Robinhood is doubling down on crypto offerings. The trading app will launch staking for Ethereum and Solana in New York starting on Tuesday, according to the company, allowing customers to earn yield on cryptocurrency.
The company will let customers stake in New York and plans to expand across the country. “We’re proud of the momentum we’ve seen with staking and especially excited that staking is now available to customers in New York, which has one of the most rigorous regulatory frameworks in the country,” wrote Johann Kerbrat, senior vice president and general manager of Robinhood Crypto, in a note to Fortune.
Staking has been part of the crypto universe for nearly a decade, rewarding users who lock up a stash of tokens in order to help operate a blockchain network. But uncertainty over its legal status has meant it has been mostly experienced crypto users who have engaged in it using their own wallets.
In 2023, the exchange Kraken agreed to pay $30 million to settle allegations that it broke the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rules by offering staking. Robinhood’s launching of crypto stakes reflects a looser regulatory environment under President Donald Trump’s administration.
“These crypto enhancements are strategic chess moves positioning Robinhood for the anticipated transformation of financial infrastructure through blockchain technology and tokenization—particularly with the regulatory clarity we expect under the current administration,” said Caydee Blankenship, senior equity research analyst at CFRA Research.
Robinhood also announced a push into global crypto markets. In Europe, it will add perpetual futures contracts on several coins, and it will also enter the Indonesian market, as it agreed to buy a brokerage and crypto platform in the country.
Robinhood is not new to crypto, as users on the platform have been able to trade Bitcoin and Ethereum since 2018. However, the company has beefed up its crypto arm this year. In June, Robinhood completed a $200 million acquisition of Bitstamp, the world’s longest-running crypto exchange. Crypto transactions accounted for more than 21% of the company’s revenue, as of last month’s earnings report.
Robinhood’s expansion of their digital assets could help them challenge other crypto exchanges, according to Romeo Alvarez, research analyst at William O’Neil. “Robinhood is stepping up its efforts to compete on a global basis with larger trading platforms like Coinbase, Binance, OKX, and Kraken,” he said.
The last few days have seen other big banks vie for staking. On Friday, BlackRock filed for a stake Ethereum ETF, the iShares Ethereum Staking Trust (ETHB). The Wall Street giant already has an Ethereum ETF (ETHA), but that one does not have staking components.
The Palestinian Civil Defence exhumed the bodies of more than 150 people who were quickly buried in the courtyards of al-Shifa Hospital during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. Some of the victims remain unidentified. Civil defense teams are moving them to cemeteries to give them a proper final resting place.
Looking back on the biggest music deals of 2025, one type of deal is conspicuous by its absence: Blockbuster acquisitions of superstar artists’ catalogs.
None of the artist catalog deals this year – at least those that were reported – exceeded the sums reported on last year’s list, which included Sony Music’s acquisitions of all or parts of the catalogs of Queen, Pink Floyd, and Michael Jackson.
The biggest individual artist-related deal on this year’s list is for the masters of Taylor Swift‘s first six albums, acquired by… Taylor Swift from Shamrock Capital.
So what’s taking the place of these deals? Debt issuances, and lots of them. Asset-backed securitization (ABS) of music catalogs has truly taken off. The other: joint ventures and fundraising rounds to build war chests for future acquisitions.
And in another sign of the times, one of this year’s largest deals didn’t involve the usual players in New York, Los Angeles, or London – it came from China, where music streaming giant Tencent Music Entertainment acquired podcast company Ximalaya for the equivalent of $2.4 billion.
Below, you’ll find the 23 biggest music business deals of 2025.
(Before that, though, a brief couple of notes: (a) This list includes only deals whose value is known, either through official announcements or solid-gold sources. (b) We also haven’t included re-financing of traditional/convertible debt offerings by the music industry’s largest companies including Universal, Sony, Warner, and Live Nation.)
