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Europe Today: Ukraine, NATO and the future of EU enlargement
Russia launches another deadly attack on Kyiv ahead of the NATO summit as Ukraine seeks stronger military support and progress on EU membership. Meanwhile, thousands protest against Germany's far-right AfD as the European Commission prepares reforms to the EU enlargement process.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/07/06/europe-today-ukraine-nato-and-the-future-of-eu-enlargement
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Russia launches another deadly attack on Kyiv ahead of the NATO summit as Ukraine seeks stronger military support and progress on EU membership. Meanwhile, thousands protest against Germany's far-right AfD as the European Commission prepares reforms to the EU enlargement process.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/07/06/europe-today-ukraine-nato-and-the-future-of-eu-enlargement
Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages
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00:13Good morning, it is Monday the 6th of July. I'm Maeve McMahon and this is Europe Today,
00:20your daily update of European news and analysis live here on Euronews.
00:24Coming up, another massive overnight Russian attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
00:30With at least 8 people killed and dozens more injured.
00:33It comes just ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara this week.
00:37And just after the US President Donald Trump held separate calls with the Russian President Vladimir Putin
00:42and the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
00:44We'll be joined live here in the studio by Ukraine's ambassador to the European Union.
00:49And schools out for the summer.
00:51And as the holiday season gets underway across Europe, travel disruption is hitting airports.
00:57The EU's new digital system for checking non-EU travellers' documents is causing bottlenecks at border controls
01:04during one of the most busiest times of the years.
01:07European airlines are urging Brussels to suspend the checks for the next two months.
01:12Meanwhile, more than 20,000 protesters from unions, civil society groups and left-wing parties
01:18gathered in Erfurt Germany this weekend in an attempt to prevent the far-right AFD delegates
01:23from attending their party's conference.
01:25Some states sit in blockades across the city and others clashed with riot police.
01:30We'll have an update from our correspondent.
01:32But first, Russia has launched another massive barrage on Kyiv,
01:36striking a residential area in the centre of the capital.
01:39The attack came just hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky warned
01:43that Moscow was preparing a new large-scale strike timed to coincide with the U.S. Independence Day
01:49and the NATO summit happening in Ankara.
01:52For more on this, we're joined now in the studio by the Ukrainian ambassador to the EU, Chentsov.
01:57Good morning, ambassador. Thank you so much for joining us.
02:00Good morning. Thank you.
02:00So just fill us in on this latest attack that comes just ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara.
02:05Yeah, Russia is sending its message that they want to continue this war.
02:11But definitely both Ukraine and our allies will send our message back
02:20because war is going back to Russia.
02:24And Ukraine already has its answer, and we call it kinetic sanctions.
02:30But definitely, you mentioned NATO summit, it's a good opportunity to keep the unity
02:36and to send a strong message that Ukraine will have this support.
02:44And it's first of all about anti-ballistic missiles.
02:48But when you see this attack last night, we saw a similar one last week.
02:51Does Ukraine feel a little bit abandoned by your allies?
02:54No, we don't feel abandoned.
02:56Definitely, Russia is very aggressive because probably they do not see that those attacks work.
03:05And we need definitely to keep pushing back.
03:09And how will you respond?
03:11As I said, with Ukrainian kinetic sanctions, which means deep strikes.
03:18But definitely, we need to continue pressure on Russia through the sanctions,
03:24through Ukrainian support, first of all, anti-ballistic missiles to protect Ukraine,
03:32but also to send to Ukraine all equipment, all ammunition,
03:37which Europe and other partners have to offer now.
03:42Let's talk about EU enlargement.
03:44Some EU member states have been toying with this idea of associate membership,
03:48like the German Chancellor.
03:49How does Ukraine feel about this?
03:50Look, let's not really concentrate on the title.
03:56Let's concentrate on substance.
03:58Because how we understand this idea, it's not only German suggestions of a number of member states,
04:06and also European Commission, they started to think what to do between now,
04:12when we started this journey, and the final point, when we joined the Union, what to do in between.
04:20And the idea is good, because we need to deepen our partnership,
04:25we need to deepen economic cooperation, also institutional setup,
04:29because there were several ideas how to get Ukraine closer.
