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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von Der Leyen in Brussels, Belgium, Dec. 9, 2020 (AP photo by Aaron Chown).
NewsletterEurope
EU-U.K. Tensions Are Taking the Summer Off. Brexit’s Impact Isn’t

Editor’s Note: This is the web version of our subscriber-only weekly newsletter, Europe Decoder, which includes a look at the week’s top stories and best reads from and about Europe. Subscribe to receive it by email every Thursday. If you’re already a subscriber, adjust your newsletter settings to receive it directly to your email inbox. As is usual for August in Brussels, many issues are now parked for European Union officials to deal with upon la rentrée—or the return from vacation in early September. One of those thorny files is Brexit. In the seven months since the U.K.’s formal departure […]

European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager speaks at a news conference on the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Dec. 15, 2020 (AP Photo by Olivier Matthys).
ColumnEurope
The EU’s Push to Regulate ‘Big Tech’ Platforms Is Already Getting Messy

Regulating digital content and platforms was never going to be easy. As the European Union continues what is expected to be a multi-year process to turn its draft Digital Services Act into law, France appears to have jumped the gun and enacted its own version of the proposed regulations. In a 12-page rebuke couched as “observations,” the European Commission warned that France’s law “poses a risk to the single market in digital services and to Europe’s prosperity.” Just as it prepares to assume the EU’s rotating six-month presidency next January, France seems set on a collision course with the institutions charged with […]