July has been an incredibly eventful month in the EU; the Euro 2020 delivered a stunning victory to Italy and devastating floods ripped through multiple EU countries. While the EU moved forward with many keystone initiatives and progress was made on significant geo-political topics, it did not feel like there was a cohesive EU presence in July; this may be a challenge for Slovenia to address through the next five months of its presidency.

The Democracy and Governance section covers the Rule of Law report and the particularly concerning situations in Hungary and Poland.

Scepticism of the name ‘Fit for 55’ aside, the Environment section looks at the raft of measures introduced in the EU’s reform package to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

In the Foreign Affairs and Security section, the ground-breaking US-German Nord Stream II agreement and its implications are discussed.

The Finance, Trade & (Digital) Internal Market section covers a wide array of initiatives from the European Commission’s adoption of the European Green Bonds Standard to the Netherlands fining TikTok for not explaining its privacy implications well enough to young Dutch people