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☆ New EU debt rules have way to avoid past mistakes
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Rebecca Christie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

BRUSSELS, April 4 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The European Union’s new set of fiscal rules need to answer two simple questions: will they help the bloc’s economy grow? The fiscal rules are at the crossroads of the EU’s monetary union and budgetary sovereignty. Past rounds of budget rules have carried the threat of top-level sanctions but the enforcers could not follow through. EU countries need to encourage scale-up financing and allow more cross-border cooperation. New rules need to put the future ahead of philosophy to have a chance to work.

☆ Fact Check-UK parliament did not say Nigeria’s presidential election was rigged
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A question asked by a British MP about Nigeria’s presidential election is being misconstrued online as a declaration by UK parliament of a rigged vote. “UK Parliament Confirmed Nigeria Election Was Rigged In Favour Of APC,” said one person sharing a video clip of the question being asked on March 14 in the House of Commons (here). Moreover, Onwurah did not at any point say the Nigerian presidential election was rigged, according to a video of her question and parliamentary minutes (here and here). Chi Onwurah raised her constituents’ concerns about the Nigerian presidential election, but she did not say that it was rigged. A question asked during a parliamentary debate is not considered the official position of the UK’s Parliament.

☆ EU agrees to double renewables by 2030 and UK unveils its long-awaited climate plan
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Reuters Emily Blumenthal | Emily Blumenthal | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Two big announcements in European climate policy came Thursday. In 2021, the bloc got 22% of its energy from renewable sources, though the level varied significantly between countries. Sweden leads with a 63% renewable energy share, while in Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands and Ireland, renewable sources make up less than 13% of total energy use. UK climate strategyThe United Kingdom also announced its own climate strategy Thursday. It includes support for offshore wind energy, electric vehicles, green hydrogen, nuclear technology, home insulation and home heat pumps.

☆ EU single market remains short of a single patent
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

While it’s good the EU is moving forward, a single patent can’t fulfill its promise without full participation. The European Patent Office holds fifth place. Billions of euros remain out of reach because the EU is strong on research but weak in finding market success. Seeking an EU patent via separate applications across Europe costs about 20,000 euros, compared to an estimated 6,000 euros under the new system. For Europe to be more than the world’s technology incubator, its single market needs more tools that are fully subscribed.

☆ EU was set to ban internal combustion engine cars. Then Germany suddenly changed its mind
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Ivana Kottasová | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

CNN —When EU lawmakers voted to ban the sale of new combustion engine cars in the bloc by 2035, it was a landmark victory for climate. With cars and vans responsible for around 15% of its total greenhouse gas emissions, a phase-out of polluting vehicles is a key part of EU climate policy. The law envisions a total ban on the sale of new diesel and gasoline cars by 2035. Germany is now pushing against the idea that all internal combustion engines must be banned. Other European countries, including Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic, have joined Germany in demanding the exception.

LONDON, March 20 (Reuters) - Europe has experienced a mild winter, but the region also managed to cut its temperature-adjusted gas consumption in response to high prices, public information campaigns and industrial closures. Chartbook: Europe gas consumptionOctober was unusually warm across the region and none of the major consuming countries made significant progress in reducing underlying demand. But the country also managed to reduce its consumption per degree day by 8% ensuring total consumption fell by 24%. Related columns:- Europe must prepare for next winter to be colder (March 15, 2023)- With winter almost over, Europe’s gas stocks are at seasonal record high (March 3, 2023)- Europe faces more high gas prices next winter (January 20, 2023)- Crisis over? Europe’s gas stocks at seasonal record high (January 17, 2023)- Europe should thank mild autumn for averting gas crisis this winter (December 16, 2023)John Kemp is a Reuters market analyst.

☆ New Zealand to become the latest country to ban TikTok in parliament
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Chris Lau | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Hong Kong CNN —New Zealand will ban TikTok on all devices with access to its parliament by the end of this month, becoming the latest country to impose an official bar on the popular social media platform owned by a Beijing-based tech conglomerate. Led by the United States, a growing number of Western nations are imposing restrictions on the use of TikTok on government devices citing national security concerns. The United States, UK and Canada have ordered the removal of the app from all government phones, citing cybersecurity concerns. The short video sharing app has more than 100 million users in the United States alone. China has accused the United States of “unreasonably suppressing” TikTok and spreading “false information” about data security.

☆ EU and US green arms race misses bigger picture
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Rebecca Christie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

BRUSSELS, March 16 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The European Union’s pushback on aggressive U.S. green production incentives is taking shape. In pushing back against Washington’s green industrial aid, Europe has a case for deploying trade and state-aid means in the short term to support its green industries. An expensive green arms race with its allies would be the wrong road to go down. The European Union on March 9 announced that it would loosen state aid rules up until 2025 to give member states more scope on green technology subsidies. Other responses to the 2022 U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, which includes $369 billion in green technology subsidies, are in the works.

