Newsletter
Newsletter
EUROPE
Drone attacks on Russian territory: The Russian defence ministry said the strikes on two air bases Monday – followed by an attack on an air field Tuesday – were carried out by Ukrainian drones. The drone attack on Tuesday targeted a Russian airfield in the border Kursk region, setting fire to an oil storage tank, the region’s governor announced. The Kremlin said that President Wladimir Putin convened a meeting of his Security Council to discuss how to ensure the state’s domestic security. The US has denied any involvement in the drone attacks on Russian bases. cnn.com, dw.com, france24.com
Price cap on Russian oil leads to oil tanker traffic jam: EU sanctions on Russian oil prices came into force on Monday. Tankers carrying Russian crude oil must not carry western maritime insurance unless it is sold under the $60 ($49) a barrel G7 price cap. The cap was introduced in an attempt to curb Russia’s fossil fuel revenues while ensuring oil continues to flow and the maritime insurance industry was not damaged. A traffic jam of oil tankers has grown off Turkey, as Turkish authorities demanded that insurers prove that the ships heading through its straits are fully insured. theguardian.com
- Poland reverses course, accepts German air defence system. apnews.com
- Latvia shuts down exiled Russian TV channel Dozhd. politico.eu
- Lithuania dismantles Soviet statues in Vilnius. n-tv.de
Hungary vetoes Ukraine aid: The Hungarian government blocked agreement on an €18 billion aid package for Ukraine, forcing the European Commission and the other EU countries to seek an alternative solution to ensure Kyiv gets much-needed funds in January. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has chosen to play hardball, using the need for his approval for Ukraine aid as leverage to secure his share of EU and recovery funds. The EU has sought to hold back some funds destined for Hungary because of rule-of-law breaches. politico.eu
Missile fragments found in Moldova near Ukraine border: Moldovan police on Monday found fragments of a missile that came down in a region of northern Moldova near the border with Ukraine, state information portal Prima Sursa quoted the police as saying. Moldovan authorities did not immediately comment publicly on the incident, which was reported after Russia carried out a new wave of missile strikes on Ukraine. In November, two Poles were killed near the border by an Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile. reuters.com, cnn.com
Macron’s idea of security guarantees to Russia faces backlash: French President Emmanuel Macron’s idea the West should consider how to address Moscow’s need for security guarantees to end the war in Ukraine has drawn sharp criticism from Kyiv and several EU politicians. “One of the essential points we must address – as [Russian] president [Vladimir] Putin has always said – is the fear that NATO comes right up to its doors and the deployment of weapons that could threaten Russia,” Macron said in an interview on Saturday. Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, questioned providing such guarantees “to a terrorist and killer state.” euractiv.com
EU and Western Balkans boost partnership amid Ukraine war: For the six Western Balkans countries aspiring to join the EU, gaining full membership in the 27-nation club remains a distant goal. But Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia are getting more concrete signs that they have a future place in the EU as Russia’s war in Ukraine threatens to reshape the geopolitical balance in southeastern Europe. During a summit Tuesday in Albania’s capital Tirana, European Council President Charles Michel also underscored the EU’s energy support to the region as the war impacts supplies and prices. apnews.com
EU countries adopt a common position on Artificial Intelligence rulebook: The AI Act is a flagship legislative proposal to regulate Artificial Intelligence technology based on its potential to cause harm. The EU Commission proposed the AI rules last year, seeking to catch up with China and the United States in a technology used in smartphones, computers, self-driving cars, online shopping and advertising, and factories. The draft rules need to be hashed out with EU countries and EU lawmakers next year before they can be implemented. euractiv.com, nasdaq.com
Council makes headway towards EU digital wallet: The Council of the EU adopted its common position on the proposed legislation regarding the framework for a European digital identity. The revised regulation aims to ensure universal access for people and businesses to secure and trustworthy electronic identification and authentication by means of a personal digital wallet on a mobile phone. consilium.europa.eu
EU agrees to bans imports of products that drive deforestation: The draft law, which aims to ensure deforestation-free supply chains for the 27-nation EU, was hailed by environmental groups as groundbreaking. It requires companies importing into the EU to guarantee products are not produced on land that suffered deforestation after 31 December 2020, and that they comply with all laws of the source country. france24.com
China operating over 100 police stations across the world: According to reports by CNN and The Guardian, Beijing has set up more than 100 so-called overseas police stations across the globe to monitor, harass and in some cases repatriate Chinese citizens living in exile, using bilateral security arrangements struck with countries in Europe and Africa to gain a widespread presence internationally. cnn.com, theguardian.com
Amazon reportedly reaches deal with EU regulators over anti-competitive practices cnbc.com
Clubhouse app operator fined $2M for GDPR violations complianceweek.com
American subsidies for green industry: US and EU meet with little progress on green plan tensions euractiv.com
Defence: EU Commission unlocks 1.2 billion euros from the European Defence Fund orf.at
Mediterranean: Several hundred migrants rescued tagesschau.de
Investigation uncovers EU-wide horse meat criminal network euractiv.com
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has urged the Balkan nations to choose camps. france24.com
NATION
