EU’s von der Leyen sets out her plans to improve bloc’s competitiveness ahead of key summit
Meanwhile, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has sent a letter to 27 heads of state and government ahead of their Thursday informal meeting on the bloc’s competitiveness.
She is not the only one to have ideas as to what needs to be done, with a strong anti-bureaucracy alliance seemingly building between Germany’s Friedrich Merz and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni.
But in her eight page primer, von der Leyen hit similar tones to those from Macron’s interview earlier today (12:10), as she urged leaders to realise that “a competitive economy is a prerequisite for our freedom to chose our own destiny.”
She urged them to back the commission’s “unprecedented drive to simplify European legislation” to help “make the day-to-day operations of business easier” by streamlining the administrative processes.
She also called for “a comprehensive regulatory deep house cleaning” of the EU’s rulebook to “eliminate outdated provisions, inconsistencies and redundant procedural requirements.”
Von der Leyen also asked leaders to support the EU’s push to conclude new trade agreements around the world – despite the continuing controversies around its Mercosur deal, which prompted large protests in several member states.
She also said the EU needed to “deepen” its single market, removing internal barriers to help companies set up in one member states grow beyond the national borders and across the bloc.
Notably, the commission’s president also said that while the bloc’s ambition should be to “reach agreement among all 27 member states,” they should also insist on going ahead with this closer economic cooperation even if unanimity cannot be found – a clear signal to the likes of Hungary and Slovakia to not even try to block the talks.
During the summit on Thursday night, hosted at Alden Biesen castle in Belgium, the leaders will be joined by former Italian prime minister and former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi, who is seen as a leading voice calling for changes to EU economy, and another former Italian premier, Enrico Letta.
Key events
Closing summary
Jakub Krupa
… and on that note, it’s a wrap for today!
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The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has sent a letter to 27 heads of state and government outlining her ideas ahead of their Thursday informal meeting on the bloc’s competitiveness (17:08).
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Earlier today, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, also urged Europe to reassert its position in the world, as the continent faces rapidly changing landscape in politics and trade (12:10).
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These discussions are expected to continue at this Thursday’s informal EU summit in Belgium and then over the weekend as the Munich Security Conference in Germany, with senior US and Chinese politicians joining the discussion (13:37).
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Curiously, US vice-president JD Vance – who dominated the headlines with his highly confrontational speech on Europe last year – is not attending the MSC this year (14:03).
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But, during his visit to Armenia, Vance repeated his implied criticism of Denmark over Greenland, revealing that the talks over the territory’s future will continue “over the next few months” (14:40).
In other news,
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Estonia’s foreign intelligence service has released its annual assessment of the global security situation this morning, with a heavy focus on the threat from its neighbour Russia (10:16).
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The Kremlin said there was no date set yet for the next round of talks on Ukraine (10:35), after Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said there was still “a long way to go” in talks on Ukraine (10:04).
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Romania’s foreign minister Oana Țoiu said Europe should “never be naive when it comes to Russia” and be “clear-eyed about the lessons that history has taught us” amid growing sabotage and cyber threats from Moscow (12:55).
And that’s all from me, Jakub Krupa, for today.
If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at [email protected].
I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.
EU’s von der Leyen sets out her plans to improve bloc’s competitiveness ahead of key summit
Meanwhile, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has sent a letter to 27 heads of state and government ahead of their Thursday informal meeting on the bloc’s competitiveness.
She is not the only one to have ideas as to what needs to be done, with a strong anti-bureaucracy alliance seemingly building between Germany’s Friedrich Merz and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni.
But in her eight page primer, von der Leyen hit similar tones to those from Macron’s interview earlier today (12:10), as she urged leaders to realise that “a competitive economy is a prerequisite for our freedom to chose our own destiny.”
She urged them to back the commission’s “unprecedented drive to simplify European legislation” to help “make the day-to-day operations of business easier” by streamlining the administrative processes.
