EU

Hungary has shifted from opposing a new EU sanctions package targeting Russia to calling on its fellow EU member-states to lift all restrictions on Moscow’s fossil-fuel industry.

Kyrgyzstan is prepared to take the European Union to court if Brussels imposes sanctions on the Central Asian state over allegations it has helped funnel restricted goods to Russia.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) is facing a sharp rise in suspected fraud linked to the EU’s pandemic recovery fund, with estimated losses tied to the program approaching €5 billion, Follow the Money reported, citing figures in the office’s annual report released Monday.

Peter Mandelson is facing scrutiny from the EU anti-fraud office after the European Commission asked investigators to examine his conduct during his tenure as the bloc’s trade commissioner.

Western governments marked the anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine with new measures targeting the Kremlin’s revenue streams and enabling networks, despite stalled efforts by the EU to approve a broad sanctions package.

Hungary plans to block an EU sanctions package targeting Moscow and major new loans intended for Kyiv unless oil shipments resume through the Druzhba pipeline crossing western Ukraine. 

Austria’s financial regulator has ordered KuCoin’s European arm to stop taking on new business after the crypto exchange lost key compliance staff in the months following the firm getting a green light to operate under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regime.

The European Central Bank has stepped up its scrutiny of how exposed euro-area lenders are to the fast-growing artificial intelligence industry, reflecting concerns that banks may be building credit risk in hard-to-track ways and that AI could reshape parts of the financial sector.

A blacklisted, former Belarusian official is working with Russia to disguise the origin of agricultural products from Ukraine’s occupied territories, according to new reporting by Ukrinform. The news agency, which is Ukraine’s only national news service and is controlled by the country’s Cabinet of Ministers, said it based its reporting on documents obtained by the Belarusian opposition group […]

An IT misconfiguration has exposed an apparent network of oil traders that has helped move at least $90 billion of Russian crude and has become central to keeping export revenues flowing to the Kremlin, the Financial Times reported Friday.