Euobserver.com

Fabrice Leggeri took on the role of the executive director of #Frontex in 2015. He posted a resignation letter earlier this week. Another senior official, Thibauld de la Haye Jousselin, may also have resigned.

In a long-awaited report, the European energy regulator sets out proposals to deal with surging electricity bills — but advises against capping prices on the wholesale gas market, which some member states such as Spain and France have supported.

Far-right loners radicalised online pose an ever-bigger terrorist threat in Europe in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, EU intelligence and police services have warned.

The proliferation of billionaires and that phenomenon's dark side, the working poor, calls for a historic mobilisation on a global scale.

Once just quiet suburbs of the capital where people lived and commuted into the city, Bucha and Irpin are now names that will be resonate all around the world.

The Chernobyl power plant has seen a slight increase in radiation — but the main concern for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), remains the Russian-occupied plant at Zaporizhzhya in southern Ukraine.

International attention on Ukraine is leading to funding shortfalls for aid agencies elsewhere — such as inSyria and Lebanon, where food prices have also spiked.

Macron's opponents are now mobilising for June's legislative polls in the hope of making a lame duck out of the president — and hinder his plans for a stronger EU.

The Council of Europe called on Thursday for an ad hoc international criminal tribunal to be set up "urgently" to issue international arrest warrants and investigate and prosecute crimes allegedly committed by the Russian military in Ukraine. The call by the Strasbourg-based rights watchdog follows images of alleged atrocities in Bucha and other Ukrainian cities as well as reports of the use of rape and torture as weapons of war.

The European Commission announced on Thursday that 112 cities in Europe will receive €360m from the EU's key funding programme for research and innovation Horizon Europe in 2022 and 2023 to support projects that help these urban areas to become climate neutral by 2030. Projects will be in the area of clean mobility, energy efficiency and green urban planning. Nearly 400 cities have applied to be part of this project.

Brussels said EU member states must guarantee that gas buyers pay for Russian gas in euros in order to respect sanctions against Moscow.

The economic shock of the Ukraine war appears to be a greater threat to Moldova than the eruption of violence in its breakaway region — for now.

German sea rescue organisation Sea-Watch is suing Frontex for refusing to disclose some 73 documents on its possible role in helping the Libyan coast guard intercept migrants in Malta's rescue zone.

Russian president Vladimir Putin in a TV speech Wednesday threatened military strikes against Western countries sending weapons to Ukraine. "If anyone decides to meddle in ongoing events and create unacceptable strategic threats for Russia, they must know our response will be lightning-quick," he said. Russia's defence ministry, earlier Wednesday, said its cruise missiles destroyed "foreign weapons" from "the United States and European countries" at an arms depot inside Ukraine.

Activists in Belarus who sabotage railway lines transporting Russian armour to Ukraine or set fire to Russian tanks will in future risk the death penalty under legal changes announced Wednesday, Reuters reports. "There can be no justification for the actions of terrorists," parliament speaker Vladimir Andreychenko said. Activists recently sent EUobserver footage of burning Russian vehicles. "Zhive Belarus!" [meaning "Long-live Belarus"] one activist, who asked not to be named, said.

The number of antisemitic incidents in France jumped 75 percent in 2021 compared to 2020 and by 29 percent in Germany, as part of a wider, global trend, according to the Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University. The study said lockdown-era social media and the dark web were part of the problem. Israel's killing of 261 people in Gaza in 2021 also prompted hatred.

Banks in the EU can apply lighter background checks than usual on Ukrainian refugees so they quickly gain access to basic financial services, the European Banking Authority, a Paris-based regulator, said Wednesday. It also warned banks to look out for tell-tale signs of labour exploitation, such as very low wage transfers. "All refugees are vulnerable and may be at significant risk of human trafficking and exploitation," it said.

Switzerland has banned Russian nationals form registering trusts there, its government said Wednesday, to help stop potential EU sanctions evasion in the financial hub. It also mirrored European sanctions on imports of Russian lignite, coal, caviar, timber and seafood, as well as exports to Russia of some chemicals and industrial robots. It earlier blacklisted over 200 Russian individuals and entities "in view of Russia's ongoing military aggression in Ukraine".

The European Court of Justice has said regional authorities in Brussels had the right to ask Airbnb, the US-based accommodation-rental giant, for tax information on tourist transactions in 2017, in a precedent that could harm its business model in Europe. Airbnb Ireland, its European subidiary, had brought the case, saying the Belgian request contravened its freedom to provide services. Brussels imposes a tourist tax on short-stay accommodation.

Independent media, such as EUobserver, and NGOs, should have less to fear in future from malicious lawsuits, under a draft new EU law.