When the agreement was reached, he presented himself as the sheriff who wanted to finally bring the Wild West behavior of the major platforms under control – but Thierry Breton will hardly shoot faster than his shadow, even starting tomorrow, when the Digital Services Act applies to the largest providers. “Complying with the DSA rules is not a punishment,” the French commissioner now lets it be known: “It’s an opportunity to reinforce their brand value and reputation as trustworthy providers.”
As of Friday, 17 Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) and search engines will fall under the supervision of the EU Commission under the Digital Services Act. They will then have to comply with the rules of the extensive body of legislation. This concerns the handling of suspected illegal content, but also transparency obligations and a review of systemic risks – for example, when it comes to influencing the public through misinformation.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Russian president’s right-hand man for particularly dirty military operations, was thought to be dead once before: in October 2019, he reportedly died in a plane crash in the Democratic Republic of Congo. That was a canard.
On the evening of Aug. 23, 2023, another plane crashes, northwest of Moscow. On board, according to the list of names, was not only the founder of the Russian private militia Wagner, Prigozhin himself, but also one of his most important confidants, Dmitry Utkin.
According to the Moscow Times and Telegram channels close to Wagner, the aircraft is said to be the Embraer plane with registration number RA-02795 – Prigozhin’s plane. The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations confirmed the crash of an Embraer jet near Tver with ten people on board, three of them crew, but gave no further details.
That Prigozhin and his militia’s leadership team were on board was reported by Russia’s Tass agency, citing the Russian aviation regulator. That evening, Xeniya Sobchak, Putin’s goddaughter, wrote on her Telegram channel, “According to my sources, Prigozhin was on board.” Under her father, Anatoly Sobchak, Putin had made a career in St. Petersburg in the 1990s. He had been closely associated with Prigozhin since that time. Sobchak noted, “This is an absolutely clear signal to all elites, to all who had any seditious thoughts, such as about the special military operation.”
The Wagner-affiliated Telegram channel Grey Zone announced with certainty Prigozhin’s death, writing that he died “as a result of the actions of traitors”.
Official confirmations for names of the victims were not available by the time this issue went to press. A second aircraft, also believed to belong to Prigozhin, circled over Moscow after the incident and was subsequently able to land.
Exactly two months ago, the Wagner group had started an uprising against the leadership of the Russian army, which lasted for two days. With the mediation of the Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, Prigozhin had ended the uprising. The Kremlin seized the opportunity and significantly weakened Wagner. Both publicly in prestige and by asking personnel to join regular forces, leave the militia altogether or go abroad.
Just a few days ago, Telegram channels close to Prigozhin published a video in which the Wagner boss allegedly sent a video message from Mali, promising the liberation of African states from Western influence. Where and when exactly the video was recorded remained unclear.
Independent Kremlin observers pointed out in the evening after the crash reports that the ruling elite in the country had already spoken of Prigozhin signing his death warrant after the coup attempt.
Among the many speculations about the cause of the crash, there were speculations about the technology failure and shooting down by an air defense system. There were no official statements from Russian authorities on this either by the time of going to press.
Just this week, it was announced that Russian General Sergei Surovikin had been relieved of his post as head of the Air and Space Forces. Surovikin had also fallen out of favor in connection with the coup attempt. He is said to have subsequently been under house arrest, and investigations against him were ongoing.
If Prigozhin is indeed dead and further purges are taking place in the Russian military, it speaks to the fact that Putin’s confidant, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has prevailed. Prigozhin has not only publicly criticized him, but also insulted him. Time and again, he has called for general mobilization, a faster shift to a war economy, and even more aggressive action against Ukraine.
After the coup, Prigozhin published reports blaming Shoigu for the deaths of many Wagner militiamen, already in Syria. There, Wagner helped dictator Bashar Al-Assad fight IS groups and other opponents and secure oil facilities.
Russian President Vladimir Putin himself attended ceremonies Wednesday evening commemorating the Battle of Kursk in World War II 80 years ago. There he awarded soldiers who fought in the current war in Ukraine with medals for heroism.
It is a steep curve that has shown a trend reversal in European gas trade since mid-July. Since then, the return flows of gas from the EU to Ukraine have been higher than in the whole of last year, data from the Bruegel think tank show. For decades, gas flowed mainly westward with transit across the Ukrainian expanses. Last year, EU countries hoarded as much gas as they could, with barely a cubic meter left for reverse flows eastward. But this year, the situation looks more favorable than ever for gas storage deals in Ukraine – or so it seems.
A week ago, the Directorate-General for Energy reported that the EU’s gas storage facilities were already 90 percent full. The good supply situation was already apparent in late spring, so considerations in the EU increased to store more gas in Ukrainian storage facilities this year. The physical conditions are excellent. The underground sites can hold 31 billion cubic meters (bcm), most of which are located in the west of the country. In the year before the outbreak of war, foreign companies stored as much as two bcm of gas in Ukraine. But Ukraine offered even more.
