European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen used her State of the Union address in Strasbourg to propose an emergency security protocol that any member state could trigger to convene all 27 governments in response to hybrid incidents such as sabotage, arson or drone incursions that fall short of armed attack. She called it Europe's own Article 4, after NATO's consultation clause, and separately backed a new European Security Council bringing in, among others, Britain, Norway, Ukraine and Canada. The proposals target threats that the EU's existing mutual-defense clause, Article 42(7), does not cover.
The European Commission unveiled the outline of its Kids Act on 16 September, with the full legislative text due the following day: under-13s would be barred from social media entirely, 13 to 15-year-olds would be limited to parent-supervised 'mini accounts' capped at one hour a day, and platforms would face safety-by-design rules for 15 to 18-year-olds. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the burden of proof would now fall on platforms to show they are safe, rather than on regulators to show they are not. The proposal still needs approval from EU member states and could take years to become law.