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According to EU diplomats, Malta, Greece and Cyprus are set to receive significant concessions over their economic concerns, including an impact assessment to be made before price caps come into force.

EU agrees on oil price cap in new Russia sanctions draft package

By: EBR | Wednesday, October 5, 2022

EU ambassadors reached a political agreement on the bloc’s new round of Russia sanctions, including an oil price cap, which earlier had been opposed by a few seafaring member states

The organisers of the rally, ‘Czech Republic First!’, are calling for the Czech government to secure gas contracts with Russia and achieve “military neutrality”.

Tens of thousands protest Czech NATO and EU membership

By: EBR | Wednesday, October 5, 2022

Demonstrators gathered on Wednesday in Prague to ask Prime Minister Petr Fiala’s administration to resign in the wake of rising energy costs and called for the relationship with the EU, NATO, the UN and the WHO to be reconsidered

As a result of the measures, and particularly for aluminium used in the building industry, “French customers go to Spain for supplies,” Cyrille Mounier from the Aluminium France Federation told EURACTIV France.

The EU: France wants anti-dumping measures against Spain

By: EBR | Thursday, September 29, 2022

As energy prices soared, Europe’s aluminium plants began to shut down while the bloc stepped up imports from Russia and China

"The focus will not just be the new taxes needed to pay for the energy crisis but also the taxes that aren’t being paid."

An EU drive on tax dodging will be its best weapon against Putin

By: EBR | Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Autumnal weather is signalling the chill reality of Russia’s economic war with the rest of Europe, but not yet the sheer cost of the conflict

"Giorgia Meloni’s will be the most right-leaning Italian government since World War II."

Italy’s new leader Giorgia Meloni arrives at a critical time for the EU

By: N. Peter Kramer | Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Giorgia Meloni’s election victory comes at a critical time for the European Union, with war back on the continent. Sanctions against Russia are driving up inflationary pressures

Should the Law and Justice (PiS) party win the next year’s parliamentary election and govern the third term in a row, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen “will lose interest in meddling in Polish politics,” he said.

Poland threatens to sue Commission over recovery money block

By: EBR | Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Poland will file a complaint against the European Commission before the EU Court in Luxembourg if it continues to block funds from the Recovery and Resilience Facility destined to Poland, announced Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz

MEPs repeat their request for the European Commission to launch, without delay, an impact assessment, public consultation and scoping exercise on a Bilateral Investment Agreement (BIA) with the Taiwanese authorities.

MEPs urge EU memberstates to build closer ties with Taiwan

By: EBR | Friday, September 16, 2022

The European Parliament strongly condemned the recent Chinese aggressive military exercises in the Taiwan Strait, while calling for strengthened EU relations with Taipei

With Europe facing significant energy and cost of living crises, not to mention the more existential threats posed by a war on its eastern border, this was a missed opportunity for those searching for a display of ambitious and decisive EU leadership to help them through the challenging year ahead.

Von der Leyen’s missed opportunity

By: EBR | Thursday, September 15, 2022

Set-piece speeches are the political equivalent of eating a packet of biscuits in one sitting: It feels good at the time, but you feel hungry and bloated an hour later

Whatever the military outcome on the killing fields of the Donbas, it’s the solidarity of the European Union that will eventually determine whether Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is defeated or victorious.

Putin’s war will be won or lost in Brussels

By: EBR | Wednesday, September 14, 2022

Giles Merritt looks at the dizzying costs of the Ukraine war and the energy crisis, and warns that a failure of EU solidarity would hand the Kremlin victory

Meloni said the EU should be a political giant and not a bureaucratic one, dealing with the “big matters” and leaving to member states “the issues closest to the lives of citizens”.

Italy’s far-right Meloni tells Europe ‘fun is over’

By: EBR | Tuesday, September 13, 2022

Two different faces of Europe are clashing ahead of the crucial Italian elections on 25 September, with far-right candidate Giorgia Meloni telling Brussels that if she wins, the “fun is over”

Last week, EU defence ministers supported the start of work on setting up an EU military training mission for Ukrainian forces that would complement current efforts by individual EU countries.

