Conservative lawmakers piled more pressure on the EU Commission to scrap a planned 2035 ban on combustion engine cars on Wednesday (8 October), warning that the car industry could be “lost forever”. 

On the agenda in Copenhagen were plans for social media to have effective and privacy-preserving age-verification, and the need to regulate or ban harmful practises such as dark patterns, retention mechanisms, and so-called lootboxes.

The Chinese government has issued statements about the importance of peace and positioned itself as a broker between Russia and Ukraine, the Myanmar junta and armed groups, and Iran and Saudi Arabia. But at the same time, they have allowed the export of arms to Sudan and Myanmar and of censorship and surveillance technologies to Pakistan, Kazakhstan and the Solomon Islands.

EU states are struggling with upcoming border rules that critics say could led to detention-like centres. Under the new regime authorities will have only seven days to screen a prospective asylum seeker.

Today, we kick off an anniversary campaign to convince new supporting members to join EUobserver's mission of providing the information citizens need to safeguard EU democracy.

Russian spies are still active in the EU capital and have a "higher risk appetite" than before the Ukraine war — despite Belgium's efforts to push back against their plots.