Gabriela Baczynska News

The European Union is considering a proposal for the Russian Agricultural Bank to set up a subsidiary to reconnect to the global financial network as a sop to Moscow, the Financial Times said on Monday.With the bank under sanctions, the move aims to safeguard the Black Sea grain deal that allows Ukraine to export food to global markets, the newspaper said.The European Commission had no comment while the Kremlin on Monday, in response to a question about the report, said it had…

Political pressure is building within the European Union to tackle the daunting challenge of closing a loophole in its efforts to stop using Russian fossil fuels: liquefied natural gas (LNG).In the year since Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the EU has placed sanctions on seaborne oil and coal imports from Russia.It has drastically cut reliance on Russian pipeline gas, despite not imposing sanctions on the fuel. But at the same time, EU countries have increased their overall purchases of Russian LNG…

Damage to the Nord Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Europe was caused by powerful explosions, Danish police said on Tuesday, echoing earlier findings into leaks that erupted in the network under the Baltic Sea and that have been blamed on sabotage.In what a Swedish newspaper described as the first publicly released footage of damage to the system, film from a private drone appeared to show a gaping rupture in one pipe. Expressen reported a 50-meter section missing from one area of pipeline.Dwindling flows of gas from Russia…

As the United Nations tries to broker a path for grain from Ukraine and temper worries about a global food crisis, hundreds of mines laid along the Black Sea present a practical nightmare that will take months to resolve even after any agreement.The Black Sea is crucial for shipment of grain, oil and oil products. Its waters are shared by Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia and Turkey, as well as Ukraine and Russia.Ukrainian government officials estimate 20 million tonnes of grain are unable to travel from what was the world's fourth largest exporter prior to the Russian invasion on Feb.

European Union leaders have agreed an embargo on Russian oil imports that will start kicking in towards the end of the year and which exempts, for now, pipeline imports that Hungary and two other landlocked Central European states rely on.The toughest sanction yet on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, agreed overnight after weeks of wrangling, aims to remove 90% of Russia's crude imports into the 27-nation bloc by year-end, senior officials said."The purpose is to stop Russia's aggressive war…

The European Union on Monday said it would toughen its rules on ship recycling and decommissioning offshore oil and gas sites, and set new targets to restore damaged marine ecosystems.Sectors linked to seas and oceans, such as shipping, fishing and offshore electricity generation, employ more than 4 million people in the EU. They are also facing a clutch of challenges, from climate change's disruption of fish habitats, to the tourism sector's loss of income during COVID-19 lockdowns."The pandemic has hit the marine economy sectors in different, but profound ways.

European Council President Charles Michel called on Turkey to keep working to resolve disputes with Greece and Cyprus over gas rights in the Mediterranean as he visited Ankara on Tuesday to discuss trade and refugees with President Tayyip Erdogan.A row between Turkey and EU members Greece and Cyprus over offshore jurisdiction has strained ties, reaching a peak last summer when Turkish and Greek navy frigates escorted vessels exploring for hydrocarbons in disputed waters.The European Union backs Athens, while Ankara has accused the bloc of bias and of not honoring its pledges under a 2016 migrant deal.The visit by Michel and European…

Britain clinched a narrow Brexit trade deal with the European Union on Thursday, just seven days before it exits one of the world’s biggest trading blocs in its most significant global shift since the loss of empire.The deal, agreed more than four years after Britain voted narrowly to leave the bloc, means it has averted a chaotic finale to the tortuous divorce that has shaken the 70-year project to forge European unity from the ruins of World War Two.It will preserve Britain’s zero-tariff and zero-quota access to the bloc’s single market of 450 million consumers…

London and Brussels agreed on Sunday to “go the extra mile” in coming days to try to reach an elusive trade agreement despite missing their latest deadline to avert a turbulent exit for Britain from the European Union’s orbit at the end of the month.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the president of the EU’s executive Commission, Ursula von der Leyen had given negotiators a Sunday deadline to find a way to resolve an impasse on arrangements that would guarantee Britain zero-tariff and zero-quota access to the EU’s single market.On Sunday they mandated negotiators to continue…

The European Union's executive called on Monday for dialogue with Turkey and demanded that Ankara refrains from unilateral steps that stoke tensions in eastern Mediterranean.Should dialogue not bear fruit, a spokesman for the European Commission told a briefing on Monday, the EU has already moved towards sanctions.That came after the 27 EU foreign ministers discussed last week tensions between the bloc's members Greece and Cyprus and Turkey, a NATO ally. A senior EU diplomat said separately on Friday of the situation:"As well as sticks (sanctions)…

Estonia and Latvia will send ships to bring back hundreds of their citizens stranded on the border between Germany and Poland, following Warsaw’s decision last week to shut its borders in response to the coronavirus outbreak, officials said.The three Baltic countries - Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - have criticized Poland for preventing their citizens in transit from returning home.Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki came under fire over the move during a coronavirus videocall of all 27 national EU leaders on Tuesday during which they agreed to seal off Europe’s external borders as par

The European Union is considering a six-month extension to its Mediterranean mission, which is aimed at cracking down on smugglers and migration from Africa, but only for air patrols and training Libya's coast guard, according to a draft statement.The current mandate of the so-called Sophia mission expires this week and Italy wants to change it so that its ships are no longer patrolling and picking up people in the sea. Other states such as Germany want to prolong Sophia.A potential compromise discussed by national diplomats in Brussels on Tuesday…

The European Union on Monday called on Turkey to avoid threats and "refrain from any actions that might damage good neighbourly" ties after Cyprus, a member of the bloc, accused the Turkish military of obstructing a ship exploring for gas. Cyprus is one of several states, also including Israel and Lebanon, racing to tap gas deposits in the eastern Mediterranean. Greek Cypriots run Cyprus's internationally recognised government, while Turkish Cypriots have a breakaway state in the north - recognised only by Ankara - and say resources around the island belong to them too. Cyprus said on Sunday the Turkish military had obstructed a vessel contracted by Italian oil company Eni which was approaching an area to explore for natural gas.