In a clear sign of the growing importance of developing markets to the music industry, this year’s biggest deal took place in China, where Tencent Music Entertainment, the country’s largest operator of music streaming services, acquired podcast company Ximalaya.
Like its global rival Spotify, Tencent is busy expanding its offering from music to other forms of audio, and – in Tencent’s case – even into live events.
According to news reports, the deal for Ximalaya involved a combination of cash and stock, with TME shelling out $1.26 billion in cash and up to 5.2% of its total outstanding Class A ordinary stock.
As of 2023, Ximalya had 303 million monthly active users (MAUs). By way of comparison, TME itself counted551 million MAUs as of the third quarter of this year, of which 125.7 million were paying music subscribers.
2) $2 billion (and possibly much more): Chord Music Partners raises billions for music rights investments
Music rights as an investible asset class are going from strength to strength, and one clear sign of this is Chord Music Partners‘ raise earlier this year, which as of August – per an exclusive report at MBW – had reached $2 billion. But that figure was expected to grow to as much as $3 billion or even $4 billion by the time funding round closed in October.
The round was dominated by equity investments from pension funds in the US and Europe as well as several family offices, and also included a debt component. One confirmed investor was Searchlight Capital Partners.
Dundee Partners is the controlling shareholder in Chord Music Partners, with Universal Music Group holding a 26% stake.
3) $1.76 billion: Concord closes largest-ever securitization of music rights
Concord’s fourth foray into the ABS (asset-backed securities) market was its largest and, apparently, the largest and longest-tenured securitization of music rights by anyone to date, with senior notes of up to 10 years.
The $1.76 billion raise was backed by Concord’s catalog of more than 1.3 million music copyrights, including works by such artists as The Beatles, Beyonce, Ed Sheeran, Michael Jackson, Taylor Swift, and The Rolling Stones. The catalog was valued at $5.1 billion ahead of the ABS transaction.
Concord’s latest ABS transaction followed an $850-million issuance in October 2024 (five-year notes maturing in October 2029), part of which was used to acquire a $217 million catalog from Latin music superstar Daddy Yankee.
4) $1.4 billion: Pershing Square sells 2.7% stake in UMG
Bill Ackman‘s Pershing Square has made out very nicely on its ongoing investment in Universal Music Group, and in March of this year, it sold a 2.7% stake for EUR €1.3 billion (about USD $1.4 billion at the time).
Ackman noted at the time of the sale that UMG “substantially outperformed the rest of our portfolio” year-to-date. The sale reduced UMG’s share of Pershing’s holdings from around 27% of its capital to around 17%.
Nevertheless, Pershing Square remains a major UMG shareholder following the sale, holding about 7.6% of the world’s largest music company.
5) $1.3 billion: Pophouse raises ‘one of the largest first-time PE funds’ in Europe in the last decade
The debut fund from Pophouse Entertainment, the Sweden-based music investment firm co-founded by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus, was a whopper: €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion at the time) raised in what the company called “one of the largest first-time private equity funds to be raised in Europe in the last decade.”
That’s not including another €200 million ($216 million) raised through dedicated co-investment vehicles, which gave investors “the opportunity to invest alongside the Fund and participate in select transactions.”
Pophouse said the capital would go towards acquiring music catalogs and other IP, and 30% of it had already been deployed through partnerships with artists such as KISS, Cyndi Lauper, Avicii and Swedish House Mafia.
6) Up to $1.2 billion: Warner Music Group launches investment fund with Bain Capital
This year saw Warner Music Group team up with investment giant Bain Capital to launch a fund aimed at acquiring “legendary” catalogs in both recorded music and publishing.
The 50-50 joint venture involves WMG and Bain each contributing $250 million in equity capital, plus around $500 million in initial debt secured by the JV’s music assets, with the option of increasing the debt facility to $700 million, for a total war chest of up to $1.2 billion.
According to news reports, one of the JV’s first acquisition targets is the recording catalog of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Unconfirmed news reports in late November indicated that Warner is close to striking a deal for RHCP’s recordings, at a price point above $300 million.
