Euobserver.com

Some MEPs called for measures to tax windfall profits made in the energy sector, during a EU Parliament plenary debate in Strasbourg on Tuesday. EU energy commissioner Kadri Simson deferred, saying that "taxes are a national decision," adding that the EU has issued guidance in March detailing how member states can claw back part of the profits made due to record high prices on the gas and electricity markets.

In a Tuesday plenary debate at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, energy commissioner Kadri Simson resisted calls from some MEPs to allocate EU funds for investment in Midcat, a gas pipeline that would connect Spain with France. "We should use existing infrastructure, some of which is underused, to the best of our ability," Simson said, stressing the importance to speed up renewable energy projects and efforts to save energy.

Eleven former EU commissioners have urged the current executive not to swap Russian fossil fuels for other polluting energy sources in the sanctions machinations. "Simply diversifying the import of fossil fuels will only serve to maintain EU energy dependence on other countries, many of which do not respect EU values," they said in an open letter Tuesday, which promoted wind and solar solutions instead, Reuters reports.

The EU has cancelled plans to observer elections in Brazil in October after president Jair Bolsonaro's government objected to the mission, Brazilian sources told Reuters Tuesday. "Under these circumstances, we will not send an exploratory mission to Brazil to assess a possible EU observer mission," an EU spokesman said. An exploratory mission due to go earlier has also been cancelled, the EU confirmed.

World Press Freedom Day: two sinister and distinct trends in harassment against reporters have emerged: the onslaught of online abuse targeting — in particular — women journalists, and the weaponisation of laws against media practitioners.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin might attack other countries after Ukraine, German chancellor Olaf Scholz said in Berlin Tuesday, after meeting the leaders of Finland and Sweden — two countries considering joining Nato. "No one can assume that the Russian president and government will not on other occasions break international law with violence," Scholz said."He wants to expand his territory and push borders with violence," Scholz also told Stern magazine.

Israel, Malta, Turkey, and the UK have the most obese people per capita in the Europe region in what amounted to an "epidemic", the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a report Tuesday. Some 59 percent of European adults are overweight or obese as well as eight percent of children under five. Obesity in Europe was still not as bad as in the Americas, bit was "escalating", the WHO said.

Slovakia's economy ministry has told Reuters it will seek a derogation from a potential EU ban on oil purchases from Russia. "If it comes to an approved embargo of Russian oil as part of a further package of sanctions against Russia, then Slovakia will request an exemption," it said Tuesday. Slovakia and Hungary are heavily reliant on Russian crude oil. EU foreign ministers are to adopt Russia sanctions next week.

"Pure pacifism can only appeal to people in very sheltered positions." While reading George Orwell's essay The Lion and The Unicorn, one must pinch oneself at times: this could have been written today. Instead, Orwell wrote these lines in 1941.

The internal EU gulf on press freedom has widened, as France prepares new measures to protect journalists.

EU energy commissioner Kadri Simson said Russia's "unjustified" decision to cut gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland means "any member state could be next"

Fabrice Leggeri resigned as Frontex executive director, leaving behind a political landscape among EU states that condones illegal pushbacks.

The mobile phones of Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez and his defence minister were infected last year by Pegasus spyware, Spanish authorities said Monday. Sánchez's phone was breached twice in May 2021, defence minister Margarita Robles' device was targeted in June, AP reported. The breaches were not authorised by any Spanish judge, officials said. "We have no doubt that this is an illicit, unauthorised intervention," cabinet minister Félix Bolaños said.

Danish health officials said on Monday that 1.1 million surplus Covid-19 vaccines will be discarded in the next weeks because they are soon to expire and efforts to donate them to developing countries had failed, AP reported. Around 81 percent of the Danish population has had two doses of Covid-19 vaccines, while nearly 62 percent have received a third booster shot. Denmark has donated nine million doses.

EU Commission vice-president Margaritis Schinas said Monday that comments by Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov — that Adolf Hitler had Jewish roots — were "factually false", "perpetuate the outrageous narrative on 'denazification' of Ukraine", and "distort and trivialise the Holocaust." "Any attempt to turn the victims of the Shoah into perpetrators is unacceptable," he tweeted. Earlier, Israel lambasted the comments too.

Associated Trio vs Eastern Partnership? — why putting the spotlight on Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova should not come at the expense of the remaining EU Eastern Partnership countries.

EU regulators on Monday charged Apple with restricting rivals' access to its technology. The commission said Apple abused its dominant position, could be fined, and it could also force the iPhone-maker to open its mobile payment system to competitors. "We have indications that Apple restricted third-party access to key technology necessary to develop rival mobile wallet solutions on Apple's devices," EU anti-trust commissioner Margrethe Vestager said.

Finnish consortium Fennovoima said Monday it had terminated its contract with Russia's state-owned nuclear-power supplier Rosatom, for the delivery of a planned nuclear power plant in Finland, citing significant delays, Reuters reported. The Hanhikivi plant's final construction permit was set to be granted by the end of 2022. After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, economy minister Mika Lintila has repeatedly said it would be "absolutely impossible" to grant the permit.

More sanctions against Russia, energy imports, and the economic fallout of the war in Europe will be in focus this week, as Italian prime minister Mario Draghi will address MEPs in Strasbourg.

Regional and local authorities have called on the EU and member states to accelerate the green transition and phase out Russian oil, gas and coal imports — amid high prices and market uncertainty.