EU companies would have a storage potential of ten bcm at their disposal, the CEO of owner Naftogaz, Oleksiy Chernyshov, advertised in an interview with Euractiv in April. Ukraine could become a reinsurance for European energy supply, he said. Once before, in the pandemic year 2020, EU companies had stored such quantities of gas in Ukraine. But so far this year, the reaction in the West has been muted.
“The Ukrainian storage facilities can indeed help balance supply and demand, as they are excellently connected to EU gas markets,” an RWE spokeswoman said Wednesday. The group has been one of the users of Ukrainian storage in recent years, according to Bloomberg, but in the meantime, Russia has repeatedly attacked at least the power supply with missiles, and Moscow did not even shy away from destroying the Kakhovka dam. “Special risks for a trader require certain financial guarantees, which are not currently offered by the insurance industry for Ukraine,” the RWE spokeswoman said.
According to Bloomberg, a Commission spokesman reported as early as the beginning of June that the Commission was considering supporting the readiness for gas storage transactions with public guarantees, if necessary. A few weeks later, however, a completely different construction site emerged.
The Energy Community director discussed “regulatory changes” with Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko to reduce risks to the gas storage business in Ukraine, the little-known body said. The Energy Community drives energy cooperation between the EU and eastern states – from the Balkans to Georgia.
A few days ago, its director Artur Lorkowski followed up with a concise but blunt report. It is true that the Energy Community also writes that prices in the EU could be stabilized in the coming winter if local companies stored at least five bcm of gas in Ukraine. However, the Pole also spread the word about Kyiv’s still pressing need for reform.
On June 14, the Energy Community convened European gas traders in Vienna – and they assessed a different risk as being higher than the military one. Unlike substations, for example, Ukrainian gas storage facilities and large transport pipelines have not been attacked so far, according to the paper that has now been published. At the meeting, envoys from Ukraine also meticulously demonstrated how crises could be technically controlled.
“Nevertheless, the perceived unpredictability of the Ukrainian legal framework and the risks it entails were repeatedly highlighted by EU stakeholders,” the organizers write. The report then lists decisions that the government in Kyiv made under the pressure of war, but which, with the sober eye of businesses, also represent high levels of unpredictability. After the Russian attack, for example, the energy ministry initially cut off all gas exports except for transit. Later, this intervention was toned down again, so that gas stored by foreign companies was no longer affected.
As recently as May of this year, however, the government had erected a new hurdle. Traders should now prove that they did not store gas from Russia in Ukraine. “Such a measure brought the storage business of EU traders to a virtual standstill, as it was not possible at that time to obtain a document of origin for individual gas deliveries,” the report says. This measure was also later withdrawn for gas, it said.
A particularly serious charge from the Energy Community: “All this shows that the storage business in Ukraine has not been affected by military attacks, but by the government’s interventions, which are only partially justified by war-related circumstances.” European traders would first have to regain confidence in Ukraine. The community also no longer sees financial guarantees from EU states as a priority solution; sufficient pledges are not expected by winter.
Instead, the organization listed ten “recommendations” addressed to the Ukrainian government, the state regulator, the storage operator Ukrtransgaz and the pipeline operator GTSOU. For example, the Energy Community wanted a guarantee from the Ministry of Energy that the transport of stored gas would not be prevented even in emergency situations.
As Table.Media exclusively learned, negotiations on a memorandum of understanding between Ukrainian entities and the Vienna organization are already well advanced. The Energy Community has prepared a paper that should minimize the risks for gas traders from the EU. “We have been informed that the so-called de-risking paper has been submitted for signature to Energy Minister German Galushchenko, who is currently on a business trip. The other state companies and authorities involved have already signed,” Energy Community Deputy Director Dirk Buschle said Wednesday.
But why have gas flows to Ukraine already been rising for weeks? “The risks still exist and they are often difficult to reconcile with traders’ risk policies,” says Buschle. The high-ranking expert explains the nevertheless sharp increase in feed-in on the one hand with the enormous spread between summer and winter prices – i.e. the profit prospects for traders – and on the other hand with the recent support from the Energy Community and Ukrainian gas companies. “The storage of gas from the EU in Ukraine will further benefit from the publication of the de-risking paper,” Buschle is convinced.
The gas industry also justifies the increasing deliveries to Ukraine with the high profit opportunities. Swiss trader Axpo does point to the risks of war. “On the other hand, the summer/winter spread has risen to a level where certain companies are taking the risk of storing gas in Ukraine,” says Marco Saalfrank, Head of Continental Europe Merchant Trading. Bruegel estimated the profit opportunities for European traders at €2 billion a few weeks ago.
Saalfrank also sees another reason for the price concessions made by the Ukrainian companies. The storage volume is so large, he says, that the Ukrainian operator has decided to offer its use at fixed costs. “This makes gas storage in Ukraine a very attractive and competitive option,” Saalfrank says. Possibly, Axpo will “also store gas in Ukraine in the near future.”
Another obstacle, however, according to Bruegel, are the transport pipelines, which are still not fully designed for reverse flows from west to east. Only 1.5 to 1.8 bcm per month could be piped to Ukraine via Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Romania. Bruegel analysts urged haste as early as mid-July: “Waiting until October would limit the amount of usable gas.”
