Sunday
25th Sep 2022
While a cap on revenues from renewables is aimed at redirecting excess profits from low-cost electricity generation back to consumers, analysts and industry groups argue such measures come with risks — and at a bad time.
Ireland has joined Poland and the Baltic states in lobbying for more hawkish Russia sanctions, in a sign of widening moral outrage in Europe.
All the articles you should not have missed this week.
EU diplomats are having to be ever-more creative in finding Russians to blacklist, after already designating 1,206 names.
Should Georgia Meloni be considered neofascist? She insists she's a patriotic conservative. And indeed, if she's prime minister, she's expected to respect Italy's democracy — if only to keep money flowing from the EU.
While in 2015 the top-declaring companies spent roughly €90m between them on lobbying the EU, this figure increased to almost €120 million in 2022.
A Special Tribunal on Russian war crimes in Ukraine must be convened, because no permanent or existing international judicial institution is endowed with jurisdiction over Russian high-ranking officials, writes the head of the Ukraine delegation to the Council of Europe.
Russians fleeing a military draft won't get into Estonia or Latvia, posing questions what Finland, Lithuania, and Poland would do if there is a large exodus.
Italy's economy depends a lot on the recovery fund, and on the bond buying scheme of the European Central Bank, and Meloni is ulikely torisk it for a "freedom fight" against the EU.
France has increased projected public expenditure for 2023 with another €7.5bn compared to the last draft in August.
Finland says there has not yet been a dramatic increase in Russian nationals trying to enter Finland from Russia, noting just over 4,800 Russian nationals crossed the land border on the day of Vladimir Putin's announcement of the draft.
Russia's president Vladimir Putin threat of nuclear war is another sign of his desperation in Ukraine, says the European Commission.
Germany has confirmed the nationalisation of Uniper, the country's largest gas-importer — in a bid to secure operations and prevent supply shortages following Russian supply cuts.
From 2050 onwards, the EU should remove more greenhouse gases than it emits — a great challenge. Are the member states ready for this challenge? The answer is no.
The EU has lifted some restrictions on the trade and financing of Russian coal and chemical to avoid an energy and food security crisis in poorer countries, but the upcoming ban on oil may have an even deeper impact.
Russia's president and foreign minister should personally face justice for "aggression" against Ukraine, the Czech Republic's foreign minister has said.
Swedish minister for European affairs Hans Dahlgren told EUobserver no decision can be expected on majority vote next year. Mikuláš Bek, the Czech minister for European affairs, said enlargement and changes to the decision-making are politically interlinked.
The EU wants to expand its so-called 'solidarity lanes' to help Ukraine exports its goods towards member states. EU officials briefing reporters say around 2.6 million tonnes of Ukrainian agricultural goods were exported via such lanes in August.
Germany's data-retention law — aimed at combating major online crime — is not compatible with EU law, the European Court of Justice ruled.
Notwithstanding the remarkable Ukrainian advances, a Russian defeat would not necessarily translate into regime change in Moscow. It is likely Putin will try to spin his military setbacks as evidence of the existential threat facing Russia.
The current energy crisis is a good example of "emancipatory catastrophism" — the idea that humanity only moves forward out of fear for a catastrophe. Sometimes one needs a looming disaster to change what should have been changed long ago.
EU countries are planning to drop calls for an "independent" inquiry into the killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in a watershed meeting with Israel next month.
Critics point out that Hungary will continue to receive substantial inflows of EU funds since the proposed suspension applies only to around 22 percent of total EU subsidies earmarked for Hungary in the bloc's current budget for 2021-2027.
The Single Market Emergency Instrument (SMEI) introduces a staged, step-by-step, approach — providing emergency powers to the EU Commission to tackle any potential threat which could trigger disruptions or shortages of key products within the EU.
What would happen if Russia were to fire a nuclear strike? Most likely it would be a tactical strike, with a smaller nuclear missile.
The far-right Brothers of Italy, which dominates the conservative alliance, is set to be the largest single party, and has widened its lead over the centre-left Democratic Party (PD).
Civil society organisations are taking legal action against the European Commission for the inclusion of gas and nuclear in the EU taxonomy.
The freezing, the first time in the EU's history using the conditionality mechanism linking EU subsidies to the respect of the rule of law, would suspend money from the bloc's cohesion funds under the 2021-27 long-term budget.
Just as Europe is planning another massive bail-out of the economy, the European Central Bank is retreating into monetary austerity.
The Queen of England died. Ukraine started a startlingly successful counterattack on Russian occupiers. Sweden elected a rightwing government. Hungary no longer considered a democracy by the European Parliament. A new secretary-general appointment was rushed through.
The proposal for a so-called European Media Freedom Act announced on Friday by the European Commission is part of wider efforts to tackle the erosion of rule of law in EU states like Poland and Hungary.
Climate change, food insecurity and seasonal shortages have triggered calls to loosen regulation for genetically-modified food and seed technologies in the EU.
The European Commission has not taken any initiative to restaff the position of a coordinator on combating anti-Muslim hatred, which has been void since July 2021 and starved of resources and a clear mandate.
