At stake is prestige, hundreds of jobs and influence over how the European Union will protect its economic borders for decades to come. The new office is expected to be operational this year and will become fully operational two years later.

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Who will Warsaw face?

The list of candidates is long. In addition to Warsaw, the following are Liège (Belgium), Malaga (Spain), Lille (France), Zagreb (Croatia), Rome (Italy), The Hague (Netherlands), Porto (Portugal) and Bucharest (Romania).

Each city plays its own card. The Hague is promoting closer ties with Europol. Belgium and France are betting on logistics.

Poland is bringing geopolitical and operational arguments to the table: Warsaw is already home to the EU border agency Frontex, and the Polish government argues that, in an age of hybrid warfare, security and the synergy among these institutions are key.

The argument is simple: since customs officers and guards are fighting the same threats, they should work side by side.

Why is it worth the effort?

“On the one hand, hosting the headquarters of the EUCA offers more opportunities to actively participate in the process of reforming the customs union. On the other hand, it is an economic growth opportunity for the host city,” Małgorzata Krok, Plenipotentiary of the Minister of Finance and Economy for the application to establish the headquarters of the EU Customs Authority (EUCA), told Euronews.

“The new agency means increased business and tourist traffic, as well as the arrival of EUCA employees with their families. The EUCA is expected to eventually employ 250 people, but this number may increase in the future,” she said.

“Warsaw offers direct flights to all EU countries, as well as to candidate and partner countries. The synergy with Frontex, the proximity to all types of border crossings and the experience of our administration in customs matters and the creation of large-scale tax and customs IT systems, create optimal conditions for the development of the EUCA,” Krok added.

Polish diplomats also point out, behind the scenes, the weaknesses of rivals, noting that being a logistical hub for e-commerce, like Belgium or the Netherlands, in the era of the flood of cheap parcels from Asia can be a burden.

Poland’s biggest rival, however, is identified as France, which has been courting the agency for quite some time.

Not only taxes, but also security and technology

“The role of the tax collector has evolved into a guardian of the single market, the competitiveness of the economy and the security of citizens. It’s not just a question of smuggling or terrorism, but product compliance,” Magdalena Rzeczkowska, former Minister of Finance, added in an interview with Euronews. Rzeczkowska also previously managed the National Tax Administration and observed the evolution of customs from paper declarations to the digital age.

The former minister draws attention to our asset, namely the Frontex seat. The argument about the synergy of institutions is considered crucial, especially in the context of the security of the eastern flank: “We are talking about integrated border management, and this synergy is an important element. It is at the interface of the work of these institutions that security can really be built.”

Furthermore, the former minister points out that EUCA will also be a technology hub. “It should definitely not be officials in a suit, for the reason that the main task will be not only to build but also to maintain the EU Customs Data Hub,” she points out.

Rzeczkowska is echoed by Minister Krok: “The heart of the current customs reform will precisely be the data hub. The agency itself, on the other hand, will be the brain, analysing customs issues and risk at the EU level. With this, the agency has the potential to become a research and development centre in the customs area.”

What is the Customs Data Hub?

The struggle for localisation is only one dimension of the story. The real challenge is what the EUCA is supposed to manage: The EU Customs Data Hub.

Experts call this system the ‘nervous system’ of the new customs union. Instead of 27 separate national systems, the Union wants to create a single, unified database. This is supposed to enable real-time tracking of goods and the detection of dangerous products using artificial intelligence.

The reform is being driven by the crisis. According to European Commission forecasts, 5.6 billion parcels, the vast majority of which come from China, were expected to enter the Union in 2025. The current system is inefficient, and customs officials themselves are unable to physically control such a mass. The result? Europeans lose billions of euros in unpaid customs duties and taxes. It is this system that the new authority aims to seal.

However, business warns: without cooperation with the private sector (courier companies, e-commerce platforms), the construction of the ‘Data Hub’ could end up paralysing trade. The logistics industry has warned that the deadlines for implementing the changes are very tight and that the technical specifications remain unclear.

