The revised Victims’ Rights Directive comes to plenary debate today at 13:00 in Strasbourg, ahead of Thursday’s final vote. For the 75 million Europeans who fall victim to crime each year, this represents the most significant reform of EU victim-protection legislation in more than a decade.
At a Strasbourg ceremony on Tuesday 19 May 2026, the European Parliament honoured the inaugural recipients of the European Order of Merit, among them former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Polish President and Solidarność leader Lech Wałęsa, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Cybersec Europe 2026 opens in Brussels today as MEPs in Strasbourg debate EU cyber resilience in the face of advanced AI systems including Mythos. The Commission’s Tech Sovereignty package – Cloud and AI Development Act and Chips Act 2 – is expected on 27 May.
The European Commission presents its Fertilisers Action Plan during the May plenary in Strasbourg, addressing EU agriculture’s dependency on imported nitrogen, persistently elevated prices since the 2022 energy crisis, and the necessity of anchoring strategic production capacity within the Union.
Following Parliament’s 418-207 vote on 29 April 2026 calling on the Commission to trigger the rule-of-law conditionality mechanism against Slovakia, MEPs return to the matter in Strasbourg this week amidst fresh concerns over the Fico government’s dismantling of anti-corruption institutions.
By 508 votes to 64, with 90 abstentions, the European Parliament on 19 May 2026 approved the revised Foreign Direct Investment Screening Regulation, establishing mandatory screening across all member states for defence, semiconductors, AI, critical raw materials and financial services.
The European Commission will table its Tech Sovereignty package on 27 May 2026, featuring two flagship instruments: the Cloud and AI Development Act and the Chips Act 2. The package responds to renewed concerns about Europe’s dependence on non-European cloud and frontier-semiconductor capacity.
The World Bank’s April 2026 Commodity Markets Outlook projects Brent crude at an average of $86 a barrel this year, up from $69 in 2025. For European industry, the question is whether the Continent’s energy-cost competitiveness can withstand a prolonged Hormuz disruption.
Two and a half years into Robert Fico’s fourth term as Slovak prime minister, the institutional architecture of anti-corruption enforcement constructed during the 2020-2023 Hegerova governments has been largely dismantled. The European Parliament’s forthcoming resolution on Thursday sets out a detailed catalogue of grievances.
A fresh round of Trump-Putin telephone diplomacy revived speculation on Monday 18 May 2026 of a possible bilateral meeting before the June G7 cut-off, against a backdrop of stalled Ukraine ceasefire talks, the Iran war, and Putin’s imminent state visit to Beijing.