☆ EU Draft Law Sets Out Moves to Secure Critical Energy Transition Materials
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Yusuf Khan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

According to draft legislation seen by The Wall Street Journal, the Critical Raw Materials Act aims to set standards and promote policy designed to ensure Europe has the metals and minerals it deems necessary for its energy transition and defense and energy security. The Critical Raw Materials Act will also make it easier to mine and process the materials within the bloc; establish a European Critical Minerals Board; identify strategic projects to mine, process and recycle the materials; and work to ensure those projects have quick permitting and sufficient funding. It also said the EU should be able to extract 10% and process 40% of its strategic raw material needs while also expanding recycling capacity so that 15% of consumption can come from secondary sources by 2030. Other countries such as Japan have put in place similar plans to secure raw materials. Raw materials projects could also be labeled as being in the public interest or as strategic, which could further streamline funding.

☆ EU Draft Law Sets Out Moves to Secure Supply of Critical Energy Transition Materials
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Yusuf Khan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

According to draft legislation seen by The Wall Street Journal, the Critical Raw Materials Act aims to set standards and promote policy designed to ensure Europe has the metals and minerals it deems necessary for its energy transition and defense and energy security. The Critical Raw Materials Act will also make it easier to mine and process the materials within the bloc; establish a European Critical Minerals Board; identify strategic projects to mine, process and recycle the materials; and work to ensure those projects have quick permitting and sufficient funding. The purchasing system would negotiate with global sellers but will be structured to comply with EU competition law. Other countries such as Japan have put in place similar plans to secure raw materials. Raw materials projects could also be labeled as being in the public interest or as strategic, which could further streamline funding.

☆ Europe's arms spending on Ukraine boosts defense companies
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

London CNN —After months of soaring stock prices, Europe’s defense companies hardly needed another boost. But a tentative €2 billion ($2.1 billion) European Union plan to procure ammunition for war-torn Ukraine may provide just that. Speaking in Stockholm Wednesday, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said his country needed one million rounds of ammunition “as soon as possible” to deter Russian forces. A final decision is expected on March 20 when EU foreign and defense ministers meet in Brussels. In early February, the bloc announced that it would inject another €545 million ($575 million) into its €3.6 billion ($3.8 billion) military assistance fund for Ukraine.

☆ Why the West hasn’t gone after Russian nuclear energy
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Clare Sebastian | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy monopoly Rosatom, which exports and enriches uranium as well as builds nuclear power stations around the world, has been in control of Europe’s largest nuclear plant in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region since Russian forces seized it a year ago. Experts say Rosatom remains protected by the vital role it plays in global nuclear power, and the fact it can’t easily be replaced. In 2021, the United States relied on the Russian nuclear monopoly for 14% of the uranium that powered its nuclear reactors. The Akkuyu nuclear power plant as its construction continues in November 2022 Serkan Avci/Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesSuch dependency can trump other considerations. It is also one of only several EU countries that rely on nuclear energy for more than 40% of their electricity and it has a long-term financing deal with Rosatom to build a nuclear power plant.

☆ Russia may run out of money in 2024, says oligarch
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Olesya Dmitracova | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

London CNN —Russia could find itself with no money as soon as next year and needs foreign investment, outspoken Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska has said. Putin praised the resilience of the country’s economy in the face of unprecedented Western sanctions imposed in the past year. Russia’s economic output shrank 2.1% last year, according to a preliminary estimate from the government. But cracks are starting to show — Russia is cutting oil production this month — and Western sanctions could escalate further. Ultimately, Russia’s economic prospects are contingent on what happens in Ukraine.

☆ Dozens of Migrants Drown in Shipwreck Off Italian Coast
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Eric Sylvers | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Italian firefighters and Red Cross personnel gather at the scene where bodies of migrants washed ashore. At least 43 migrants died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa after their ship broke apart Sunday in stormy weather near the southern Italian coast, according to Italian authorities, spotlighting the European Union’s continued struggles to resolve the issue of illegal immigration. There were at least 120 people on board the boat when it ran into rocks near the coast, the Italian Coast Guard said. Eighty survivors have been found on the beach and in the sea.

The European Commission has banned its staff from using the TikTok app on their work-issued devices, widening across the Atlantic a patchwork of similar, limited bans affecting U.S. officials. The move, which would affect thousands of employees of the European Union’s top executive body, comes as officials in Europe and the U.S. scrutinize TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd., over security concerns.

☆ TikTok Is Banned on European Commission Staff Work Devices
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Kim Mackrael | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The European Union’s executive body told its staff they could no longer use the TikTok app on their work-issued devices, widening across the Atlantic a patchwork of similar, limited bans affecting state and federal officials in the U.S. The move, which would affect thousands of employees of the European Commission, as the EU’s top executive body is known, comes as officials in Europe and the U.S. scrutinize TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd., over security concerns.