She also called for “a comprehensive regulatory deep house cleaning” of the EU’s rulebook to “eliminate outdated provisions, inconsistencies and redundant procedural requirements.”
Von der Leyen also asked leaders to support the EU’s push to conclude new trade agreements around the world – despite the continuing controversies around its Mercosur deal, which prompted large protests in several member states.
She also said the EU needed to “deepen” its single market, removing internal barriers to help companies set up in one member states grow beyond the national borders and across the bloc.
Notably, the commission’s president also said that while the bloc’s ambition should be to “reach agreement among all 27 member states,” they should also insist on going ahead with this closer economic cooperation even if unanimity cannot be found – a clear signal to the likes of Hungary and Slovakia to not even try to block the talks.
During the summit on Thursday night, hosted at Alden Biesen castle in Belgium, the leaders will be joined by former Italian prime minister and former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi, who is seen as a leading voice calling for changes to EU economy, and another former Italian premier, Enrico Letta.
Europeans shunning US as Emirates and Asia travel prove popular, says Tui
Lauren Almeida
Business reporter
Europeans are booking fewer trips to the US, Europe’s biggest travel operator has said, as appetite for long-haul travel wanes and concerns linger around Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
Tui, which receives most of its bookings from customers in Europe, has seen “significantly lower demand” for travel into the US, according to its chief executive, Sebastian Ebel.
“What we do see is growing business to the Emirates and Asia,” he said. “We also see European demand to the Caribbean, which – due to capacity – had not been the biggest priority in the past, but there we see now potential again to grow.”
It comes amid signs that demand for long-haul travel across the Atlantic is waning.
A report by the European Travel Commission, which surveyed travellers from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Japan, South Korea and the US, found 42% of long-haul travellers were considering a trip to Europe this year, down from 45% last year. In the US, 34% intended to travel to Europe, down from 37%.
In Europe, several countries have issued advisories about travel to the US owing to stricter border scrutiny, the detention of some visitors and protests over the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
Since Trump took office, reports have emerged from the US border of tourists being detained and interrogated, people with work permits sent to ICE detention centres and people being wrongly deported.
Irish man held in ICE detention says he fears for his life and asks Ireland for help
Rory Carroll
Ireland correspondent
An Irish man who has been held by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement for five months despite having a valid work permit and no criminal record says he fears for his life and has appealed for help from Ireland’s government.
Seamus Culleton said conditions at his detention centre in Texas were akin to “torture” and that the atmosphere was volatile.
“I’m not in fear of the other inmates. I’m afraid of the staff. They’re capable of anything.”
Speaking from the El Paso facility to Ireland’s RTÉ radio, Culleton implored the taoiseach, Micheál Martin, to raise his case with Donald Trump when he visits the White House next month for St Patrick’s Day celebrations.
“Just try to get me out of here and do all you can, please. It’s an absolute torture, psychological and physical torture,” Culleton said, adding he did not know how much more he could take. “It’s just a horrible, horrible, horrible place.”
Originally from County Kilkenny, Culleton, 42, runs a plastering business in the Boston area. After buying supplies at a hardware store on 9 September 2025 he was followed by ICE agents and arrested.
Culleton entered the US in 2009 on a visa waiver programme and overstayed the 90-day limit but after marrying a US citizen, Tiffany Smyth, and applying for lawful permanent residence, he obtained a statutory exemption that allowed him to work, according to his lawyer, Ogor Winnie Okoye.
The detention prevented him from attending the final interview in October for his green card that would have confirmed his legal status, said Okoye. “It’s inexplicable that this man has been in detention.”
Culleton’s wife in Massachusetts and family in Ireland went public with his story this week in hope of galvanising support for his release.
Now for more on the current and increasingly complicated EU-US dynamic, we’re crossing to Ireland…
EU needs to agree on its asks for Russia before talking to Moscow, EU top diplomat says
Meanwhile, EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas spoke with reporters in Brussels, telling them that the bloc should set out the concessions it wants Russia to make for peace in Ukraine before talking with the Kremlin, AFP reported.
