The EU has completed adoption of revised air-passenger rules that preserve existing compensation levels while adding firm claim, refund and rerouting procedures. They will apply 12 months and 20 days after publication.
EU foreign ministers discussed Commission options to restrict trade with Israeli settlements on 13 July, as Ursula von der Leyen's September 2025 proposal to suspend EU-Israel trade preferences and sanction two Israeli ministers remained blocked by member states.
President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on 12 July that Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko will be replaced and Ukraine's cabinet renewed, saying the country is "changing its political strategy". Naftogaz chief Serhii Koretskyi is seen as the frontrunner to succeed her, while Svyrydenko is expected to become ambassador to Washington. Parliament must approve the change, with votes possible within days.
President Trump ordered an immediate halt to all US trade with Spain on 8 July 2026, citing Madrid's refusal to hit NATO's 5%-of-GDP spending target and its stance on the Iran war. Spain shrugged the remarks off and the European Commission insisted trade is an EU-wide matter, underscoring the limits of unilateral action against a single member state.
Spain's extraordinary regularisation of undocumented migrants drew almost 1.2 million applications, as Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez casts legalisation as economic policy while much of Europe tightens its borders.
The EU abolished its €150 de-minimis customs exemption on 1 July 2026, imposing an interim €3 duty on each distinct item in low-value parcels from outside the bloc. The charge falls on sellers and platforms registered in the EU's import one-stop shop, which covers 93% of e-commerce flows, so shoppers in Luxembourg should mostly see it folded into checkout prices rather than collected at the door. The measure runs until July 2028, when normal tariffs will apply to all goods regardless of value.
German defence-AI and drone maker Helsing is closing in on a roughly $1.2bn funding round at an $18bn valuation, as record venture capital flows into European defence following NATO's 5% spending pledge and the EU's €800bn rearmament drive.
Ireland took over the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU on 1 July 2026 and set out its priorities at an event in Luxembourg, framing its six months around competitiveness, values and security while pushing negotiations on the 2028–2034 EU budget and enlargement.
The Myanmar civil war has killed more than 100,000 people since the February 2021 coup, the monitor ACLED says — a grim milestone in what analysts call Asia's deadliest active conflict, even as the junta entrenches its rule.
Russia's central bank, growth, budget and banking data all show a war economy under real pressure in mid-2026, yet most analysts read the picture as erosion rather than collapse — a distinction that matters for how long Moscow can fund the war and for the EU sanctions strategy Luxembourg helps shape.
After all but closing the Strait of Hormuz since late February, Iran turned the world's busiest oil chokepoint into a tollbooth, charging tankers up to $2 million a crossing. A US-brokered memorandum has paused the fees for 60 days, but the dispute over whether a state can charge the world to cross an international strait is far from settled.
Since 2025 the UK has rebuilt ties with the EU through sectoral deals on food, carbon, fishing and defence — without rejoining. Keir Starmer's resignation now tests the 'reset', with direct stakes for Luxembourg.
EU lawmakers struck a provisional deal on 15 June 2026 to revise Regulation 261, retaining the three-hour delay threshold and €250–€600 payouts while tightening claims, care and rerouting duties for travellers at Luxembourg's Findel and across the Greater Region.
Brussels wants to keep the EU's temporary protection scheme for displaced Ukrainians running until March 2028, with a new restriction barring most newly arriving military-age men. The plan secures the legal status of beneficiaries across the bloc, including in Luxembourg, but leaves the longer-term, post-war framework unresolved.
More than 900 people have died in twin earthquakes that struck north-central Venezuela on 24 June 2026, with rescuers still searching collapsed buildings days later. Luxembourg has joined the international response, dispatching a Grand Ducal Fire and Rescue Corps team and its emergency.lu satellite communication system as part of a wider EU mobilisation.
With the Iran war paused, southern Syria — Israel's buffer zone in Quneitra and Daraa and the Druze crisis around Suwayda — is emerging as the front Europe fears most.
Donald Trump has threatened to slap 100% tariffs on goods from any country that taxes US technology companies, a move that would override the EU-US trade deal due to take effect on 4 July. Brussels called the threat unjustified. Luxembourg's direct US exposure is small, but a blanket transatlantic tariff would strike at the steel exports, industry and financial services on which its open economy depends.
On 23 June 2026 the European Commission and 15 member states received a five-member Taliban delegation in Brussels — the first such meeting — reigniting Europe's debate over how to deal with a regime accused of gender apartheid, a cause long championed by Luxembourg's Grand Duchess Maria Teresa.
The IAEA's director general says inspections of Iran's nuclear sites are 'going to happen' under the Islamabad Memorandum, but Iran says access to bombed sites awaits a final deal. For the EU, which triggered snapback sanctions in 2025 and co-sponsored a June 2026 board resolution, restoring verification is the central test of whether Iran's programme can return under international oversight.
Brussels wants to extend temporary protection for people fleeing Ukraine until March 2028 but exclude newly arriving men of fighting age who are barred from leaving under martial law. Kyiv asked for the change to ease its manpower crisis, after it let men aged 18-22 leave and arrivals across the EU surged. The plan pits wartime solidarity against migration politics — and would shape who can claim protection in Luxembourg and the Greater Region.
EU environment ministers meeting in Luxembourg on 25 June 2026 laid bare a Franco-German split over the 2035 combustion-engine phase-out, as the bloc weighs a Commission proposal to soften the target to a 90% emissions cut with e-fuels, biofuels and hybrids.
The European Commission disbursed €3.2 billion to Kyiv on 25 June 2026, the first instalment of a €90 billion loan that Ukraine will repay only if Russia pays reparations. Luxembourg, a consistent backer, helps underwrite the EU borrowing behind it.
The EU held its first talks with Taliban officials on European soil on 23 June 2026, focusing on the deportation of Afghan nationals with no right to stay. The Commission and Sweden co-chaired the closed-door meeting with 15 member states; Brussels stressed it does not amount to recognition, as rights groups warned the engagement risks legitimising the regime.
Iran's parliament speaker and lead negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, called the US-brokered deal that ended the 2026 Iran war 'a declaration of America's defeat.' The Pakistan-mediated Islamabad Memorandum trades an end to US and Israeli strikes and sanctions relief for Iranian curbs on uranium enrichment — but a clash over IAEA inspections, and a split between Tehran's pragmatists and hardliners, leaves the peace untested. For Europe, the payoff is already visible in falling crude prices.