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Good morning. European Fee president Ursula von der Leyen and EU council chief Charles Michel are in Washington at present for a long-awaited summit with US president Joe Biden to speak tariffs. My colleagues preview the assembly under, explaining why you shouldn’t maintain your breath. And our Nordics correspondent appears at how Finland is getting more durable on Russia.
Commerce troubles
The leaders of the US and the EU establishments meet in Washington at present for a summit that was supposed to normalise commerce relations.
However with these talks caught regardless of intense round the clock efforts, the summit will now give attention to easier points, reminiscent of assist for Ukraine and Israel, write Andy Bounds and Alice Hancock.
Context: Diplomats deliberate the date to power an settlement on a inexperienced metal membership to end a transatlantic tariff war triggered beneath former US president Donald Trump. However variations seem irreconcilable, leaving nothing to announce.
The US will completely elevate its tariffs on EU metal and aluminium imports — they’ve been suspended for 2 years — provided that Brussels agrees to levy comparable ones on China, which Washington says is flooding the market with low-cost steel. The EU insists it has to abide by worldwide commerce guidelines, first working an investigation to show China is subsidising its producers.
The 2 sides are prone to lengthen their truce at the very least till after elections subsequent November, wherein Biden must win steelmaking states reminiscent of Pennsylvania.
A parallel deal on important minerals, which might permit EU carmakers access to US subsidies beneath the Inflation Discount Act, is also stuck.
As an alternative, they are going to give attention to issues they agree on.
Biden made a uncommon Oval Workplace deal with final night time calling for the divided Congress to decide to navy help for Ukraine and Israel. Ursula von der Leyen, European Fee president, gave a speech on the Hudson Institute think-tank to spice up his trigger.
There was “no room for hesitation or half measures” within the West’s assist for Ukraine, von der Leyen stated. She known as on the EU’s allies “to double down — whether or not on finance or gear”.
“Europe intends to step up,” she stated, including: “We recognise that US assist ought to be one essential piece of a world effort.”
Leaders may also speak robust on Iran, making an attempt to dissuade Tehran and Hizbollah in Lebanon from getting concerned within the Israel-Hamas battle amid fears of it spreading.
Diplomats had been nonetheless haggling over the summit assertion on China, with the US, as typical, going additional than the EU would love.
Officers insist relations between Brussels and Washington are nearer than ever regardless of the commerce tensions. “We’re depending on one another, we simply need to maintain negotiating and discover options,” stated Ville Tavio, Finland’s commerce minister.
Chart du jour: Monster vehicles
In Eire, the place incomes have grown and public transport is poor, more people are buying bigger cars. That is hampering the nation’s environmental targets, as transport emissions final yr rose by 6 per cent.
Defending house(s)
Finland is toughening its public stance in opposition to Russia, with the federal government yesterday banning three property transactions within the Nordic nation involving Russians, writes Richard Milne.
Context: Finland has never let its guard down on its neighbour, nevertheless it has typically been reluctant to criticise or tackle Moscow publicly, at the same time as proof has mounted of Russians snapping up properties close to delicate places reminiscent of navy bases.
Finland’s defence ministry yesterday barred three actual property offers involving Russian people and firms in two cities situated not removed from the border between the two countries.
Russians made some high-profile offers in Finland within the 2010s, together with shopping for an area ice hockey staff (a preferred sport in each international locations), growing a nuclear energy plant that has since been canned, and shopping for up property throughout the nation.
After an outcry over one such property, a James Bond-style lair near strategic delivery routes, Finland’s defence ministry in 2020 received the facility to cease actual property gross sales to non-EU entities. Finland solely began utilizing it a few yr in the past, together with a case wherein it prevented Russians from shopping for an previous folks’s house near a navy set up.
The transfer is “symbolic of official Finland’s newish relationship with issues Russian,” Charly Salonius-Pasternak, a number one researcher on the Finnish Institute of Worldwide Affairs, wrote on X, previously Twitter.
All this comes in opposition to the backdrop of investigations into the apparent sabotage of a gas pipeline and knowledge cable between Finland and Estonia, in addition to harm to a second knowledge cable between Sweden and Estonia across the identical time. Nato yesterday announced it could step up patrols within the Baltic Sea over the incidents.
Investigators are concentrating on a number of Russian ships in addition to a Chinese language vessel situated close to the world. Anticipate extra public denouncement from the Finns ought to they discover one thing concrete.
What to look at at present
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EU officers in Washington for summit with US authorities.
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EU commerce ministers meet in Valencia, Spain.
Now learn these
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Fallen via the cracks: The gunman who killed two Swedish soccer followers in Brussels this week was denied asylum in 4 totally different European international locations.
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Historical past classes: A park within the French countryside affords guests re-enactments of historic French historical past, however the episodes are tinted with ideological messages.
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Powerful neighbourhood: Centuries-old regional rivalries will complicate EU makes an attempt to expand in the Balkans, writes Tony Barber.
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