Her comments come in response to growing appetite in some EU capitals, most explicitly expressed by France’s Emmanuel Macron (12:10) and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, to restart contacts with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Kallas said she intended to circulate a list of “ideas” in the coming days to the EU’s 27 member states laying out the demands that should be made to Moscow.
“Let’s discuss what we want to talk about with the Russians before we talk about who is going to be the one who is talking to the Russians,” the EU top diplomat told a group interview that included AFP.
“If they put out the maximalist demands, we should also put out the maximalist demands.”
She added:
“In order to have a sustainable peace, everybody around the table, including the Russians and the Americans, need to understand that you need Europeans to agree.”
Greenland talks to take place over ‘next few months’, Vance says, as he insists US should ‘get some benefit’ for investing in Arctic security
Speaking to reporters in Armenia earlier today, US vice-president JD Vance was also asked for an update on Greenland.
He repeated his implied criticism of Denmark saying that “some of our allies have underinvested in Arctic security,” and said that if the US needs to step up and pay money to invest in the region, it should “get some benefit out of that.”
He also hinted it could take a while before some sort of solution gets agreed, suggesting talks “over the next few months.”
Here’s what he said in full:
“Well, look, it’s very early in the Greenland talks. I know that … we’ve been working quite a bit on this over the last few weeks, but it’s just very simple.
Greenland is very important the national security of the United States of America. I do think that some of our allies have underinvested in Arctic security.
And if we’re going to invest in Arctic security, if we’re going to basically pay a lot of money and be on the hook for protecting this massive land mass, I think it’s only reasonable the United States to get some benefit out of that, and that’s going to be the focus of the negotiations here over the next few months.”
German data authority tells citizens to weigh up risks of sharing extensive data with US authorities
Kate Connolly
in Berlin
Germany’s Federal Commissioner for Data Protection has warned citizens of Germany who wish to travel to the USA to weigh up in advance whether they are prepared to share the data requested by the US authorities in an adjustment to travel rules which includes handing over personal contact details and online activity information going back several years.
Louisa Specht-Riemenschneider told local media in Germany she had “taken note of the adjustments to the ESTA program with concern.”
She said German citizens must, on an individual basis, “carefully consider for themselves whether they are prepared to provide US authorities with this level of data in order to enter the country.”
She warned that the tightening of rules would also make the process of deciding whether someone could enter the US more complex.
“This can lead to an increased susceptibility to errors in the ESTA process,” she said.
Numbers of those travelling from Germany to the US either for work or leisure, have dropped considerably over the past year, influenced in part by the high profile detentions of several Germans at the US border, for days, and sometimes for weeks, at a time.
Jakub Krupa
To be fair, it looks there isn’t that much appetite for travels in the opposite direction – from Germany to the US – either, as my colleague Kate Connolly reports from Berlin.
JD Vance expected to miss Munich despite ‘explicit’ invite – media report
Curiously, US vice-president JD Vance – who dominated the headlines with his highly confrontational speech on Europe last year – is not attending the MSC this year.
He spent the weekend in Italy attending the Olympic Games, visited Armenia yesterday and is in Azerbaijan today, but won’t be coming back to Germany, it seems.
Politico’s Berlin Playbook reported via its sources that he was “explicitly” invited to come back, but “unexpectedly” turned it down.
Speaking to reporters upon his departure from Armenia, Vance wasn’t specifically asked about the MSC, but responding to a question about Trump’s Board of Peace meeting, he said in broader terms that his schedule is “always a little bit crazy, so I don’t know what I’m doing the day after tomorrow.”
But as things stand, he is not expected in Munich, it seems.
Jakub Krupa
Just a reminder that our Europe Live blog will be coming to you from Munich this weekend too, so make sure to follow all the key events with us.
US Marco Rubio and China’s Wang Yi confirmed to attend Munich Security Conference
Ahead of this week’s Munich Security Conference, we are now getting a bit more detail on who is expected to attend.