German constitutional court says EU debt is lawful as a crisis response: The Next Generation EU programme financed by EU debt does not overstep the EU’s competences as long as it is clearly linked to the economic crisis that was triggered by the Covid pandemic, the German constitutional court ruled. A group of German economists had asked the court to assess whether the decision on the EU’s own resources, which the German parliament ratified in February 2021, would constitute a breach of the principle that European integration can only happen on the basis of the competencies assigned to the EU as defined in the German constitution. euractiv.com
Teenage girl dies after knife attack near school in southern Germany: A 14-year-old girl has died after being attacked by a man with a knife on her way to school, German police said. Another teenage girl, aged 13, was also injured in the incident. The suspect reportedly fled into a nearby refugee centre where officers later detained three men, including the suspected attacker, a 27-year-old Eritrean man. Investigators have found no evidence of a religious or political motive for the attack, a senior German security official said on Tuesday. euronews.com
Hungarian government scraps price cap on fuels as shortage worsens: Hungary’s government scrapped a price cap on fuels after a lack of imports and panic buying led to fuel shortages across the country in the past days. Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff told a briefing late Tuesday the government had to abolish the price cap, which was introduced a year ago, immediately. reuters.com
Speed far above the limit and we’ll take your car, Austria says: Drivers in Austria guilty of extreme speeding will have their cars seized and auctioned off, the government said on Monday, seeking to deter „boy racers“ by threatening to take away their prize possession. Specifically, anyone caught driving 60 km per hour (37 miles per hour) above the speed limit in towns, where the speed limit is usually up to 50 kph, or 70 kph above the limit elsewhere, where the limit is up to 130 kph, will have their car seized for up to two weeks. If they are a repeat offender or they are a first offender going particularly fast, more than 80 kph above the limit in a town or more than 90 kph above it elsewhere, their car will be confiscated for good and usually auctioned off. reuters.com
Bulgaria rejects media report about refugee shot at border: Bulgaria rejected accusations that its border guards shot a Syrian refugee in October after a video released Monday showed a man being fired at on European country’s border with Turkey. The footage of an asylum-seeker being hit with live ammunition on 3 October was part of a joint investigation by several European media outlets led by Lighthouse Reports. The Bulgarian government argued that servicemembers guarding the border strictly followed international and domestic laws. apnews.com
France to crack down on illegal immigration with new law: French President Emmanuel Macron is set to make a second attempt at increasing expulsions of illegal immigrants under fierce pressure from his far-right opponents. Macron’s centrist government unveiled the outlines of a new draft immigration law on Tuesday that will be debated formally in parliament in early 2023. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said the law would allow France to “say who we want”’ and “who we don’t want” to allow permanent entry into France. “Zero immigration is neither desirable nor possible, and it’s no more realistic than unregulated immigration,” she said. france24.com
Afghans died because of Raab’s delay in reviewing documents, officials told: A meeting of UK justice ministry officials at which former foreign secretary Dominic Raab’s conduct was discussed was told people had died in the Afghanistan evacuation because of his refusal to review documents in formats which he did not like, the „Guardian“ has been told. Raab has previously faced criticism over his role in the chaotic Afghanistan evacuation after the fall of Kabul in August last year, when he was on holiday in Crete. theguardian.com
Albanian opposition leader attacked during anti-government protest: Albania’s former president and prime minister Sali Berisha, who now leads the centre-right Democratic Party, was leading hundreds of protesters towards the summit when a man came out of the crowd and punched him in the face. The attacker was immediately subdued by bodyguards. Witnesses saw Berisha with a bloodied face. euronews.com
Brussels terrorist attack trial opens: The trial against ten men accused of involvement in the March 2016 terrorist attacks in Brussels began on Monday, almost seven years after the bombings that killed 32 and wounded hundreds more. The bombings at the Brussels Airport and at a subway station in the centre of the city took place four months after a string of terrorist attacks in Paris. Both sets of assaults were claimed by the same cell of the Islamic State, with many of its members linked to the Brussels neighborhood of Molenbeek. nytimes.com
Greece: Violent protests after Romany boy shot by police theguardian.com
UK: Prime minister Sunak moves to lift de facto ban on onshore wind farms in England; Biden and Sunak agree to increase gas exports from US to UK ft.com; theguardian.com
Slovakia: Leak at Mochovce nuclear power plant n-tv.de
Nice attack trial: Prosecution set to deliver closing arguments france24.com
Dutch King orders investigation into the royals‘ colonial past reuters.com
Poland presses Germany to agree to pay World War II reparations zeit.de
Malta: Protests as parliament debates abortion amendment reuters.com
NUMBERS
Energy companies are worried about the Finnish government’s recently announced windfall tax proposal, which plans to tax 33% of excess profits from power companies in 2023, a more ambitious proposal than the baseline bloc ministers agreed to in September. euractiv.com
AT LAST
King Charles III is pelted by an egg again: Yet another egg was hurled toward the king during a walkabout in Luton, England, on Tuesday. A man in his 20s was arrested on suspicion of assault, police said. It isn’t the first time someone has thrown eggs at King Charles. When Charles and Queen Consort Camilla arrived in York in November for an official visit, a protester lobbed several eggs at him, barely missing. The protestor was heard shouting, “This country was built on the blood of slaves!” nypost.com