04:33And I think we just need to work together and to make sure that Ukraine already feels benefits of enlargement
04:46already on this stage.
04:47And of course, you want to open the all six accession clusters as soon as possible.
04:51This is clearly not happening.
04:53What does a realistic timetable look like to you?
04:55Look, we are ready to open, even today, all six clusters.
05:02Why?
05:02Because we spent a lot of time doing so-called front-loading,
05:07which means that we did all technical work necessary to open the clusters.
05:13Now, it's pure for member states to give a green light.
05:18And as we heard, that it's already possible to open the sixth one, which is a foreign policy cluster.
05:26But we don't think that there is any reason to keep this process pending.
05:34So we need to move as fast as possible.
05:37And this will be a big issue, of course, for the Irish rotating presidency that is now underway.
05:43We saw the special ceremony last week with, of course, President Zelensky in Dublin.
05:47Ireland says it will be an honest broker, but it's also under pressure over alumina exports to Russia.
05:52So what is your hope for the next set of sanctions that Ireland as well will have to be in
05:57control of?
05:58But definitely, I know that there is a political will to fix this issue.
06:03There are legal issues as well.
06:07But Ireland is a good partner, a good, strong partner, now incoming already EU presidency.
06:14So my hope is that we are going to fix it fast.
06:19Okay, we'll have to keep an eye on that and keep an eye on the Irish government.
06:22Ambassador, thank you so much for coming into us today and being our guest on Europe Today.
06:26And as you heard there, EU enlargement very much high on the Brussels agenda this summer.
06:31After the recent EU Western Balkans summit in Montenegro, the European Commission is now working on a plan to reform
06:38the enlargement process and have its own say, aiming to regain control over a debate now largely shaped by EU
06:45member states.
06:46That's according to an exclusive story broke on Euronews this morning by our very own Luca Portugia, who joins me
06:51now here in the studio.
06:52Good morning, Luca.
06:53Great to have you with us.
06:54Just tell us more about this story that you broke this morning.
06:57Yeah, indeed.
06:58We see enlargement is a very hot topic right now with countries like Montenegro and Albania next in the line
07:05to join the bloc.
07:07Ukraine has made the topic a very geopolitical issue right now.
07:10And in the past few weeks, EU countries have advanced a series of proposals to reform the accession process.
07:19A key proposal is to strengthen, safeguard, to avoid that new members breach democratic standards and the rule of law,
07:28which is basically a lesson EU capitals say they have learned from Viktor Orbán's Hungary.
07:34We have also seen proposals from France and Germany about a potential gradual integration of EU countries to show early
07:44benefits before you fully join the bloc.
07:48And finally, we have heard from the Germans about this idea of associated membership for Ukraine, which would introduce security
07:56guarantees before Ukraine fully joins the bloc.
07:59So that's what the member states think.
08:00What about the Commission?
08:01How are they trying to weigh in now?
08:03Indeed, the Commission has sort of lost the initiative, and now they are trying to regain it before EU leaders
08:10discuss this very sensitive topic at the European Council in October.
08:15Plans are currently being discussed at the highest political level, and we are going to see them probably before the
08:22October summit.
08:23So since last year, the Commission is due to present the pre-enlargement policy reviews, which is basically a blueprint
08:33for how the EU members would work with 30-plus member states.
08:39So this is a very sensitive conversation to have, since it would redistribute money and power within the bloc, and
08:47it's probably too early to have this conversation, especially with the French presidential election coming up next year.
08:53So instead, the Commission is likely to focus on democratic safeguards to avoid that the burden falls all on Montenegro.
09:01Well, Montenegro, of course, they aspire to be the next country to join as early as next year.
09:06What does this all mean for them?
09:07Well, it basically means that they risk to become the testing ground for these new rules, and that is precisely
09:15what the Commission wants to avoid, since it would mean punishing your best-in-class students.
09:21So safeguards, in fact, already exist in the accession process.
09:25Croatia, when it joined in 2013, faced post-accession monitoring for breaches of the judiciary and the rule of law.
09:33But there are countries that want to go much further, proposing swift sanctions for breaches of democratic standards, including the
09:42suspension of EU funding and even voting rights.
09:45These proposals are, however, very controversial because they touch a core EU principle, which is the equality of member states.
