Euractiv.com

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.

In today’s edition of the Capitals, find out more about MEPs from Poland's Confederation party splitting in two new far-right, Italy's M5S pointing to Meloni being isolated at EU level, and so much more.

Taiwan defence ministry said on Thursday (11 July) it was closely watching Chinese military movements after a surge in warplanes joined drills with China's Shandong aircraft carrier in the Pacific.

Leaders of international liberal formations expressed concern and took positions to prevent a split and even a collapse of Bulgaria's Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) party, which is going through its biggest crisis since it was founded 34 years ago.

Monika Beňová, a Slovak MEP for Robert Fico's Smer-SD (NI) party, proposed ending negotiations with the Party of European Socialists (PES), which suspended the party's membership last year, claiming she would instead present a "different plan" to her colleagues.

Unable to agree on which new EU group to join, newly-elected MEPs from Poland's far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) party have decided to split, with some now joining the far-right Europe of Sovereign Nations group, while others are in talks to join Orban's newly-formed Patriots of Europe group.

The Czech Supreme Administrative Court has upheld the country's European election results, rejecting a complaint by outgoing centre-right MEP Michaela Šojdrová about preferential voting, although it found errors in some election committee records and suggested changes.

Portuguese aid to Ukraine will reach more than €220 million this year and will be repeated in 2025, said Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, who reiterated the commitment to reach 2% investment in defence by 2029. 

Spanish Ecological Transition Minister Teresa Ribera (PSOE/S&D) is confident she will join the next European Commission, headed for a second time by Ursula von der Leyen, perhaps in the climate or energy portfolio, she told the media.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's travels continue to raise eyebrows in Brussels and EU capitals.

Germany plans to largely exclude Chinese components such as those from Huawei and ZTE from its 5G mobile network by 2029, with an interim step in 2026, according to a media report.