the full story by @pedersschaefer: buff.ly/PZdw59F

In most people’s minds, development aid means funding schools and hospitals in remote areas, HIV prevention and malaria treatment. But as migration control takes center stage in the bloc’s external policy, development aid could increasingly bankroll the deportation of migrants outside the EU — a move activists warn could tarnish the bloc’s human rights record, breach global development standards and squeeze already scarce assistance funds. Read the full explainer by Federica Di Sario: buff.ly/PajzEvv

After the landmark reports by Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta, the European Commission should turn its attention to ending the EU’s reliance on fossil fuels, argues Chiara Martinelli, director of Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe. Geopolitical tensions have added €80 billion to the cost of the EU’s fossil fuel imports this year, while record-breaking summer heat caused at least 35,000 excess deaths. At the Sept. 16 State of the Union address, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen should "launch an independent, science-based, high-level report answering a straightforward question: What will it take to make this Europe's last fossil fuel crisis?" Read the op-ed: buff.ly/qthU12R

The Arctic is no longer just a climate story. Melting ice is opening shipping routes and revealing resources as Russia, China and the U.S. compete for influence and power. The EU is now trying to catch up — with a new Arctic strategy expected in October. Read the full story: buff.ly/jDYCHnw