The great reformer Deng Xiaoping once advocated restraint in foreign policy for his country as a maxim. Under the current Chinese state and party leader Xi Jinping, this is no longer evident. His statements and demands reveal an undisguised pursuit of a leadership role in the Global South.
Unlike any of the three heads of state present at the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, Xi Jinping also, as expected, pushed for rapid expansion. The process of admitting more states to the “BRICS family” should be accelerated, Xi demanded on Wednesday.
The other members heeded his request and simultaneously slowed him down. On the same day, the five members adopted a document outlining the approach to expanding the group. This was stated by South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor. However, on Wednesday, that was as far as it went. Details of the expansion mechanism would only be revealed to the public at the end of the summit on Thursday, according to Pandor.
The BRICS community will continue to grow “and contribute to peace and development in the world”. International standards should be written and maintained by all countries based on the goals and principles of the UN Charter “instead of being dictated by those with the strongest muscles and the loudest voice,” Xi vaguely expressed.
What may sound like the words of a peacemaker also reveal Xi’s ambition to create a world order centered around China. According to the South African government, more than 40 countries want to join BRICS, and more than 20 countries have already formally applied for membership. The most important candidates for membership are:
While China is pushing for speed, Brazil, India and South Africa are slowing down progress. Their leaders know that if BRICS is expanded quickly to include such countries, their significance in this bloc will decrease. China, as the overwhelmingly most powerful economy, could gain weight. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had already emphasized at the start on Tuesday that the BRICS group should not become a counterweight “to the G7, G20, or the United States”.
On the second day of the summit on Wednesday, there was much more unity on the question of weakening the significance of the US dollar as the existing world currency. They discussed the use of local currencies to facilitate mutual trade and investment, confirmed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, host of the BRICS summit.
Lula even advocated for a common BRICS currency. This could be used for trade and investment. This could increase payment options between BRICS members and reduce their vulnerability to exchange rate fluctuations. Xi promoted the rapid use of the new development bank of the BRICS group as an alternative to the existing development banks IMF and World Bank.
Furthermore, the shared use of satellite data and joint development in artificial intelligence is also conceivable, according to Xi. The intention here is also quite clear: the BRICS development bank is already based in Shanghai. The Chinese are leading in satellite and AI research. Both would make the existing and possibly joining BRICS countries even more dependent on China.
Xi doesn’t see political differences between China’s autocracy and democracies like India or Brazil as a problem. He called for enhancing cultural exchange but avoiding “ideological and institutional confrontations”.
On Wednesday, however, it wasn’t these content matters that dominated discussions but astonishing organizational inconsistencies. Security personnel pushed Xi’s top advisers aside at a door in a football-style manner, separating them from the president. Xi appeared puzzled and turned to his officials, but at the same time tried to appear statesmanlike and unfazed. Then, he stood somewhat lost alone on the red carpet.
Shortly after the start of the summit on Tuesday, Xi caused a stir. He surprisingly did not appear at the BRICS Business Forum, where he was supposed to speak like the other BRICS chiefs. Although there was a speech by the Chinese state and party leader, unlike the program, it was delivered without further explanation by Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao.
The fact that the speech once again attacked the US as a hegemonic power no longer interested anyone. Among China watchers, wild speculation immediately began. “Xi Jinping fails to show up at the BRICS Business Forum. Something is amiss?” Bonnie Glaser from the German Marshall Fund asked on the social network X (formerly Twitter). “To say that this is extraordinary is an understatement because the Chinese leadership never misses highly choreographed events like this,” wrote the China Global South Project.
China clumsily contributed to the story escalating further. Instead of providing an explanation for Xi’s absence, Chinese state media created the impression that the president had indeed spoken. Even Hua Chunying, spokeswoman for the Beijing Ministry of Foreign Affairs, quoted Xi Jinping’s speech on Twitter on Tuesday.
Given the issue of expansion and the mishaps around Xi, the absence of a global top issue hardly stood out. Climate action is on the official agenda at the meeting but was barely discussed. Although China and India suffered from heatwaves and heavy rainfall, forest fires in Siberia got out of control, and Brazil expects an “eccentric winter” with extreme rain.
The host country, South Africa, is focusing its climate efforts at this summit on the transition to a post-fossil economy. However, the “Just Energy Transition Partnership” (JETP) mentioned in this context is a project that Pretoria has launched not with the BRICS countries but with the countries of the Global North.
In general, the familiar questions about climate policy will be debated at the summit:
Urgent calls for emission reduction, expansion of renewables, or even phasing out fossil fuels have not yet appeared in the BRICS demands. Felix Lee/Finn Mayer-Kuckuk/Jörn Petring/Bernhard Poetter
In order to strengthen research policy commitment in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has developed an AI action plan. Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger presented the plan on Wednesday. So far, only the executive summary of the plan has been published. She announced the entire document, which is about 20 pages long, for September. It will first be discussed at the cabinet’s closed meeting in Meseberg next week. The digital association Bitkom criticized the lack of implementation rather than plans.
