EDP MEPs set the course for the new season
There are worse places to plan a political season than a country estate surrounded by vineyards in the Belgian countryside. On 1 October 2026 the European Democratic Party held its traditional MEPs' retreat at the Domaine de Biamont in Incourt, just a short drive from Brussels. As every year, it came right after the summer break and just before Parliament's agenda fills up again.
Around the table were EDP Secretary General Sandro Gozi, European Parliament Vice-President Pina Picierno, the German MEPs Christine Singer and Lukas Sieper, our Basque MEP Oihane Agirregoitia and Belgian MEP Yvan Verougstraete. The other members of our delegation couldn't make it because of last-minute commitments.
After a quick lunch, the delegation got straight down to business with two back-to-back working sessions.
The battles that define us
The first session was about substance. MEPs went through the policy files and deadlines facing our parliamentary delegations in the coming sessions and agreed on shared objectives.
The list will be familiar to anyone who follows the EDP:
- defending the rule of law, which is never a box to tick once and forget;
- stronger European integration, and with it reforming the Treaties to abolish the national veto, so that one capital can no longer hold the other twenty-six hostage;
- artificial intelligence, with its challenges and concerns, including the open debate on whether revenues generated by AI could help finance the EU budget;
- attention to Europe's territories and peoples: its regions, its local communities and the rich diversity of cultures and languages that makes the Union what it is, because Europe is built from the ground up, not only in Brussels;
- the central place of agriculture in Europe's path to sovereignty: a farming sector that feeds the continent should be freed from too much red tape, not buried in it;
- being visible and active on the issues citizens care about most, rather than the ones that only excite the Brussels bubble.
Talking less like Brussels
The second session, which followed straight on, looked at communication. Participants reviewed recent results from the party's channels and from some of our MEPs: what worked, what didn't, and what nobody read past the first line.
The conclusion was unanimous, and for once, unanimity was welcome. Our communication needs to be simpler, faster and closer to citizens, and better at winning people over. In a time of slogans and polarisation, a centrist, pro-European message has to work twice as hard to be heard. That is no reason to shout. It is a reason to be clear.
Team building, the European way
Retreats are also about the people. Away from the rush of plenary weeks, the delegation had time to do what those weeks rarely allow: talk calmly, swap ideas across languages and national viewpoints, and remember why we're doing this together.
German, Belgian and Italian voices, one political family: a small-scale picture of the Europe we want to build. The delegation left Incourt with a shared agenda, a common communication approach and a bit more team spirit than when it arrived. Plenary season, here we come.
