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Europe Today: Trump tells countries to quit ICC, EU defence chief speaks to Euronews
EU defence chief speaks to Euronews as US President Donald Trump calls on every country belonging to the International Criminal Court to quit. Meanwhile, as war in the Middle East disrupts global oil supplies and refining costs soar, European consumers are feeling the pinch more and more.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/09/24/europe-today-trump-tells-countries-to-quit-icc-eu-defence-chief-speaks-to-euronews
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EU defence chief speaks to Euronews as US President Donald Trump calls on every country belonging to the International Criminal Court to quit. Meanwhile, as war in the Middle East disrupts global oil supplies and refining costs soar, European consumers are feeling the pinch more and more.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/09/24/europe-today-trump-tells-countries-to-quit-icc-eu-defence-chief-speaks-to-euronews
Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages
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00:14Good morning, it's Thursday, September 24th, you're watching Euronews, and this is Europe Today.
00:22Coming up, reaching for the stars.
00:25The EU's defense commissioner, Andreas Kobilius, warned Euronews on the sidelines of a space summit in Brussels about falling behind
00:33in the stratosphere.
00:34Right now, Europe lacks the launch infrastructure it needs to stay competitive in the space race, said Kobilius, a former
00:41prime minister of Lithuania.
00:43At stake is the continent's current prosperity and future sovereignty.
00:47Kobilius also boasted about the benefits of AI on the battlefield.
00:53Energy prices keep climbing, putting renewed pressure on households and businesses across Europe.
00:59After the energy crisis of recent years, consumers are, once again, facing higher bills,
01:05with the risk that more expensive energy could also push up the price of everyday goods and services.
01:11So what's driving this latest increase?
01:14How serious could the impact be?
01:16And can governments protect consumers without fueling inflation?
01:20We'll speak to an expert.
01:22And Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Washington for a two-day summit with Donald Trump that looks more focused
01:30on pageantry than on longstanding policy fields.
01:33The state visit will bring together a robust gathering of U.S. corporate leaders, but no comparable delegation from China,
01:40raising questions about the prospects of even any new business.
01:44One topic where Trump and Xi are on the same page, though, is resistance to any AI regulation.
01:51Welcome to the program. I'm Stefan Grobe.
01:54Let's start with the space summit in Brussels.
01:57More EU member states are engaging with Palantir, the American software company that builds enterprise data integration,
02:05analytics and artificial intelligence platforms for government and commercial clients.
02:10But there are concerns about the questionable ethics of organizations like Palantir.
02:15Its manifesto details, among other things, its support for state surveillance and predictions and plans for a future dominated by
02:23autonomous weapons.
02:25Our correspondent Shona Murray joins me now.
02:28Good morning, Shona.
02:29So is this company, Palantir, becoming part of European industry?
02:36Well, that's a key question.
02:37I mean, we know as Europe is spending billions on defense and sort of independent security architecture that AI will
02:43form part of that.
02:44So the question around AI and groups like Palantir is how ethical they are, whether they apply the rules of
02:49international humanitarian law, civil rights laws and so on.
02:53And groups like Palantir have been condemned and criticized by Amnesty International, for example, for the work they do with
02:58state surveillance and groups like ICE.
03:00So there are concerns there.
03:02But as we heard from Andreas Kobilius, the European Commissioner for Defense, he's saying that they're a perfectly legitimate company.
03:08And some European countries are engaging with them, like Lithuania, like Poland.
03:13But other countries like Spain, for example, the Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, has outlawed any public companies using Palantir.
03:20So take a listen to this interview with Andreas Kobilius, the EU Defense Commissioner, with our colleague Angela Skugins.
03:26And she asked him about this specifically.
03:28We need to develop proper capabilities in space to have space geo-intelligence data.
03:37That is what we are discussing, what we call Earth Observation Governmental Service.
03:42And the last point, really, what we need to be prepared, that hybrid threats will become an issue and challenge,
03:54not only on Earth, but also in space.
