Paul Ivan

After seven great years with the European Policy Centre @epc_eu, I'm happy to have joined today the foreign affairs team of @RenewEurope @Europarl_EN

Moldova rises to 31st (+4) in @RSF_en’s 2026 Press Freedom Index — the highest score among EU candidate countries and the only country in Eastern Europe with a ‘satisfactory’ status. More work ahead, but we are on the right path.

I resigned as U.S. Ambassador Ukraine when Trump kept siding with Putin over our democratic partner. Now, my successor is doing the same. I knew I had to speak out and run for office because siding with dictators is just not who we are.

Viktor Orbán heads to the US in June, where family members already live, while loyalists seek MAGA think-tank jobs and visas after the election defeat. Meanwhile, oligarchs & cronies are shifting wealth abroad, largely to the Middle East. @floragaramvolgy theguardian.com/world/2026/apr…

To the point: The Europeans lack a theory of victory for Ukraine, said @ClaudMajor, a defense expert with the German Marshall Fund. The idea was to put enough pressure on Russia to change its calculus, but we never gave the Ukrainians enough to do that. nytimes.com/2026/04/25/wor…

Contrary to a widespread but mistaken idea, Spain has enormously increased its defence spending. Over the past year, it was the NATO country with the second-largest increase in total value, behind only Germany, and it now ranks 15th in the world (source @SIPRIorg). Moreover...

While Germany spends billions to make gasoline and diesel cheaper, France invests billions to make the country less dependent on fossil fuels.

Vance says that stopping funding for Ukraine is one of his proudest achievements in this administration. ​I’m watching this stunningly cruel speech from Ukraine, as Russia continues to kills us every day. Just today, they killed 8-year-old boy in Cherkasy and five people in Dnipro. Dozens more were injured. ​The military assistance you are so proud of stopping was used to save lives in a war Russia started and continues every day by choice, in a war that only became possible after USA pressured Ukraine into disarming... ​I do not know if Vance can fully comprehend the scale of the tragedy unfolding here: a brutal, illegal war of extermination by Russia, and the slow abandonment by our allies. There is nothing to be proud of. Absolutely nothing.

La jeunesse hongroise célèbre la défaite de Viktor Orban en rappelant le cri de 1956 : « Les Russes, dehors. »

🇭🇺🇷🇴 Congratulations @magyarpeterMP and Tisza Party on your landmark victory! The Hungarian people have spoken with a clear and powerful voice. Romania and Hungary are neighbours, partners and fellow EU and NATO members. I look forward to building a new chapter in Romanian-Hungarian relations, based on mutual respect, open dialogue and our shared commitment to European and Euro-Atlantic values. There are great opportunities to work together on regional security, economic cooperation and the welfare of our peoples. Felicitări! Gratulálok! 🇪🇺

I welcome the positive progress in the Verkhovna Rada, with Ukraine’s parliament passing important laws connected to EU and IMF reforms. Thank you Speaker @r_stefanchuk and Prime Minister @Svyrydenko_Y for your leadership. This will help unlock more than €2 billion in key funding to help stabilize Ukraine’s liquidity needs until summer. It also shows the Rada’s continued commitment to Ukraine’s EU path.

New: We have more calls between Sergei Lavrov and Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó. These include discussion of Hungary’s role in blocking financial aid to Ukraine and impeding its accession negotiations with the EU. “Sometimes good-willed direct blackmailing is the best option,” Lavrov told Szijjártó. vsquare.org/kremlin-hotlin…

The US president is a supporter of the worst communists, dictators and criminals. He even calls the dictator and criminal Lukashenko a highly respected person. That's how low the office of the US president @realDonaldTrump has sunk.

Dans un geste pseudo patriotique, les nouveaux maires RN retirent les drapeaux européen et ukrainien des frontons de leur mairie. Ils s’opposent à l’Union européenne et veulent mettre fin à la contribution française. Un véritable Frexit qui ne dit pas son nom. Mais cela veut-il dire qu’ils vont rendre les millions d'euros de fonds européens accordés pour le développement de leurs territoires, l'aménagement des infrastructures comme l'aéroport de l'Aude, les aides de la PAC ou celles sociales ? Quant à leur argument du solde négatif de notre contribution, il est malhonnête et incomplet : chaque année, via le marché unique et ses différents programmes, l’Union européenne rapporte 124 milliards d’euros à la France.

Au moment où on apprend que le gouvernement d’Orban transmet des informations confidentielles au Kremlin, Marine Le Pen se rend à Budapest pour soutenir Viktor Orban. On ne saurait être plus clair.

If it is confirmed, as it currently appears, that the EPP is not only voting with the far right but has also been working on legislative texts together with parties such as the AfD and PfE, this would constitute a serious political mistake. You do not build majorities in the democratic centre of the European Parliament with forces that seek to undermine Europe from within. Manfred Weber has in the past explicitly denied any structural cooperation with the far right. If there have now been chat groups, negotiation meetings, and the adoption of proposals from this camp, then this contradiction is unmistakable. Anyone who publicly invokes democratic cooperation while quietly signalling to the far right behind the scenes is causing serious damage to trust. For some time now, we have seen the EPP putting pressure on the democratic “platform” (working coalition) of EPP, S&D and Renew in Parliament, following the logic: either you follow our line, or we will seek a majority with the far right. Those who act in this way are, in effect, abandoning reliable cooperation among pro-European forces and putting the democratic functioning of this House at risk.

Senior state department official Sarah Rogers travelled to European cities in December and has spoken to key figures in Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK party about deploying grants to spread ‘American values’. ft.trib.al/O4ss54T

Poland used to be the most viscerally pro-American country in Europe, perhaps only second to Kosovo. But it’s nobody’s colony, and this kind of language will not be forgotten. The “outrageous” insult of Poland’s parliament speaker Czarzasty was refusing to co-sponsor the nomination of Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize — and saying that Trump didn’t deserve it.

“Let’s tell Brussels: we won’t pay.” Latest ad from Viktor Orbán’s government: taxpayer-funded propaganda stoking anti-EU, anti-Ukrainian and anti-German sentiment. Real aim: harvesting signatures to refresh the ruling party’s voter database for election-day mobilization.

The @WashPost has now laid off its Asia editor, its New Delhi bureau chief, its Sydney bureau chief, its Cairo bureau chief, the entire Middle East reporting team, China correspondents, Iran correspondents, Turkey correspondents, and many more. The world is becoming less America-centric by the minute while the United States is becoming more America-centric than ever. It is just a depressing yet somehow perfect summation of our current moment that one of the most important newspapers in the history of the country - one that has actually shaped the history of the United States - doesn't think reporting on the world is of any use anymore. What an utterly perfect encapsulation of where we have arrived.