Category: EU Reporter

Germany’s energy companies are calling on the government to impose a levy to help pass on rising prices to households and businesses. Only certain importers like Uniper depend heavily on Russian gas and face a sharp increase in costs as they are forced to buy gas at high prices on the global market. If parliament […]

Ukraine’s military has confirmed that the major eastern city of Lysychansk has fallen to Russian forces. “After heavy fighting for Lysychansk, the defence forces of Ukraine were forced to withdraw from their occupied positions and lines,” the army general staff said on Sunday. Earlier Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu said his forces had captured Lysychansk […]

European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans told The Guardian Sunday Poland shouldn’t get post-Covid recovery money because it remained in violation of EU rules on judicial independence. The same people who had expelled government-critical judges were now in charge of deciding which ones to rehire. “I don’t think that is a correct implementation of the European […]

Czech fighter jets will protect Slovak airspace from September, Czech prime minister Petr Fiala announced Sunday, as Bratislava prepares to send its fleet of old MiG-29 warplanes to Ukraine to fight Russia. “We will help Slovakia until it has new planes at its disposal,” Fiala said on TV. “They [Ukraine] are fighting for us,” he […]

Turkish customs authorities have impounded a Russian-flagged ship, the Zhibek Zholy, on suspicion it was smuggling stolen Ukrainian grain, Ukraine’s ambassador to Turkey, Vasyl Bodnar, said on Ukrainian TV Sunday, Reuters reports. “We have full co-operation. The ship is currently standing at the entrance to the port, it has been detained,” he said. The cargo […]

By only screening, fingerprinting or relocating (some) refugees, or by outsourcing our border control to Turkey and giving Erdogan our keys, we will not solve the current problems.

Sooner or later, the European Court of Human Rights will have a final say on whether Grenoble is allowed to permit the ‘burkini’. Its judgment, like the one permitting the outlawing of full-face veils, risks influencing policymaking across the continent.

MEPs will gather in Strasbourg for the final plenary before the summer break, with a crucial vote on the classification of gas and nuclear. The Czech Republic will present to EU lawmakers its presidency’s priorities for the next six months.

Fabrice Leggeri, the former head of the EU’s border police Frontex, sought to attend a European Parliament committee meeting in mid-July. He was told not to come.

For the most part Nato and its 30 leaders rose to the occasion — but it wasn’t without room for improvement. The lesson remains that Nato still doesn’t know how or want to hold allies accountable for disruptive behaviour.