Is Serbia turning into an EU mining colony?

by | Apr 18, 2025 | Balkans, Batteries, cars, Chemicals, Companies, Corruption, courts, Critical raw materials, development, elections, Electric vehicles, Emissions, environment, Environmental damage, farmers, Foreign policy, Fossil fuels, Fuels, growth, industry, labor, Lobbying, Markets, Media, Media freedom, Mining, misinformation, Mobility, negotiations, Pipelines, policy, Produce, Raw materials, Regulatory, research, social media, Sustainability, Technology, trade, transparency, Wall Street, Waste, Water

The European Union placed a strategic bet on Serbia’s lithium reserves to fuel its ambitious shift to electric vehicles. What it ended up getting in return were dirty politics and an environmental backlash so severe it is poisoning the Balkan nation’s relations with...

Postwar Russian energy return ‘illusory,’ Belgium says

by | Apr 16, 2025 | Competition and Industrial Policy, competitiveness, Construction, Debt, employment, Energy, Energy and Climate, energy security, Exports, Fossil fuels, Fuels, gas, Imports, Kremlin, Liquefied natural gas, LNG, Nuclear power, oil, Pipelines, Ports, Rights, security, Space, Technology, trade, war

BRUSSELS — Any discussion of reviving energy ties with Russia is “illusory,” Belgium’s top energy official said, pushing back against a growing chorus of voices in Europe calling for restarting imports from Moscow.  “It is fanciful to believe that from one day to the...

Trump forces Canada to rethink trade and energy flows

by | Mar 31, 2025 | Buildings, development, elections, Electricity, Energy, infrastructure, Nuclear power, Pipelines, Railways, Regions/Cohesion, Rights, Tariffs, trade, Trade UK

OTTAWA — The return of Donald Trump has forced a reckoning in Canada with the potential to reshape the Canadian economy — including the direction its energy flows. “We will need to do things previously thought impossible, at speeds we haven’t seen in generations,”...

‘Pissed off’ at Putin, Trump threatens Russian oil tariffs

by | Mar 30, 2025 | Defense, Diesel, Energy and Climate, Energy and Climate UK, Foreign Affairs, Fossil fuels, Fuels, Imports, oil, Pipelines, Politics, Sanctions, Tariffs, trade, Trade UK, war, war in Ukraine

United States President Donald Trump vowed to impose hefty financial penalties on Russian crude oil imports if Moscow does not sign up to a ceasefire in Ukraine within the next month. Speaking in an interview with NBC, Trump said he was “very angry” and “pissed off”...

EU eyes Ukrainian storage fix to Slovakia gas spat

by | Mar 21, 2025 | Brussels Decoded, Competition and Industrial Policy, Energy, Energy and Climate, energy security, environment, Exports, gas, Imports, Markets, oil, Pipelines, refugees, RePowerEU, security, trade, transparency

BRUSSELS — The European Union is discussing a new plan that would harness Ukraine’s mammoth underground gas storage capacity to resolve a long-standing feud between Kyiv and Slovakia, according to two officials familiar with the talks.  The proposal, first discussed...