Newsletter
Newsletter
EUROPE
Evacuations begin as dam breach floods southern Ukraine: The Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine has been blown up, Ukrainian and Russian officials said on Tuesday. Ukraine’s state hydroelectric company said the power plant had been totally destroyed after a detonation inside the engine room. Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for the damage. Thousands of people were evacuated from settlements along the southern stretch of Ukraine’s Dnipro river. The Soviet-era dam also supplies water to the Crimean peninsula downstream, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, and supplies a reservoir upstream to the Zaporizhzhia power plant. The Russian operator of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant said there is no immediate threat. dw.com, reuters.com
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky: „Russia has detonated a bomb of mass environmental destruction. This is the largest man-made environmental disaster in Europe in decades.“ cbsnews.com
- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the “outrageous act … demonstrates once again the brutality of Russia’s war in Ukraine.” pbs.org
- EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell: “Russia’s attacks against Ukrainian civilian critical infrastructure reached an unprecedented level today.“ reuters.com
- European Council President Charles Michel: „The destruction of civilian infrastructure clearly qualifies as a war crime – and we will hold Russia and its proxies accountable.“ twitter.com
CIA knew of Ukraine plan to blow up Nord Stream pipeline: A European spy agency told the CIA it knew of a Ukraine special operations team plan to blow up the Nord Stream gas pipeline three months before explosions damaged the undersea system last year, the „Washington Post“ reported. The newspaper cited US intelligence allegedly leaked earlier this year by a low-level US Air National Guard computer technician who had access to large amounts of highly classified materials. france24.com
EU extends restrictions on Ukrainian agri goods, giving Hungary free pass: Temporary trade restrictions on four agricultural products from Ukraine to five European countries have been extended until September, despite one of the states – Hungary – having yet to meet the EU executive’s conditions for the extension. The deal was deemed necessary after temporary trade liberalisation meant to help Ukraine export agricultural commodities led to an influx of goods in Eastern Europe, pushing prices down and local farmers to the edge. euractiv.com
EU imposes new sanctions against Russians: The EU has imposed further sanctions on Russian officials over the detention of Russian regime critic Vladimir Kara-Mursa. Among those sanctioned are the deputy justice minister, judges and other judicial representatives as well as a high-ranking prison official, said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. Their assets have been frozen and they have been banned from travelling to or through EU countries. zeit.de
European Court of Human Rights condemns Russia over Navalny poisoning case: The European Court of Human Rights has condemned Russia for not having wanted to carry out a relevant judicial investigation to clarify the allegations of the opposition politician Alexei Navalny of having been poisoned with a neurotoxic agent, in August 2020, for political reasons. euronews.com
Finland expels nine Russian diplomats on espionage charges: Finland will expel nine diplomats at the Russian embassy in Helsinki, accusing them of working on intelligence missions, the Finnish president’s office said on Tuesday. „Their actions are contrary to the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations,“ the president’s office said in a statement, adding that it would inform the Russian ambassador of the expulsions. reuters.com
- Polish fighters probably involved in attack on Belgorod. t-online.de
EU Commission proposes action plan against illegal migration: The new programme contains a total of 18 measures, including proposals for combating people smuggling, for better border management and for repatriation processes, announced EU Commissioner Ylva Johansson. Legal possibilities to enter the EU are also included in the action plan. The EU interior ministers will meet this Thursday in Luxembourg. Among other things, they will discuss whether there should be preliminary checks of asylum applications at the EU’s external borders. zeit.de
- Four million Ukrainian refugees in the EU. faz.net
- UK government looking at four more sites for asylum vessels. theguardian.com
EU wants Google, Facebook to start labeling AI-generated content: In a bid to clamp down on disinformation online, the European Commission wants tech companies like Google, Facebook and TikTok to start labeling content created by artificial intelligence without waiting for digital laws to come into effect. politico.eu
- Twitter has chosen ‚confrontation‘ with Brussels over disinformation code of conduct. euronews.com
Police raid EU Parliament offices: Belgian police on Tuesday conducted searches at the European Parliament offices of two MEPs charged with corruption in the cash-for-influence scandal dubbed Qatargate. According to two witnesses, several police officers conducted searches at the offices of Italian MEP Andrea Cozzolino and Belgian MEP Marc Tarabella around midday on the 15th floor of the Parliament’s Altiero Spinelli building. politico.eu
Contrasting opinions on the creation of a European army: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was cautious about the idea. „We should prioritise what we currently have to do,“ he said at the WDR „Europaforum“ in Berlin. He said it was first necessary to strengthen European cooperation in arms production to make it more efficient. EU Commission President Ursula von Leyen, on the other hand, supported the idea of a European army. NATO is not everywhere, she said, and there are certainly scenarios where the EU is in demand. Von der Leyen explained that the EU must be in a position to take decisive action. sueddeutsche.de
- Von der Leyen is putting the brakes on Germany’s demand to abolish unanimity in EU decision-making. n-tv.de
Next European election to be held in June 2024: With the European elections one year away, EU political parties are already beginning to prepare their manifestos, kicking election preparations into gear. But much has changed in the four years since the last European elections, with the institutions increasingly taking centre stage amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. euronews.com
Anti-fraud agency: Almost 430 million euros of EU money misused handelsblatt.com
Meeting in Antwerp: EU states want to fight organised crime rnd.de
EU vaccine certificate: WHO to seek global certificate system, inspired by EU’s COVID pass medicalxpress.com
