Новости за 19.10.2021

Russian firm Gazprom has booked just one third of offered additional gas-transit capacity via the Yamal-Europe pipeline via Poland for November and not booked any volumes via Ukraine, Reuters reports. The tightening of the supplies amid a crunch in world energy markets was "blackmailing Europe in order to obtain Nord-Stream 2 certification", Yuriy Vitrenko, the head of Ukraine gas firm Naftogaz said, referring to Russia's new pipeline to Germany.

Turkey's foreign ministry summoned the ambassadors of 10 countries, including the United States, Germany and France, over a statement calling for the urgent release of philanthropist Osman Kavala, state-owned Anadolu agency and Reuters said. The statement, shared by some of the embassies on Monday, called for a just and speedy resolution to Kavala's case, four years after he was jailed, saying the case "cast a shadow over respect for democracy."

EU foreign ministers meeting Monday provisionally decided to block jet-leasing firms from working with Belarusian airline Belavia because Minsk was shuttling migrants from the Middle East and pushing them into Europe, diplomatic sources said. "We have a political agreement," a source said, after Ireland, which leases jets, had raised objections. EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said it was "unacceptable" that Russia was "weaponising poor people" to attack the EU.

Roberto Gualtieri, a former economy minister and an ex-MEP for the centre-left Democratic Party, won 60 percent of the vote on Monday in Rome's mayoral election, ahead of his rival from the far-right Brothers of Italy, Enrico Michetti, who received 40 percent, Corriere della Sera writes. Gualtieri is succeeding Virginia Raggi, a politician with the populist Five Star Movement (M5S), as mayor.

Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in an open letter to EU leaders Monday he wanted to "reassure" them that "Poland remains a loyal member of the European Union", in the wake of a landmark Polish anti-EU court verdict. But he also warned the EU was becoming "an entity that would cease to be an alliance of free, equal, and sovereign states - and become one, centrally managed organism".

Russia has suspended its embassy to Nato citing a spy row, but some EU diplomats see it as part of a wider attack on multilateralism.

European Commission climate commissioner Frans Timmermans said on Monday that "there is a huge responsibility of the developed world to share technologies with the developing world" to tackle climate change, not just out of altruism, but also because "it is a good business opportunity". "We need to make sure that the whole world can profit from this," he said during a visit in Indonesia, ahead of the COP26 climate summit.

The European Commission will start its review of its budgetary rules on Tuesday. The Stability and Growth Pact was signed in 1992, but since then the rules have ballooned and many consider them too complex and no longer fit for purpose, because they limit public spending and leave too little room for green investment, critics say. The landmark review will likely take until the end of 2022.

The European Commission said on Monday that member states have issued over 591 million EU digital Covid certificates since the regulation entered into force in July. In total, 43 countries are connected to the EU technical system, including Morocco, Panama, Turkey or Ukraine. Another 60 are interested in joining. Meanwhile, 20 member states are using the certificate to grant access restaurants, cinemas, museums, events or venues.

Péter Márki-Zay, 49, won the run-off of the first ever primary elections in Hungary, organised by six opposition parties in order to have one united opposition figure run against Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz candidates.

The EU has exported more than one billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines this year, and announced it will donate 500 million extra doses to poorer countries in the coming months.

The ultra-conservative candidate Jeanine Áñez from Bolivia was selected by the Spanish far-right Vox for the EU Sakharov prize on behalf of the conservative ECR. Socialist MEPs were instructed to support her, over a Western Sahara activist.

Despite being the first black head of state in modern western Europe, the life of Florentine duke Alessandro de' Medici is relatively unknown.

In a Kafka-esque irony, Frontex is withholding public access to documents pertaining to the response of a public institution to a protest by members of the public on grounds that this would violate the "public interest".