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Germany and Denmark will be connected by a 470km underwater cable by 2030, and Danish electricity production in the Baltic Sea doubled to 3GW, from offshore wind turbines placed 15-45km from the island of Bornholm, Danish energy minister Dan Jørgensen said on Monday. The project will reduce CO2 emissions and make Europe more independent from Russian gas and oil. The two countries will share investment and profits.

Russia's security agency said Monday it had identified a second Ukrainian it alleged was involved in the killing of the daughter of a Russian nationalist ideologue and close ally of president Vladimir Putin, AP reported. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), said that Ukrainian national Bogdan Tsyganenko helped in the killing of Darya Dugina, the daughter of Alexander Dugin. The FSB claimed that Tsyganenko helped the main suspect, Natalya Vovk.

Swedish prime minister Magdalena Andersson said on Monday Sweden would provide a further 500m Swedish kroner (€46.78m) in military assistance to Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russia's invasion, Reuters reported. Sweden would provide a total additional military and civilian aid package of €94.06m Andersson told reporters, after hosting Ukraine foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba, who asked for howitzers and shells. Andersson did not give details on the military aid.

Russian firm Rosatom will begin construction of two reactors at Hungary's Paks plant in the next few weeks, Hungary's foreign minister said Saturday. "In this manner we will ensure Hungary's energy security in the long term and protect Hungarians from wild swings in energy prices," Péter Szijjártó said on Facebook. The Paks deal was clinched in 2014. EU sanctions on Russia do not cover its nuclear industry.

"Nato must increase its presence in the Arctic", due to Russian and Chinese efforts to boost military power in the region, Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. He also visited the Canadian high north for three days late last week. Nato has stationed 40,000 Russia-deterrent forces in the Baltic Sea and Black Sea regions in reaction to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The European Central Bank is ready to keep raising interest rates to combat inflation, going beyond an expected 50-basis points rise in September if need be, the French central bank governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on Saturday. "Have no doubt that we at the ECB would if needed raise rates further beyond normalisation: bringing inflation back to 2% is our responsibility," he said, Reuters reports.

Four judges' associations have challenged an EU Commission and Council decision in June to approve Poland's plan on how to spend €24bn in post-pandemic recovery funds. The June decisions "fall short of what is required to ensure the effective judicial protection" of payments to Poland, the judges groups — the AEAJ, the EAJ, Rechters voor Rechters, and MEDEL — said after lodging their appeal in the EU general court.

Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić has said Belgrade cannot host EuroPride in September because the government needs to focus on problems with Kosovo instead of policing the event. "Simply, at some point, you can't handle everything," he said Saturday. He spoke after a homophobic protests earlier this month. But EuroPride organiser Marko Mihailović said "the state cannot cancel" it and the rally and party would go ahead anyway.

Kosovo and Serbia have partly solved a border dispute, with Serbia to let Kosovo ID holders go back and forth without Serbian papers, and Kosovo to let Serbian ID holders do the same without new permits. "We have a deal," EU foreign service chief Josep Borrell tweeted Saturday. Kosovo still wants ethnic Serbians living in its territory to stop using Serbian number plates on their cars, however.

EU foreign ministers, meeting in Prague Tuesday, are to suspend a Russia visa-facilitation agreement, making it harder and more expensive for Russians to obtain a travel permit, the FT reports, citing an EU official as saying it was "inappropriate for Russian tourists to stroll in our cities". Estonia and Finland had earlier called for a Russia tourist-visa ban, but this was rejected by Germany and the EU foreign service.

The rate of Turkish visa applications rejected by the EU has gone up from 4 percent in 2015 to 12.5 percent in 2020 and 16.5 percent in 2021, according to data cited by Reuters. "If the situation does not improve after that we will take counter, restrictive measures," Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said. "No decisions are taken on political grounds but rather on objective grounds," the EU said.

A recent consultation, which ended in June, constituted the first step toward legislation from Brussels on a digital euro. From a legislative standpoint, adoption of a digital euro will particularly require laws in areas such as privacy and anti-money laundering.

As European Parliament hearings into hacking scandals resume this week, an investigation led by Lighthouse Reports with EUobserver, Der Spiegel, Domani and Irpimedia reveals the unreported scale of operations at a shady European surveillance outfit.

Hungary has granted licences for Russia's Rosatom to build two new reactors at its Paks nuclear power plant, reports Reuters. The Hungarian Nuclear Energy Authority on Thursday said the existing Russian-built 2-gigawatt plant at Paks can be expanded with two new reactors. Critics say Hungary's prime minister Viktor Orban has been cosying up to Russia's president Vladimir Putin even as Russia wages a war in Ukraine.

The cost of French power has jumped to a record-breaking €900 per megawatt-hour, over 10 times the price at this time last year. The surge is driven by outages in the country's nuclear fleet, amid tighter hydropower supplies due to record drought and uncertainty, as Russian gas supply is set to drop from 31 August when Russia shut downs the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany for three days of maintenance.

The frontrunner to become the next UK prime minister, Liz Truss, said that the "jury is out" on whether French president Emmanuel Macron is "a foe or an ally". Truss added that she would hold Macron "to deeds not words", if she were elected prime minister. The comments were made Thursday evening at a campaign event. A new UK prime minister is due to be announced on 5 September.

Finland will host talks with Turkey and Sweden to discuss the Nordic countries' dual Nato bids. All 30 Nato members need to ratify their applications, but Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government has threatened to withhold approval unless Stockholm agrees to extradite 73 people. Sweden has begun deportations of two people wanted by Turkey. But alliance officials cautioned against hoping for any breakthroughs from Friday's talks, the Financial Times reported.

The German government has approved a new bylaw lowering the heating of public buildings, and banning illuminated advertising hoardings for at least the next six months, the Guardian reported. Indoor civic spaces will be heated to a maximum of 19C, under the moves which come into force next week as a bid to reduce energy consumption in the light of the Ukraine war.

Greek MPs on Friday are set to debate a wiretapping scandal that has ensnared Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in a political battle with Syriza opposition leader Alexis Tsipras. The two are to face off at the Greek parliament after opposition Pasok leader Nikos Androulakis had his phone tapped by state intelligence service EYP, which reports to Mitsotakis office. Mitsotakis has denied any involvement.

Lawmakers in Spain passed legislation where consent on sex must be affirmative and cannot be assumed to have been given by default or silence, reports the Guardian newspaper. Also known "as the only yes means yes law", the legislation passed with 205 votes in favour, 141 against and 3 abstentions. The far-right Vox voted against it.