Eurotopics.net

The ten-year gas contract between Russia and Ukraine expires at the end of the year. Currently both countries are negotiating new contracts for the supply and transit of gas to the EU. The process revolves around bilateral claims running into the billions as well as the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 2, which will render transit via Ukraine to Northern Europe obsolete. How can the tensions be resolved?

Thousands of tractors lined up in front of Brandenburg Gate on Tuesday and there was traffic chaos and hay on the Champs-Elysées on Wednesday. But it's not only in Germany and France that farmers are venting their anger. In the Netherlands and Denmark, for example, they're demonstrating against new environmental regulations and for better pay. Are the farmers' protests justified?

Shortly before COP25 - the UN Climate Change Conference - kicks off in Madrid, a new UN report has set alarm bells ringing: the goals of the Paris Agreement can only be met by slashing greenhouse emissions by seven percent per year over the next decade. None of the national climate plans formulated so far would achieve this goal. On the contrary, greenhouse gas emissions are increasing worldwide. Commentators demand action.

The European Parliament approved Ursula von der Leyen's new EU Commission by 461 votes to 151 on Wednesday. Europe's commentators see this as a success for the new Commission president but suspect she won't always receive this much backing from the Parliament in the future.

The prime minister of Malta, Joseph Muscat, is under growing pressure over the 2017 murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. On Monday his chief of staff Keith Schembri resigned, followed shortly afterward by tourism minister Konrad Mizzi. Economics minister Chris Cardona has suspended himself from duty. All three men are under investigation. Commentators demand consequences, also at the EU level.