European lawmakers used Taiwan's National Day reception in Brussels to publicly reaffirm support for Taipei, a win for Taiwan's push for more official recognition in Europe.

• Hundreds of guests attended the reception hosted by Taiwan's representative office to the EU and Belgium, with several European politicians speaking in support of Taiwan.
• Belgium's parliamentary Taiwan friendship group co-chair Els Van Hoof said a lone fish is fragile but a school of fish is resilient, arguing democracies are stronger together and that Chinese pressure has not scared off parliamentary visits.
• Michael Gahler, who heads the European Parliament's Taiwan friendship group, called Taiwan a reliable democratic partner in East Asia and condemned Beijing's growing provocations, while noting the EU's one-China policy has not changed.
• Taiwan's envoy Hsieh Chih-wei said the tide is turning in Taiwan's favor, pointing to Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim's trips to Brussels and Italy, and called China's use of UN Resolution 2758 to claim Taiwan a piece of disinformation.
• Asked whether Taiwan was at the table or on the menu after the Trump-Xi meeting, he said Taiwan is in the kitchen — cooking alongside the US, Japan, the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand, with semiconductor chips as its molten lava.

Outlook: Expect more parliamentary exchanges and deeper EU-Taiwan trade and cultural ties, with Brussels still framing the status quo as the goal and Beijing likely to protest each visit.