Protection against respiratory virus: EU Commission approves vaccine for elderly against RS virus handelsblatt.com
Schengen zone: Romanian MEP says EU court only way for Romania to enter Schengen euractiv.com
Europe’s Unitary Patent: Boosting innovation and simplifying patent protection euronews.com
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
EU Commission Vice President Vera Jourova said Twitter has chosen „confrontation“ with the European Commission by leaving the European Union’s voluntary code of conduct against online disinformation. euronews.com
NATION
EU court finds Poland guilty in rule-of-law dispute: The EU stepped up its rule-of-law fight with member state Poland on Monday when the bloc’s highest court confirmed that Warsaw had refused to comply with EU rules on judicial independence. The Court of Justice of the EU ruled that Poland’s 2019 justice reform infringed EU law after the European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch, said that the Polish Supreme Court lacked the necessary independence and impartiality. apnews.com
Poland’s president Duda proposes amendments to law on Russian influence: Andrzej Duda said he was aware of objections, including in Poland, to the law proposed by the governing conservative Law and Justice party and was addressing them by sending proposed revisions to parliament. In its current form, the law would create a powerful committee, ostensibly meant to investigate Russian influence in Poland. However, critics see it as primarily targeting opposition leader Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister who also served as a top EU official. apnews.com
- Tusk sees democracy in Poland in danger. He said the attacks of the ruling PiS party on the pillars of democracy would not be accepted quietly. zeit.de
- Hundreds of thousands march in Poland anti-government protests to show support for democracy. apnews.com
Plan to reign in tensions in north Kosovo: The Kosovo office of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has announced a nine-point plan to de-escalate tensions in the north of Kosovo and get both sides back to the negotiating table to normalise relations amid declining faith in the EU from certain stakeholders. The plan aims at achieving lasting peace and stability in the north of Kosovo and the return of Kosovo Serbs to democratic institutions and processes. euractiv.com
Austrian Social Democrats announce wrong leader after technical error: Austria’s Social Democratic party has admitted a technical error in an Excel file led to it announcing the wrong candidate as its new leader. Officials at the centre-left SPÖ said on Monday that Andreas Babler, the mayor of the south-eastern city of Traiskirchen, had in fact won the race, and not Hans Peter Doskozil, the governor of the south-eastern Burgenland region, who had been declared the winner on Saturday. theguardian.com
French pension plan protests erupt again: Street demonstrations and transport strikes disrupted France again on Tuesday as another day of protests against a widely unpopular pension overhaul took place, in what appeared to be a last-ditch effort to pressure the authorities into scrapping the changes. The new pension law is already on the statute books and after months of rare unity among the biggest trade unions, there are now divisions over where to focus energies. nytimes.com, reuters.com
Bulgaria gets new government: Bulgaria’s parliament has formally approved the country’s new government proposed by the two main political rivals in a bid to end a 30-months-long political crisis, restore stability and spur economic development in the poorest EU member country. The GERB party of ex-Premier Boyko Borissov, which won the April general election, and the runner-up, the pro-European liberal coalition “We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria” have agreed to form the first-ever Bulgarian government where the post of prime minister will change hands halfway through. apnews.com
Scholz welcomes Macron for dinner in Potsdam: It was the first time that the German Chancellor welcomed a head of state or government to his place of residence. Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron met for dinner and a walk through the centre of Potsdam. The conversation that followed is likely to have been about the Ukraine war, among other things, but also about European issues such as the EU Commission’s proposals for a reform of debt rules – a particularly controversial topic between Germany and France. tagesspiegel.de
Italy won’t give up National Recovery Plan funding, says minister: Italian Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti wants to settle the dispute regarding delays in implementing the national recovery plan, claiming that the European Commission is also interested in Italy investing and moving forward. euractiv.com
Tens of thousands gather in Serbia’s anti-government protest: The protest marked the one-month anniversary of the country’s first school shooting on 3 May, when a teenager killed ten in an elementary school. In the second shooting on 4 May, a 21-year-old man killed eight in a town outside Belgrade. Opposition parties which organised the protest – the fifth in the space of a month – say the government of President Aleksandra Vucic has failed to tackle the promotion of violence in the media and allowed it to permeate society. reuters.com
Portugal imposes water restrictions in Algarve: Water restrictions are being implemented in the Algarve to address the worsening situation of drought in the region, Portugal’s Minister of Environment announced on Thursday. Portugal’s worsening drought shows no signs of letting up, with summer just around the corner and little to no rainfall expected. portugalresident.com
Switzerland: Police and army hit by cyberattack swissinfo.ch
France signs off €7.5bn chip factory euractiv.com
Greece: Centre-right set to win second election round euractiv.com
Slovakia’s former justice minister indicted over Facebook status euractiv.com
NUMBERS
The global economy is likely slowing sharply this year, hobbled by high interest rates, the repercussions of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the lingering effects of the coronavirus pandemic. That’s the latest outlook of the World Bank, which estimates that the international economy will expand just 2.1% in 2023 after growing 3.1% in 2022. fortune.com
AT LAST
Russia’s military falsely claimed to have destroyed a Leopard tank: Russia’s military claimed a prize hit in Ukraine: the German-made Leopard 2 main battle tank. But the video Russian officials released to prove it doesn’t show a Leopard tank. Clues that the video offers show that the Russian attack actually destroyed an abandoned tractor or combine with a lowered ladder. businessinsider.com