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Morning opening: Bastille Day
Jakub Krupa
Over 300 vehicles and 6,500 soldiers will march down the iconic Champs-Élysées in central Paris this morning as part of today’s Bastille Day celebration in Paris, which is set to “send a strategic signal” about France and Europe’s military awakening.
Marking the importance of international cooperation, the parade will also include 500 troops from the countries involved in the Coalition of the Willing, including Germany, and 25 soldiers from Ukraine.
It will be Emmanuel Macron’s tenth – and final – parade ahead of next year’s presidential election. He has a strong guest list this year, though, with many leaders staying overnight after yesterday’s talks on Ukraine, including Volodymyr Zelenskyy himself.
The parade begins 10am local time (9am BST) and we will show it here, bringing you all the key updates.
Elsewhere, we are expecting some news from Brussels with Albania, Moldova, Montenegro and Ukraine all making progress in their accession talks with the European Union.
Marta Kos, the EU’s enlargement commissioner, called it a “Super Tuesday.”
“In the for more than two decades, we have not had four accession conferences in one day, and this will happen today,” she said.
Montenegro is the frontrunner to join the EU next with more than half of “clusters” closed, Kos said, but all four countries are making good progress in delivering the reforms requested of them.
Lots for us to cover.
I will bring you all the latest here.
It’s Tuesday, 14 July 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
Key events
During the parade you could also see some members of the firefighter brigade.
Their presence this year is even more important than usual given the massive wildfires the country has been battling with in the last few weeks.
The fire in Fontainebleau, a one-time royal hunting preserve about 40 miles (60km) from the French capital that today is dotted with villages, began late on Sunday afternoon. The blaze, which is unusual in its proximity to Paris, raced across about 800 hectares (2,000 acres) of forest by last night.
The mayor of Fontainebleau, Julien Gondard, said he was shocked and angered. “This exceptional area is consumed by flames, we’ve never seen anything like this,” he told the local TV station ICI Paris Île-de-France. “The forest is fragile and it’s in a critical condition.”
Jakub Krupa
I mean, you can’t really get tired of these pictures, can you?
France marks Bastille Day with military parade in Paris - in pictures
Ukrainian troops march down Champs-Élysées as part of Bastille Day parade - in pictures
Jakub Krupa
Just a reminder that you can watch it all live with us here:
We can also see the multinational Nato batallion stationed in Estonia, including the French 3rd Marine Artillery Regiment, among others.
Troops from Coalition of the Willing march down Champs-Élysées
And we now have the troops from the Coalition of the Willing marching down Champs-Élysées.
Flags of Albania and Australia at the front, but I can also see Austria, Belgium, Britain, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden among others…
A group of Ukrainian troops march at the end, saluting the leaders, and getting very warm applause.
Macron, Zelenskyy and other leaders are watching on from the tribune.
Patrouille de France fly over Champs-Élysées
Et voilà! Patrouille de France are now in the air, flying over the Champs-Élysées to release colourful vapors that form a French flag.
(Yes, of course I will show you pictures as soon as we have them!)
They are flanked by two Mirage 2000 aircraft, piloted by French pilots, but accompanied by Ukrainian pilots undergoing training with the French air force.
They are then followed by aircraft from the French and other allied forces, including an absolutely massive plane with an AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) radar.
Bastille Day parade's guest list shows evolution of Macron's thinking - snap analysis
Jakub Krupa
As Macron climbs up the honorary tribune and joins other leaders attending the parade, let me make one observation.
There is something symbolic in how Macron approaches his last parade as he nears the end of his term next year compared to the first one in 2017.
Back then, he was keen to impress the freshly inaugurated US president Donald Trump, just starting his first term, who was invited as his guest of honour. He even got the French army band to play Daft Punk’s Get Lucky to woo his counterpart!
Ten years on, he oversees his last parade surrounded by mostly European leaders – Zelenskyy, Merz, Starmer, Frederiksen, Tusk and others – in an attempt to send a clear signal about Europe’s re-emerging power.
The Élysée Palace says the parade will be “a powerful symbol of Europe that is becoming aware of how dangerous the world is and that it must take its destiny into its own hands”.
Jakub Krupa
Macron reportedly hates talking to his entourage about his “lasts” as he is now well into the last year of his presidency, but surely it’s a moving personal moment for him too as he takes part in this ceremony in this role for the final time.
