Новости за 20.10.2021

Polish opposition leader Donald Tusk clashed with Polish propaganda outlet TVP in Warsaw Tuesday. A TVP reporter asked him why Tusk's party wanted Poland to leave the EU. "This is beyond imagination ... I won't answer such absurdities," Tusk, whose Civic Platform party is pro-EU, said, before a prickly exchange ensued. TVP also muted MEPs who said Poland should face EU rule-of-law sanctions in its coverage of a Strasbourg debate.

Europe needs to set up a regulated gas bank using existing unused storage space to help to solve its gas woes, Marco Alvera, the head of Europe's biggest gas transport network said, Reuters writes. "We need a kind of 'whatever it takes' of gas … to stock strategic reserves," Alvera, CEO of Italian gas infrastructure group Snam said, referring to former ECB-chief Mario Draghi's 2012 speech on saving the euro.

Germany must resist Russian gas "blackmail", Annalena Baerbock, a German Green politician tipped to be next foreign minister, told German newspapers Wednesday. "We can see a poker game ... gas deliveries are being cut," she said. "This could be used by Russia to force a quick authorisation of Nord Stream 2, even if all the legal boxes haven't been ticked," she added, referring to a controversial new Russian pipeline.

The EU Commission has restarted its effort to rewrite European fiscal rules, but some countries, such as Italy, are off the charts on debt in terms of an existing pact.

Czech president Miloš Zeman is being stripped of his powers due to bad health, creating post-election limbo in Prague.

Belgium has written to EU states saying the Belarusian "potash sector should not be singled out" and that EU sanctions on Belarusian firm Belaruskali has created an "implementation problem" for EU companies, such as customs delays for a large Belgian water-supply company, according to a letter seen by Bloomberg. Other EU states backed altering the chemical types of banned potash to dilute sanctions, a second letter which Bloomberg saw said.

The eurozone's pandemic-related inflation spike was likely "transitory" and "subdued" in "longer-term expectations," Finnish central bank chief Olli Rehn said Tuesday. Inflation hit 3.4 percent in September. "Overall inflation will come back below two percent by the end of next year," Bank of France governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau also said, separately. The trend meant the European Central Bank, whose target is two percent, should not intervene, de Galhau added.

The UK unveiled on Tuesday its national strategy to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, ahead of COP26 climate talks in Scotland. As part of the strategy, the government announced extra funds to support the electrification of vehicles and charging points, carbon-capture technologies, hydrogen projects, and nuclear plans. It also said it will secure 440,000 well-paid jobs and unlock over €106bn in investment by 2030.

The EU Ombudsman on Tuesday asked the European Commission for a meeting to discuss in detail an ongoing inquiry into how the executive handles cases in which officials move on to take private-sector jobs. The inquiry, based on 1,000 files, was launched earlier this year. "This next step will take a deeper look at commission practices both generally and in relation to specific cases," said ombudsman Emily O'Reilly.

Nato remained "open to dialogue, including through the Nato-Russia Council [NRC]", its spokeswoman said Tuesday, after Russia closed its Nato embassy in Brussels and expelled three Nato military staff and their civilian assistants from Moscow. Nato justified its earlier "proportionate" expulsion of eight Russian diplomats, who were "undeclared Russian intelligence officers", it said. The NRC brings together 30 Nato states' ambassadors and Russian envoys. It last met in July 2019.

The surge of Covid-19 infections in eastern EU member countries, particularly the Baltic states, is putting health systems under increasing pressure, prompting governments to reimpose restrictive measures.

Ursula von der Leyen said the commission might use either an infringement procedure, an EU probe into the ruling, the new tool of conditionality which could lead to the suspension of EU funds, or the Article 7 sanctions procedure.

Poland doubled the number of troops to 6,000 on its Belarus border, amid an on-going standoff with stranded migrants - at least seven of whom have died as temperatures start to plummet.

Why the European Parliament's vote against the discharge of Frontex is the only plausible position for anyone who values human life.

With Poland throwing the legal order of Europe in disarray, Russia rationing Europe's gas supply and the UK reneging on its Brexit commitments, perhaps the moment has come again to read a few essays by French philosopher Michel de Montaigne.

What we call for is another approach to the financing of the European Grean Deal. While a lot of attention is being paid to decarbonisation, the other two aspects - de-financialisation and democratisation - are largely ignored.