The action plan identifies eleven areas in which, according to Stark-Watzinger, there is an urgent need for action. These include further strengthening the research base, expanding the AI infrastructure in a targeted manner and pushing ahead with an AI competence offensive. In addition, European and international collaborations are to be further strengthened and – with a view to the EU’s AI Act – a “suitable, agile and innovation-friendly regulation” is to be adopted.
The new impulses that the BMBF wants to give include strengthening the AI specialist base, expanding computing infrastructures and improving access to data, for example for the Research Data Act. Because AI can also help in administration, the BMBF plans to launch “a pilot project for the use of generative AI” this year.
Stark-Watzinger described the AI action plan as an update on her ministry’s contribution to the federal government’s AI strategy, which was adopted by the previous government in November 2018. In addition to the 50 ongoing measures in the field of AI, with which the ministry is promoting research, skills development, infrastructure development and transfer to application, Stark-Watzinger announced at least 20 new initiatives. For example, for the expansion of supercomputing infrastructure and for a research network in the field of neurobiologically inspired AI. “In this legislative period, we are investing more than €1.6 billion in implementing the action plan, and almost €500 million in the coming year alone,” Stark-Watzinger said. This sets a clear priority in the budget, she added.
Bitkom criticized the fact that it remains unclear how the action plan is to be embedded in the German government’s overall strategy for artificial intelligence. Bitkom CEO Bernhard Rohleder said this is where the greatest need for action exists. “The transfer of findings from science to business is perhaps Germany’s greatest weakness.” According to 24 percent of companies, Germany is in the top group worldwide in AI research. But only 15 percent of all companies were using AI.
It is not enough to create individual beacons, he said, as AI is a cross-sectional technology for the entire economy. “We must also be at the forefront when it comes to providers of AI solutions,” Rohleder demanded. However, he added, there was no lack of declarations of intent on artificial intelligence in Germany. With its 2018 AI strategy, Germany was one of the pioneers in Europe and worldwide, but there was a lack of implementation.
This is also due to the fact that Germany is hindering its use. Therefore, the very restrictive rules for the use of non-sensitive data would have to be changed. “If we invest billions in AI, but then deprive it of the data without which AI cannot work, then we will not get anywhere.” abg/vis
She was the most powerful woman in Pedro Sánchez’s cabinet. Now the First Vice-President and current Minister of Economy and Digital Transformation is aiming to return to the European stage. Nadia Calviño wants to become the new President of the European Investment Bank (EIB).
In January, there will be a new head of the EU’s house bank, which Calviño has described as “strategic for Spain and for Europe“. Her main rival is EU Commission Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, who is responsible for competition. In mid-September, European finance ministers will meet in the Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela to discuss the successor to outgoing EIB President Werner Hoyer.
Calviño was born in 1968 in A Coruña, the capital of the Galicia region in northwestern Spain. She is married to the economist Ignacio Manrique de Lara, with whom she has four children. She is the daughter of José María Calviño. He was director of Television Española (TVE) in the 1980s and very controversial because he took sides with the socialist party PSOE at the head of the TV station.
Calviño’s father was also an advisor to Sánchez when he was forced to resign as secretary general of the Socialist Party in 2016. This explains her connection to the PSOE, as she herself is not a member of the party. Those who have worked with her in Brussels describe her as a liberal rather than a socialist on economic issues.
She is excellently networked in Brussels. Before Calviño joined Pedro Sánchez’s government in 2018, she was Director General for Budget at the EU Commission. She joined the Commission back in 2006 as Deputy Director General for Competition. Calviño was thus one of the most influential Spanish women in the EU’s executive body.
Now, at the age of 54, she holds a degree in economics from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and in law from the National Open University UNED. Before moving to Brussels, she held various positions at the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Finance from 1998, in the areas of foreign trade, macroeconomic analysis and forecasting, economic policy and competition.
The economist was never involved in any scandals. But there was public criticism when her husband Manrique de Lara was appointed one of the directors of Patrimonio Nacional. The government agency is responsible for managing and preserving royal palaces, convents and other historic buildings. Manrique de Lara had to resign because of accusations that he was selected for preferential treatment.
In the campaign for the July 23 elections, the PSOE emphasized above all the government’s work on the economy. Calviño and Sánchez touted that the Spanish economy was “running like clockwork”. In fact, the EU’s fourth-largest economy has since made up for the severe slump in the Corona pandemic, and the EU Commission expects growth of around two percent for this year and next – significantly more than for the eurozone as a whole.
Calviño often emphasizes that her profile is more technical than political. In the past four years, however, she has also gained political weight. In interviews before the July 23 elections, she distanced herself from the left-wing government partner Unidos Podemos (UP) and said that the UP’s influence on the government’s economic policy had been “practically nil”.
Among the measures introduced by the government in the previous legislature was a tax on banks and large companies. When Ferrovial moved its headquarters from Spain to the Netherlands earlier this year, Calviño said she didn’t understand the construction group’s decision because “companies are doing very well with this government“.
