EU leaders are preparing to back Ukraine at next week's summit, unless Russia-friendly Hungary throws a spanner in the works, while also fine-tuning plans to use Moscow's frozen funds for Kyiv.

Across Europe, efforts are underway to rewrite the 1951 Refugee Convention. Fear of migration is testing the limits of our humanity.

There is talk of new momentum in the EU accession process. However, when EU citizens think about EU enlargement, 37 percent are concerned about “costs to European taxpayers,” according to Eurobarometer. Yet preliminary plans for the next EU budget (2028-2034) do not mention costs of enlargement.

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.

A French banker inside Euroclear, who flew to Russia 155 times for "private" reasons, allegedly tried to connect the company's CEO, Valérie Urbain, with Russian spies and threatened her when she declined, according to an investigation by EUobserver, Humo, De Morgen, and Dossier Center.

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.