European Values in Action: EU Demonstrates Tireless Commitment in Final Plenary Before Summer Recess

In these last few sitting days, the European Parliament caravan - made up of MEPs, their secretaries, political assistants, advisors, and a large contingent of lobbyists - has once again rolled from Brussels to Strasbourg to deal with several important files that require either procedural decisions or political positioning.

Among them are the verification process for the Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) party, the revived Chat Control file and the Ukraine accession file.

ESN party ban

The European Union has once again demonstrated its deep and moving commitment to democracy by beginning the formal process of removing public funding from a political party whose values may not be sufficiently European.

The Europe of Sovereign Nations party, known as ESN, is now facing a procedure that could eventually lead to the loss of its official status as a European political party and the EU funding attached to it.

The process was initiated by the Authority for European Political Parties and European Political Foundations after its director, Pascal Schonard, sent a detailed report to the European Parliament, the Commission, and the Council. The report raised serious questions about whether ESN respects the Union’s core values.

The European Parliament is expected to vote on Tuesday. If approved, the Authority would examine the party, give it a chance to respond, and potentially recommend deregistration.

A simple majority in plenary is required.

Should the process eventually succeed, the consequences would be financial rather than electoral. The ESN parliamentary group would continue to exist. Its Members of the European Parliament, including Christine Anderson of Germany’s AFD, would keep their seats and voting rights.

What would be lost is the official European party structure and the EU money attached to it, reportedly more than two million euros for 2026.

Chat Control

On the same day, Parliament is also expected to vote on whether to handle the revived Chat Control proposal under urgent procedure. The Council adopted its position earlier this month, sending the file back to Parliament. An absolute majority of 360 votes would be needed to block it, else it is automatically approved.

With many Members already heading into the summer break, reaching that threshold is not expected.

Welcome to the glorious new era where an AI will be reading every single thing you type on your phone - a development that could prove to be a significant win for Commission President von der Leyen, long notorious for her own communications mysteriously going missing.

Ukraine accession

On Wednesday, Parliament will adopt annual reports on the progress of Ukraine, Moldova and Serbia towards EU membership.

With the European Parliament now heading into its summer recess, the citizens of the European Union can at least look forward to a couple of weeks during which no new legislative files are expected to advance through normal channels.

Whether the Commission will manage to resist the temptation to declare fresh crises and push measures through using the same emergency tools it relied on during COVID - when Article 122 and temporary frameworks allowed it to move large financial and regulatory packages with significantly reduced parliamentary oversight - is another matter entirely.