7) $1.16 billion: HongShan Capital takes majority stake in guitar amp maker Marshall
Marshall, the UK-born music equipment known for its rock amplifiers, found a new majority owner this year in the form of Beijing-based HongShan Capital Group, a venture capital and private equity firm that has invested in some 1,500 businesses.
The deal worth €1.1 billion ($1.16 billion at the time of the deal) saw the Marshall family retain a 20% stake in the 63-year-old company founded in West London by Jim ‘The Father of Loud’ Marshall and son Terry.
As of 2023, the company had been majority-owned by Swedish tech company Zound Industries. Marshall continues to manufacture amps at its facility in Milton Keynes, UK.
8) $1 billion+: Warner Bros. Discovery teams up with Cutting Edge on music rights portfolio
Entertainment giant Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) formed a joint venture early this year with media music rights company Cutting Edge Group to manage WBD’s catalog of film and TV music.
Under a deal reported by the Financial Times to be worth more than $1 billion, WBD’s music rights would be sold into the JV, with Cutting Edge acquiring part of the portfolio and taking over management of the assets, which include music from the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings franchises, as well as movies like Rebel Without a Cause, Blade Runner and Shawshank Redemption, and TV shows like Friends, Game of Thrones, The West Wing and Sex and the City.
Co-investing in the transaction was DWS Group, the asset management arm of Deutsche Bank.
9) $889 million: SESAC Music Group raises capital via whole business securitization
SESAC Music Group, which owns performing rights org SESAC as well as Harry Fox Agency (HFA) and AudioSalad, turned to the bond markets this year to raise $889 million.
The whole business securitization (WBS) saw SESAC issue five-year senior notes backed by “substantially all SESAC Music Group’s assets and revenues,” including subsidiaries in its performing rights and music services divisions.
This was the fourth time that SESAC went into the asset-backed securitization market for capital, and CEO John Josephson said WBS transactions “will remain a vital part” of the company’s growth strategy.
10) $646 million: Live Nation strikes deal to increase stake in Mexico’s OCESA
Concert and events giant Live Nation upped its stake in Mexican concert promoter OCESA this year, shelling out $646 million for a 24% stake in the company.
That brings Live Nation’s total share of OCESA to 75% from 51% earlier. In a sign of just how much Mexico’s live music business has grown in recent years, LN’s new 24% stake was valued at some 50% more than the original majority stake, which LN bought for $416 million back in 2021.
Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino noted that OCESA and LN have tripled the number of fans attending their shows since 2019.
11) $500 million: HarbourView secures additional debt financing from KKR via ABS transaction
HarbourView Equity Partners, which owns rights in music from artists such as T-Pain, George Benson, Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie, Pat Benatar, Nelly, Wiz Khalifa and others, secured $500 million this year from investment giant KKR, backed by HarbourView’s catalog of music royalties.
Founder and CEO Sherrese Clarke said the company plans to use the new financing “to scale up, to add to its portfolio of music content and to push deeper into film and TV-rights management.”
Since its founding in 2021, HarbourView has amassed some $2.67 billion in regulatory assets under management.
12) $500 million: Goldstate raises capital to acquire music rights
Charles Goldstuck‘s GoldState Music raised $500 million this past spring with which to acquire further music rights.
The raise included a “structured capital facility” co-led by Northleaf Capital Partners and Ares Management funds, as well as “separately raised leverage.”
Goldstuck said the capital will enable the company “to further accelerate our ability to capitalize on increasing demand for music and build a diversified portfolio of music assets across artists and genres.”
Ticketing platform Eventbrite announced in December that it’s being acquired by Bending Spoons, an Italy-headquartered private equity firm that specializes in buying and turning around tech brands that have lost their luster.
The $500-million all-cash deal will see Eventbrite delisted from the New York Stock Exchange after the deal is completed in the first half of 2026, pending regulatory and shareholder approval.