Some EU officials say NGOs inadvertently encourage people smuggling; NGOs say they are only trying to save lives. A "ferry service" that encourages people smugglers or an essential humanitarian rescue service that saves thousands of African migrants making a dangerous sea crossing to Europe? This debate among EU officials about the role of aid groups in the Mediterranean highlights their dilemma between the moral and legal obligation of helping those in need, and growing pressure from voters to keep them away. Escaping wars and poverty, more than 360,000 refugees and migrants made it to European shores across the Mediterranean last year. Most of them arrived on EU rescue vessels.

European Union leaders will on Thursday call for more vessels for the Libyan coastguard to help it prevent migrants leaving its shores for Europe, sources said. Migrant arrivals from Libya to EU member state Italy are higher this year than last at more than 175,000 people. Curbing immigration is the bloc's top priority after about 1.4 million refugees and migrants reached it in 2015-2016. The EU's naval operation in the Mediterranean, Sophia, which is targeting arms traffickers and training the Libyan coastguard, is obliged to pluck out of the sea people who leave Libya in unreliable boats provided by people smugglers, meaning most of those who reach Italy arrive on EU vessels. One EU official said the bloc is increasingly worried that Sophia "has become a taxi service".

The European Union's naval mission will keep patrolling for pirates off the coast of Somalia for another two years, to guard against any resurgence of attacks, the bloc said on Monday. The number of raids and kidnappings has fallen - though maritime officials have warned that the risk is still, underlined by two attempted attacks last month. NATO said last week it had ended its own mission off the Horn of Africa, as it shifts resources to deterring Russia in the Black Sea and people smugglers in the Mediterranean. But the EU said it would extend the EUNAVFOR Somalia Operation Atalanta until the end of 2018, allowing it to keep guarding U.N. aid deliveries.

The European Commission on Wednesday said it has given its conditional approval to a merger between German container shipping line Hapag-Lloyd and the United Arab Shipping Company (UASC). The merger would create a combined company worth about 7 to 8 billion euros ($7.5-$8.6 billion). It would be the world's fifth largest shipping firm, with access to the Asia-to-Europe trade route and trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific routes. "Both companies operate in the container liner shipping sector," the Commission said.

Russia has sent two tank landing ships and additional aircraft to Syria in the past day or so and has deployed a small number of forces there, U.S. officials said on Wednesday, in the latest signs of a military buildup that has put Washington on edge. The two U.S. officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the intent of Russia's military moves in Syria remained unclear. U.S. officials have not ruled out the possibility that Moscow may be laying the groundwork for an air combat role in Syria's conflict to bolster Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Assad, a longtime Russian ally, has seen the area he controls whittled down to a fifth or less of Syria's territory after more than four years of grinding civil war.

Chief Executive with Rosneft, the world's top listed oil company by output, Igor Sechin, said on Friday that the acquisition of BG Group by Royal Dutch Shell showed that Britain's liquefied natural gas (LNG) market was strong. Shell plans to buy its British rival BG for $70 billion. BG has some of the world's most ambitious projects in LNG, where demand is growing as consumers turn away from more polluting fuels such as coal. Rosneft plans to build its own LNG plant in Russia in partnership with U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil.

Russia may allow more oil companies to access its offshore projects, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday.   "In general, the access can be extended," Novak told reporters in Moscow.   An existing law stipulates that only state energy majors Rosneft and Gazprom can explore offshore fields. But Lukoil, Russia's No.2 oil producer, has long called for extending access to private firms as well.     (Reporting by Olesya Astakhova, Writing by Polina Devitt, Editing by Gabriela Baczynska)

Reuters- Russia's oil pipeline monopoly Transneft said on Thursday it plans to nearly triple exports of ultra low sulphur diesel (ULSD) from the Baltic Sea port of Primorsk after 2016 when domestic companies are expected to boost production. As there will be not enough pipeline capacity to export the production then, Transneft said it will adjust one of the crude oil links leading to Primorsk to a pipeline able to ship ULSD. Transneft would start works to ship ULSD from the Kirishi refinery, owned by Surgutneftegas, to Primorsk later this spring and the pipeline would be ready to ship the fuel next autumn or winter, the company said in emailed remarks.

The Russian navy will add three new large landing ships next year to the 19 already in service, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu was quoted as saying on Tuesday. The Russian navy is under scrutiny during a widening international crisis over Crimea, a region with an ethnic Russian majority in Ukraine which Moscow has effectively wrestled from Kiev in recent days, causing outrage in the West. President Vladimir Putin has ordered troops involved in a military exercise in central and western Ukraine back to base, a move that appeared intended to help ease tension. But the timing of Shoigu's comments signalled Moscow was still flexing its muscles, underlining Moscow's commitment to building up its armed forces in coming years. Russia's Black Sea Fleet has a base in Crimea.