Many of bloc’s diplomats fear a six-month ‘fiasco’ with Viktor Orbán’s government overseeing the agenda

For months, it was rumoured that Hungary planned to use a reworked version of Donald Trump’s slogan for its upcoming EU presidency: Make Europe Great Again. That idea “sounded so lame and ridiculous that we refrained from reporting it”, Szabolcs Panyi, one of Hungary’s leading investigative journalists, wrote on X this month. “We were wrong.”

On 1 July, under that Trumpian banner, Hungary will take on the six-month rotating presidency of the EU council of ministers. As well as a spell in the diplomatic limelight, Viktor Orbán’s government will be setting the EU agenda for the rest of the year.

Estonia’s PM, Kaja Kallas, set to become the EU’s top diplomat, while former Portuguese PM António Costa takes over as president of the European Council

Ursula von der Leyen has clinched the nomination to serve a second term as president of the European Commission, despite Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s complaints of a “wrong” process.

Estonia’s prime minister, Kaja Kallas, is set to become the EU’s top diplomat, representing the bloc on the world stage for the next five years. The former Portuguese prime minister António Costa has been elected to take over as president of the European Council, putting him in charge of finding compromises between the 27 heads of state and government.

Ukrainian president signs military agreement with EU and says ‘fulfilment of every promise’ of support is important

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has told EU leaders that Russia’s spring offensive in Kharkiv showed that international pressure on the Kremlin was “not enough”, as he signed a military agreement with the bloc.

Vladimir Putin had tried to “expand the war” in May with a new offensive in eastern Ukraine, Zelenskiy said on Thursday, referring to relentless attacks on the Kharkiv region.