The industry itself adds that, without consultation with practitioners, the ambitious digital reform could lead to bottlenecks that will hit European consumers. At the same time, the Polish bid relies precisely on the argument that only a ‘digital stronghold’ with experience in crisis management will bear the burden.

This is why Warsaw, in fighting for the EUCA, is bidding not just to host officials, but to be the operational centre that must bear the biggest customs reform in the history of the European Union.

EUCA. The backstage of the competition

And what does the behind-the-scenes look like at the moment? Here, Minister Rzeczkowska is under no illusions about the nature of the choice of seat: “At the end of the day, it will be a political decision, although it shouldn’t quite be. We should look from the point of view of the independence of the institution”.

“We made a conscious decision to run for this office because we believe that it is in Warsaw that it will develop best. We are now actively persuading the decision-makers to do so,” indicates Krok, recalling that the decision will be made by the EU Council and the European Parliament.

The final verdict will come in March 2026. That is when it will become clear whether Brussels prefers to bet on the proven trade routes of the west or on a digital shield on the eastern flank – and whether the centre of gravity is finally shifting to the east in Europe’s new architecture.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., alleged at the Munich Security Conference on Friday that U.S. aid to the Jewish state enabled a genocide against Israel. AOC’s attack on the Jewish state in Munich unfolded in the birthplace of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi movement that carried out the worst genocide in human history.

AOC’s assault on Israel’s war campaign to defeat the U.S. and EU-designated terrorist movement in the Gaza Strip sparked outrage and intense criticism from academic military and Middle East experts.

During the town hall event in Munich, the Squad member said, “To me, this isn’t just about a presidential election. Personally, I think that the United States has an obligation to uphold its own laws, particularly the Leahy laws. And I think that personally, that the idea of completely unconditional aid, no matter what one does, does not make sense. I think it enabled a genocide in Gaza. And I think that we have thousands of women and children dead that don’t, that was completely avoidable.”

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She continued, “And, so I believe that enforcement of our own laws through the Leahy laws, which requires conditioning aid in any circumstance, when you see gross human rights violations, is appropriate.”

The Leahy Laws prohibit the Department of Defense and the State Department from funding “foreign security force units when there is credible information that the unit has committed a ‘gross violation of human rights.” Former Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT., introduced the bill in 1997.

Tom Gross, an expert on international affairs, told Fox News digital that “AOC has flown all the way to Munich — infamous as the city in which Hitler staged his Nazi Beer Hall Putsch that marked the beginning of the road to the Holocaust — in order to smear the Jewish people further with a phony genocide allegation.”

Gross added, “Such preposterous allegations of ‘genocide’ form the bedrock of modern antisemitic incitement against Jews in the U.S. and globally. This shocking ignorance and insensitivity by Ocasio-Cortez should rule her out of any potential presidential bid or other high office.”

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Military experts and genocide researchers have debunked the allegation that Israel carried out a genocide against Palestinians during its self-defense war against the Hamas terrorist organization that started after Hamas terrorists attacked communities in parts of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 that saw over 1200 Israeli and foreign nationals killed and 251 brutally kidnapped and taken into Gaza by Hamas and other terrorists.

Danny Orbach, a military historian from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and co-author of “Debunking the Genocide Allegations: A Reexamination of the Israel-Hamas War from October 7 2023, to June 1, 2025,” told Fox News Digital that Ocasio-Cortez accusation that Israel committed genocide is an “accusation that is incorrect both factually and legally. Under the Genocide Convention, genocide requires proof of a special intent to destroy a protected group, in whole or in part, and as a baseline condition, an active effort to maximize civilian destruction.

“The evidence shows the opposite: as demonstrated in our multi-author study Debunking the Genocide Allegations, Israel undertook unprecedented measures to mitigate civilian harm, including establishing humanitarian safe zones that independently verified data show were approximately six times safer than other areas of Gaza.”

