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Chinese President Xi Jinping will today wind-up a three-day summit with US President Donald Trump on American soil — the first in 11 years for Xi. Europeans are watching closely for any decisions that could directly affect their economic interests.
Not so heated rivalry: The world’s most powerful leaders tackled tricky issues such as artificial intelligence, the war in Iran and trade. On the latter issue, a fragile trade truce was set to expire in November, but the two countries agreed Wednesday to extend it for another two months.
Ian Lesser, Distinguished Fellow German Marshall Fund, just told Euronews’ Europe Today programme that the three-days of crunch talks was more about “managing the rivalry” between the duo rather than the blooming of a new friendship.
“There was nothing deeply negative,” he said. “On the other hand, there wasn’t a lot of progress on a lot of the substantive issues of trade and tech and other things people were looking for.” Watch.
As my colleague Peggy Corlin writes, those on this side of the Atlantic are taking notes. Something else to be mindful of: any tension with the US might lead China to reroute more exports to Europe, which may not necessarily be a bad thing.
But the EU has its own deadline for closing an eye-watering trade deficit with China, set for the beginning of October. If not, there will be “harsher measures”, the European Commissioner for Trade Maroš Šefčovič previously told Euronews.
Fortifying Europe: Over a dozen EU ministers will descend on Munich on Saturday for a meeting aimed at supercharging migration priorities. Vincenzo Genovese reports that those in attendance include the European Commissioner for Migration and Internal Affairs, Magnus Brunner.
On the sidelines of the summit, ministers from Greece, Germany, Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands are set to continue their discussion on return hubs, also known as third party deportation centres. At the beginning of September, the five ministers met in the Danish capital and agreed on a common model for deportation centres to be built outside of Europe.
But patience is a virtue: The first agreement with a non-EU government regarding these return hubs is expected around the New Year. But it is unknown who those international partners could be — beyond the rumblings.
Marion Maréchal, of the far-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, just told Europe Today that return hubs would strengthen Europe’s defences. She said in French that there are a range of proposals that should allow the bloc to more easily intercept and return undocumented migrants from European soil.
The French Member of the European Parliament, who hails from the Le Pen family, made the comments from Ceuta, a city that has come to represent Europe’s weakest migration point.
Spanish scrutiny: After the incident in July, which saw over 80,000 individuals from Morocco storm the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Rome rapidly reintroduced temporary border controls. It also offered a swift rebuke to Madrid over its apparent handling of the arrivals.
In the weeks that followed, Spanish socialist prime minister Pedro Sánchez was left notably isolated amongst a sea of right-leaning European governments when it came to the migration file. However, all eyes on an upcoming European Council summit next month, with migration set to take centre stage.
Danish security: At the tail-end of a competitiveness council in Brussels on Thursday, my colleague Lauren Walker spoke with the Danish Minister of Business and Competitiveness Martin Lidegaard. Their interview spanned critical rare earth minerals, Brussels’ favourite buzzword — competitiveness — but also the recently minted Washington-Nuuk-Copenhagen deal.
“There is a huge desire in Greenland to grow, to create new jobs, and also when it comes to mining, have a bigger sector than today,” Lidegaard said when asked about how other countries can access Greenland’s critical rare earth minerals in light of the agreement.
Win-win-win: “And I think that the Americans are very happy about the fact that they have a huge access to the Greenlandic territory when it comes to military bases, but also when it comes to minerals.” Watch.
Some news from the finance world: European Central Bank (ECB) board member Isabel Schnabel announced her resignation as of January 2027, my colleague Eleonora Vasquez reports. She accepted the role of Financial Counsellor and Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington.
“This decision was not easy for me. Serving on the Executive Board of the ECB and working with all of you has been one of the greatest privileges of my professional life,” Schnabel wrote in an email to her colleagues seen by Euronews.
ECB President Lagarde thanked Schnabel for her “invaluable” commitment in her work, saying she played a key role in the ECB’s determination to stabilise inflation at the bank’s 2% medium-term target. Schnabel’s successor will be appointed by the European Council.
Why is this important? Schnabel’s departure might be the beginning of a major ECB reshuffle, with Lagarde herself expected to step down before the end of her mandate. Meanwhile, other ECB leaders prepare to depart on schedule. Among them is Chief Economist Philip Lane, whose mandate ends in May 2027.
The musical chairs come in a moment of high uncertainty for the eurozone. The volatility of energy prices due to the ongoing wars in the Middle East and Ukraine is making the job hard for the ECB to keep inflation low.
On 10 September, Lagarde announced an interest rate hike to keep inflation low, and said that the ECB’s 2% inflation target will not be met by the end of next year.
Brussels dials up pressure on Kyiv to speed up reforms amid budget crunch
Brussels is stepping up expectations on Kyiv to accelerate reforms indispensable for unlocking €20 billion in financial assistance, which the country badly needs as the budget deficit swells and Russia escalates the war.
EU officials have raised the alarm about the slow legislative pace in the Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, where several laws are stalled. Two separate payments, one of €3.9 billion and another of €2.9 billion, have been delayed as a result.
As my colleague Jorge Liboreiro reports, the situation stands in stark contrast with the public messages from Zelenskyy and his deputies, who are asking allies to mobilise additional resources to plug a €23 billion gap in the Ministry of Defence. Separately, the country faces a €32.6 billion hole in next year’s budget.
The Commission wants to refocus the conversation. According to Jorge’s must-read analysis, the EU executives are rephrasing it as a conversation in which reforms comes before any conversation about new cash.
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We’re also keeping an eye on
- The United Nations General Assembly continues in New York City.
- European Commission Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen meets with Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen in Nuuk.
- European Commissioner for Financial Services and Investment Union Maria Luís Albuquerque meets the Financial Services of Ireland in Dublin.
- European Commissioner for Internal Affairs Magnus Brunner visits the Drone Competence and Defence Centre of the Bavarian State Police in Erding, German.
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