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.

A day after European countries gathered for a meeting of the so-called coalition of the willing to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine, focus is turning to the next steps on imposing additional sanctions on Russia. European Council President Antonio Costa announced today that EU officials are heading to Washington for talks on sanction measures. 

The development comes after Donald Trump delivered a clear message when he phoned into Thursday’s meeting in Paris: Europe needs to stop buying Russian energy.

Europe has already been plowing ahead with plans to wean itself off Russian energy completely. But the intervention suggests the US president is losing patience with his ideological bedfellows, Hungary and Slovakia, who have been resisting EU efforts to punish Russia and are both importing Russian energy. 

Just this week, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico reiterated his country’s intention to keep buying Russian gas when he met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing, despite EU ambitions to phase out all Russian energy imports by the end of 2027 under its RePowerEU plan. The Slovak leader is currently meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Ukrainian town of Uzhhorod just over the border with Slovakia, with a press conference expected this afternoon.

The issue has been dominating talk at today’s informal meeting of EU energy ministers in Copenhagen. The bloc’s energy commissioner, Dan Jørgensen, reiterated the EU’s aim to eliminate Russian energy imports by the end of 2027, even in the event that a peace agreement emerges. “We will never again import as much as one molecule of Russian energy when this agreement is reached,” he said this morning.

Jørgensen at the European Council headquarters in Brussels.  Photographer: Valeria Mongelli/Bloomberg

But since yesterday’s Paris meeting, there are signs of renewed engagement between Brussels and Washington on sanctions. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke with US Vice President JD Vance late yesterday on “preserving a united front” on sanctions, according to a European Commission spokesperson. 

The EU has already been working on its 19th sanctions package against Russia, with an announcement expected this month, according to von der Leyen. Discussions between senior commission officials and ambassadors from member states will take place as early as this weekend. 

The Latest

• China wants — literally —to bring back the bacon after slapping fresh duties on EU pork imports. The European Commission said this afternoon that the probe was based on “questionable allegations and insufficient evidence.”
• France’s biggest farming groups have asked the government to block the new Mercosur free-trade agreement with South American countries, announced this week, warning it fails to protect agricultural producers from cheaper imports.
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz fears the EU lacks the clout to turn the screw on Putin and end the war in Ukraine.
• On the heels of Donald Trump’s criticism of the EU’s Big Tech rulebooks, Brussels is set to ditch a probe into Microsoft after the company made concessions that placated watchdogs.
• As the EU grapples with higher US tariffs, the bloc’s biggest economy, Germany, is seeing factory orders slump.
• Danish wind developer Orsted’s shareholders today backed a 60 billion-kroner ($9.4 billion) rights offering, following an earlier profit warning.  

Pigs on a farm in Ohrenbach, Germany.  Photographer: Alex Kraus/Bloomberg

Seen and Heard on Bloomberg

Weakened sales growth of blockbuster weight-loss drugs Wegovy and Ozempic could damage the Danish economy, Danish Central Bank Governor Christian Kettel Thomsen told Bloomberg TV in an interview.  He discussed not just the latest on Novo Nordisk, but also suggested the Nordic nation should consider joining the euro.

Chart of the Day

French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou’s likely successor will enter high office with an economic mess to clear up. A new report warns that borrowing is on the rise unless politicians break a deadlock over planned budget cuts. France is among advanced economies facing intense scrutiny from investors, with a political crisis looming since Bayrou called a Sept. 8 parliamentary vote.      

Coming up

• Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico holds a press conference with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy later today
• EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola addresses the G-7 Speakers Summit in Ottawa this afternoon 
• EU Council President Antonio Costa holds a press conference with Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala tonight
• EU Commissioners Henna Virkkunen, Valdis Dombrovskis and Andrius Kubilius attend the Cernobbio Forum in Italy this weekend

Final Thought

Homeless people taking shelter where they can in central Dublin. Photographer: Paulo Nunes dos Santos/Paulo Nunes dos Santos

Americans are jumping at the chance to study in Ireland. But those who cross the Atlantic are being confronted with an increasingly burdensome dilemma: how to find housing in one of the world’s toughest markets. 

New from Bloomberg: Get the Nordic Edition newsletter for sharp analysis and new perspectives on the forces shaping business and finance in the Nordic region.

Don’t keep it to yourself. Colleagues and friends can sign up here.

How are we doing? We want to hear what you think about this newsletter. Let our Brussels bureau chief know.