Eurotopics.net

The trial over the attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines in September 2022 has begun in Hamburg. Ukrainian ex-officer Serhii K. has been charged with leading a group of divers who blew up three of the four gas pipelines that run between Russia and Germany. The public prosecutor's office classifies such acts as a war crime against civilian infrastructure.

Parts of the Czech government want to scale back the inclusion of children with disabilities in the country's mainstream schools. Headteachers are to have the right to refuse pupils with health impairments. Commentators in the national press view this is the wrong approach.

Google plans to build several data centres in Finland and invest around 13 billion euros in digital infrastructure. At one location, 300 hectares of woodlands were cleared before the environmental impact assessment had been completed. The Finnish supervisory authority ordered all environmentally detrimental construction work to be suspended. After a long silence, Google has apologised and work on the sites has been suspended.

The negotiations on the EU budget for the years 2028 to 2034 are entering a critical phase. The Commission had presented a draft budget of about two trillion euros which has immediately come under fire from the net contributors – Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Austria. The Irish EU presidency has now proposed a new budget for around 160 billion euros less as a compromise.

US President Donald Trump has struck a diesel deal with Russian leader Vladimir Putin while the EU is struggling to reach a consensus on the next package of sanctions against Moscow. At the same time, voices within the EU are increasingly calling into question aid for Ukraine. Commentators ask how Europe should position itself to find an appropriate response.

The scandal-hit US Ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, has resigned at Donald Trump's request amid allegations that she suggested in Athens that Washington could topple governments in the region if they refused to buy expensive US liquefied natural gas. Shortly afterwards, Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan's government in Romania collapsed.