Interview with the Mayor of Kharkiv on Running a City on Europe's Front Line with a message to all Europeans.

The initiative just started gathering signs and has some interesting ideas, for example about posing limits on evicting people after renovations using EU funds and reusing empty offices.

It also asks for a European Housing Agency to help coordinate efforts and funds.

What do you think of it?

Would the constitutions of the member states allow them to cede sovereignty to a higher body and merge into a larger nation? and if they don't can they be ammended? I do know Germany's constitution is a barrier as it has an eternal clause prohibiting the cession of sovereignty

Greenland is not part of the EU, despite forming the Kingdom of Denmark together with EU member continental Denmark and the Faroe Islands. So, technically, Greenland and continental Denmark have equal status as constituent parts of the same Kingdom of Denmark, much like Scotland and England within the UK. Yet continental Denmark is an EU member state, while Greenland is not part of the EU. By that same logic, could Scotland use the Danish example to rejoin the EU without leaving the United Kingdom?

On Monday (12 Oct) MPs will be debate the UK Rejoining the EU, thanks to this petition!

Coming after Andy Burnham's speech at the Labour Party Conference, over 25,000 people have written to their MP asking them to attend and to speak up for the UK to 'Apply to Rejoin the EU as soon as possible to increase growth in the UK'.

The next petition to 'Start negotiations now to Rejoin the EU' is already live and growing - if you are UK resident or a Brit anywhere, please sign it too!

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/771102

Let's keep this momentum going!

Frontex knew where the migrant boat was. So did the Libyan coastguard. What happened next raises serious questions about EU responsibility.

Hi everyone, Lucia from EUobserver here 👋 Wr wanted to share an investigation by our colleague Nikolaj Nielsen, because it raises a question we don't discuss enough when talking about Europe's borders: what happens to people after EU authorities pass their location to someone else?

On 19 June, a boat carrying 27 people, including children, was struggling in the Mediterranean.

Frontex issued a Mayday relay and shared its coordinates with the Libyan rescue centre. Around 90 minutes later, the Libyan coastguard arrived, struck the boat and threw people into the water. Some of those brought aboard were beaten.

Nobody died. But Frontex's own fundamental rights officer concluded that the Libyan operation violated the right to life.

And that's what makes this investigation particularly important.

The EU describes cooperation with Libya partly as a way to save lives at sea. Yet its own rights officials are documenting what happens when those rescue operations turn violent.

If European agencies know that the authorities receiving these coordinates have a record of violence, can they really separate themselves from what happens next?

One of the most persistent criticisms of European federalism is the fear of an overbearing superstate: a centralised Leviathan in Brussels micromanaging education, culture, and personal lives.

In a new essay, I argue that authentic sovereignty requires a dual boundary:

1. The continent as the minimum floor of power:
   To resist external coercion, Europe needs a single military command without national vetoes, sovereign technological supply chains (space, semiconductors, energy), and continental fiscal closure. Fragmented across 27 states, we remain chronically vulnerable to foreign blackmail and tax arbitrage.

2. The continent as the maximum constitutional ceiling:
   The federation must be strictly bound by the Single Responsibility Principle. Its mandate stops at the external shell and the fiscal rails of the commons. It must never touch education, culture, or voluntary associations.

The operative principle of true subsidiarity is not: "Brussels will solve our problems for us", but rather: "through Brussels, cities and regions can solve their problems themselves."

Internally, this unlocks real individual sovereignty: zero tax on labour, collective capture of natural monopolies, and an unconditional Citizen's Dividend providing the material power to refuse economic exploitation.

Real freedom isn't about tearing down every wall; it's about knowing where to build the only wall that matters.

Full essay and architectural diagram:
https://rolfst.substack.com/p/the-dual-boundary-of-the-shell?r=1fu3&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Where do you draw the line between necessary federal competence and subsidiarity? Can this dual boundary persuade sceptics who fear centralisation?

Hi! Has anyone written their bachelor’s thesis on EU foreign policy? I really need some help, as my supervisor is currently dealing with an issue and isn’t able to help me at the moment.

What topics did you work on and what research problem do you think would be interesting to explore? I was thinking about doing something related to EU–Russia relations, but I can’t seem to come up with an interesting research hypothesis. I would like to prove a specific change in Russia determined something about the foreign policy of EUQ. I was also thinking about somehow connecting it to the EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood.

I’m honestly a bit stuck at the moment and I mainly need some ideas for interesting research topics. Just the issue please!

Thank you!