03:57If we go to the United Nations General Assembly on the sidelines of that, speaking on a defense topic, the
04:04Greenland, the United States and Denmark signed a security and defense agreement.
04:09Do you think that this properly safeguards Danish sovereignty in the future?
04:14Well, at least what we can read from the statements of the Danish government are positive about that agreement.
04:26And definitely, perhaps, it's good that also the United States, Greenland and Denmark agreed on such kind of agreement.
04:34And it removes some kind of this, you know, language, which was totally unacceptable, which was used by some American
04:46authorities.
04:47What was the language?
04:49The language was that, you know, we remember very well that Greenland should belong to the United States and so
04:56on and so on because of security reasons.
04:58So now those issues are resolved and that is what Europe was saying from the very beginning and Denmark was
05:04saying from the very beginning.
05:05Yes, we understand some kind of American security interests that can be resolved in a proper way.
05:16Also on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, the presidents of Lithuania and Poland met with the CEO
05:22of Palantir.
05:24This is the U.S.-based defense and tech company.
05:27The takeaway from these meetings is that we could expect more deeper cooperation between the two countries and the tech
05:34company.
05:35What do you make of this?
05:36Is this wise for Europe's eastern flank, particularly as that company has been criticized for how it uses AI on
05:43the battlefield?
05:44Palantir is a great company.
05:47And the developments with AI for intelligence for managing the data are very crucial for modern warfare doctrines.
05:57And we can see, for example, for Ukrainian development with their own delta system for data management, battlefield data management.
06:12And this is what really is becoming a new normal in the management of battlefields and in implementation of warfare
06:25or defense doctrines.
06:30EU Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubelius speaking to our Angela Scugins.
06:35A new front is opening between Washington and Europe, this time over international justice.
06:42Donald Trump is calling on every country belonging to the International Criminal Court to quit,
06:47accusing the Hague-based tribunal of being anti-American and out of control.
06:53Trump is intensifying his long-running campaign against the world's only permanent court for prosecuting genocide, war crimes, crimes against
07:02humanity and aggression.
07:03Washington is also preparing sweeping sanctions aimed at crippling the court and its judges.
07:09At the United Nations, Trump, as usual, did not mince his words.
07:15The United States is equally opposed to the out-of-control institution known as the International Criminal Court.
07:23We will never allow U.S. service members or anyone else to be investigated or given show trials by an
07:29anti-American tribunal with no jurisdiction over us.
07:33You're an evil group of people.
07:35I call on all nations that are members of the ICC to officially resign from this rogue institution immediately.
07:43For the ICC, Trump's threat is existential.
07:47For Europe, the dispute goes to the heart of the international rules-based order.
07:52So, Europe is pushing back.
07:54Here's EU Justice Commissioner Michael McGrath in a statement to Euronews.
07:59The EU is strongly committed to the fight against impunity.
08:04Attacks or threats against the court, elected officials, personnel and those cooperating with the court are not acceptable.
08:12Now, the fundamental question is this.
08:15Can a court designed to prosecute the world's most serious crimes operate independently
08:21when one of the world's most powerful countries is determined to undermine it?
08:25To discuss this, I'm now joined by Chloé Riedel, a French socialist in the European Parliament,
08:31where she sits on the Justice Committee.
08:33Good morning, Chloé, and thanks for coming on the show.
08:36Thank you for inviting me.
08:38So, Trump says the ICC is an out-of-control institution that is going after Americans.
08:45What's your argument?
08:46This is the key word, out-of-control.
08:49Trump hates that.
08:50And what is out-of-control, of his control, he wants to erase it.
08:55So, for one year and a half now, he's been attacking the International Criminal Court,
08:59sanctioning its judges, up to 12 judges.
09:03And those attacks are unacceptable, unacceptable.
09:06And I just saw the comments from Commissioner McGrath.
09:09But we've been hearing that for one year now.
09:12Just press communiques and tweets to condemn the existential threats that Trump is now waging on ICC.
09:22So, we need to act now.