Bending Spoons CEO Luca Ferrari said the company is eyeing a number of new features for Eventbrite, including a messaging function and a move into the secondary ticketing market.
14) $464 million: Carlyle Group’s first music-backed bond issuance
Carlyle Group reportedly closed a $464 million debt issuance earlier this year, backed by music rights held by Litmus Music.
Litmus was launched in 2022 by industry veterans Hank Forsyth and Dan McCarroll, backed by $500 million from Carlyle Global Credit, split between equity and debt.
The bond sale was backed by a $750 million portfolio of music assets, including works by Katy Perry, Benny Blanco and Keith Urban.
15) $450 million+: Warner Music Group takes controlling stake in Tempo Music
Warner Music Group in February announced its acquisition of a majority stake in Tempo Music, the music rights fund started by Providence Equity Partners.
Providence retains a minority stake in Tempo, whose catalog of rights and income streams includes works by the likes of Twenty One Pilots’ Tyler Joseph, Wiz Khalifa, Florida Georgia Line, The Jonas Brothers, Korn, and Grammy-winning songwriters Brett James and Shane McAnally.
Notably, this was Warner’s largest acquisition since Robert Kyncl took the helm as CEO at the beginning of 2023.
16) $372 million: Recognition Music Group closes ABS transaction backed by Justin Bieber, Shakira catalogs
Blackstone-owned Recognition Music Group issued $372 million in bonds this past summer, backed by 144 music catalogs containing over 47,000 compositions and recordings, among them works by Justin Bieber, Shakira and Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Recognition’s catalog includes what used to be known as Hipgnosis Songs Fund, until Blackstone acquired it last summer.
Less than a year earlier, Higpnosis Songs Fund closed a $1.47 billion ABS transaction, with the capital going towards repaying debt and financing new transactions.
17) $360 MILLION: TAYLOR SWIFT BUYS BACK HER MASTER RECORDINGS
Taylor Swift bought back the master recording rights to her first six albums from Shamrock Capital this year, ending a years-long drama that began when Scooter Braun‘s Ithaca Holdings acquired Big Machine Label Group in 2019, including the Taylor Swift masters.
Taylor was famously unhappy about that deal, and ended up re-recording those albums as “Taylor’s Versions.”
Various estimates for Taylor’s acquisition were reported. According to unnamed sources cited byBillboard, the masters came with a $360 million price tag.
18) $360 million: Influence Media Partners secures debt financing led by Goldman Sachs
Music rights company Influence Media Partners raised $360 million this year through its first private financing, collateralized by royalties from its music rights portfolio.
The transaction was led by Goldman Sachs and Truist Securities, acting as co-structuring and joint placement agents, with BlackRock as a joint placement agent.
Founded in 2019 with a $750 million fund backed by BlackRock Alternative Investors and Warner Music Group, Influence has invested in music from artists such as Enrique Iglesias, Blake Shelton, Tyler Johnson and Logic, among others.
Suno, one of the generative AI music platforms currently busy settling copyright lawsuits brought against it by the music majors, closed a $250 million Series C funding round in November, which valued the startup at $2.45 billion.
The round was led by Menlo Ventures with participation from NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture capital arm), Hallwood Media, Lightspeed and Matrix.
Suno’s recent settlement with Warner Music Group, which comes not long after rival Udio settled its own lawsuits with Universal Music Group and WMG, could see the platform change dramatically as it partners with WMG artists. Beyond creating AI music, Suno users could soon be interacting with WMG artists “in new ways.”
20) $230 million: Cinq Music parent closes funding round led by Bank of America
GoDigital, the parent company of record label, distributor and rights management company Cinq Music, raised $230 million in capital this year, led by Bank of America, with participation from Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, East West Bank, First Horizon, Fifth Third, and Flag Star.
GoDigital also rebranded, dropping the GoDigital Media Group moniker and creating three new business units: GoDigital Music, Networks, and Brands.
