WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE Eu - euobserver - The Friday Five - Who is Europe willing to stand up to? Russia tests Nato, Vučić tests the EU, Mondelez tests green rules and Trump tests its courage.

 

The Friday Five Editor-in-chief picks her favourite stories of the week. A Serbia that mourns Mladić and rallies behind Vučić cannot join the European Union Serbia’s outpouring of grief for the man behind the 1995 Srebrenica genocide exposed a grotesque, regressive nationalism lurking below the surface in politics and society. Chocolate giant Mondelez ramps up lobbying to delay EU deforestation law, after previously backing it It is a remarkable U-turn by Mondelez, whose brands include Toblerone, Milka and Cadbury, and was publicly supportive of the deforestation law during the early stages of its drafting and adoption by the EU institutions.   Why is the courage lacking to stand up to Trump? French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s wartime writings offer a clue As the French pilot and author of The Little Prince noted in his Wartime Writings, if men are unwilling to fight for the greater good, all they will ultimately be left with is a peace anchored in shame. Brussels’ drug war in Saint-Gilles: residents caught between bombs, shootings and an absent state Saint-Gilles is a vibrant neighbourhood in Brussels. But a spate of recent drug-gang related bombings and shootings has galvanised local community leaders, who feel largely abandoned by the  state and political infighting. Wave of Russian sabotage attacks exposes counter-intelligence gaps on Nato’s eastern flank As Russian hybrid operations ramp up across Europe, experts dive into the anatomy of sabotage, what can be done against it, and why it could be making the eastern flank of Nato stronger.   Copyright © 2026 EUobserver.com. All rights reserved.