António Costa
António Costa is a Portuguese politician and leader of the Socialist Party. He served as Prime Minister of Portugal from 2015 to 2024 and was elected President of the European Council in 2024.
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EU opens two more accession clusters with Ukraine after Kyiv passes minority-language education law
On 13 October, the EU officially opened negotiating clusters 2 (Internal Market) and 3 (Competitiveness and Inclusive Growth) in Ukraine's accession talks at the fourth Intergovernmental Conference in Luxembourg. The move followed the Verkhovna Rada's approval — by 266 of 450 MPs — and President Zelensky's same-day signing of a law guaranteeing national minorities and indigenous peoples whose languages are official EU languages the right to education in their native language alongside Ukrainian.
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Drones attack two merchant vessels off Bulgaria; one sinks, crew still missing
Overnight on 12–13 October, drones attacked two commercial vessels in the Black Sea off the Bulgarian coast. The Maltese-flagged, Ukrainian-owned CHELSEA 3 was hit by three drones about 18 nautical miles east of Byala; all 15 crew were evacuated to Varna, five with minor injuries. A second vessel sank about 17 nautical miles east of Krapets, with 11 crew missing and either one or five rescued according to different sources. Bulgarian PM Rumen Radev convened his Security Council, announced he would summon Russia's ambassador, and appealed to the EU and NATO for investigative help. Ukraine's President Zelensky and Foreign Minister Sybiha publicly blamed Russia; Bulgarian officials said there is no conclusive evidence attributing the attacks to any state.
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Baltic states push EU to ban transit of Russian grain through bloc territory
Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia are jointly urging the European Union to ban the transit of Russian grain through EU territory and to add Russian agricultural oligarchs to the sanctions list. Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius announced the initiative, and the three Baltic leaders addressed a joint letter to European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The push comes amid concerns that Russian exporters, including grain allegedly stolen from occupied Ukrainian territories, are using Baltic and other European infrastructure to reach world markets.
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Hungary says it will keep granting protection to Ukrainian military-age men, defying new EU rules
Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar announced that Hungary will continue to provide asylum or temporary protection to Ukrainian men of military age who flee to Hungary, primarily ethnic Hungarians from Transcarpathia (Zakarpattia), in defiance of new EU rules that restrict such protection for men with unresolved military-registration issues. Hungary had voted against the EU measure and, as of a 4 September European Commission briefing, had not formally notified Brussels in writing of its intent to deviate from the rules. The Commission said member states retain some discretion in applying the new framework, and is preparing operational guidelines for its practical implementation.