In August, Calviño stated that her possible election as head of the EIB would not affect her duties in the Spanish interim government “in any way”. Sánchez had expressed confidence in her to continue in her role as the head of the Finance and Economy Ministry even in a possible continuation of the PSOE government. Isabel Cuesta Camacho
When the agreement was reached, he presented himself as the sheriff who wanted to finally bring the Wild West behavior of the major platforms under control – but Thierry Breton will hardly shoot faster than his shadow, even starting tomorrow, when the Digital Services Act applies to the largest providers. “Complying with the DSA rules is not a punishment,” the French commissioner now lets it be known: “It’s an opportunity to reinforce their brand value and reputation as trustworthy providers.”
As of Friday, 17 Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) and search engines will fall under the supervision of the EU Commission under the Digital Services Act. They will then have to comply with the rules of the extensive body of legislation. This concerns the handling of suspected illegal content, but also transparency obligations and a review of systemic risks – for example, when it comes to influencing the public through misinformation.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Russian president’s right-hand man for particularly dirty military operations, was thought to be dead once before: in October 2019, he reportedly died in a plane crash in the Democratic Republic of Congo. That was a canard.
On the evening of Aug. 23, 2023, another plane crashes, northwest of Moscow. On board, according to the list of names, was not only the founder of the Russian private militia Wagner, Prigozhin himself, but also one of his most important confidants, Dmitry Utkin.
According to the Moscow Times and Telegram channels close to Wagner, the aircraft is said to be the Embraer plane with registration number RA-02795 – Prigozhin’s plane. The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations confirmed the crash of an Embraer jet near Tver with ten people on board, three of them crew, but gave no further details.
That Prigozhin and his militia’s leadership team were on board was reported by Russia’s Tass agency, citing the Russian aviation regulator. That evening, Xeniya Sobchak, Putin’s goddaughter, wrote on her Telegram channel, “According to my sources, Prigozhin was on board.” Under her father, Anatoly Sobchak, Putin had made a career in St. Petersburg in the 1990s. He had been closely associated with Prigozhin since that time. Sobchak noted, “This is an absolutely clear signal to all elites, to all who had any seditious thoughts, such as about the special military operation.”
The Wagner-affiliated Telegram channel Grey Zone announced with certainty Prigozhin’s death, writing that he died “as a result of the actions of traitors”.
Official confirmations for names of the victims were not available by the time this issue went to press. A second aircraft, also believed to belong to Prigozhin, circled over Moscow after the incident and was subsequently able to land.
Exactly two months ago, the Wagner group had started an uprising against the leadership of the Russian army, which lasted for two days. With the mediation of the Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, Prigozhin had ended the uprising. The Kremlin seized the opportunity and significantly weakened Wagner. Both publicly in prestige and by asking personnel to join regular forces, leave the militia altogether or go abroad.
Just a few days ago, Telegram channels close to Prigozhin published a video in which the Wagner boss allegedly sent a video message from Mali, promising the liberation of African states from Western influence. Where and when exactly the video was recorded remained unclear.
Independent Kremlin observers pointed out in the evening after the crash reports that the ruling elite in the country had already spoken of Prigozhin signing his death warrant after the coup attempt.
Among the many speculations about the cause of the crash, there were speculations about the technology failure and shooting down by an air defense system. There were no official statements from Russian authorities on this either by the time of going to press.
Just this week, it was announced that Russian General Sergei Surovikin had been relieved of his post as head of the Air and Space Forces. Surovikin had also fallen out of favor in connection with the coup attempt. He is said to have subsequently been under house arrest, and investigations against him were ongoing.
If Prigozhin is indeed dead and further purges are taking place in the Russian military, it speaks to the fact that Putin’s confidant, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has prevailed. Prigozhin has not only publicly criticized him, but also insulted him. Time and again, he has called for general mobilization, a faster shift to a war economy, and even more aggressive action against Ukraine.
After the coup, Prigozhin published reports blaming Shoigu for the deaths of many Wagner militiamen, already in Syria. There, Wagner helped dictator Bashar Al-Assad fight IS groups and other opponents and secure oil facilities.
Russian President Vladimir Putin himself attended ceremonies Wednesday evening commemorating the Battle of Kursk in World War II 80 years ago. There he awarded soldiers who fought in the current war in Ukraine with medals for heroism.
It is a steep curve that has shown a trend reversal in European gas trade since mid-July. Since then, the return flows of gas from the EU to Ukraine have been higher than in the whole of last year, data from the Bruegel think tank show. For decades, gas flowed mainly westward with transit across the Ukrainian expanses. Last year, EU countries hoarded as much gas as they could, with barely a cubic meter left for reverse flows eastward. But this year, the situation looks more favorable than ever for gas storage deals in Ukraine – or so it seems.
A week ago, the Directorate-General for Energy reported that the EU’s gas storage facilities were already 90 percent full. The good supply situation was already apparent in late spring, so considerations in the EU increased to store more gas in Ukrainian storage facilities this year. The physical conditions are excellent. The underground sites can hold 31 billion cubic meters (bcm), most of which are located in the west of the country. In the year before the outbreak of war, foreign companies stored as much as two bcm of gas in Ukraine. But Ukraine offered even more.
