Eurotopics.net

Berlin and Washington have settled their dispute over Nord Stream 2. The US will withdraw all sanctions in connection with the gas pipeline in return for Germany agreeing to support green energy projects that will make Ukraine less dependent on Russian gas. What does the deal mean for Berlin, Washington and the Eastern European states?

The new report on the rule of law in the EU once again focuses on Poland and Hungary: the EU Commission criticises cronyism in the distribution of EU funds in Hungary, restricted press freedom and discrimination against minorities. Poland has also been given an ultimatum to correct two court decisions that ignore ECJ rulings.

Norway is commemorating the victims of the attack on 22 July 2011 today. The right-wing extremist Anders Breivik killed eight people with a car bomb in the government district of Oslo and then shot 69 people on the island of Utøya, most of them youths at a Norwegian Labour Party Youth summer camp. Breivik was sentenced in 2012 to 21 years in prison followed by preventive detention.

The European Handball Federation (EHF) has fined Norway's women beach handball players for wearing shorts instead of the prescribed close fitting bikini bottoms. Each player was fined 150 euros after the European Championship match for third place. At the behest of the Norwegian federation, the EHF now plans to have the rules changed at the International Federation level. But the outraged reactions continue unabated.

Turkish President Erdoğan has visited Varosha in occupied Northern Cyprus to mark the anniversary of the invasion by Turkish troops in 1974. The coastal district from which the Greek Cypriots fled during the invasion is now a ghost town and a symbol of the division of Cyprus. But despite international criticism, Erdoğan is pressing ahead with plans to reopen it.