Last week, the European Commission published the KIDS Act, the most ambitious piece of child safety regulation the EU has produced to date. It introduces a minimum age of 15 for most social media accounts and bans “addictive design” features that keep young users scrolling. But while this “social media ban” has grabbed many a headline, the KIDS Act sets out a political vision for a childproofed digital world – in which […]
Briefing note on conferences in London and Brussels organised by Flint Global and UK in a Changing Europe on 23 and 30 June 2026 State of UK-EU relations The overall tone of the conference was relatively optimistic on the current direction of travel in the post-Brexit relationship. Most speakers agreed that relations have improved significantly […]
A decade on from the Brexit referendum, after years of recrimination and hard negotiation, the politics around the UK-EU relationship are shifting. The UK Labour government is increasingly framing closer cooperation with the EU as in the UK’s economic and strategic interest, softening some of the political red lines around reintegration - including the recent reported proposal for much deeper alignment on goods trade. The issue has also become more prominent […]
The “Made in Europe” framework being developed by the European Commission marks a shift in how industrial policy is applied in the EU. Rather than restricting market access directly, it seeks to condition access to public funding - including subsidies, procurement, and regulatory support - on where products, and their key inputs, are produced. The […]
On 1 January this year, Sweden assumed the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU for a period of six months. As expected, Sweden is staying true to its “honest broker” reputation, though this time it seems to be more out of necessity than choice. The Swedish Government faces a difficult economic and political […]
