⛽GREEN IN THEORY, DIESEL IN PRACTICE

The European Commission spent years lecturing the world about phasing out fossil fuels. Now it’s pleading with the Trump administration to keep American diesel flowing. Brussels has launched a diplomatic push to head off a reported 90-day U.S. diesel export ban. Commission spokesperson Olof Gill warned that “any disruption would risk negatively impacting both sides,” and said “high-level contacts” with Washington are ongoing.

The reason for the panic is simple: the EU now gets more than half of its diesel from America. Imports have surged to replace supply lost to the Middle East conflict and strikes on Russian refineries. An industry source told Politico that, given “the precarious situation that Europe currently finds itself in,” any further restrictions “could quickly become very serious.”

Brussels still won’t admit what this means for its climate agenda. When asked whether the EU would rethink its $750 billion pledge to buy U.S. energy by 2028, spokesperson Anna-Kaisa Itkonen called the trade “mutually beneficial.” In the same answer, she repeated the bloc’s long-term commitment to quitting fossil fuels entirely.

America is now the world’s largest diesel exporter and is setting new records this year. Europe’s green rhetoric runs on American energy, and when that supply is at risk, Brussels comes asking Washington for help.

2. 💶🇪🇺 VDL’S €2 TRILLION WISH LIST

Ursula von der Leyen is fighting to protect the next EU budget, and the main pushback is coming from her own country. Ahead of the October 15 leaders’ summit, the Commission president warned MEPs in Strasbourg against “large cuts” to her proposed seven-year budget of nearly €2 trillion. She said cuts would “risk cutting deep into critical priorities that we all together have agreed on.”

The Commission’s plan is worth 1.26 percent of the bloc’s gross national income, which is more than the last budget. The “frugal” countries paying the bills want deep cuts, and Germany is leading them. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who is from von der Leyen’s own CDU party, put it bluntly: “Having no new financial framework is by far the most financially advantageous solution for Germany.”

On the other side, 17 Southern and Eastern European countries signed a joint letter demanding that farm subsidies and cohesion funds be protected. Parliament’s lead budget negotiator, Siegfried Muresan, warned the Irish presidency against “unjustified cuts.” He admitted that member states don’t want to raise their national contributions.

This is the familiar pattern in Brussels: the budget gets bigger, the bill gets passed to member states, and anyone who objects is accused of making Europe “weaker.” When even Berlin argues that no budget beats this one, the problem lies with the Commission, not the critics.

💻 DMA FLOPS ON GLOBAL STAGE

For years, the European Commission promised that the Digital Markets Act would become the global standard for regulating tech. Yet, a new report shows very few governments have followed its lead.

Conducted by the Computer & Communications Industry Association this week, the report tracked 83 developments in 16 jurisdictions across the globe. Of the 14 jurisdictions outside the EU that considered replicating the DMA, 13 have either rejected the framework or implemented versions so narrowed they bear little resemblance to Brussels’ approach. South Korea, for example, despite seriously entertaining a DMA-style policy, opted against such a regulation after careful consideration. The country’s Fair Trade Commission cited the costs of overregulation and concerns that the EU’s ex-ante regulatory approach, which aims to regulate companies before market harm or anti-competitive behavior happens, would stifle domestic innovation.

Countries are refusing to follow Europe’s lead because the DMA has failed to deliver any benefits for European consumers. Instead, the policy has delayed new products and services, degraded apps used by Europeans every day, and driven up costs for EU businesses. The consequences of the DMA have been so severe that one survey found that a majority of Europeans would be willing to pay a fee in order to undo the damage the policy has inflicted on their digital experience.

With the Commission’s digital regulatory policy stalling globally, there is no better time for the Trump Administration to ramp up its pressure campaign and ensure American firms aren’t condemned to pay for Europe’s failed experiment. If the world won’t follow Brussels’ model, Brussels shouldn’t be able to impose it on American firms either.