Eurotopics.net

The EU wants to reform the electricity market. The skyrocketing electricity prices, dictated primarily by by gas-fired power plants, are now "exposing, for different reasons, the limitations of our current electricity market design", EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday. Representatives of the EU member states will meet on September 9 to discuss alternatives. Europe's press debates the necessary measures.

A team of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) hopes to contain one of the worst crises triggered by the Ukraine War and is on its way to investigate the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe. The plant is on the front line of the war, occupied by Russian troops and coming under fire.

In a speech at Charles University in Prague on Monday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for the first time went into greater detail about his vision for European policy. Among other things the chancellor advocated eastward expansion of the EU, the extension of majority voting among member states and stronger cooperation on air defence. Commentators are unconvinced that he can bring the EU forwards with this approach.

The leader of the Romanian right-wing nationalist AUR party, George Simion, turned his wedding into a popular spectacle, having it broadcast live on Facebook and television. All Romanians were invited, the only requirement being that they should wear traditional clothing. Thousands took him up on the invitation. The national press thinks little of such PR stunts.