Orbach added, “Israel also issued detailed advance warnings before strikes and facilitated the entry of over two million tons of humanitarian aid, often at significant cost to its own military advantage, including the loss of surprise and the sustainment of an enemy during wartime.”

He concluded, “These measures were taken despite Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, its systematic use of human shields and hospitals for military purposes, and a tunnel network exceeding 1,000 kilometers — an operational challenge without historical precedent. Finally, no credible evidence demonstrates the kind of unambiguous, exclusive genocidal intent toward Palestinians that international law requires and that cannot be reasonably interpreted otherwise.”

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The conservative commentator Derek Hunter posted on X. “Imagine going to Germany to complain about a fake genocide by Jews…in Munich, of all places. @AOC is about as smart as clogged toilet.”

In Dec. 2024, Germany joined the U.S. in rejecting the allegations that Israel committed genocide in Gaza.

The “extermination” of the Palestinian people must end, the chairman of the African Union Commission, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, has said, as dozens of heads of state gather for the regional body’s 39th summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

“In the Middle East, Palestine and the suffering of its people also challenge our consciences. The extermination of this people must stop,” said Youssouf, who was elected to head the institution a year ago, declared on Saturday.

The annual meeting is expected to focus on ruinous wars and security in the region as well as governance challenges around the world, threats to democracy and climate change, including water sanitation and water‑linked climate shocks.

“International law and international humanitarian law are the basis of the international community,” Youssouf added, as he called for the lifting of the Israeli blockade of humanitarian goods into the besieged Palestinian territory.

Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has killed at least 72,045 people and wounded 171,686 since October 2023, and continues despite a “ceasefire”.

Youssouf also touched on the multiple conflicts raging in Africa, calling for the “silencing of the guns” across the continent.

“From Sudan to the Sahel, to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in Somalia and elsewhere, our people continue to pay the heavy price of instability,” Youssouf said.

The summit brings together heads of state from the 55 member states of the African Union over two days.

In his speech at the summit, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres praised the AU as a “flagship for multilateralism” at a time of global “division and mistrust”.

Guterres also called for a permanent African seat in the UN Security Council, saying its absence is “indefensible”.

“This is 2026, not 1946. Whatever decisions about the African World around the table, Africa must be at the table,” he declared.

This year’s theme is water sanitation.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed highlighted the issue of water conservation on the continent, as he welcomed other leaders to the capital.

“Water is more than just a resource. It is a foundation of development, innovation and stability,” he said. “Here in Ethiopia, we have learned that responsible water management is central to guiding development wisely.”

In Africa, water cuts across interstate disputes, like Egypt and Ethiopia’s fight over the Nile, deadly tensions between farmers and herders in Nigeria over access to the same arable land, antigovernment protests over failed service delivery in Madagascar, and the outbreak of health epidemics in the wake of major floods and droughts.

Al Jazeera’s Haru Mutasa, reporting from Addis Ababa, said that while the issue of water is front and centre at this year’s summit, unresolved questions from last year’s gathering, including the cuts in global aide, continue to fester.

“There seems to be not enough money to the people who are in need,” our correspondent said.

She also added the ongoing deadly war in the DRC, which is causing mass displacement and famine, as well as the brutal, nearly three-year war in Sudan are also high on the summit agenda, as well as the reignited conflict in neighbouring South Sudan.

On Saturday, as the AU summit opened, at least four explosions were heard around the government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) base in the city of Dilling in South Kordofan, as drones from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group targeted the city.

The African continent makes up about a fifth of the global population, with an estimated 1.4 billion people, about 400 million of whom are 15 to 35 years old.

But it is also home to several of the world’s oldest and longest-serving leaders, many criticised as out-of-touch – a paradox that has contributed to an upsurge in military takeovers and other undemocratic means, notably in West African nations, such as Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Niger, and Guinea-Bissau.

Some observers say the AU Summit will provide an opportunity to align continental priorities with international partners, especially at a time of discussions around a “new world order” stirred by US President Donald Trump, with foreign leaders signalling shifting global alliances and many looking towards China.