09:24These threats, I mean, could make it very difficult for the ICC to operate.
09:30What measures can Europe do to prevent that from happening?
09:35The European Union has the means to protect the court through what we call the blocking statute.
09:40This is a statute that could block the effects of the American sanctions against the court.
09:49Because now, the judges that are sanctioned at the same level as, like, Al-Qaeda terrorists, okay,
09:55just because they wanted to defend international law,
09:59encounter a number of difficulties in their daily lives.
10:03And this also, you know, threatens their work at the court.
10:08But they are determined to pursue their mission.
10:12So, we need to help them by activating this blocking statute.
10:15Ursula von der Leyen has refused to do that.
10:19Even so, we gather the majority in the European Parliament in favor of the activation of this blocking statute.
10:26What message does it send, the whole dispute here, to countries like Russia,
10:32when the West is obviously divided over international justice?
10:37Well, I don't know what you call the West anymore,
10:41because I know what is the United States and I know what is Europe.
10:45And I just, you know, regret that Europe doesn't protect a court,
10:51the only international criminal independent permanent court that is, that has, you know,
11:00that is in the European soil, in The Hague, and doesn't do anything to protect it.
11:06So, we have a responsibility, a historic one,
11:09because the court is, you know, the successor of the Nuremberg Tribunal.
11:14We cannot, I think that today the ICC has become the symbol of a world fighting against imperialism,
11:23fighting for international law.
11:25So, if we are serious about fighting impunity, we need to defend this court.
11:31So, now we are waiting as a European Parliament,
11:34as a majority of members in the European Parliament, we are waiting for Europe to act.
11:38You alluded to that at the beginning of your answer.
11:41Are we witnessing here a fundamental break between the United States and Europe
11:47over the rules governing the international system?
11:51For sure, because we need to say why Trump sanctioned ICC in the first place.
11:57Because ICC was investigating on Palestine and on Israel alleged crime in Palestine and Gaza,
12:05and because ICC was also investigating action from the American army in Afghanistan, right?
12:13They stopped this investigation, but they were doing that.
12:15So, the United States cannot handle that.
12:19And so, he decides to attack what he cannot control.
12:24It's his own world.
12:25And we cannot accept this way of behaving.
12:29We built this court 25 years ago for future generations because of what happened in the 20th century, you know.
12:38We don't...
12:39Here in Europe, we didn't forget the lessons of the 20th century.
12:44So, I think that now we need to act more than with just words, you know, but with concrete steps.
12:54Chloé Riedel, member of the European Parliament from the French sources.
12:57Thank you so much for coming on the show this morning.
13:01As the Middle East war disrupts, global oil supplies and refining costs soar,
13:06European consumers are feeling the pinch more and more.
13:10In France, diesel prices have reached record levels, making them among the highest in Europe,
13:15prompting the government to call on the EU to do something.
13:19And in Belgium, energy costs for households are rising sharply,
13:23with a projected annual bill for a new electricity and gas contract approaching 3,300 euros.
13:29Many fear that prices will surge further.
13:33Joining me now from Lahore, Pakistan, is Osama Rizvi,
13:37global market and product strategist at Primary Vision.
13:40Good morning to you.
13:42Good morning to you as well, Stephen.
13:44So, energy prices keep rising for an average European household.
13:49Where will consumers feel the impact first?
13:52Electricity, gas, patrol or food prices?
13:55Well, unfortunately, all of them.
13:57The world of energy is such that the impacts spill over into all the domains.
14:03For instance, the households paying around 1,500 euros annually,
14:08they can see, unfortunately, anywhere between 250 to even 300 euros being added to their electricity bills
14:15on average if the price continues to increase.
14:18But Stephen, here is a way to guess more interesting.
14:20The businesses, for instance, if they use 100,000 megawatt hour of electricity on an annual basis,
14:27even a 10 euro increase would result into an extra 1 million euro bill.
14:32Now, the businesses will have two options.
14:34Will they pass the cost to the consumers or will they bear it themselves?