The company also announced that Cinq Music itself will undergo a rebrand that will include a new name.
21) $200 million: Duetti secures debt financing as it expands into publishing, royalty streams
Duetti, the company on a mission to “democratize” music rights acquisitions by making them available to indie artists, raised $200 million in debt financing, with $150 million coming from a bank facility and $50 million from a side facility from Viola Credit.
The capital is going towards Duetti’s plan to expand from acquiring recorded music rights to acquiring publishing rights and royalty streams.
“We believe we are leading the way in educating the capital markets on the significant long-term value of the independent music sector,” Co-Founder and CEO Lior Tibon said.
Music financing platform beatBread, which offers algorithm-powered advances to indie artists, raised $124 million to expand its sales, marketing and product operations, in addition to providing more flexible funding to artists, writers, and label clients.
beatBread received equity investment from Citi, Deciens Capital, Mucker Capital, and Advantage Capital in the round. Additional credit was provided by GMO and other lenders, the company said.
As of February of this year, beatBread had paid advances to over 1,300 clients across six continents, with amounts ranging from $1,000 to over $10 million. These advances cover both existing music catalogs and new, unreleased material.
After raising $500 million in new debt financing (see above), HarbourView Equity Partners acquired a majority stake in the catalog of metal band Slipknot.
The company didn’t disclose the deal’s value, but sources cited byBillboard placed it at $120 million. The deal reportedly included publishing and recorded masters rights.
HarbourView Founder and CEO Sherrese Clarke called the band a “global cultural phenomenon” and said the music rights investment company plans to “preserve and amplify the group’s work for decades and generations to come.”
A major earthquake of magnitude 7.6 has hit Japan’s north-eastern region.
The quake occurred at 23:15 (14:15 GMT) at a depth of 50km (31 miles), about 80km off the coast of the Aomori region, the Japan Meteorological Agency said,
It prompted tsunami warnings which have now been downgraded to advisories, while waves of 40cm (16in) were seen in some places.
Local media reports that some people in the region have been injured, while trains have been suspended as a precaution.
Japan is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries, with a tremor occurring at least every five minutes.
Orders were issued for about 90,000 residents to evacuate, according to Reuters news agency.
Japanese public broadcaster NHK quoted a hotel employee in Hachinohe as saying a number of people had been injured.
The government has set up a response office within the prime minister’s crisis management centre and convened an emergency team, chief cabinet secretary Minoru Kihara has said.
“We are making every effort to assess the damage and implement emergency disaster response measures, including rescue and relief operations,” he added.
AFP via Getty Images
Japanese TV broadcast mesages which said “Tsunami! Run!” and “Tsunami warning issued for central Hokkaido’s Pacific Coast”
No irregularities were reported at the Higashidori and Onagawa nuclear power plants as a result of the quake, Tohoku Electric Power said.
None were detected either at the disabled Fukushima nuclear power station site, the Japanese authorities told the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Fukushima was damaged when a magnitude 9.0 quake struck off the country’s eastern coast on 11 March 2011.
That quake, the most powerful ever recorded in Japan, triggered a tsunami which swept over the main island of Honshu, killing more than 18,000 people and wiping entire towns off the map.
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It is almost the end of the fall semester for most programs, meaning finals season is upon them. It is a light week of competition before the holiday season approaches.
Highlighting the list of meets is the SEC showdown between Tennessee and Kentucky. The Tennessee women are currently ranked #6, but the men’s side will be a top 25 showdown between #10 Tennessee and #22 Kentucky. Both men’s programs are strong at freestyle, with Tennessee’s strength coming in the sprint events and Kentucky’s coming in the distance events.
The CSCAA Open Water Championships will take place in Sarasota on Saturday. The men’s race kicks off at 8:30 am EST with the women’s race starting at 10:30 am EST. Both the men and women will race in a 5k. The top five finishers for each race earn invites to the USA Swimming 5k Open Water Championships.
