Today's November 3, 2025. We begin in Central Europe, where the fragile consensus on the EU’s Green agenda is facing an existential challenge, led by Czech politician Andrej Babiš who is expected to try and "block the ETS2" (Emissions Trading System for buildings and transport) legislation, arguing it would "take too much money away from households".

Babiš, who seeks a "restoration and strengthening of damaged relations within the Visegrád Group", is specifically looking to team up with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who successfully inserted a "revision clause" into the EU plans regarding ETS2.

This maneuvering underscores the critical dynamic where challenging policies—and risking institutional paralysis—is seen by some as necessary to force Brussels to heed national concerns, even as Babiš’s program rules out any referendum on EU membership.

Meanwhile, the fault lines are equally pronounced in Berlin and Paris. Germany’s conservative-led government is pressing ahead with efforts to expel Syrian migrants, with Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul and Chancellor Friedrich Merz raising the issue with international partners.

This push is criticized by figures in the European Parliament who note there is "no long-term stability" necessary for safe returns, which risks the collapse of the "whole fragile system". Concurrently, French President Emmanuel Macron is undertaking a long-delayed trip "to take the pulse of the country", facing ministerial concern that he has "s’est coupé de sa base" and is "de plus en plus isolé".

These domestic pressures intersect with the EU’s biggest geopolitical tool: enlargement. As Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos prepares to unveil progress reports, the debate focuses on mitigating the risk of future "veto-happy Orbán copycats" through new accession methods, such as denying new members certain voting rights for a given "probation period".