The sense in Brussels is that, indeed, difficult choices will have to be made.

"The tranche (...) has been blocked for one and a half years now, and frankly speaking, it is undermining our political will of supporting Ukraine," one high-raking EU official said.

The meeting comes as tensions within the 32-member alliance have emerged over how to approach Russia.

US Navy Admiral Stuart B. Munsch, commander of the Allied Joint Force Command Naples - which oversees NATO's peacekeeping in force in Kosovo - said the alliance remained concerned about the risk of repeated violence in north Kosovo.

One monitoring group says there have been 299 murders of women this year in the country of 85 million people.

Migration has been high on the agenda in Poland since 2021, when large numbers of people, mainly from the Middle East and Africa, started trying to illegally cross the border with Belarus.

Most of China's fiscal stimulus still goes into investment, but this leads to debt outpacing economic growth as returns are dwindling.

The Italy-Albania deal has drawn the interest of other Western nations seeking to discourage the growing numbers of migrants arriving from Africa, the Middle East and beyond.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned as "unacceptable" Israeli firing on UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, a stance echoed by Spain's prime minister.

Vladimir Putin, whose country is hosting a summit of the BRICS nations in Kazan on 22-24 October, invited Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to come to Russia on an official visit.

Barnier's bill on social security financing for 2025 aims to save around €4 billion, but still needs the blessing of lawmakers.

The implication is clear: von der Leyen’s Commission and the EPP can make separate deals with groups on both their right and left and still push their desired outcomes through.

NGOs have criticised the EU's Global Gateway initiative, calling it a 'neo-colonial' tool that mainly benefits Europe's strategic interests.

Quality of care and patient safety across the WHO European Region is seriously challenged, according to the preliminary findings of a new report presented during the European Health Forum Gastein.

The ESM takes stock of the increased global geopolitical divergence as a matter-of-fact secular trend that Europe needs to wake up to and safeguard its economic and policy toolkit against. Well beyond the issue of trade tariffs, one might add.

Temu is under the microscope by both the Commission and member states.

A new out-of-court body certified by Irish authorities to settle disputes related to the DSA has strong ties to Meta and the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the EU suggests a potential revival of the review of the e-Privacy directive in draft Council conclusions.

The awarding of Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors, is a warning to countries who have nuclear weapons not to use them.

"We need to ensure a level playing field and effective enforcement of EU," says Luca Cassetti, secretary general of Ecommerce Europe.

Opinion polls show the main opposition Social Democrats led by Vilija Blinkeviciute ahead in the race with about 18% support.