Month: October 2022

Spain, Portugal and France reached a deal to create a submarine “green corridor” between Barcelona and Marseille to transport natural gas, and, at a later stage, green hydrogen.

“This story will be largely written in Iran, but it does not mean the outside world cannot do anything.”

Some see the UK’s turmoil as a result of Brexit. The UK and the EU are still locked in negotiations after London, under Truss’ leadership, planned to upend existing agreements on post-Brexit trade in Northern Ireland.

EU leaders agreed in the early hours of Friday (21 October) to keep exploring options to reduce energy prices. In their summit conclusions, leaders called on energy ministers and the EU commission to “submit concrete decisions” on a “temporary dynamic price corridor on natural gas transactions” that would limit price spikes, and a price cap […]

No formal agreement on new European joint debt was reached by the European Council on Thursday. But leaving the summit German chancellor Olaf Scholz said he would “look into” what is possible, ostensibly changing his strong opposition to new EU joint debt. Mario Draghi, who attended his last EU summit as Italian premier, had strongly […]

“I am very prepared to go to Ankara as soon as possible,” Sweden’s new conservative prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, said on Thursday during an EU summit in Brussels. The move was quickly welcomed by Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, while repeating that as long as Sweden does not extradite terrorists wanted by Turkey, Ankara will […]

French president Emmanuel Macron announced on Friday that France will leave the controversial Energy Charter Treaty, following Poland, Spain and the Netherlands. All EU states are signatories of the treaty bar Italy which withdrew in 2016 — but is still involved in arbitration because this treaty protects investments for decades. Germany has also announced plans to […]

The outcome of the two-day meeting of EU leaders did not deliver any clear agreement on whether and how to limit gas prices — but some believe EU ministers will agree on emergency measures in the coming weeks.

The EU plans to provide Ukraine with €1.5bn per month in financial aid next year, EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday, after the meeting with EU leaders in Brussels. Ukraine, she said, needs approximately €3bn to €4bn per month for basic resources. The EU’s overall figure will amount to €18bn next […]