Category: EuroActiv

The European Union is aiming to ban imports of several steel products from Russia and outlaw the export of certain semiconductors to Russia, according to the European Commission’s latest sanctions proposal, seen by POLITICO. One item left off the list, however, is Russian diamonds — an omission that will make Belgium and its robust diamond industry […]

A war of words between gas companies in Ukraine and Russia is threatening gas transit to the EU. Ukraine’s Naftogaz and Russia’s Gazprom are at loggerheads over payments for gas shipments through pipelines across Ukraine — a trade that has continued despite the war between the two countries. But that deal is starting to fray. […]

U.S. and European officials are increasingly pointing toward sabotage as the cause of two explosions that caused massive leaks from natural gas pipelines out of Russia — and gauging whether the incidents are a new warning from Moscow about the continent’s energy supplies heading into winter. U.S. officials downplayed the potential for immediate impactsfrom the […]

The apparent sabotage of both Nord Stream gas pipelines may be one of the worst industrial methane accidents in history, scientists said Wednesday, but it’s not a major climate disaster. Methane — a greenhouse gas up to 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide — is escaping into the atmosphere from three boiling patches on […]

Anton Spisak is a senior fellow at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.   When Liz Truss was first in charge of relations with the European Union as the United Kingdom’s foreign secretary, she was seen as a relative pragmatist.  She welcomed her counterpart Maroš Šefčovič to her Chevening residence, replaced the cavalier bombast of […]

LONDON — Even in the midst of a full-blown financial crisis, so much of British politics is about home ownership, in the end. Following an extraordinary slide in Sterling and panic in the gilt markets in the wake of Prime Minister Liz Truss’ tax-cutting “mini-budget,” the Bank of England announced emergency measures Wednesday to prop […]

After Putin: 12 people ready to ruin Russia next How the autocrat in the Kremlin could go — and who might seek to replace him. Douglas Busvine Illustration by Peter Reynolds for POLITICO Vladimir Putin’s disastrous military adventure in Ukraine has raised the prospect that his 22-year rule could be nearing its end. But will […]

The U.S. and its allies are hoping to rally the international community to send an unmistakable message to Vladimir Putin: Using nuclear weapons would prompt a crippling economic and diplomatic response, even from Russia’s friends. In particular, calls are growing inside and outside the Biden administration to enlist China and India, two major powers with […]

Jamie Dettmer is opinion editor at POLITICO Europe. Last week, Britain was the center of global attention as it pulled off a breathtaking royal funeral, replete with the military pomp of yesteryear. “Queen’s farewell makes Britain proud again, just for one day,” was the headline over a column by the Guardian’s John Crace. “Thoughts that […]

Polish Education Minister Przemysław Czarnek had to apologize for homophobic statements he made in 2020, saying in remarks released Wednesday that LGBTQ+ people were “not equal to normal people.” However, although he formally apologized in a statement on social media, the Polish minister said he stood by his words. “I, the undersigned Przemysław Czarnek, Minister […]