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Germany voiced optimism over energy security, while Spain promises to help countries who are suffering from "Putin's energy blackmail".

Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom announced on Tuesday a reduction in gas deliveries to major French utility Engie, citing a disagreement on the application of the contracts. Gas supplies from Gazprom to Engie had decreased significantly since the beginning of the war in late February, but the French company said in a statement that it had secured enough gas volumes to supply consumers and its own needs.

The EU will donate over five million potassium iodide pills to protect Ukrainians from potential radiation exposure around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, after a request from Ukraine. The tablets, sent via the EU Civil Protection Mechanism and costing over €500,000, would be used in "limited scenarios," the European Commission said on Monday. "No nuclear power plant should ever be used as a war theatre," said EU commissioner Janez Lenarčič.  

Germany's annual inflation rate rose to 7.9 percent in August, returning to its highest level in half a century after it dipped in the two previous months, AP reported. Inflation hit 7.9 percent in May — the highest rate since the 1973-1974 oil crisis— before slipping to 7.5 percent by July. The statistics office said energy prices were up 35.6 percent on the year and food prices rose 16.6 percent.

France and Germany have promised further economic sanctions on Russia in future, while urging EU hawks to drop calls for a ban on Russian tourists.

Lithuania last week completed its four-metre-high, 550km-long border fence with Belarus, costing around €150m. The controversial barrier aims to stop irregular migrants from crossing into Lithuania from Belarus. The European Court of Justice in June found Lithuanian legislation allowing mass detention and preventing asylum requests for irregular arrivals in violation of EU law. Rights groups like Amnesty have also faulted Lithuania's abusive practices against migrants.

Brazil will need European help to protect biodiversity in the Amazon forest, Brazilian presidential contender and ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silv told MEPs Monday, Reuters reports. "Brazil needs to share research so that everything that is rich in that region can be discovered. Brazil will not close itself in," he said, adding: "It will be very clear, if I win the elections, that Brazil needs help from the EU".

The surging price of gas triggered a six-fold increase in profit at Woodside, Australia's largest producer of liquified natural gas, and chief executive Meg O'Neill predicted demand from Europe will continue to grow as the continent struggles to quit Russian gas. "What we've seen is unprecedented," O'Neill told the Financial Times. "Prices at this level are not sustainable in the long run," he added.

The West and Russia are in a "proxy conflict" in Serbia, Serb president Aleksandar Vučić has said after pro-Russian protesters joined right-wing ones calling for a ban on EuroPride. "I can't say that it [the protest] was a proxy attack because there were many ordinary people there ... but whether there's a proxy conflict in Serbia ... there is one, no doubt about that, East and West," he told Reuters.

Germany has said the massive deaths of fish in the Oder river were due to man-made pollution and blamed Poland for not sharing information fast enough. The reasons were "multiple and man-made" and linked to "heat, low water levels and man-made discharges", German federal environment Minister Steffi Lemke said Monday, German media reported. "If we had been informed faster by Poland, we could have reacted faster," she said.

Ukrainian troops are mounting a long-awaited counteroffensive in the southern region of Kherson, military officials have said. Ukrainian troops have broken through Russian defences in several areas of the frontline near the city, Oleksiy Arestovych a senior adviser to Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky claimed on Monday. Russia's defence ministry acknowledged a new Ukrainian offensive had been launched in the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, but said it had failed.

The EU is working on an "emergency intervention" plan to stem surging energy prices, which may require "structural reform of the electricity market" Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said.

EU foreign service chief Josep Borrell bemoaned on Monday that there was "no substantial outcome" during the four-week review of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), blaming Russia for its "unwillingness to join the consensus". "In the current severe security environment, a meaningful outcome strengthening existing norms … would have been needed more than ever," he said. The tenth NPT review was postponed due to the pandemic.

EU energy ministers will gather in Brussels for a specially-convened extraordinary meeting next Friday (9 September), the Czech minister of industry and trade Jozef Síkela announced. "We must fix the energy market. Solution on the EU level is by far the best we have," he tweeted. Pressure has been mounting on EU states to reform the energy market, after Germany, Belgium and Austria recently favoured decoupling gas and electricity prices.

French prime minister Elisabeth Borne warned company bosses on Monday about the risk of energy rationing this winter and urged them to take steps to reduce their consumption, AFP reported. "If we act collectively then we can overcome the risk of shortages, but unless everyone takes part and if all the bad-case scenarios come together then we could be forced to impose reductions on consumers," she said.

Russian tourists are likely to pay €80 instead of €35 for EU visas in future, as the bloc's hawks and doves debate how far to go with travel sanctions.

UN inspectors are expected to arrive at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia plant later this week, after months of seeking access to the site.

The vision of the founding fathers was to curb the absolute sovereignty of the bellicose European states rather than to vest absolute sovereignty in a new overarching European empire.

In a speech about the future of Europe, the German chancellor argued for majority voting in some policy areas — and institutional reform to prepare for enlargement eastwards.

An investigation by Lighthouse Reports and media partners including EUobserver found Italian firms Tykelab and RCS Lab were using surreptitious phone network attacks and sophisticated spyware against targets. The findings have spiked the interest of MEPs already probing spyware abuse.