What time is it, my friends? It's..

EUCO TIME!

For those that are unfamiliar with how the EU and the European Council works, here's a short explanation.

The European Council is the EU institution that defines the general political direction and priorities of the European Union. They meet at least once every 3 months (and more often if geopolitical or institutional events require them to). The last meeting was June 18th and 19th.

The European Council is made up of the heads of state or government of the 27 EU member states, the European Council President (Antonio Costa) and the President of the European Commission (Ursula von der Leyen).

The President of the European Parliament (Roberta Metsola) and the High Representative for Foreign Policy (Kaja Kallas) are also in attendance.

Agenda

In a context of increasing geopolitical uncertainty, our next meeting will have a strong focus on the economy, and on delivering answers to challenges to European competitiveness and to affordability.

For the short-term, we need to provide guidance to the Commission on targeted and temporary measures to alleviate the impact of high energy prices on our citizens and businesses – while continuing to pursue our strategy to reduce Europe’s dependence of fossil fuels.  

- President Antonio Costa

This EUCO's agenda will consist mainly of:

• Competitiveness and global economic challenges
  Leaders are expected to speak about the reached agreement with China regarding EVs and rare earth minerals. Leaders will also talk about the energy crisis, how to protect EU businesses from future energy shocks and the transition away from fossil fuels. Leaders may also touch on the EU-Canada relationship and the upcoming summit on the 29th and 30th of October. The One Europe, One market roadmap will also be discussed.

• EU long-term budget 2028-2034
  The "Battle over the Budget" will continue. Ireland had tried to make a compromise between the demand of countries who want the EU to have more resources and the frugal states who pay more into the EU's budget than they get out, but it [looks like that was shot down](). There is a special European Council planned for November 26th and 27th.

• Ukraine
  With Trump's incomprehensible diesel deal with Putin, The United States reducing Ukraine's Starshield access and refusing to share intelligence, Ukraine's Winter fuel and power crisis due to Russian ballistic missile strikes, the Whitehouse's refusal to sell Patriot missiles to Ukraine there will be plenty to talk about. Using Russian assets stored in Belgium to pay for Ukraine's war needs is also still not off the table and with Le Pen's election looming as a motivator, EU leaders may get closer to pushing for that to happen.

• European security and defence
  Leaders will discuss Russia's ramping up of hybrid attacks all over Europe and its aggressive behavior towards all EU and NATO states. The EU's defense readiness agenda will be discussed as will any capability gaps left by the US pulling further away from Europe.

• Migration
  Migration is down significantly so EU leaders will be patting themselves on the back for this one. The new migration pact seems to be working. However, third country detention centers and more solidarity in the event of crises (as shown by the Moroccan attack on Ceuta) are needed, according to President Costa.

• EU enlargement and reforms
  EU leaders will be discussing enlargement in general and in particular that of Ukraine, who are making steady progress amid Hungary's release of their veto on the process as well as Montenegro, who are expected to finish negotiations as early as the end of this year.

• The Middle East
  With the escalation of the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and the ongoing Iranian blockade of the strait of Hormuz, leaders will discuss Middle East politics. In particular energy, fertilizer and food supply chains will be discussed.

You can read President Costa's invitation letter or the EU's infopage on the Council meeting for more information

How to watch

Leaders will arrive at 10:00 AM CEST and will be in seclusion until late on the first day. If you wish to watch the proceedings, the Politico live blog is your best bet.

You can follow live TV and press conferences on the European Broadcasting Service

Or you can come hang on our Discord for any breaking news. :)