09:53So this discussion is still in the early stages, but it will shape not only the next wave of enlargement,
10:00but also how the EU will look like in the future.
10:03It's a fascinating discussion.
10:04It's worth pointing out to our viewers that there has been no EU enlargement since 2013.
10:08Luca Bertucci, thank you so much for joining us.
10:10And we, of course, can read more of his article there on euronews.com.
10:14But now we can move on to Germany, where thousands of people spent their weekend protesting against Germany's far-right
10:20AFD party as they held their annual conference in the city of Erfurt.
10:24For more, we can head straight over to Berlin and bring in our correspondent, Sonia Izzel.
10:28Good morning, Sonia. Great to have you with us on the programme.
10:31Just bring us up to speed on what actually happened at the conference.
10:37Good morning, Maeve.
10:38Well, this weekend, it was all eyes on the far-right AFD conference party.
10:42They are right now, what seems to be the rising power in Germany.
10:46And the focus of this party conference was mainly the personnel.
10:50Alice Weidel and Tino Krupalla, they have both been re-elected as party leaders, which is no surprise.
10:56But we did have some changes.
10:58And if we look at them, we can see that the AFD wants two things.
11:03One being they want to become younger.
11:06And the second being that they want to move more to the right.
11:10Now, if we look at the whole conference itself, it was very surprisingly calm.
11:18There were no internal fights.
11:19There was no discussions, which is very uncommon.
11:23This is due to the fact that because of the upcoming elections, the AFD wants to seem more professional.
11:30And they want to seem, they want to normalise themselves.
11:34And tell us more about the protests we're reading 20,000, 30,000 people spent their weekend trying to stop
11:40the actual conference from taking place.
11:44Well, these protests, they were actually much calmer than expected as well.
11:47Around 60,000 people were expected.
11:49In the end, around 31,000 showed up.
11:52But we did have some severe clashes.
11:55There was one specific case where a media representative was hunted down and beaten by radical leftists.
12:0328 police officers were injured.
12:05Now, in total, though, the police, they did a very positive conclusion.
12:09They said it was mostly peaceful.
12:11And by Sunday morning, most of the protesters were already gone.
12:15And by Monday morning now, everything is going back to normal in Erfurt.
12:19Okay, Sonia Issa in Berlin.
12:21Thank you so much for joining us this Monday morning here on Europe Today.
12:24And as you heard earlier in the programme, leaders of the NATO member states will be expected later this week
12:29in Ankara for a major summit.
12:31It's the first Turkey will host in 2022 years.
12:35For more on what to watch out for, here's our Yakubianos.
12:39This Tuesday, NATO leaders land in Ankara for an annual summit.
12:43And it is a big thing, as they will try to map out the future of Western defence.
12:48The pre-negotiated statement promises an iron-clad 32-member family committed to collective protection.
12:54But the official documents are not always reflecting the reality.
12:57Last Thursday, Donald Trump blasted again his allies on Truth Social, saying that Europe abandoned the US with its Iran
13:04war.
13:05And it is ridiculous for Washington to keep up its one-sided relationship with NATO.
13:10It is a bold statement, so let's look at the raw numbers to see if its most powerful member is
13:15right about it.
13:17Reports show a massive 20% surge year-on-year in core defence spending across Europe and Canada.
13:23In plain English, the Allies injected an extra $258 billion into the ports over the last two years.
13:31And NATO's Secretary General points out that Allies have spent $1 trillion on defence since Trump's first administration.
13:39He even calls it the Trump Trillion to flatter the White House, while demanding it turns into combat-ready capabilities.
13:47Finally, NATO members even pledged to hit a massive 5% GDP defence target by 2035 to build a revamped
13:55NATO 3.0.
13:57But here is a problem.
13:58This math does not change the cold reality on the ground, even if big chunk of that cash flows straight
14:04back to US defence firms.
14:06Washington is shrinking its wartime resource pool and withholding long-range bombers, fighter jets, submarines and warships from European command.
14:14But the absolute leverage comes down to artificial intelligence.
14:18The US controls the monopoly on next-generation military AI models like Claude Mythos.
14:23And Washington treats this software as a tactical weapon, enforcing strict export bans.
