EU

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. 

There has been visible discontent with Albania’s government in recent weeks, with protestors hurling petrol bombs at government buildings and calling out Prime Minister Edi Rama by name.

Belgian prosecutors have charged two people close to former European Commissioner Didier Reynders as part of a money-laundering investigation that until now had focused on Reynders alone.

Belgian police raided European Commission offices in Brussels on Thursday as part of an investigation into potential irregularities in the sale of EU real estate assets.

The European Commission has proposed a blanket ban on cryptocurrency transactions linked to Russia and new trade restrictions on Kyrgyzstan in an effort to close loopholes used by Moscow to fund its war in Ukraine. 

The European Union’s new Anti-Money Laundering Authority said it is on track to become fully operational in 2028, setting out a multi-year plan that flags emerging illicit-finance threats ranging from crypto-assets to “novel payment channels.”