Overnight, the US state department has confirmed that US secretary of state Marco Rubio will lead the US delegation.
His speech is expected on Saturday morning, and he will also meet for a 1:1 with the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, Deutsche Welle reported.
He will then go on to visit Slovakia and Hungary, two EU countries run by leaders who continued to engage with Russia’s Vladimir Putin despite the invasion of Ukraine and regularly clash with the European Commission over sanctions and proposed push to ban Russian energy imports.
In both Bratislava and Budapest, Rubio will discuss energy issues, among others, the release said.
The Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, will also attend the Munich event, and, curiously, he will also stop in Budapest, but on his way to Germany, his ministry said.
Czech Republic’s Petr Pavel will also be in Munich among several other European leaders, with France’s Macron, EU’s von der Leyen, Poland’s Tusk, and Denmark’s Frederiksen also confirmed as attending.
Europe should never be naive about Russia, Romania’s foreign minister says, as she reiterates support for Ukraine
Meanwhile, Romanian foreign minister Oana Țoiu spoke at Chatham House in London last night, saying Europe should “never be naive when it comes to Russia” and be “clear-eyed about the lessons that history has taught us” on Moscow’s intentions.
In a wide-ranging speech, she reiterated Romania’s support for Ukraine, saying mockingly that “we are four years into a war that was announced by Russia [that it would be] won in three days.”
“They were 500 times mistaken – it’s been almost 1,500 days since that moment,” she said.
Țoiu warned in particular about giving Russia any small wins that would let it “consider they are winning” the aggression, which would “indirectly create the encouragement to … repeat this pattern in the future.”
She said that the international community’s response to the 2014 Crimea accession “had not been strong enough,” and “if it had been, maybe we would not be today where we are.”
Țoiu also pointedly warned against different Russian sabotage attempts, both physical and in cyberspace, cautioning against treating digital threats as less serious just “because it’s not as easy to recognise … as a drone flying into your airspace or a ship in your territorial water,” or “it’s not seen as posing … an imminent danger.”
“We are gradually realising that we need to coordinate [more] among ourselves in terms of what we see, the [underpinning] analysis, and what are the instruments to increase the resilience of our societies,” sie said.
France’s Macron urges Europe to assert its position amid dramatic changes in world order with US, China relations
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has urged Europe to reassert its position in the world, as the continent faces rapidly changing landscape in politics and trade.
In an interview with a group of European media outlets, Macron warned that the strategy of bowing down to the US and other geopolitical powers doesn’t work and urged Europe to urgently step up its integration to get ready to face “permanent instability” ahead.
“It is time for Europe to wake up … If we do not decide for ourselves, we will be swept away,” he told El País (€) and others, including Süddeutsche Zeitung (€), Financial Times (£), and Le Monde (€).
Macron said Europe was facing “a profound geopolitical rupture” with “a profound shock” on trade and defence as its relations with China and the US change.
“I think the best way is to reduce risk, reduce dependencies, and make decisions for ourselves instead of waiting for the next crisis,” he said.
“If we choose to be spectators, we will be vassals,” he said, calling it “the Greenland moment,” saying the US interest in a territory of its Nato ally should be a wake-up call for European leaders.
Macron said that Europeans “stand firm, but react too slowly,” and need to assert their position as a global superpower, with more “common leadership” on the continent.
He argued that the Franco-British-led Coalition of the Willing for Ukraine was an example of an initiative that allowed Europe to build a strong, international alliance to defend its interests, also in defence and security.
But in comments likely to raise some eyebrows, Macron also once again suggested that Europe should reopen diplomatic channels with Moscow, so to “not delegate this discussion” to others, including the US.
He said Europe should engage with Russia “without being naive or pressuring the Ukrainians, but also without having to depend on a third party” to conduct these talks.
“We have European interests to defend and I’m not going to delegate them to anyone, not even the US.”
Macron also spoke about what he saw as a real risk of tensions with the US flaring up again over the European push to regulate social media platforms or Greenland.