Note: Many members of the SwimSwam staff have searched websites to compile this list. Meets are occasionally added/removed after this list is compiled. Some schools also have conflicting data ie, one school posts the meet being X date while the other posts Y date.
I’ve spent my entire life living on one coastline or another, and while it’s made for many wonderful beach days, the salt air hasn’t always been kind to my aging cars. It’s with this in mind that Tru Form Tiny has designed its new custom Urban Park Max 37 to stand up to the elements, while offering a spacious and light-filled apartment-like layout.
The Urban Park Max 37 is based on a quad-axle trailer and, as its name suggests, has a length of 37 ft (11.2 m), which is getting up there in size even for a North American tiny house, though we have seen larger. Its width is also 10 ft (3 m), increasing its girth from the standard 8.5 ft (2.6 m) for a more apartment-like layout inside, at the cost of requiring a permit to tow. This extra-wide approach used to be rare, but it’s becoming increasingly common lately, with another recent example being the Barred Owl.
The Urban Park Max 37’s interior is arranged on one floor
Tru Form Tiny
The home is finished in what Tru Form Tiny says is its specialized “coastal package.” This includes an aluminum roof, stainless steel flashings and fasteners, and a hardy engineered-wood exterior chosen to protect against salt, wind, and moisture. The idea here was both to ensure durability and to make a bespoke model that’s well-suited to the owner’s location and long-term needs.
“We really do begin with our customers,” Tru Form Tiny COO Jen Carroll told us. “Their needs, their desires, and the dreams they bring to us. Our goal isn’t to just build a tiny house; but to create a real, livable home. We consider every possible roadblock and every detail of daily living, from storage and flow to the balance between the kitchen, bath, and living space. As we solve challenges, we’re always focused on bringing beauty and thoughtful design into the conversation. Function matters, but so does creating a space that feels inspiring and deeply personal.”
The Urban Park Max 37’s living room includes a large L-shaped sofa
Tru Form Tiny
The Urban Park Max 37’s main entrance consists of large trifold glass doors that really open the home up to the outside. Inside, it has white shiplap walls and ceilings, with wood trim and custom furniture. The extra breathing room is particularly noticeable in the living area, which has a large L-shaped sofa and looks remarkably spacious for a tiny house.
The kitchen occupies the center of the home and includes a farmhouse-style sink, a fridge/freezer, an oven with a four-burner propane-powered cooktop, and a dishwasher. There’s also plenty of cabinetry and a large dining table that could double as a home office area.
The bathroom is close by and is equipped with a flushing toilet, a vanity sink with generous storage, and a walk-in shower. A small laundry area with a stackable washer/dryer is located nearby.
The bedroom in this model is roomy and, thanks to the single-floor layout, has enough headroom for even taller occupants to stand upright. It also has a double bed and ample storage space, including integrated wardrobes. A glazed door provides direct access to the outside.
The Urban Park Max 37’s bedroom has lots of integrated storage space
Tru Form Tiny
The exact home shown has been delivered to its owner on Orcas Island, in Washington State, but the Urban Park Max range starts at around US$205,000.
Note: Map shows the area with a shake intensity of 3 or greater, which U.S.G.S. defines as “weak,” though the earthquake may be felt outside the areas shown. All times on the map are Japan time.The New York Times
A major, 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck in the North Pacific Ocean near Japan on Monday, according to the United States Geological Survey. The Japan Meteorological Agency issued tsunami warnings for parts of the country’s northeastern coast.
The temblor happened at 11:15 p.m. Japan time about 45 miles northeast of Misawa, Japan, data from the U.S.G.S. shows.
As seismologists review available data, they may revise the earthquake’s reported magnitude. Additional information collected about the earthquake may also prompt U.S.G.S. scientists to update the shake-severity map.