EU companies would have a storage potential of ten bcm at their disposal, the CEO of owner Naftogaz, Oleksiy Chernyshov, advertised in an interview with Euractiv in April. Ukraine could become a reinsurance for European energy supply, he said. Once before, in the pandemic year 2020, EU companies had stored such quantities of gas in Ukraine. But so far this year, the reaction in the West has been muted.
“The Ukrainian storage facilities can indeed help balance supply and demand, as they are excellently connected to EU gas markets,” an RWE spokeswoman said Wednesday. The group has been one of the users of Ukrainian storage in recent years, according to Bloomberg, but in the meantime, Russia has repeatedly attacked at least the power supply with missiles, and Moscow did not even shy away from destroying the Kakhovka dam. “Special risks for a trader require certain financial guarantees, which are not currently offered by the insurance industry for Ukraine,” the RWE spokeswoman said.
According to Bloomberg, a Commission spokesman reported as early as the beginning of June that the Commission was considering supporting the readiness for gas storage transactions with public guarantees, if necessary. A few weeks later, however, a completely different construction site emerged.
The Energy Community director discussed “regulatory changes” with Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko to reduce risks to the gas storage business in Ukraine, the little-known body said. The Energy Community drives energy cooperation between the EU and eastern states – from the Balkans to Georgia.
A few days ago, its director Artur Lorkowski followed up with a concise but blunt report. It is true that the Energy Community also writes that prices in the EU could be stabilized in the coming winter if local companies stored at least five bcm of gas in Ukraine. However, the Pole also spread the word about Kyiv’s still pressing need for reform.
On June 14, the Energy Community convened European gas traders in Vienna – and they assessed a different risk as being higher than the military one. Unlike substations, for example, Ukrainian gas storage facilities and large transport pipelines have not been attacked so far, according to the paper that has now been published. At the meeting, envoys from Ukraine also meticulously demonstrated how crises could be technically controlled.
“Nevertheless, the perceived unpredictability of the Ukrainian legal framework and the risks it entails were repeatedly highlighted by EU stakeholders,” the organizers write. The report then lists decisions that the government in Kyiv made under the pressure of war, but which, with the sober eye of businesses, also represent high levels of unpredictability. After the Russian attack, for example, the energy ministry initially cut off all gas exports except for transit. Later, this intervention was toned down again, so that gas stored by foreign companies was no longer affected.
As recently as May of this year, however, the government had erected a new hurdle. Traders should now prove that they did not store gas from Russia in Ukraine. “Such a measure brought the storage business of EU traders to a virtual standstill, as it was not possible at that time to obtain a document of origin for individual gas deliveries,” the report says. This measure was also later withdrawn for gas, it said.
A particularly serious charge from the Energy Community: “All this shows that the storage business in Ukraine has not been affected by military attacks, but by the government’s interventions, which are only partially justified by war-related circumstances.” European traders would first have to regain confidence in Ukraine. The community also no longer sees financial guarantees from EU states as a priority solution; sufficient pledges are not expected by winter.
Instead, the organization listed ten “recommendations” addressed to the Ukrainian government, the state regulator, the storage operator Ukrtransgaz and the pipeline operator GTSOU. For example, the Energy Community wanted a guarantee from the Ministry of Energy that the transport of stored gas would not be prevented even in emergency situations.
As Table.Media exclusively learned, negotiations on a memorandum of understanding between Ukrainian entities and the Vienna organization are already well advanced. The Energy Community has prepared a paper that should minimize the risks for gas traders from the EU. “We have been informed that the so-called de-risking paper has been submitted for signature to Energy Minister German Galushchenko, who is currently on a business trip. The other state companies and authorities involved have already signed,” Energy Community Deputy Director Dirk Buschle said Wednesday.
But why have gas flows to Ukraine already been rising for weeks? “The risks still exist and they are often difficult to reconcile with traders’ risk policies,” says Buschle. The high-ranking expert explains the nevertheless sharp increase in feed-in on the one hand with the enormous spread between summer and winter prices – i.e. the profit prospects for traders – and on the other hand with the recent support from the Energy Community and Ukrainian gas companies. “The storage of gas from the EU in Ukraine will further benefit from the publication of the de-risking paper,” Buschle is convinced.
The gas industry also justifies the increasing deliveries to Ukraine with the high profit opportunities. Swiss trader Axpo does point to the risks of war. “On the other hand, the summer/winter spread has risen to a level where certain companies are taking the risk of storing gas in Ukraine,” says Marco Saalfrank, Head of Continental Europe Merchant Trading. Bruegel estimated the profit opportunities for European traders at €2 billion a few weeks ago.
Saalfrank also sees another reason for the price concessions made by the Ukrainian companies. The storage volume is so large, he says, that the Ukrainian operator has decided to offer its use at fixed costs. “This makes gas storage in Ukraine a very attractive and competitive option,” Saalfrank says. Possibly, Axpo will “also store gas in Ukraine in the near future.”
Another obstacle, however, according to Bruegel, are the transport pipelines, which are still not fully designed for reverse flows from west to east. Only 1.5 to 1.8 bcm per month could be piped to Ukraine via Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Romania. Bruegel analysts urged haste as early as mid-July: “Waiting until October would limit the amount of usable gas.”
