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Green NGO ClientEarth has warned the EU Commission it would be against EU law to classify gas as a 'green' fuel, in its upcoming rules on 'taxonomy', which are meant to steer private investors towards climate-friendly firms. "If it were adopted, this is likely to increase investments in activities utilising natural gas and would be in total contradiction with the commitments undertaken by the European Commission," it said, Reuters reports.

Poland's Constitutional Tribunal has ruled that parts of EU treaties were incompatible with the Polish constitution, in a major escalation of the rule-of-law dispute between Warsaw and Brussels.

Interior ministers from 12 member states are demanding the EU finance border-wall projects to stop migrants entering through Belarus, in a further push towards a fortress Europe.

Britain has joined Ukraine in accusing Russia of "choking off" Europe's gas supplies to bully German regulators into letting it run a new gas pipeline, Nord Stream 2, as a monopoly. "Although Nord Stream 2 will not directly impact the UK's energy security, it could have serious implications for central and eastern European countries," a Downing Street spokesman said Thursday, adding that Russian gas-dependence raised "serious concerns about energy security."

Rwanda's conviction of politician Paul Rusesabagina, who is known as a genocide-era hero from the film Hotel Rwanda "was "exemplary of the human rights violations in Rwanda" and should be overturned, 660 MEPs said in a non-binding resolution Thursday. Rusesabagina, now a Belgian and US national, was kidnapped on a flight to Burundi last year, forced to confess (MEPs said), and sentenced to 25 years for terrorist offences last month.

The EU Commission will finalise measures next week which could lead to a resolution of post-Brexit trading issues in Northern Ireland by the end of the year or early 2022, commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič said Thursday. The measures focus on customs checks, finding long-term solutions on food and plant safety, and the supply of medicines from Britain, Reuters reported. The Northern Ireland protocol would, however, not be renegotiated, Šefčovič said.

A 100-year old man went on trial in Germany on Thursday, accused of being an accessory to murder for serving as a Nazi SS guard at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin during World War II, AP reported. The defendant, who was identified only as Josef S., is charged with 3,518 counts of accessory to murder, and is alleged to have worked at Sachsenhausen between 1942 and 1945.

MEPs raised the alarm over security challenges emerging in the Arctic, in particular the military build-up of Russia and the increasing investments of China in the region - ahead of the new EU Arctic policy, expected next week.

Collective expulsions of people seeking asylum violates the European Convention of Human Rights. At least 14 reports of collective expulsions in Lithuania have been lodged by officers from the EU's border agency, Frontex.

Government officials and financial leaders met at the EU Summit for Sustainable Finance on Thursday (October 7) to discuss current green investment plans and seek common ground, amid worsening climate crisis and gaping inequality.

Muslim leaders' indifference to the Taliban's rollback of women's rights is a slap in the face of millions of empowered Muslim women who are active and full-fledged citizens of their countries.

Russian president Vladimir Putin offered on TV on Wednesday to export "record" amounts of gas to Europe to ease a price crunch, claiming Russia was a "reliable supplier", despite its history of politically-motivated cut-offs. Deputy prime minister Alexander Novak urged German regulators to quickly certify the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to help. The "speculative frenzy" on markets was because of Europe's "erroneous" preference for short-term contracts, Putin also said

EU leaders restated their enlargement promise to Western Balkan states at a summit in Slovenia Wednesday. But Albanian prime minister Edi Rama voiced frustration at EU vetoes on new accession talks. "We've learned the hard way not to expect anything", he said. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen was also forced to voice "full confidence" in her enlargement commissioner, Olivér Várhelyi, accused of covering up democratic backsliding in Serbia.

The fossil fuel industry benefits from subsidies of €9.5m every minute, reports the International Monetary Fund (IMF). According to the international financial body, the production and use of coal, oil, and gas were subsidised by €5.1 trillion in 2020, with no one nation pricing all of its fuels high enough to reflect their full supply and environmental costs. The subsidies, according to experts, are "adding gasoline to the fire."

The EU 'traffic-light' system, in which countries were judged red/amber/green in terms of corona-infection rates, prompting different travel restrictions, failed due to divergent testing regimes, the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC), an EU agency, said in internal files seen by Reuters. "ECDC proposes to consider discontinuing the use of the combined indicator due to the limited public health value and focus instead on promoting vaccination among travellers," it said.

Denmark and Germany have repatriated 11 women and 37 children from a Kurdish-operated camp in northern Syria in two joint operations. The women would face criminal proceedings in Germany for joining the EU-designated "terrorist" group Islamic State. But "the children are not responsible for their situation" and were "in particular need of protection", German foreign minister Heiko Maas said. Denmark had earlier taken a hawkish line on expelling Syrian refugees.

Human Rights Watch in a report says French officials are subjecting adults and children living in migrant encampments around Calais to degrading treatment. "If the aim is to discourage migrants from gathering in northern France, these policies are a manifest failure and result in serious harm," said the NGO's France director, Bénédicte Jeannerod. An estimated 2,000 people were staying in and around encampments in Calais in mid-2021, notes the report.

The German Greens and business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) will start coalition talks Thursday with the Social Democrats (SPD), moving the SPD candidate for chancellor Olaf Scholz one step closer to leading the next government after inconclusive elections last month. Liberal FDP leader Christian Lindner said his party, which has greater policy overlap with the conservatives, shared with the Greens "a mutual conviction that there must be renewal in this country".

The EU's top court ruled Wednesday that Poland had violated judicial independence in forcing the transfer of a judge who had criticised the government, Reuters reported. Poland had denied judge Waldemar Żurek's right to an appeal when he was removed in 2018. Polish courts will decide how to respond to the ruling, which comes as the EU and Warsaw are entangled in a legal and political fight over judicial independence.

Sky-high energy prices could undermine the EU's post-corona economic recovery, the EU Commission has warned, as EU states and MEPs called for joint action and fair play.