The gas dispute continues to take on new angles. In a telephone call yesterday, Russia’s president told the German chancellor that the contracting parties could continue to pay in euros – Gazprom Bank would simply convert the money into rubles. In Berlin, however, Putin was rejected; Scholz merely asked for written information. Further, the G7 […]
Solar energy is making a comeback in Europe – not least because of the threat of a gas supply freeze. In the future, the EU Commission wants to make greater use of solar energy for industrial heating. Most recently, photovoltaic technology has been on the rise, especially in the building sector. Manuel Berkel analyzed which […]
Last year, the EU Commission ordered a review of the Emissions Trading System (ETS). The goal was to investigate whether the system had loopholes for market speculation or manipulation. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has now presented its report. The good news: There are no “material weaknesses” in the ETS in its current […]
We are in the middle of the EU-NATO-G7 summit marathon. Yesterday evening, Council President Charles Michel was confirmed in office by the 27 EU heads of state and government. He ran unopposed and will thus remain Council President and President of the Euro Summit since 2014. You can read about what was discussed in terms […]
As Federal Minister for Economic Affairs, Robert Habeck, told journalists on Sunday in Doha, his expectations of the meeting with the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, had been exceeded. It had been “magnificently” firmly agreed to enter into a long-term energy partnership. Afterwards, he sent a message to Russian warlord Vladimir Putin: […]
With strong words, Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the German Bundestag today: Germany helped build a wall to isolate Ukraine and hand it over to Russia, Zelenskyy said during the live-broadcast. As an example, he cited Germany’s long holding on to the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline and the West’s refusal to […]
At yesterday’s meeting in Brussels, the EU finance ministers agreed on a common approach to dealing with the rapidly rising energy prices resulting from the Ukraine crisis. The focus is on relieving the burden on citizens and companies with rebates, subsidies, and energy independence from Russia. Eric Bonse has taken a look at the measures. […]
The EU tackles the “weaponization of trade” with three new instruments. Affected are the rules for public tendering, foreign subsidies and safeguard measures, or other constraints against EU exports that are not in line with WTO rules. Falk Steiner describes three EU tools in more detail in his analysis. The pandemic has shone a bright […]
With drastic words, Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins yesterday called for even tougher sanctions against Russia: “We must not only isolate Putin’s economy, but cripple it.” However, at the informal summit of 27 heads of state and government, there was no majority in favor of stopping oil and gas imports from Russia, as Stephan Israel […]