The great reformer Deng Xiaoping once advocated restraint in foreign policy for his country as a maxim. Under the current Chinese state and party leader Xi Jinping, this is no longer evident. His statements and demands reveal an undisguised pursuit of a leadership role in the Global South.
Unlike any of the three heads of state present at the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, Xi Jinping also, as expected, pushed for rapid expansion. The process of admitting more states to the “BRICS family” should be accelerated, Xi demanded on Wednesday.
The other members heeded his request and simultaneously slowed him down. On the same day, the five members adopted a document outlining the approach to expanding the group. This was stated by South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor. However, on Wednesday, that was as far as it went. Details of the expansion mechanism would only be revealed to the public at the end of the summit on Thursday, according to Pandor.
The BRICS community will continue to grow “and contribute to peace and development in the world”. International standards should be written and maintained by all countries based on the goals and principles of the UN Charter “instead of being dictated by those with the strongest muscles and the loudest voice,” Xi vaguely expressed.
What may sound like the words of a peacemaker also reveal Xi’s ambition to create a world order centered around China. According to the South African government, more than 40 countries want to join BRICS, and more than 20 countries have already formally applied for membership. The most important candidates for membership are:
While China is pushing for speed, Brazil, India and South Africa are slowing down progress. Their leaders know that if BRICS is expanded quickly to include such countries, their significance in this bloc will decrease. China, as the overwhelmingly most powerful economy, could gain weight. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had already emphasized at the start on Tuesday that the BRICS group should not become a counterweight “to the G7, G20, or the United States”.
On the second day of the summit on Wednesday, there was much more unity on the question of weakening the significance of the US dollar as the existing world currency. They discussed the use of local currencies to facilitate mutual trade and investment, confirmed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, host of the BRICS summit.
Lula even advocated for a common BRICS currency. This could be used for trade and investment. This could increase payment options between BRICS members and reduce their vulnerability to exchange rate fluctuations. Xi promoted the rapid use of the new development bank of the BRICS group as an alternative to the existing development banks IMF and World Bank.
Furthermore, the shared use of satellite data and joint development in artificial intelligence is also conceivable, according to Xi. The intention here is also quite clear: the BRICS development bank is already based in Shanghai. The Chinese are leading in satellite and AI research. Both would make the existing and possibly joining BRICS countries even more dependent on China.
Xi doesn’t see political differences between China’s autocracy and democracies like India or Brazil as a problem. He called for enhancing cultural exchange but avoiding “ideological and institutional confrontations”.
On Wednesday, however, it wasn’t these content matters that dominated discussions but astonishing organizational inconsistencies. Security personnel pushed Xi’s top advisers aside at a door in a football-style manner, separating them from the president. Xi appeared puzzled and turned to his officials, but at the same time tried to appear statesmanlike and unfazed. Then, he stood somewhat lost alone on the red carpet.
Shortly after the start of the summit on Tuesday, Xi caused a stir. He surprisingly did not appear at the BRICS Business Forum, where he was supposed to speak like the other BRICS chiefs. Although there was a speech by the Chinese state and party leader, unlike the program, it was delivered without further explanation by Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao.
The fact that the speech once again attacked the US as a hegemonic power no longer interested anyone. Among China watchers, wild speculation immediately began. “Xi Jinping fails to show up at the BRICS Business Forum. Something is amiss?” Bonnie Glaser from the German Marshall Fund asked on the social network X (formerly Twitter). “To say that this is extraordinary is an understatement because the Chinese leadership never misses highly choreographed events like this,” wrote the China Global South Project.
China clumsily contributed to the story escalating further. Instead of providing an explanation for Xi’s absence, Chinese state media created the impression that the president had indeed spoken. Even Hua Chunying, spokeswoman for the Beijing Ministry of Foreign Affairs, quoted Xi Jinping’s speech on Twitter on Tuesday.
Given the issue of expansion and the mishaps around Xi, the absence of a global top issue hardly stood out. Climate action is on the official agenda at the meeting but was barely discussed. Although China and India suffered from heatwaves and heavy rainfall, forest fires in Siberia got out of control, and Brazil expects an “eccentric winter” with extreme rain.
The host country, South Africa, is focusing its climate efforts at this summit on the transition to a post-fossil economy. However, the “Just Energy Transition Partnership” (JETP) mentioned in this context is a project that Pretoria has launched not with the BRICS countries but with the countries of the Global North.
In general, the familiar questions about climate policy will be debated at the summit:
Urgent calls for emission reduction, expansion of renewables, or even phasing out fossil fuels have not yet appeared in the BRICS demands. Felix Lee/Finn Mayer-Kuckuk/Jörn Petring/Bernhard Poetter
In order to strengthen research policy commitment in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has developed an AI action plan. Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger presented the plan on Wednesday. So far, only the executive summary of the plan has been published. She announced the entire document, which is about 20 pages long, for September. It will first be discussed at the cabinet’s closed meeting in Meseberg next week. The digital association Bitkom criticized the lack of implementation rather than plans.
