1. 🇳🇱 AMSTERDAM’S WAR ON BACKYARD BBQ

European green extremism has officially come for the BBQ.

Amsterdam has expanded restrictions on public barbecuing as part of its official Beleidskader Houtstook Amsterdam, a wood-burning policy framework adopted by the city council on September 17, 2025. According to the Brussels Signal, the city is now studying the installation of electric cooking points in parks so residents can grill without charcoal. Disposable barbecues are already fully prohibited. Violations carry a €95 fine. In the Vondelpark and every other park in the city’s southern borough, charcoal grilling has been banned outright since 2017.

The city even issued a leaflet instructing residents to consult neighbors before lighting a grill and directed them to a website with tips for having that conversation. Amsterdam is also the world’s first capital to ban public advertisements for meat products.

The People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) party and other critics have warned the framework could be a first step toward a total ban, even on private gardens. If European governments are telling citizens they need permission to grill in their own backyard, the regulatory overreach isn’t coming… it’s already here.

2. 🚗 NEW EU RULES ADD TO AUTO SECTOR’S STRUGGLES

Brussels’ overregulation agenda is coming for the EU’s already crippling car industry.

A new EU regulation mandates that new vehicle types must contain at least 15% recycled plastic by weight starting in 2032, climbing to 25% by 2036. And it doesn’t stop there. Carmakers must also issue digital “circularity vehicle passports,” provide parts-removal instructions, and assume full financial liability for end-of-life vehicle collection beginning in September 2029.

This comes after the EU’s CO2 emissions mandates have already triggered factory closures and layoffs across the continent, leaving the car manufacturing sector significantly damaged.

The regulation adds sweeping new obligations, seemingly without any demonstrated environmental payoff. Spain’s recycling federation, FER, has warned the rules would impose “disproportionate technical and economic demands without matching environmental gains.”

Existing EU rules already recover around 85% of material from scrapped vehicles, raising the question of who, exactly, this mountain of new red tape is for…

🇪🇺 GOOGLE JOINS COMPANIES & EXPERTS IN SOUNDING ALARM OVER DMA’S SECURITY RISKS

Last week, Google joined the ranks of American companies who have gone public to voice concerns about the Digital Markets Act and the security risks it has opened EU users up to.

Writing on their website blog, Google warned the DMA is “placing European consumers’ privacy, security, and safety at risk,” explaining that it would force the company to grant any user-downloaded AI app unvetted system-level access to users’ microphones, cameras, and screens with no ability for Google to screen them first.

The company joins other US companies like Amazon and Apple who, along with industry experts, have long-criticized the DMA’s undercutting of user security and privacy protections. These include an increased risk of unauthorized access to user data and core system functions, an erosion of built-in protections, and the weakening of malware blocking just as incidents have tripled globally.

Few are better acquainted with these concerns than the EU themselves who, despite not addressing the issues, sought technical guidance in 2023 to assess the security implications of the DMA, suggesting its privacy and security implications hadn’t been sufficiently considered when the regulation was developed.

Google’s public stance also comes at a critical time for the transatlantic relationship, with the deadline for American cloud providers to appeal their recently imposed gatekeeper designations fast approaching.

The Commission would be wise to use this fork in the road to reevaluate its predatory regulatory framework. If Brussels takes the wrong turn and upholds these gatekeeper designations, they should expect a far less forgiving approach from President Trump in combating what he has characterized as “overseas extortion” once the Section 301 investigation is finalized.