September's calendar in Brussels: State of the Union on the 16th, College on the 9th
This is not a development of the sanctions story reported this morning, but a different one: the Commission has set the dates for its political September, while in Paris two government measures of different character come into effect.
The European Commission has released the dates around which its return from the summer break will revolve. Ursula von der Leyen’s annual State of the Union address is set for 16 September 2026 before the European Parliament convened in Strasbourg; seven days earlier, on 9 September, the College of Commissioners meets (European Commission). This is the usual sequence: the College meeting precedes the address in the chamber, which traditionally anticipates the legislative priorities for the following months.
The official calendar of Council of the European Union meetings places two informal appointments in the same window: the General Affairs Council on 3 and 4 September and the meeting of Agriculture ministers from 6 to 8 September (Council of the European Union). Informal meetings do not adopt acts or hold votes: they serve to gauge positions before texts reach the formal tables. The fact that the General Affairs Council — the configuration that prepares summits of heads of state and government — meets in this format just days before the address indicates that coordination on the autumn agenda takes place ahead of the public speech.
In the same period the Commission published, on 2 September, a note on a joint European Union-NATO response to an attempted sabotage in Leipzig. The document is an institutional communication on coordination between the two organizations; on any investigative aspect this newspaper does not comment, given the suspension of judicial reporting provided for by our charter.
On the national level, France enters September with two government decisions already in effect or announced. From the start of the 2026 school year, the mobile phone ban, in force since 2018 in primary schools and lower secondary schools, is being extended to lycées. President Emmanuel Macron presented the measure during a visit to the Lycée Chaptal in Mende. In parallel, the government has extended fuel aid for September and October aimed at various production sectors; road haulage is initially excluded, and trade associations are negotiating with the executive. Also in France, a survey by the Fondation pour le Logement found that in Paris 46 percent of the listings examined exceeded the rent caps set by regulations.
On this batch of French news it should be noted that: the report currently stems from a single source (Nachrichten.fr); no independent confirmation is available. The data on rents is attributed to the foundation that conducted the survey rather than to a public body, and we do not know the size of the sample of listings examined.
The next verifiable deadlines are therefore three: the Agriculture ministers’ meeting through 8 September, the College meeting on the 9th, and the Strasbourg address on the 16th.
Sources: European Commission (official website); Council of the European Union (official meeting calendar); Nachrichten.fr.
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