Euobserver.com

Adapting Europe's energy grid to a system largely run on renewable power will cost €584bn between now and 2030, according to a leaked EU Commission document seen by news agency Reuters. The commission is set to publish an action plan to build smart grids able to respond faster to intermittent local-supply fluctuations associated with wind and solar power.

A Special Tribunal on Russian war crimes in Ukraine must be convened, because no permanent or existing international judicial institution is endowed with jurisdiction over Russian high-ranking officials, writes the head of the Ukraine delegation to the Council of Europe.

EU diplomats are having to be ever-more creative in finding Russians to blacklist, after already designating 1,206 names.

Italy's economy depends a lot on the recovery fund, and on the bond buying scheme of the European Central Bank, and Meloni is ulikely torisk it for a "freedom fight" against the EU.

France has increased projected public expenditure for 2023 with another €7.5bn compared to the last draft in August.

While in 2015 the top-declaring companies spent roughly €90m between them on lobbying the EU, this figure increased to almost €120 million in 2022.

Finland says there has not yet been a dramatic increase in Russian nationals trying to enter Finland from Russia, noting just over 4,800 Russian nationals crossed the land border on the day of Vladimir Putin's announcement of the draft.

Should Georgia Meloni be considered neofascist? She insists she's a patriotic conservative. And indeed, if she's prime minister, she's expected to respect Italy's democracy — if only to keep money flowing from the EU.

With Italy heading to the ballot boxes this Sunday, let's take a look at what EUobserver has published that can help understand the country's swing to the (far)-right.

Russians fleeing a military draft won't get into Estonia or Latvia, posing questions what Finland, Lithuania, and Poland would do if there is a large exodus.

Russia's president Vladimir Putin threat of nuclear war is another sign of his desperation in Ukraine, says the European Commission.

Morocco refused to grant a group of Left MEPs access to the Nador crossing point from the Spanish-enclave of Melilla on Tuesday (20 September). The MEPs had wanted to gain access as part of an investigation into the death of over 23 asylum seekers after some 2,000 attempted to scale the wall into the Melilla on 24 June. "We were denied access without any justification," said Left MEP Cornelia Ernst.

Germany has confirmed the nationalisation of Uniper, the country's largest gas-importer — in a bid to secure operations and prevent supply shortages following Russian supply cuts.

Dutch leader Mark Rutte, the Belgian prime minister Alexander de Croo, and the EU Council chairman Charles Michel have urged calm after Russian president Vladimir Putin threatened to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia. "His rhetoric on nuclear weapons is something we have heard many times before, and it leaves us cold," Rutte said. "It is all part of the rhetoric we know. I would advise to remain calm."

The Strasbourg-based Council of Europe human rights watchdog on Wednesday rejected referendums "held at gunpoint by occupying forces" in several Ukrainian regions, urging the end of the war on the continent. "We reject this mockery of democracy and reaffirm our commitment to the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of our member state Ukraine within its internationally-recognised borders," said the secretary general of the Council of Europe, Marija Pejčinović Burić.

Lithuania on Wednesday increased alert levels of its army "to prevent any provocations from Russia," the country's defence minister Arvydas Anusauskas wrote on Facebook, after Moscow announced on the same day a partial military mobilisation for the war in Ukraine. "As Russia's military mobilisation will also be carried out in the Kaliningrad region, our neighbourhood, Lithuania cannot merely watch," he said, asking that support for Ukraine be increased.

Finland said on Wednesday that it is monitoring the situation in neighbouring Russia, after president Vladimir Putin ordered the country's first military mobilisation since World War Two, Reuters reported. "Regarding Finland's surroundings, I can say that the military situation is stable and calm," said Finnish defence minister Antti Kaikkonen, pointing out that "defence forces are well prepared and the situation is closely monitored".

One-way flights out of Russia were selling out fast on Wednesday after president Vladimir Putin ordered the immediate mobilisation of 300,000 reservists, Reuters reported. Putin's announcement raised fears that some men of fighting age would not be allowed to leave Russia. Direct flights from Moscow to Turkey's Istanbul and Armenia's Yerevan, which both allow Russians in without a visa, were sold out, according to Aviasales, Russia's most popular flight website.

From 2050 onwards, the EU should remove more greenhouse gases than it emits — a great challenge. Are the member states ready for this challenge? The answer is no.

The EU has lifted some restrictions on the trade and financing of Russian coal and chemical to avoid an energy and food security crisis in poorer countries, but the upcoming ban on oil may have an even deeper impact.