14:29So Trump decides which ally receives digital protection and which country gets left behind.
14:34So it seems like buying a trillion-dollar ticket does not buy a permanent American protection.
14:39Europe is paying the bill for this alliance, but Washington still holds the keys.
14:49And now it's time for our World Cup update.
14:57Well, Norway are into the quarterfinals of the World Cup for the very first time in history, knocking out Brazil.
15:04And great news for English supporters who are also through after a rather dramatic win against Mexico.
15:10And meanwhile, tonight at nine, the much-anticipated clash between Spain and Portugal fighting for their space in the quarterfinals.
15:18For more on the feeling on the ground ahead of those games, we can head straight to our correspondents in
15:23both Lisbon and Madrid, Joao Azevedo and Cristina Tiquiat.
15:27Good morning.
15:27First to Lisbon, Joao.
15:29What is the mood there ahead of this big match?
15:34Hey there, Maeve.
15:35Good morning.
15:36I'm standing here at this marina in the Lisbon area by the Atlantic, which has hosted several watch parties throughout
15:43this World Cup.
15:44It's already 25 degrees this morning, but temperatures are expected to be even higher later on, not least because this
15:53place will be crawling with Portuguese supporters eager to see the national team make it through to the quarterfinals.
16:00The Tesco had anything but easiest.
16:02Spain remains unbeaten in the tournament.
16:05The Spanish side is known for basing possession, but it's worth noting that the Portuguese midfielders have the technical skills
16:11to prevent the Spaniards from dictating the tempo.
16:14So that might well be the defining dynamic going into this knockout tie.
16:19Also, Cristiano Ronaldo announced yesterday that this will be his last World Cup.
16:24Will he start against Spain?
16:27Well, Gonzalo Ramos scored a stoppage time winner against Croatia when Ronaldo had already been subbed off.
16:33All of that, of course, increasing pressure on manager Roberto Martinez, who hinted, though, in his presser, that he will
16:41not bench the captain.
16:43Whichever decisions are made, Portugal's not taking the backseat here.
16:48The Portuguese players making it absolutely clear that they're ready to go toe-to-toe with the reigning European champions.
16:56Now, let's get the perspective from the other side.
17:00Good morning to you, Cristina.
17:01You're in Madrid, not too far from here.
17:05What's the mood like in the Spanish capital?
17:09Good morning.
17:10Well, here in Spain, there is a lot of excitement and optimism before tonight's encounter.
17:16Spain has some unfinished business with Portugal after last year's Nations League final, where Portugal won after a penalty shootout.
17:24So the team is excited.
17:27They have come into this encounter with a lot of energy.
17:31However, the players have been very careful not to underestimate Portugal.
17:35Forward Mikel Oyarzabal summed it up perfectly when he said that Spain is approaching this match with respect, but without
17:44fear.
17:45Spain really do believe that they are worthy and able to reach the quarterfinals at this World Cup.
17:52Now, tonight, all eyes are going to be on Laminia Mal, one of Spain's top star players.
17:58However, many fans have noted that this year there is less focus on individual stars and more focus on the
18:06collective team effort,
18:07which is what has ensured Spain's success at this World Cup so far.
18:11But everyone knows that in a match like this against Portugal, any small mistake could mean a defeat.
18:18So optimism but caution from the Spanish side tonight.
18:21Optimism but caution.
18:22Cristina, ti quer and ciao, Azevedo.
18:25Thank you so much for that update.
18:27We'll be keeping, of course, a very close eye on that match.
18:29And also coming up tonight at 2 a.m., the Belgian Red Devils take on host nation the U.S.
18:36But in a controversial decision just ahead of the game, FIFA has suspended the ban on their top U.S.
18:41striker, Folleran Belagoon,
18:42who received a red card in the previous match against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
18:47According to reports, it was actually President Donald Trump himself who calls the FIFA president to ensure that the top
18:53U.S. striker could play.
18:54The Belgian Federation is looking into what action it can take after a decision critics say was influenced by politics.
19:01But that brings this edition of Europe Today to an end.
19:04Thank you so much for tuning in.
19:05As always, you can reach out to us at europetoday at euronews.com.
19:09But in the meantime, have a great day and see you soon on Euronews.
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