Welcome to the Brussels Edition. I’m Suzanne Lynch, Bloomberg’s Brussels bureau chief, bringing you the latest from the EU each weekday. Make sure you’re signed up.

The EU is once again coming face to face with its own geopolitical limitations. Having felt that they made progress getting Trump on the same page on Ukraine policy over the summer — thanks in part to a last-minute dash to the White House by Europe’s most powerful politicians in August — the US president flipped the script again, suggesting last night that Ukraine should surrender territory to Russia.

As foreign ministers meet today in Luxembourg, Europe is left picking up the pieces, scrambling to come up with some deliverables for Ukraine after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy left Washington on Friday empty-handed with Trump declining to deliver weapons like Tomahawk cruise missiles.

Donald Trump Photographer: Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg

The setback comes at the start of a key week for EU policy makers, with a summit scheduled for Thursday in Brussels.

As Europe strives to maintain its support for Ukraine, it’s considering financial measures including the 19th sanctions package against Russia. EU envoys will discuss the moves today, but EU High Representative Kaja Kallas said she is not expecting  an agreement. 

There was progress after Austria said it was on board despite previous concerns over assets linked to oligarch Oleg Deripaska. But Hungary and Slovakia are continuing to block additional sanctions. The issue will now likely be pushed to the leaders’ level later this week.

Other proposed measures to help Ukraine are also facing headwinds. Europe’s plan to use immobilized Russian assets still hasn’t been approved by Belgium, which is the host country for Euroclear, the main repository for the holdings.

Trump’s announcement of a planned summit in Hungary with Vladimir Putin has  particularly unnerved European capitals, with the bloc balking at the idea of the Russian leader getting red-carpet treatment on its terrain.

Zelenskiy slammed the decision, noting Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s track record of blocking measures to help Ukraine, but said he would attend if invited. The Ukrainian president also revealed that he told Trump that Budapest was also problematic because that’s where the country agreed in 1994 to give up its Soviet nuclear weapons in return for assurances from Russia, the US and the UK to safeguard its territorial integrity.

Viktor Orban Photographer: Ludovic Marin/Getty Images

There was a flurry of reaction to the news at today’s foreign affairs meeting in Luxembourg. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said “the presence of Vladimir Putin on EU soil only makes sense if it allows for an immediate ceasefire without conditions.”

But comments by Denmark’s Lars Lokke Rasmussen were closest to reality. There’s “nothing I can do about it,” he said, apart from underlining Europe’s continuing support for Ukraine.

In another twist, Orban will skip Thursday’s summit due to a national holiday and will be represented by his ally, Slovakia’s Robert Fico, instead.

The signal is that the European Council’s most recalcitrant member has bigger fish to fry as his country prepares for one of the most important summits since the start of the Ukraine war — and the rest of Europe is forced to watch from the sidelines.

The Latest

• EU energy ministers meeting in Luxembourg today agreed on plans to ban all gas supplies from Russia by the end of 2027.
• Amazon Web Services, the world’s largest cloud computing provider, said its service had recovered after a widespread disruption today degraded services for a range of customers. The European Commission said its communications were disrupted.
• The EU is fighting to salvage industries under threat from American and Chinese competitors but it hasn’t yet grasped the problem’s full scale, a senior EU official told Bloomberg’s Jorge Valero and Alberto Nardelli.
• The EU will propose stronger measures to curb emissions costs in a new and controversial carbon market to help address concerns that consumers will struggle to afford to heat homes and fuel cars, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. 
• ECB President Christine Lagarde signaled openness to using frozen Russian assets to secure funding for Ukraine as long as countries around the world move in unison.
• Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche Holding’s experimental drug giredestrant reduced the risk of breast cancer worsening by almost two thirds in some patients with an advanced form of the disease.

Seen and Heard on Bloomberg

Alex Ferrara, partner at Bessemer Ventures Partners, told Bloomberg TV in an interview that while the reduction in US support for European defense has been ‘’a wake-up call,’’ people he’s spoken to in European governments take an optimistic view that it will help spur innovation. 

Chart of the Day

Italy received its highest score from any major credit assessor since 2018 after an upgrade by Morningstar DBRS that commended the government’s push to tame the budget deficit. In a victory for Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the country is now at A (low) with a stable outlook, four steps above junk, and ends a one-year wait with the rating skewed toward improvement.

Coming Up

• European Parliament Plenary Session begins in Strasbourg
• EU-Uzbekistan Cooperation Council takes place in Luxembourg tomorrow
• EU environment ministers meet in Luxembourg tomorrow

Final Thought

An emerald necklace belonging to Marie-Louise.

The world-renowned Louvre museum in Paris remains closed today after several pieces of invalueable jewelry were stolen in a brazen daytime robbery. A power tool was used to cut windows and robbers were suspected of using a furniture elevator to enter the museum. Eight objects were stolen including an emerald necklace and a pair of emerald earrings belonging to Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon’s second wife.

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