14:37They will pass the cost to the consumers.
14:39So, you have inflation, you have cost of doing business increase,
14:43you have electricity pricing increasing and the policy effect of it is going to be an increase in interest rates
14:49as well.
14:50So, the consumer, unfortunately, finds itself in a very strained environment and there is no way out of it as
14:58of today.
14:59And, Osama, should governments intervene directly to cap energy prices or would that simply postpone the problem?
15:05Well, of course, I know this kicks in a debate between Milton Friedman versus those who follow Keynes,
15:12but I think we are living in an age of poly-crisis.
15:16There are multiple crises happening at the same point.
15:19It is happening in Pakistan as well where the petrol prices have shot up by, I don't know how many
15:24percentages, like 60-70%.
15:26But for a certain sector of the society, they have capped the prices.
15:31So, there is a whole mechanism through which they do it.
15:33And I'm sure European countries have better data gathering, better data integration as well.
15:38So, the consumers on the lower end of earning, they definitely need to be protected.
15:44Otherwise, it can result into a social slash political problem as well.
15:49On that note, I mean, European governments have spent billions protecting consumers during the last energy crisis.
15:57The question is, can they afford to do that again?
16:00Well, if you look at the state of the European countries' coffers at the moment, I don't think so.
16:07They have much of a leverage there.
16:09The cost of energy ever since 2022 has continued to be on the upside.
16:14Then you have climate prices, the drying up of River Rhine, the cost of freight going up.
16:19So many things happening at the same time.
16:20But definitely, we will need to tap into some of those savings that we save for the rainy days and
16:27put it to work.
16:28Because as I said, and I'll say it before, I'll say it again.
16:31This can result into a spillover increase in food prices.
16:35And an increase in food prices can also result in social unrest.
16:38This is practically proven.
16:41So this becomes a policy method.
16:44Very short, very short.
16:45I mean, the question consumers really want answered.
16:47Should people expect their energy bills to get significantly higher over the coming months?
16:51Short answer.
16:52Not significantly, but if this continues, then definitely it can.
16:57Perfect.
16:58Osama Rizvi, thank you very much for coming on today.
17:01Now, later today, the United Nations General Assembly will endorse, by consensus, a landmark declaration aimed at ensuring that countries
17:09whose territory may become partly or entirely uninhabitable because of rising sea levels, do not lose their statehood or their
17:18place in the international system.
17:21For the small island states at the front line of the climate crisis, this is about much more than disappearing
17:27beaches.
17:27Rising seas threaten the physical territory on which states have traditionally based their sovereignty.
17:34The declaration seeks to make clear that a changing coastline should not automatically mean the disappearance of a country as
17:42a legal and political entity.
17:44So what's the impact, even on Europe?
17:46We heard from Kamal Amakran, Managing Director of the UN's Rising Nations Initiative.
17:53Regardless of our efforts to minimize, to stop climate change, once this sea goes up, this sea will not recede.
18:02It's not only an island issue.
18:04For some, it's definitely how do they affirm their statehood continuity, their maritime zones, their rights, their dignity.
18:14In Europe, it's an infrastructure challenge.
18:17It's an insurance challenge.
18:20It's a livelihood challenge.
18:22Sea level rise will have an impact on livelihood and many of the industries that are core to many member
18:28states.
18:29Tourism, for example.
18:31Fishing, second.
18:33All the processing industries along the ports.
18:37And, of course, the infrastructure that links Europe to the rest of the world and make Europe an engine of
18:43economic progress.
18:45Even if we stop today emitting carbons, we will see between 15 to 20 centimetres, on average, increase in sea
18:59level rise.
18:59Every centimetre of sea level rise will be translated in stronger storms, in stronger high tides, will be translated in
19:08many economic losses, because the ports will need to be adjusted and adapted.
19:13Some of the airports may need to be moved.
19:20That's it for today.
19:21Stay tuned to Euronews for more news throughout the day.
19:26I'm Stefan Grobe, and I see you tomorrow.