☆ Global Sustainability Disclosure Standards for Companies Set to Take Effect in 2024
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Dieter Holger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

The International Sustainability Standards Board said it has agreed to rules that would harmonize corporate environmental disclosures across the globe. More than 150 countries follow the IFRS, and the group will promote its sustainability disclosure standards to market regulators. For example, the ISSB standards require companies to report emissions from their direct operations, energy purchases and from their value chains, including suppliers. The ESRS is also more exacting than the ISSB standards, disclosure professionals say. “For companies reporting under multiple frameworks, this will make reporting less challenging.”Write to Dieter Holger at dieter.holger@wsj.com

☆ Privacy Regulators Step Up Oversight of AI Use in Europe
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Catherine Stupp | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

European privacy regulators are intensifying their scrutiny of companies’ use of artificial intelligence, hiring experts and opening new units to crack down on data violations. “AI is appearing in all sectors,” said Kari Laumann, head of a division for research, analysis and policy at Norway’s data protection authority. The regulator’s office has worked with 64 companies to test AI initiatives under its supervision, in a program started in 2020. Regulators have fined companies for privacy failings in their AI applications in recent years, but European data protection officials and privacy analysts say it is still unclear how to apply some aspects of European privacy law to the technology. Mr. Jairaj said he expects the EU’s coming legislation to force companies to look closely at third-party suppliers of AI products.

☆ Fashion Faces Recycling Fees Similar to Other Industries
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Dieter Holger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

Electronics and packaging companies have banded together to help pay for recycling programs under government rules. EPR programs charge producers tiny fees—often a fraction of a penny—on individual items to fund waste collection and recycling. The fees from the relevant products, such as packaging, electronics or clothing, then fund recycling, including infrastructure, collection, sorting and public communications. Recycling successEPR programs can significantly boost recycling rates, according to a study published this month from the Recycling Partnership, a nonprofit group. It is expanding its textile recycling beyond its customer network, which includes Levi Strauss & Co. and VF Corp. -owned The North Face.

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☆ A subsidy arms race is kicking off between Europe and America
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Julia Horowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

This premium is expected to shrink as clean energy technologies become more advanced and infrastructure to produce them is scaled up. Most of the money the IRA has earmarked for clean energy initiatives comes in the form of tax credits. In the meantime, government officials are lobbying the United States to rethink parts of the IRA. “Europe and other allied countries have nothing to fear from the Inflation Reduction Act and quite a bit to gain,” said Brian Deese, Biden’s top economic adviser. The fight over green subsidies also comes as geopolitical tensions are pushing countries to focus on greater localization of production — not just for green energy, but also for sensitive technologies like computer chips.

☆ Elon Musk pledged transparency at Twitter. But he’s walling off researchers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

But Twitter’s changes erecting a paywall for API access may jeopardize all that, Tromble and other researchers said. Undermining the fight against botsMusk has framed Twitter’s API restrictions as part of his wider effort to stamp out spammy, automated accounts. Ironically, however, Musk’s looming changes to the Twitter API might make it harder to study bot behavior on Twitter. API access has provided a critical resource for that work. “The researchers who were signed up to the program have heard nothing from the company in months, since Musk’s acquisition.”Adding to Twitter’s scrutiny by regulatorsBeyond the immediate impact to researchers, Twitter’s transparency issues could land the company in hot water with policymakers.

☆ EU’s Top Diplomat Says Iranian Deal Is Only Way to Stop Tehran’s Nuclear Program
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Laurence Norman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Arak heavy water reactor in Iran in 2019. Opponents of a nuclear deal with Tehran argue that it would clear the way for the country to eventually obtain nuclear weapons. KYIV, Ukraine—The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell , is refusing to give up on efforts to rescue the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, even as Tehran cracks down on protesters at home and helps Russia in its war against Ukraine. On a secure train returning from an EU leaders trip to Kyiv, Mr. Borrell told The Wall Street Journal that critics of his efforts to revive the pact perhaps “don’t value enough” the dangers of a nuclear Iran.

☆ EU Sets Out Options to Compete With U.S. Green Subsidies
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Kim Mackrael | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

BRUSSELS—The European Union’s executive body on Wednesday set out a road map for competing with American green subsidies with a range of tools that could include coordinated tax rebates and the ability to match certain U.S. incentives on a dollar-for-dollar basis. The European Commission published a document laying out its proposals for supporting Europe’s clean-tech industry and preventing what some officials fear could be a wave of decisions by European companies to shift their investments to the U.S. The commission’s ideas are set to be debated by European leaders at a summit in Brussels next week.

☆ Eurozone’s Economy Outpaced China and U.S. in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Paul Hannon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The eurozone economy grew faster than China and the U.S. last year, underlining how the fading Covid-19 pandemic continues to scramble traditional patterns of global growth. Figures released by the European Union’s statistics agency Tuesday showed the currency- area’s economy grew at an annualized rate of 0.5% as higher energy costs weighed on household spending. This translated into 3.5% growth in gross domestic product for 2022 as a whole, a faster rate than seen in either China or the U.S.

☆ The Outlook for Diesel: Supply Woes Aren’t Going Away Soon
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( Denton Cinquegrana | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +4 min

Throughout the U.S., diesel supplies remain tight; the East Coast in particular has been pressed to keep tanks fully stocked. Some of the supply issues go back to pre-Covid 19 events, including a June 2019 fire that took out a key East Coast refinery. Europe has been weaning itself off Russian crude oil and natural gas, but replacing Russian diesel may prove trickier. At that time, diesel prices at the retail level in the U.S. were in the $5.25-5.30 a gallon range. By the end of January, retail diesel prices should be approaching $4.75 a gallon.

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