EU member states’ weapons stocks running low, Borrell warns

By: EBR | Wednesday, September 7, 2022

EU member States’ weapons stocks are running low as EU member states are making efforts to send military aid to Ukraine, the EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell warned on Monday (5 September), renewing calls to better coordinate European supplies to the war-torn country

Scholz’s opposition to the shipments is although, according to the report, German weapon manufacturer Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) had offered Kyiv that it could supply 100 Leopard 2A7 tanks, including spare parts and training for soldiers to be able to operate them.

Scholz allegedly rebuffs Kyiv on heavy weapon deliveries

By: EBR | Wednesday, September 7, 2022

Chancellor Olaf Scholz was not ready to meet Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Schmyhal’s calls for fresh arms deliveries despite the German industry’s offer to provide Leopard 2 tanks for Kyiv

In Poland, the ruling PiS party is a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party, whose president is Giorgia Meloni, while in Hungary, Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party was expelled from the EPP due to its anti-EU stance.

Weber must explain why he sells EPP’s identity to far-right

By: EBR | Friday, September 2, 2022

European People’s Party (EPP) chief Manfred Weber must explain why he “sells out” the identity and values of the EU centre-right to the extreme-right

To reach out to younger age groups, the Commission set up an online platform to let Europe’s young people express opinions on bloc policies and the future.

‘Overlooked and tokenised’: Europe’s year of youth falls short

By: EBR | Wednesday, August 31, 2022

As one of its promises to Europe’s youth, the European Commission said it would follow up on demands that arose from the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) for a seat at the table while shaping the bloc’s future

The findings show that while most of the Member States are making progress in their digital transformation, the adoption of key digital technologies by businesses, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data remains low.

Digital Economy and Society Index 2022: overall progress but digital skills, SMEs and 5G networks lag behind

By: EBR | Friday, July 29, 2022

European Commission published the results of the 2022 Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), which tracks the progress made in EU Member States in digital

Public planning for reduced consumption and compulsory allocation is intended to signal resolve and deter Russia from attempting a siege in the first place.

EU prepares public opinion for winter gas siege

By: EBR | Thursday, July 28, 2022

European Union policymakers have started to prepare the public for siege conditions this winter if gas supplies from Russia are completely cut, an effort to demonstrate diplomatic resolve as well as avoid panic later in the year

"Climate economist William Nordhaus observed that the problem with getting all countries to cut their emissions faster is that, from a short-term economic standpoint, nations are effectively incentivised to ‘free ride’ on the efforts of others rather than moving first".

Net zero vision can deliver missing climate momentum for Europe

By: EBR | Wednesday, July 27, 2022

While climate action is stalling among political leaders, the world faces the disastrous consequences of non-intervention

"If any German going on holiday this year was not yet in need of a break, they probably will be when they finally arrive at their destination. Travelling is no easy feat this summer, as chaos besets airports throughout Europe".

Of Porsches and private jets

By: EBR | Wednesday, July 27, 2022

As Germans scramble to reach holiday destinations, struggling with overcrowded trains and cancelled flights, top politicians have been taking private jets, conspiring with luxury carmakers, and puzzling over the emissions of the government vehicle fleet

“There is an agreement in Parliament. There’s an agreement in Council, but in some areas, these agreements do not overlap yet,” EU climate chief Frans Timmermans told journalists on 14 July.

Long road ahead for carbon market reform

By: EBR | Monday, July 25, 2022

Amid an energy crisis, Russian gas cut-offs, and worsening climate change, EU negotiators face the mammoth task of overhauling Europe’s core emission reduction tool, the emissions trading scheme (ETS)

According to the ECB, this dynamic is a problem as it makes it hard for its monetary policy to have the intended effect in the entire euro area. And it is this problem that the TPI is supposed to solve.

ECB proposes new instrument to prevent eurozone fragmentation

By: EBR | Friday, July 22, 2022

The European Central Bank (ECB) unveiled a new “Transmission Protection Instrument” (TPI) to ensure that the borrowing costs for euro area member states do not diverge as dramatically as to make monetary policy ineffective