Author: staff

DESNZ research released earlier this year found homes dependent on electricity for heating had the highest rate of fuel poverty, at just over 20 percent, but the vast majority of homes still depend on gas.  “It is a significant political risk of the policy, as designed, that it will help a small demographic, and that by choosing that over, say, broader rebalancing [of green levies on all bills] they have chosen risk of that accusation over fiscal risk,” the industry figure said.  Ministers are considering other policies ahead of October to incentivize a shift towards cleaner tech. That includes year-on-year…

When a senior EU delegation travelled to the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi last Tuesday, they were hoping to discuss ways to limit the increasing numbers of migrants leaving Libya heading north to Europe.However, shortly after their jet touched down at Benghazi Airport, the cluster of EU foreign ministers – as well as European Commissioner for Migration Magnus Brunner – were sent packing. There was no agreement, not even a meeting. They were unceremoniously kicked out and declared “personae non gratae,” a source on the European side told Euronews at the time, adding that the delegation was caught in a…

Defense boost, but no army Iceland, as the only NATO member with no army but with a strategically important location in the North Atlantic, occupies a unique position in the alliance, especially as U.S. President Donald Trump pressures members to bump up their military spending. While there are “no current plans” to build up a standing army,  Iceland is “very serious on strengthening our defense cooperation,” said Gunnarsdóttir, who is also responsible for the country’s new defense strategy. She added that Iceland, which currently hosts NATO exercises and provides infrastructure and other support, wants to “be a respected and reliable ally,…

The European Parliament’s members are deeply unsatisfied with the proposal for a seven-year budget, the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) put forward by the European Commission on Wednesday and have threatened at the outset not to enter into negotiations on the paper.The level of information provided by Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin in a briefing to MEPs from the Parliament’s Committee on Budgets (BUDG) on Wednesday was deemed unsatisfactory by most. “Commission President’s Ursula von der Leyen is giving a press conference and she is giving to the press more information than you to us,” lamented Belgian MEP Johan Van Overtveldt, the committee’s chair.Some…

Die Richterwahl-Krise ist zur CDU-internen Machtfrage geworden: Jens Spahn taumelt nach dem Desaster – und plötzlich rückt Carsten Linnemann ins Zentrum der Spekulationen. Ist der Generalsekretär bereit für mehr? Oder bleibt die Union beim angeschlagenen Fraktionschef? Gordon Repinski analysiert das.  Im 200-Sekunden-Interview erklärt Katharina Beck (Grüne), warum Lars Klingbeils Reise zum G20-Finanzgipfel in Durban trotz fehlender US-Beteiligung sinnvoll ist – und wie Europa wirtschaftlich unabhängiger werden kann. Sie fordert konkrete Fortschritte bei Kapitalmarktunion und Handelsabkommen. Und: Während Klingbeil in Südafrika auf Distanz zur Berliner Tagespolitik geht, bereitet sich Friedrich Merz auf seine Sommer-Pressekonferenz vor. Das Berlin Playbook als Podcast gibt…

Britain’s ambassador to the U.S., Peter Mandelson, warned last weekend that he expects America’s 10 percent tariff on U.K. goods is “here to stay” despite the U.K.’s efforts. | Pool photo by Bonnie Cash/EPA When the U.S. raised tariffs on the metal imports to 50 percent at the start of June, the U.K.’s tariff rate remained at 25 percent thanks to the trade deal Trump struck with Starmer in May. But further tariff relief for the sectors, promised in the deal, is yet to materialize. Getting Trump to cut both reciprocal and steel and aluminum tariffs will be difficult, said…

BRUSSELS — The European Commission made its opening play in what will be two years of haggling over the bloc’s spending plan for the seven-year period from 2028. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen insisted the €1.8 trillion plan would make the EU’s cash pot “larger,” “smarter” and “sharper,” and that the budget was “the most ambitious ever proposed.” But, in a sign of the heated negotiations to come, disappointed lawmakers were quick to contradict von der Leyen’s claims, saying the Commission has misleadingly represented adjustments to the — major — inflation in recent years as an increase in the…

They said “anything that gets more U.S. weaponry into Ukraine faster is good news,” confirming the U.K.’s support for the plan, in common with Germany, but in contrast to France, which was not on an early list of backers. Merz and Starmer will be able to pore over the nitty-gritty, such as who pays for what and in which framework, along with more specific details like whether Europeans will buy U.S. weapons to be delivered to the battlefield, or whether they will give Ukraine weapons from existing stockpiles and buy replacements from the U.S. Limited movement While the two countries…

To the annoyance of MEPs and parliamentary officials, Serafin arrived four hours late. The presentation was riddled with confusion about what the numbers exactly meant and how they’d be calculated, and lawmakers were outraged for not having received the figures beforehand. “We hope you brought some document with you as well, as this distinguished house has not been informed,” lawmaker Siegfried Mureșan sniped at Serafin, who hails from the same center-right group. In fact, even von der Leyen’s team of commissioners weren’t aware of the overall figures until a few hours earlier. Explaining the murky process, one official close to…

The plan says that the sectors covered by linked emissions trading should include “electricity generation, industrial heat generation (excluding the individual heating of houses), industry, domestic and international maritime transport and domestic and international aviation.” It would also create a procedure to “further expand the list of sectors” in the future. The agreement would “require that the cap and reduction pathway of the United Kingdom are at least as ambitious as the cap and reduction pathway followed by the Union” but also “not constrain” the EU and U.K. from “pursuing higher environmental ambition, consistent with their international obligations.” Under the…