A collection of 174 posts
Albania may be about to announce the findings of exploratory fossil fuel drillings of such a magnitude that they will change Europe’s energy landscape, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama announced Tuesday. “The signs show that we may be close to a very important discovery of gas and oil underground,
Fossil fuel prices in Europe have increased notably since the onset of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Mercator Research Institute (MCC) writes in its new report. Higher prices affect households across EU countries differently, it adds. Financial impacts would constitute average additional ‘overnight’ costs for households of more than
The European Commission (EC) adopted a EUR 300bn proposal for the 27-country bloc to be entirely independent of Russian energy by 2027, on Wednesday 18 May. “We must now reduce as soon as possible our dependency on Russian fossil fuels. I’m deeply convinced we can,” EC President Ursula von
The EU failed to agree on its latest sanctions against Russia on Tuesday, as Hungary refused to drop its threat to torpedo the package. Consensus on a blanket embargo of Russian oil remains elusive and could take another “week or two”, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said on Monday,
G7 ministers expressed their concern about the “deepening political crisis” in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and support for the commencement of EU accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia, following a meeting in northern Germany at the weekend. In a strongly worded joint statement, the foreign ministers of the US,
MEPs on the environment committee of the European Parliament (ENVI) will vote on a tranche of environmental proposals early next week. On Monday and Tuesday (16-17 May), the ENVI will decide on around half of the regulations detailed in the European Commission’s Fit for 55 package to cut greenhouse
The war in Ukraine is a further nail in the coffin of the Pax Americana. Donald Trump began the dismantling of the US-dominated world order and post-WWII security apparatus, and now the job is being completed by Joe Biden. After last year’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Western response – or
A group of four European budget airlines have allied to lobby against them shouldering the bulk of the cost of the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) aviation fuel reform. Ryanair, easyJet, Jet2 and Wizz Air say they support climate goals for every flight from Europe – not just internal EU
EU Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic laid out the bloc’s plans how to build capacity in critical raw materials for batteries along the value chain after a meeting of the Competitiveness Council this week. “We know that the broad deployment of clean and digital technologies will lead to a rising
The European Commission (EC) on Thursday announced its intension to extend the validity of EU Digital COVID Certificates by another year, to 30 June 2023. The EC said the move will ensure that travellers can continue to use their certificate when travelling inside EU member states that maintain certain public
One well-known energy resource has great potential as an increasingly cost-effective source of clean energy: namely, hydrogen. It can play an important role in Europe’s CO2-free energy supply, through its low-carbon green and blue forms. Investment bank Goldman Sachs estimates that hydrogen could meet up to a quarter of
Estonia and Austria have the cleanest economies in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) according to the latest annual report by the anti-corruption NGO Transparency International (TI). Austria and Estonia ranked joint 13th worldwide, of the 180 countries surveyed, after scoring 74 out of 100 on TI’s 2021 Corruption Perceptions
Household consumption expenditure decreased by an unprecedented 8% in the EU year-on-year in 2020, according to a new survey by the official EU statistics agency Eurostat. However as the EU-27 registered falls in household expenditure, only four countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) were below the EU average 8%
Wholesale electricity prices reached all-time highs in Europe in the third quarter of 2021, spiking by 211% year-on-year, the European Commission (EC) reports. In Poland, Romania, Czechia, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia, average monthly prices for baseload power – the permanent minimum load that a power supply system is required to deliver
MEPs voted through the Digital Services Act (DSA) in a plenary vote at the European Parliament on Thursday afternoon. The DSA could serve as a “new global golden standard for tech-regulation”, MEP Christel Schaldemose said. A key inclusion in the DSA was a ban on online advertisements targeting minors, as