The main question is whether the CBAM will push companies producing abroad to invest in greener manufacturing policies
In July 2021, the European Commission (EC) announced the launch of the Carbon Boarder Adjustment Mechanism, the CBAM. It was presented as a climate measure in support of the EU’s ambitious environmental goals, namely achieving the target to cut its carbon emissions by 55% - if compared with the 1990 levels—by 2030. The CBAM has been received with controversies since the beginning...
... resolving the Taiwan issue, and the developments in the South China Sea give rise to suspicions among neighbours.
Against the background of the United States and China, two other players stand out, whose “currency baskets” are more asymmetric. The European Union has a whole range of soft currencies. But in the segment of hard assets, the situation is contradictory. The EU has a powerful economy, infrastructure and industrial base in its hands. The union includes at least one power that possesses ...
... Czech Republic have both developed a pro-nuclear strategy and the government arguing in favour of such an energy strategy. However, we live currently in a world which comprises of two main characteristics. First, most countries, in particular in the European Union (e.g. Germany since 2011), are turning their back on nuclear power plants. Secondly, the thorium and molten salt reactors revolution threatens to make the conventional uranium technology irrelevant. Hence, several questions arise: What ...
... programme were published under the motto “
Recovery, power, belonging
” France, as expected, is reiterating its call for strengthening European sovereignty. The rhetoric of the document and its author is genuine textbook-realism. But now for the entire European Union.
Objectives of the French Presidency
, are not articulated directly but are quite visible—making the EU more manageable and accountable to its members, with new general rules to strengthen mobilisation potential, and improve the EU’s ...
... escaping the shocks and scandalous of the Trump era. The United States applied blocking sanctions against a number of Chinese officials, although it did not go for stricter restrictions on financial institutions.
Sanctions against China were imposed by the European Union and other US allies. Brussels has done so using its
new legal mechanism on human rights
. Beijing delivered an immediate and
harsh response
. Last year China did a great job in the development of its
counter-sanctions mechanism
. New ...
...
of the EU, and the United States issued a
general license
toward previously blocked Belarusian enterprises.
Clouds reappeared on the horizon in 2020, and after the incident with the Ryanair flight, the pressure on Minsk increased significantly. The European Union has expanded its lists of blocked persons. By June 2021,
these were 166 individuals and 15 legal entities
, including such large companies as MAZ and BELAZ.
Sectoral sanctions
have been introduced. Among them are bans on the supply of ...
... focused on the prospects of the second-track diplomacy in the EU – Russia relations. Sabine Fischer, Senior Research Fellow at SWP, and Larisa Deriglasova, Professor at the Tomsk State University, spoke on the matter. Alexander Gusarov, Head of the European Union Division at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Russia, acted as a discussant.
The following session was aimed at identifying potential spheres of constructive cooperation of Moscow and Brussels with energy sector and the Arctic acting ...
Presentation of The Routledge Handbook of EU-Russia Relations, December 6, 2021 at 14:30
Given the current state of the EU-Russia relations, few channels of communication remain as effective and fruit bearing as earlier. This leaves both Russia and Europe in need of boosting their efforts to work out a new formula or mode of relations.
In these circumstances, second-track diplomacy remains the most viable and inherently positive channel of developing and exchanging ideas, clarifying positions...
The Lithuanian gamble has low chances of succeeding
Why does Lithuania provoke China on the Taiwan question? Is it indeed so important for politicians in Vilnius to have a "Taiwan Representative Office" in their city instead of a "Taipei Economic and Cultural Office" or something similar? Everybody understands how sensitive this issue is for Beijing and it was crystal clear from the very beginning that China could not take the Lithuanian challenge lightly. The reaction from...
... consistent with your objectives, you must anticipate your opponent’s moves and plan accordingly.
Morocco moved pieces on May 17 and 18, 2021, when it let in 8,000 immigrants in the city of Ceuta, a Spanish territory in Africa and external border of the European Union. It did so without warning, neglecting its functions as border guardian and allowing the entry of a mass of migrants amounting to 9.5% of Ceuta’s population.
This episode is of unprecedented character: it occurred in the context of a ...