Aftershocks in the region
An aftershock is usually a smaller earthquake that follows a larger one in the same general area. Aftershocks are typically minor adjustments along the portion of a fault that slipped at the time of the initial earthquake.
Quakes and aftershocks within 100 miles
Aftershocks can occur days, weeks or even years after the first earthquake. These events can be of equal or larger magnitude to the initial earthquake, and they can continue to affect already damaged locations.
When quakes and aftershocks occurred
Source: United States Geological Survey | Notes: Shaking categories are based on the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale. When aftershock data is available, the corresponding maps and charts include earthquakes within 100 miles and seven days of the initial quake. All times above are Japan time. Shake data is as of Monday, Dec. 8 at 11:33 p.m. Japan time. Aftershocks data is as of Tuesday, Dec. 9 at 1:45 a.m. Japan time.
EU leader Costa and the German government have hit back at a US security strategy harshly critical of Europe.
European Council President Antonio Costa and the German government have lambasted a new US national security strategy that paints Europe as a troubled, declining power that may one day lose its usefulness as an ally to Washington.
The remarks on Monday from the European Union’s leading economy and one of its top officials delivered a stinging rebuke to the National Security Strategy released on Friday by the administration of US President Donald Trump.
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The 33-page document contains scathing criticism of the continent, claiming it is facing the “prospect of civilisational erasure” due to migration, scorning it for “censorship of free speech” and suppression of anti-immigration movements, and suggesting that the US may withdraw the security umbrella it has long held over it.
The stoush over the strategy, playing out as Washington ramps up pressure on Ukraine to agree to a plan to end the war with Russia, reflects what EU leader Costa said was a “changed” relationship between the US and Europe.
“We need to focus on building a Europe that must understand that the relationships between allies and the post-World War II alliances have changed,” Costa said at the Jacques Delors Institute, a think tank in Paris.
In response to the strategy document’s comments on free speech, Costa warned, “There will never be free speech if the freedom of information of citizens is sacrificed for the aims of the tech oligarchs in the United States.”
Costa strongly criticised allegations that free speech is being censored in Europe and said only European citizens can decide which parties should govern them.
“What we cannot accept is this threat of interference in Europe’s political life. The United States cannot replace European citizens in deciding which are the right parties and the wrong parties,” Costa said.
“The United States cannot replace Europe in its vision of freedom of speech,” he noted, adding, “Our history has taught us that there is no freedom of speech without freedom of information.”
‘Ideology, not strategy’
In Berlin, Sebastian Hille, a deputy spokesperson for the German government, said some of the criticisms in the document were “ideology rather than strategy”.
“Political freedoms, including the right to freedom of expression, are among the fundamental values of the EU,” he said.
He said Berlin also disagreed with the document’s failure to classify Russia, which in February 2022 launched a full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine, as a threat.
“We stand by NATO’s joint analysis, according to which Russia is a danger and a threat to trans-Atlantic security,” he added.
Divisions over Russia
The US strategy document makes clear that Washington wants to improve its relationship with Moscow, saying that it has a “core interest” in ending the conflict with Ukraine to “reestablish strategic stability with Russia”, while hitting out at European officials’ “unrealistic expectations” for a solution to the war.
An initial US plan for ending the war, which would have allowed Russia to hold on to large territories in eastern Ukraine, sparked criticism from European leaders amid concerns that Washington is trying to force Kyiv to accept unfavourable terms.
The plan has since been altered, first with input from Ukraine alongside its European allies and then in meetings between Ukrainian and US officials. The full details of the proposal as it stands have not been disclosed.
By contrast, Moscow has welcomed Trump’s strategy document.
Costa said that given the strategy document’s position on Ukraine, “we can understand why Moscow shares [its] vision.”
“The objective in this strategy is not a fair and durable peace. It’s only [about] the end of hostilities, and the stability of relations with Russia,” he said.
“Everyone wants stable relations with Russia,” Costa said, but “we can’t have stable relations with Russia when Russia remains a threat to our security”.
