The Kremlin’s deadline was supposed to expire tomorrow, and Russia would then only accept payments in rubles for gas deliveries. This was announced by President Vladimir Putin. Yesterday, however, there was a telephone conversation between him and Chancellor Olaf Scholz. According to government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit on Wednesday evening, Putin said that nothing would change […]
Following the conclusion of negotiations on the Digital Markets Act, experts call for effective enforcement of the new rules for digital corporations. “How the DMA will play out now remains an open question, and it depends massively on what enforcement looks like in concrete terms,” says Rupprecht Podszun, director of the Institute for Antitrust Law […]
The German government has named the head of the task force to implement sanctions on Russia. The task force will be led by Nina Thom and Johannes Geismann, the Federal Ministry of Economics and the Federal Ministry of Finance announced. Thom was previously senior public prosecutor in charge of asset recovery at the Berlin public […]
The European Commission is relaxing the rules for state aid in view of the war in Ukraine. Member states will be allowed to pay direct grants of up to €400,000 to affected companies under the crisis framework adopted yesterday, which is limited until the end of the year. Concessionary state guarantees and low-interest loans are […]
Today, the negotiators from the European Parliament, the Council and the EU Commission will meet on the Digital Markets Act, for the fourth and probably last time. According to the agenda, the meeting is to begin at 3 p.m., but the end remains open. It is likely to be a long meeting: the representatives of […]
It seems like the negotiations between Moscow and Kiev are picking up the pace: Yesterday, Russian negotiator Leonid Sluzki said that both sides could agree on a common position “as early as in the next few days”. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mychajlo Podoljak also expects “concrete results in a few days”. However, whether such an agreement […]
The traffic light coalition is prepared to massively increase government funding for the semiconductor industry. According to information from government circles, German Economics Minister Robert Habeck has announced a need for around €14 billion in the current budget negotiations. Chancellor Olaf Scholz supports this, and the German government will, therefore, probably include an amount of […]
Member states are to be able to compensate energy-intensive companies for half of the costs they incur due to the recent sharp rise in gas and electricity prices. This is provided for in the draft temporary framework for state aid, which the EU Commission sent to governments for consultation on Thursday and was published by […]
The EU is imposing further sanctions on Russia and its ally Belarus. The ambassadors of the member states agreed yesterday to include cryptocurrencies in the restrictions that apply to other financial transactions with Russia. In this way, they want to prevent Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies from being used to circumvent punitive measures. In addition, the […]
EU countries are preparing for an increase of cyberattacks in view of the conflict with Russia. Except for the incident at the satellite network operator Viasat, no significant increase in cyberattacks has been observed so far, said French Digital State Secretary Cédric O after a meeting of the responsible ministers in Nevers. However, the situation […]