The action plan identifies eleven areas in which, according to Stark-Watzinger, there is an urgent need for action. These include further strengthening the research base, expanding the AI infrastructure in a targeted manner and pushing ahead with an AI competence offensive. In addition, European and international collaborations are to be further strengthened and – with a view to the EU’s AI Act – a “suitable, agile and innovation-friendly regulation” is to be adopted.
The new impulses that the BMBF wants to give include strengthening the AI specialist base, expanding computing infrastructures and improving access to data, for example for the Research Data Act. Because AI can also help in administration, the BMBF plans to launch “a pilot project for the use of generative AI” this year.
Stark-Watzinger described the AI action plan as an update on her ministry’s contribution to the federal government’s AI strategy, which was adopted by the previous government in November 2018. In addition to the 50 ongoing measures in the field of AI, with which the ministry is promoting research, skills development, infrastructure development and transfer to application, Stark-Watzinger announced at least 20 new initiatives. For example, for the expansion of supercomputing infrastructure and for a research network in the field of neurobiologically inspired AI. “In this legislative period, we are investing more than €1.6 billion in implementing the action plan, and almost €500 million in the coming year alone,” Stark-Watzinger said. This sets a clear priority in the budget, she added.
Bitkom criticized the fact that it remains unclear how the action plan is to be embedded in the German government’s overall strategy for artificial intelligence. Bitkom CEO Bernhard Rohleder said this is where the greatest need for action exists. “The transfer of findings from science to business is perhaps Germany’s greatest weakness.” According to 24 percent of companies, Germany is in the top group worldwide in AI research. But only 15 percent of all companies were using AI.
It is not enough to create individual beacons, he said, as AI is a cross-sectional technology for the entire economy. “We must also be at the forefront when it comes to providers of AI solutions,” Rohleder demanded. However, he added, there was no lack of declarations of intent on artificial intelligence in Germany. With its 2018 AI strategy, Germany was one of the pioneers in Europe and worldwide, but there was a lack of implementation.
This is also due to the fact that Germany is hindering its use. Therefore, the very restrictive rules for the use of non-sensitive data would have to be changed. “If we invest billions in AI, but then deprive it of the data without which AI cannot work, then we will not get anywhere.” abg/vis
She was the most powerful woman in Pedro Sánchez’s cabinet. Now the First Vice-President and current Minister of Economy and Digital Transformation is aiming to return to the European stage. Nadia Calviño wants to become the new President of the European Investment Bank (EIB).
In January, there will be a new head of the EU’s house bank, which Calviño has described as “strategic for Spain and for Europe“. Her main rival is EU Commission Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, who is responsible for competition. In mid-September, European finance ministers will meet in the Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela to discuss the successor to outgoing EIB President Werner Hoyer.
Calviño was born in 1968 in A Coruña, the capital of the Galicia region in northwestern Spain. She is married to the economist Ignacio Manrique de Lara, with whom she has four children. She is the daughter of José María Calviño. He was director of Television Española (TVE) in the 1980s and very controversial because he took sides with the socialist party PSOE at the head of the TV station.
Calviño’s father was also an advisor to Sánchez when he was forced to resign as secretary general of the Socialist Party in 2016. This explains her connection to the PSOE, as she herself is not a member of the party. Those who have worked with her in Brussels describe her as a liberal rather than a socialist on economic issues.
She is excellently networked in Brussels. Before Calviño joined Pedro Sánchez’s government in 2018, she was Director General for Budget at the EU Commission. She joined the Commission back in 2006 as Deputy Director General for Competition. Calviño was thus one of the most influential Spanish women in the EU’s executive body.
Now, at the age of 54, she holds a degree in economics from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and in law from the National Open University UNED. Before moving to Brussels, she held various positions at the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Finance from 1998, in the areas of foreign trade, macroeconomic analysis and forecasting, economic policy and competition.
The economist was never involved in any scandals. But there was public criticism when her husband Manrique de Lara was appointed one of the directors of Patrimonio Nacional. The government agency is responsible for managing and preserving royal palaces, convents and other historic buildings. Manrique de Lara had to resign because of accusations that he was selected for preferential treatment.
In the campaign for the July 23 elections, the PSOE emphasized above all the government’s work on the economy. Calviño and Sánchez touted that the Spanish economy was “running like clockwork”. In fact, the EU’s fourth-largest economy has since made up for the severe slump in the Corona pandemic, and the EU Commission expects growth of around two percent for this year and next – significantly more than for the eurozone as a whole.
Calviño often emphasizes that her profile is more technical than political. In the past four years, however, she has also gained political weight. In interviews before the July 23 elections, she distanced herself from the left-wing government partner Unidos Podemos (UP) and said that the UP’s influence on the government’s economic policy had been “practically nil”.
Among the measures introduced by the government in the previous legislature was a tax on banks and large companies. When Ferrovial moved its headquarters from Spain to the Netherlands earlier this year, Calviño said she didn’t understand the construction group’s decision because “companies are doing very well with this government“.
In August, Calviño stated that her possible election as head of the EIB would not affect her duties in the Spanish interim government “in any way”. Sánchez had expressed confidence in her to continue in her role as the head of the Finance and Economy Ministry even in a possible continuation of the PSOE government. Isabel Cuesta Camacho
