Euractiv.com

While NATO leaders hailed this week's summit in Washington as successful, they aimed to brush off concerns over the alliance's future following the outcome of the November US presidential elections.

Finland's parliament is set to vote on a bill on Friday (12 July) granting border guards the power to turn back asylum seekers crossing from Russia, after more than 1,300 people arrived in the country forcing Helsinki to close its border.

The European Parliament, the biggest democratic institution in the world, now features three far-right groups. Two of them, Patriots for Europe and Europe of Sovereign Nations, emerged only this week, from the ashes of failed alliance negotiations.

The European Commission has urged private creditors to “swiftly” reach an agreement with the Ukrainian government to avoid Kyiv defaulting on billions of dollars in debt at the start of next month.

With the French legislative elections having created uncertainty about the shape of the next government, President Emmanuel Macron assured NATO allies and Ukraine behind closed doors in Washington that Paris remains committed to Europe's security.

The transfer of oversight of military supplies, training and reform of Ukraine's armed forces into NATO hands is to be completed "in the coming months" as leaders rush to protect the support from governments that may criticise it in the future.

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is expected to meet with former US president Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after a NATO summit on Thursday (11 July), according to people familiar with the plans.

The European Parliament LIBE committee, which focuses on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, will be chaired by the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) although for now in the ongoing negotiations is with the hard-right ECR group.

For the first time since 2008, NATO's final communiqué on Wednesday (10 July) did not refer to Georgia become a member one day, a step that is seen as consequence of the recent deterioration of relations between Tbilisi and Western partners.

In a ruling published on Thursday (11 June), the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) upheld a request by NGOs for a ban on wolf hunting in Austria, authorised by derogation, at a time when EU Member States are struggling to agree on a common position on the issue.

Blame and reprimands followed Viktor Orbán's “Ukraine peace tour” to Moscow and Beijing, which he started as soon as Hungary took over the Presidency of the Council of the EU on 1 July.

Following consultations with the European Commission, Robert Fico's government decided to revise a controversial reform of the penal code, addressing EU concerns that Slovakia's newly reduced penalties and statutes of limitation, may inadequately protect the EU's financial interests.

France submitted its national energy-climate plan (NECP) to the European Commission, setting a target for the renewable share of gross final energy consumption, while the government has been fighting to have nuclear energy recognised as well.

The Bulgarian party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) is threatened with exclusion from the European liberal party ALDE because of the destructive role of Delyan Peevski, sanctioned under the US Magnitsky act.

The European Commission legally bound Apple to commitments on Thursday (11 July) addressing previous competition concerns over its refusal to grant rivals access to NFC technology for contactless payments.

French President Emmanuel Macron needs the right-wing Les Républicains party to form a central coalition in the National Assembly, but the party remains sharply divided over whether to ally with him or the Socialists.

In cultural spaces there are still many barriers for people from a physical, mental and economic disadvantaged background. An EU funded project is developing an app and a kit that thanks to augmented reality and a hands-on approach, will break down these barriers.

SINGAPORE, July 11 (Reuters) - China approved no new coal-based steel projects in the first half of 2024, researchers said on Thursday, accelerating its shift towards green production as it prepares for the impact of a new carbon levy on exports to Europe.

Local governments approved 7.1 million metric tons of new steelmaking capacity from January to June, but all of it was for cleaner scrap-based electric arc furnace (EAF) projects, rather than coal-intensive blast furnaces, said the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

China's efforts to cut production and recycle more scrap via EAF could reduce CO2 emissions from the steel industry by 200 million tonnes by 2026, equal to the entire emissions of the EU steel sector, CREA said.

China's steel industry, by far the world's biggest, is under growing pressure to decarbonise. It is expected to join China's own emissions trading scheme this year, and exports to Europe will be subject to the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) starting from next year, which could make them 11% more expensive by 2030.

"Chinese steelmakers targeting the EU market will need to take action to reduce the carbon intensity of their products in order to maintain competitiveness," said Xinyi Shen, the report's co-author.

Europe introduced CBAM in order to tackle the problem of "carbon leakage", which allows businesses to avoid carbon costs by sourcing products from countries with weaker climate compliance. Starting from 2026, importers of steel, fertiliser, cement and chemicals will pay levies based on the carbon footprint of the products they buy.

Researchers at China's Institute for Global Decarbonization Progress (iGDP) said last week that China's steel industry could face up to 5.9 billion yuan ($811.09 million) in total CBAM levies by 2030, depending on how much it cuts emissions.

Traditional blast furnace steel could face levies of around 250 yuan per ton by 2030, but scrap-based EAF would not yet face any additional charge, it said. ($1 = 7.2742 yuan) (Reporting by David Stanway; Editing by Christopher Cushing)

Europe's Jewish community is facing a "rising tide of anti-Semitism", with the conflict in the Middle East "eroding" progress made in the fight against it, a European Union rights watchdog said Thursday (11 July).

China is staging army drills with Belarus this week at NATO's eastern border, in a sign of escalating tensions between Beijing and the US-led defence alliance.