The current energy crisis caused by the war with Iran could have hit Europe much harder, were it not for lower gas consumption and a marked shift towards renewable sources.
While Europe is less dependent on oil and gas coming from the gulf than Asia, 40 percent of refined products, such as jet fuel and diesel, pass through the Straight of Hormuz.
Despite its insistence that it supports ‘rules-based trade’, the EU has accepted president Donald Trump’s tariffs. And its own trade agenda is more complicated than just free trade.
The plan adopted on Wednesday concerns the Market Stability Reserve, a buffer mechanism that can inject or absorb free pollution permits to keep carbon prices from swinging too wildly.
Oil and gas push Europe’s inflation to steepest monthly rise since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Eurostat announces.
So far, member states are acting individually with a mixture tax-cuts, price controls, targeted subsidies and market rules. The result is a medley of policies, some of which accelerate decarbonisation and renewables, while others risk driving emissions higher, even as supply shortages loom.
MEPs have inserted a series of safeguards into the EU-US trade tariff deal that will require Washington’s approval, as US urges the EU to sign it off.
European industry faces a difficult year, but for some companies there may be an exception: these are mainly suppliers and installers of solar systems.
A new report finds Brussels has made little headway in opening up Europe’s services markets since the landmark Services Directive came into force in 2006.
The deal grants Australia quota-based access for beef, lamb, and dairy products to the EU, while European exporters gain near-zero tariffs on vehicles, dairy, and other goods.
“Unfortunately, some governments are using this crisis and the rise in electricity prices to undermine climate policies,” Spain’s socialist prime minister Pedro Sanchéz said on arrival at an EU leaders summit in Brussels.
MEPs expect to take a final plenary vote on a hotly contested EU-US trade deal in Strasbourg next Thursday.
A blocking minority of member states is pushing to weaken the bloc’s carbon pricing mechanism — which requires industries to pay for their pollution.
The so-called ’28th regime’ is intended to create a single European business code applicable across the EU.
As leaders of forest-based industries in Sweden, we have examined the EU Commission’s updated bioeconomy strategy — and would like to suggest a few improvements related to the role of wood.
The EU’s bodies on oil and gas supply held meetings on Thursday morning following the International Energy Agency’s decision to open access to 400m barrels of reserves.
EU leaders want the carbon market reviewed by July at the latest, instead of the currently planned third-quarter timeline, a leaked draft of next week’s European Council conclusions shows.
The letter signed by 100 European companies and investors rebuffs the anti-emissions trading push from governments and the chemicals lobby — showing that not all European firms are aligned on weakening carbon pricing.
Europe’s reaction to Monday’s oil-price surge was far from unified, with some officials calling for a faster shift to clean energy, while others said boosting oil and gas supplies offered the quickest path to easing a potential energy shock from the US-Israeli war on Iran.
The European Central Bank itself has repeatedly said over the years that its policies are ineffective when dealing with energy shocks.