Euobserver.com

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, who is under EU sanctions, cancelled a trip to Serbia Monday after neighbouring countries Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Montenegro said their airspace would be closed to his jet in line with the EU measures, Reuters reports. "Our diplomacy has yet to master teleportation,"a Russian foreign ministry source told Russian news agency Interfax.

French president Emmanuel Macron has faced a backlash for telling French newspapers Saturday "we must not humiliate Russia" in Ukraine. "Calls to avoid humiliation of Russia can only humiliate France," Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said. Macron said he'd spoken for more than 100 hours by phone with Russian president Vladimir Putin in total. French efforts to mediate had been "a spectacular failure" former Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt said.

The latest round of EU sanctions has blacklisted Alina Kabaeva, said to be a girlfriend of Russian president Vladimir Putin. Kabaeva is a "former gymnast", who is on the board of a firm "that owns large stakes in almost all major Russian federal media", the EU sanctions said. She is "closely associated" with Putin, they added. Friday's sanctions included a partial oil embargo and bans on banks and TV channels.

Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, and Spain expect 150,000 migrants this year amid food-shortage worries caused by the Ukraine war, the Cypriot foreign minister said after the five countries' ministers met in Venice, Italy, Saturday, Reuters reports. "If wheat remains blocked in the Black Sea ports, we must expect a greater [migrant] flow," Italian interior minister Luciana Lamorgese said Friday. Some 123,000 people arrived in the five frontline states last year.

The UK is sending long-range missiles to Ukraine while Spain is sending tanks and anti-aircraft systems despite Russian threats. The British missiles will "enable our Ukrainian friends to better protect themselves against the brutal use of long-range artillery," UK defence minister Ben Wallace said. Ukrainian soldiers will be trained in the UK, Spain, and Latvia, Spanish newspaper El Pais said. Western help for Ukraine is a proxy war, Russia says.

A group of 50 CEOs has written an open letter urging MEPs to delay plans for a carbon border tax on industry ahead of votes on the EU Parliament's position on several green laws next week, Reuters reports. Energy-intensive industry lobbies EUROFER, Cefic, and Cembureau and farming pressure group Copa-Cogeca also wrote to MEPs seeking delays. Auto groups lobbied against zero-emission cars and airports warned against imposing new CO2-related costs.

The US is letting Italian firm Eni and Spanish company Repsol ship oil from Venezuela to Europe to offset an upcoming embargo on Russian supplies, Reuters reports. US sources said the sanctions workarounds would be limited in volume and restricted to EU countries amid fears of giving a boost to Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, who is on a US blacklist. The EU oil embargo comes into full force next year.

Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse could become a new breeding ground for terrorism and recruitment, says an EU internal document.

Twenty-five years after the conclusion of the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1997, the European Union is poised to overcome its notorious 'democratic deficit'.

Gas traders are scrambling to secure liquefied natural gas tankers much earlier than usual to prepare for winter, after the EU vowed to reduce its dependence on Russian gas by two-thirds by the end of the year, and import an extra 50bn cubic meters of overseas LNG from Shell, TotalEnergies and Unipec. "It's very hard to find any ships," Oystein Kalleklev, head of Flex LNG told the Financial Times.

Italy's media culture of sensationalist TV talkshows that invite pro-Russian guests to stir controversy is having an impact on public thinking about who is to blame for the war.

Researchers from EU-funded environmental organisations warn the portion of the €723.8bn recovery fund money to be spent on climate is being misused and hurts biodiversity and the environment — and the EU lacks monitoring tools to prevent it.

Researchers from EU-funded environmental organisations warn the portion of the €723.8bn recovery fund money to be spent on climate is being misused and hurts biodiversity and the environment — and the EU lacks monitoring tools to prevent it.

It's difficult to explain to our people how EU made immediate use of all diplomatic tools in the case of Ukraine after five-days of conflict — but has avoided to do the same in Palestine during the past 74 years.

"Our Turkish colleagues have expressed security concerns, terrorism in particular," Kai Sauer, a senior Finnish official told EUobserver, referring to Turkey's objection to Swedish and Finnish Nato membership on claims they harbour Kurdish separatists. "We're taking these concerns seriously and the dialogue with Turkey needs to continue," Sauer added, amid eagerness for a solution by Nato's June summit in Madrid. "We hope for a prompt resolution," Sauer said.

The EU's border police Frontex says that in recent weeks more people are returning to Ukraine than fleeing. "Between May 25-31, almost 260 000 Ukrainians exited the EU. In total, 2.3 million Ukrainians have returned to their home country since the war started," it said. The number of those internally displaced has also decreased and is now estimated to be around 7.1 million.

Sweden is to increase Ukraine military aid by some €95m, including anti-ship missiles and more anti-tank weapons, its government said Thursday. "In solidarity with Ukraine, and as part of the international response to Russia's actions, the government sees a continuing need to support Ukraine," the finance ministry said. Western-made anti-ship missiles were widely said to have sunk a Russian battleship in April. The US is also supplying longer-range missile systems.

EU countries have caved in to Hungary's demands to remove Russia's patriarch Kirill from an EU sanctions package that also includes an oil embargo and a ban on Russian banks and propaganda TV channels, diplomatic sources told media Thursday. Hungary had complained about including Kirill, but had never given tangible reasons for its objection, an EU diplomat told EUobserver. Hungary had earlier delayed the oil-ban while fighting for an opt-out.

At least 18 cases appear to have been lodged in the EU court in Luxembourg by Russian oligarchs or relatives since the Ukraine war began.

After months of stalled negotiations to remove Russian lobbyists from the EU's joint-transparency register, the European Parliament has decided to go solo and unilaterally bar them from its premises.