The fund grew 4.5% to €32.05 billion, but rising pension costs left it able to cover only 4.24 years of benefits

Grand Duchy finishes bottom of table of 13 European countries for charging infrastructure

The fund grew 4.5% to €32.05 billion, but rising pension costs left it able to cover only 4.24 years of benefits

Grand Duchy finishes bottom of table of 13 European countries for charging infrastructure

Surrogacy is banned in Germany, a policy firmly backed by Jens Spahn's Christian Democrat party, and several years ago by Spahn, too.

A rift between Fedorov and Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi was apparently at the heart of Zelensky's decision.

BRUSSELS — Taras Kachka, Ukraine’s former deputy prime minister in charge of European integration, has been named as Kyiv’s new ambassador to the European Union, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Friday. Kachka takes over from Vsevolod Chentsov, who will take up Kachka’s previous role as deputy prime minister in charge of integration with the EU in a role-swap. The switch forms part of a wider wartime reshuffle that has recast several senior portfolios, following Zelenskyy’s dismissal of Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov — a move that sparked protests in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. Stepping into a key position handling relations with the EU institutions in the midst of Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine, Kachka brings experience managing the details of Kyiv’s bid to join the EU. Kachka was in Brussels on July 14 for the opening of a new negotiating “cluster,” or formal legal step on the path to membership. Despite being in talks with the EU for months, Kyiv only opened its first negotiating cluster in June after Hungary lifted a long-standing veto. Ukraine had hoped to open all six of its negotiating clusters with the EU by mid-July, but due to fresh reservations from Hungary only two of them have been opened. Speaking to POLITICO last week, Kachka voiced a “certain disappointment” over the “lack of a feeling of urgency” among some EU countries, but said that he was working closely with Hungarian Foreign Minister Anita Orbán to address outstanding concerns about the rights of a Hungarian minority in Ukraine. “There is political inertia and a lot of prejudice that still exist in Hungarian society,” he said. “That’s why our common task is to show that the enlargement process is not undermining them [the Hungarian minority].” Announcing Kachka’s appointment, Zelenskyy wrote that Ukraine was awaiting decisions on four more clusters. “I believe Taras will be able to carry out this work most effectively at Ukraine’s Mission to the European Union in Brussels,” he wrote, adding that Kachka would also do the job of trade representative to the EU for Ukraine.

BRUSSELS — The European Commission says it wants to derive 46 percent of the European Union’s total energy from electricity by 2040 — double the current level — but has backed away from setting a legally-binding target. The Electrification Action Plan, unveiled by EU energy chief Dan Jørgensen on Friday, aims to reduce Europe’s reliance on imported oil and gas while lowering energy costs for households and industry. The Commission estimates that hitting the electrification target would cut oil demand by 40 percent and gas demand by 70 percent. “The age of fossil fuels is coming to an end,” EU energy chief Dan Jørgensen said Friday. “Today we are proposing to double the electrification rate in Europe. This is not a small thing. It took us from the Stone Age till now to get to 23 percent, and now we want to double it in 14 years.” But exactly how the EU will ensure it meets that target was less clear. In an earlier draft obtained by POLITICO, the Commission had proposed making the target legally binding. The final plan instead sets an “indicative target” of 46 percent, with the Commission saying it will assess making it binding as part of the post-2030 Energy Union package. “We are still seeing that over half of the EU’s energy consumption is made by imported fossil fuels,” an EU official told journalists during a technical briefing on Thursday, pointing to the bloc’s vulnerability to global energy shocks. Since the escalation of the Middle East conflict, the EU has spent more than €50 billion extra on fossil fuel imports, the official added. The plan targets industry, transport and buildings, with the latter accounting for around half of EU gas consumption. It introduces new measures to accelerate heat pump deployment, expand charging infrastructure for electric vehicles and support industrial electrification. The electrification push comes as the Commission warns that progress has stalled despite rapid growth in clean power generation. More than 70 percent of EU electricity generation now comes from clean sources, mainly renewables and nuclear, but the electrification rate has remained stuck at around 23 percent over the past decade. The plan focuses on five main barriers identified by the Commission: the gap between electricity and gas prices, access to infrastructure, innovation and the upfront cost of electrification technologies such as heat pumps and electric vehicles. A central element are the efforts to reduce the electricity-to-gas price gap, with electricity currently costing up to 2.5 times more than gas on average, according to the Commission. The energy package also includes new measures on network charges aimed at making electricity grids more efficient by encouraging consumers, producers and grid operators to adapt their behavior. “The aim of this proposal is to make sure that all system users, be they on the production or on the consumption side, have the right incentives available to help us manage our electricity system in the most cost-effective manner,” an EU official said. The initiative calls on member states to ensure electricity is not taxed more heavily than gas, arguing that taxation remains a barrier to electrification. However, the proposal stops short of dictating how countries set electricity tariffs. Instead, it establishes principles for national regulators to encourage smarter consumption, flexibility and more efficient grid management. “We provide a series of principles. But at the same time, it is then for national regulatory authorities to apply these principles,” the official said. This article has been updated.

After a leak of confidential documents revealed how Russian agents have been placing hundreds of articles in French-speaking media outlets in West and Central Africa, FRANCE 24 travelled to Dakar, Senegal, to investigate this secret operation.

Andy Burnham was on Friday elected leader of the Labour party clearing the way for him to become the UK Prime Minister next week following the departure of Keir Starmer. Burnham has risen to leadership on a pledge to thwart the rise ‌of the populist Reform UK and said he would "give hope back" to people.

My father, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, believed leadership meant putting Qatar and its people first.

By agreeing to hear Palestinian Christians, the Synod has begun to confront its history and responsibilities.

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A new generation has been cutting red tape to speed weapons to the front. But the old guard pushed back, and now Ukraine’s young defense minister is out.

A plain-spoken politician from a modest background in northwest England, Mr. Burnham became Labour leader — and Britain’s incoming prime minister — on Friday.