Here’s our daily briefing on Ukraine to bring you up to speed on the latest developments from the last 24 hours.
The headlines:
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Ukraine and France have agreed to start joint weapons production, the Ukrainian defence minister said on Monday after hosting his French counterpart in Kyiv.
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Ukraine is opening up exports of its domestically produced weapons, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said – a way for Kyiv to cash in on its wartime technological advances to generate badly needed funds.
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Russian attacks damaged production sites of Ukraine’s state-run oil and gas company Naftogaz in the Poltava and Sumy regions, the company’s CEO said on Monday.
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The EU has proposed extending its sanctions against Russia to include ports in Georgia and Indonesia that handle Russian oil, the first time it would target ports in third countries, a proposal document showed.
Read in full:
Russia claims to make advances in Zaporizhzhia region
In the meantime, Russia’s defence ministry claimed its forces had captured the settlement of Zaliznychne in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, Russian state news agency RIA reported.
Kremlin says no date for next round of Ukraine talks yet
Meanwhile, the Kremlin has just said there was no date set yet for the next round of talks on Ukraine – but insisted the negotiations were likely to happen soon, Reuters reported.
Russia continues hybrid warfare against Nato and is not interested in real talks on Ukraine, Estonia warns
Shaun Walker
Estonia’s foreign intelligence service has released its annual assessment of the global security situation this morning, with a heavy focus on the threat from its neighbour Russia.
The forecast says Russia is unlikely to launch a conventional attack against Nato states over the next year but to continue with various forms of hybrid warfare.
It contradicts recent US claims that a deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine is close, saying there is no sign Vladimir Putin is interested in real negotiations.
I joined a briefing with Kaupo Rosin, the head of the service, who said:
“We see that Russia is setting long-term operational objectives in the war against Ukraine. This confirms that the so-called peace talk rhetoric is merely a tactic to buy time, and Russia has no intention of ending the war until its objectives are achieved.”
On claims from Trump administration officials that a deal in peace talks is close, he said:
“I do not know what the US assessment is based on. Putin would only make a proper deal in our view, if the economy or financial sector takes very heavy hits with, for example, additional sanctions, which would be directed towards oil and gas industry… If additional measures and pressure are applied, then maybe Putin’s calculus changes. But currently, we do not see any change in his thinking.”
On Russia’s economic prospects over the coming year, Rosin said:
“We see that Russia’s economy has entered a downturn, this is fuelled by defence sector expanding at the expense of the contracting civilian economy and sanctions that amplify low productivity caused by outdated technology. While an economic crisis is a possibility, the total collapse of the Russian economy remains highly unlikely. A more plausible outcome is that financial considerations will carry much greater weight in political decision-making than before.”
Morning opening: ‘Long way to go’ on Ukraine, Russia’s foreign minister says
Jakub Krupa
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said that there was no reason to be enthusiastic about US president Donald Trump’s pressure on Europe and Ukraine as there was still a long way to go in talks on peace in Ukraine, Russian state-owned news agency RIA reported.
His comments just days after what the US, Ukraine and Russia said were difficult, but constructive talks in Abu Dhabi, but suggest that reaching a final agreement could be very difficult.
Russia still pursues its original maximalist demands, including territorial claims to control Ukraine’s eastern regions, and continues to oppose the prospect of Ukraine ever joining Nato or ever hosting western troops as part of security guarantees.
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address yesterday that “reliable security guarantees are the only real foundation for peace,” as he warned that Russia could test it any peace settlement through strikes or “hybrid operations of some kind.”
In the meantime, Russia continues its strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, with an energy facility in the soutern Black Sea region of Odesa hit overnight, even as the country continues to be gripped by cold temperatures.
Elsewhere, we will be looking at the ongoing discussion on how to improve European competitiveness ahead of this Thursday’s informal EU summit on the issue, the latest on the EU-US trade deal which was briefly put on hold, and other topics from across the continent.
It’s Tuesday, 10 February 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
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