Ursula von der Leyen will deliver this Wednesday, September 16, in Strasbourg, her sixth speech on the State of the Union to MEPs, an annual meeting where the President of the Commission takes stock of the past year and sets her priorities. The text, prepared for several months and rewritten until the last moment, remains one of the best kept secrets in Brussels.
Several files are expected. On the climate, marked by a summer of fires and droughts, von der Leyen should defend the transition from objectives to their concrete implementation, decarbonization being presented as inseparable from energy security. On digital, a proposal to ban social networks for minors at EU level is announced as a flagship and controversial measure, alongside an artificial intelligence component. On migration, after the crisis in Ceuta this summer, she should plead for a strengthening of Frontex. Reaffirmed support for Ukraine, with a possible new package of sanctions against Russia, as well as an update on enlargement and the 2028-2034 budget, are also expected.
Another highlight: the presence in Strasbourg of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, guest of honor, who will address MEPs the next day, in a context of EU-Canada rapprochement in the face of tensions with Washington.
2 – Trial of Rima Hassan for “provocation to commit a crime”
LFI MEP Rima Hassan appears this Wednesday, September 16 before the Paris criminal court for two separate cases, following summons issued after her free hearing on April 3 by the brigade for the repression of personal delinquency.
She is first prosecuted for public apology for a crime or misdemeanor, punishable by five years of imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros. He is accused of having published a commented story “One by one” on Instagram on October 20, 2025, accompanying an article from Mondoweiss on Hamas tracking collaborators of the Israeli army in Gaza, with a link to uncensored videos of executions of Gazan civilians and a photograph of armed Palestinian men.
She is also being prosecuted for public and direct provocation without effect to commit a crime or misdemeanor, for having republished on March 8, 2025 a carousel of photographs including a tag “Dissolve Nemesis with acid” taken during a demonstration in Paris. These prosecutions are in addition to those for advocating online terrorism (tweet referring to Kozo Okamoto, author of an attack in Israel in 1972), whose trial was postponed to October 19 and 20. Rima Hassan is thus the subject of three referrals to the criminal court.
3 – Extracurricular: Emmanuel Grégoire is interviewed at the Senate
The mayor of Paris Emmanuel Grégoire will be heard this Wednesday, September 16 at 9:30 a.m. by the senatorial commission of inquiry into sexual violence in extracurriculars, the day after the hearing of Anne Hidalgo and that of Patrick Bloche, her former first deputy in charge of school affairs.
Tuesday, the former mayor of Paris recognized “dysfunctions” and a “collective failure” institutions in the protection of children, while ruling out the idea of a systemic problem. She claimed to have requested the immediate suspension of any agent targeted by a report, a doctrine “not applied to the end”and regretted that half of the recommendations of a report by the City’s General Inspectorate commissioned in 2015 were not followed.
Emmanuel Grégoire is himself the target, like Anne Hidalgo, of criminal investigations after several complaints from families, in particular for failure to assist a person in danger. In 2015, at the time of the first reports raised before the senators, he was deputy mayor of Paris in charge of human resources, before becoming first deputy from 2020 to 2024, in particular in charge of town planning.
4 – Patrick Bruel fixed on the possible reduction of his judicial control
The Versailles Court of Appeal renders its decision this Wednesday, September 16, on the reduction of the judicial control of Patrick Bruel, indicted since June in four cases (rape in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 2008, attempted rape in Brussels in 2010, sexual assault and harassment in Perpignan in 2019, sexual harassment in Ajaccio in 2019) and placed under the status of assisted witness in four others. He disputes all the facts and claims not to have “never forced a woman”.
On July 21, an investigating judge granted a partial release from judicial control, authorizing the singer to leave French territory. The Nanterre public prosecutor’s office appealed this decision, which it considers “unjustified” And “excessive”the hearing having been held on August 14. Wednesday’s decision only concerns these restrictions on freedom, not the ban on performing in public.
Since his indictment, nine additional complaints have been filed or announced. Patrick Bruel canceled his tour on September 2 and filed a complaint for violation of the confidentiality of the investigation after the publication of extracts from his hearing.
5 – The good news of the day
Oasis will be at the Stade de France on July 23 and 24, 2027, a poster posted in the Paris metro having spilled the beans before the official announcement scheduled for 5 p.m. this Monday, September 14. A little over eighteen years after their last Parisian concert, at Bercy in March 2009, and eighteen years after their separation in the dressing rooms of Rock en Seine, where Noel Gallagher smashed a guitar before disbanding his brother Liam’s group.
This return is part of the Live’27 world tour, confirmed after the surprise success of their reformation in 2025. It will pass through the United Kingdom, Ireland, Europe and the United States, with 38 concerts scheduled between May 21 and September 19, 2027. Fans have until September 17, 5 p.m. to register, with tickets priced between 84 and 249 euros. Since the Manchester attacks in 2017, their title Don’t Look Back in Angerreleased in 1995, became an anthem of resilience, carrying the group’s growing cult following across generations of fans.
