The EU’s top court has thrown out a claim filed by more than 400 former MEPs against a decision to halve the payments from their controversial voluntary pension scheme — that would landed the European taxpayer with a bill of more than €200m. 

In the run-up to the 2024 European Parliament elections, several far-right political parties in France, Italy and Belgium used unlabelled generative AI content to influence voters — despite having pledged to respect ethical campaigning standards.

Selected by our small team of reporters and editors, these are the 10 articles (investigations, analysis, exclusives, opinion and columns) we thought best showed the breadth, depth, and originality of EUobserver over 2025, and its quest for unique, investigative, off-diary stories about European politics.

Across Europe, mayors and local councillors are facing a disturbing rise in harassment, threats, disinformation, and even physical violence. These aren’t isolated incidents — they are a growing pattern. And they’re not 'just politics'. They are deliberate attempts to silence, intimidate, and push people out of public life, warns the Council of European Municipalities and Regions.

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.