Euobserver.com

Russia has introduced an entry ban against 39 UK politicians, officials, business people and journalists for supporting the "demonisation" of the country, Reuters reports. The ban includes Labour party leader Keir Starmer, former prime minister David Cameron, and TV personality Piers Morgan. More than 200 other Britons have already banned by Moscow. The sanctions are largely symbolic, with those on the list unlikely to visit Russia in the forseeable future.

Bulgarian president Rumen Radev has set 2 October as the date for the country's fourth parliamentary election in less than two years. Anti-corruption and reformist prime minister Kiril Petkov's coalition government collapsed in June, and efforts to secure a new majority failed, Reuters reports. Radev appointed former labour minister Galab Donev to lead a caretaker government as Bulgaria is facing surging inflation, and doubts over gas supplies from Russia.

France, Italy and Spain are urging the EU Commission to introduce legislation that Big Tech firms partly finance telecoms infrastructure in the EU, Reuters revealed Monday. EU regulators said in May they were analysing whether tech giants Alphabet (Google), Meta and Netflix should also pay costs of upgrading telecoms networks. The three governments said in a letter that the six largest content providers accounted for 55 percent of internet traffic.

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez said his country fully supports North Macedonia's integration into the EU, AP reported. Sanchez held talks Sunday with North Macedonian prime minister Dimitar Kovachevski in the capital of Skopje, ahead of the last stop on his Western Balkan tour, visiting Albania on Monday. "We are more united now than ever before. You can count on me on your European perspective," Sánchez said.

Britain will require foreign companies holding UK property to identify their true owners in an official register, the British government said on Monday. The move is part of a crackdown on Russian oligarchs and corrupt elites laundering illicit wealth, Reuters reported. It will seek to stop the flow of illicit Russian cash into London, and to ensure criminals cannot hide behind secretive chains of shell companies.

Austrian leaders have appealed for an end to anti-vax hatred following the suicide of a well-known doctor, Lisa-Maria Kellermayr, who became vilified by the movement during the pandemic. "Hatred against people is inexcusable. This hatred must finally stop," health minister Johannes Rauch said Saturday, Reuters reports, after Kellermayr's body was found with a suicide note. "Hate and intolerance have no place in our Austria," president Alexander Van der Bellen said.

The uproar over Viktor Orbán's speech hides Hungary's deep economic woes — fuelled by steep inflation, rising energy costs, and the unsustainability of the price cap policy.

Switzerland would match EU sanctions on China imposed in the wake of any potential attack on Taiwan, a senior Swiss official has said. "I strongly believe that we would adopt such sanctions," Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch, in charge of sanctions implementation, told Neue Zuercher Zeitung Saturday. Her office had "no indication that there are many assets of sanctioned persons that have not yet been found" in Switzerland, referring to Russia asset-freezes.

Kosovo has put off new border rules with Serbia following another flare-up in ethnic violence.

Germany should stop using gas to produce electricity, finance minister Christian Lindner said on Sunday, news agency DPA reported. "We have to work on avoiding an electricity crisis on top of the gas crisis," Lindner said. Germany could continue using "safe and climate-friendly nuclear plants" to produce energy until 2024 if necessary, he argued. Nevertheless, economy minister Robert Habeck said such a move could trigger a "crisis" and "blackouts."

Spain reported its second monkeypox-related death on Saturday, after recording the first casualty on Friday. Only five deaths had been reported worldwide as of 22 July, all in the African region. But Brazil reported the first monkeypox-related death outside the African continent last Friday. Spain is one of the world's worst-hit countries, with 4,298 people infected. The World Health Organization recently declared monkeypox a global health emergency. 

Russian state-controlled Gazprom said on Saturday it suspended gas deliveries to Latvia — the last European country to suffer gas cuts amid tensions over the invasion of Ukraine. Latvian officials said the move would have little impact on the Baltic country since Riga had decided to ban Russian gas imports as of 2023, Reuters reported. EU energy ministers reached a deal to reduce gas use this winter by 15 percent.

The ship's departure for Lebanon was made possible thanks to an export agreement reached by Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN on 22 July.

The EU's investment package for development, the so-called 'Global Gateway', which Ursula von der Leyen described as the "future of the EU's development cooperation", seems fixated on boosting private sector investments in energy, infrastructure and climate-smart solutions in Africa.

Europeans howl in outrage about US backsliding on abortion rights — but they don't exactly have their own house in order. Take the case of Bianca. She's a Romanian.

Italian right-wing League leader Matteo Salvini's ties with Russia came under scrutiny again Thursday following questions about what led to the collapse of prime minister Mario Draghi's government, AFP reports. La Stampa newspaper revealed that a Russian diplomat met Salvini's aide in May, and asked if any of the ministers from Salvini's League party intended to resign. The League pulled out of the government last week, along with other parties.

Western sanctions are driving Russia toward "economic oblivion" despite reports to the contrary, a leading US university has said.

The Notre Dame cathedral in Paris is expected to reopen to worshippers and the public in 2024, culture minister Rima Abdul Malak said on Thursday, more than three years after its roof was destroyed in a massive blaze in 2019, AFP reports. The ministers said the clean-up phase of the restoration project had ended, allowing rebuilding work to get underway at the end of the summer.

German inflation increased in July driven by higher energy prices as Russia further reduced gas flows, Reuters reported. Consumer prices increased by 8.5 percent on the year, the federal statistics office said on Thursday. Energy prices were 35.7 percent higher in July against the same month last year, and food prices went up 14.8 percent in the EU's largest economy, both adding to high inflation, the statistics office said.

Former Russian TV presenter Marina Ovsyannikova was fined 50,000 roubles (€803) on Thursday after being found guilty of discrediting the country's armed forces in social media posts condemning Russia's actions in Ukraine, Reuters reports. Ovsyannikova, who came to worldwide prominence in March for holding an anti-war placard live on air on Russian state TV, rejected the proceedings against her as "absurd".