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 […]
“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.” What the US president said Saturday night in Warsaw about hopes for a change of power in the Kremlin still caused a verbal back-and-forth between Washington and Moscow over the weekend. Whether it was a slip of the tongue or deliberate ambiguity on the part of […]
Olaf Scholz is not known for showing emotion, but the gruesome images from Bucha seem to have struck a nerve with the chancellor. Last night, he made an appearance in response to the reports to speak of “streets littered with corpses” and “barely buried bodies”, and he announced that in the next few days, the […]
Russian soil will be off-limits to numerous European parliamentarians, public figures, and journalists in the future. Yesterday, the Russian Foreign Ministry imposed an entry ban on the “top leadership of the EU as well as the vast majority of members of the European Parliament who support an anti-Russian policy”. As of today, gas bills from […]
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 […]
For the first time, the EU Commission has triggered the rule of law mechanism introduced in 2021. The budget cuts that Hungary now faces will hit the country hard, writes Eric Bonse. Public procurement will be particularly affected. On the other hand, the proposal by EU Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi to make right-wing liberal Pole […]
The EU’s fifth sanctions package against Russia, which is being discussed today, is tougher than initially planned. In response to the atrocities in Bucha, the EU is now considering, among other things, a coal embargo. However, this would mean an imminent bottleneck for Germany, as a result of which some power plants would have to […]
The Bucha massacre, during which many civilians were killed by Russian troops, has further fueled the European debate about an embargo on Russian energy sources. However, the German government still sees no way around Russian gas. Things are different for oil and coal, as Till Hoppe writes in his Feature.In order to get away from […]