This year has seen stakes in 53 new offshore oil and gas exploration licences awarded by Norway to 20 companies who are set to invest €22.8bn in yet more drilling — up six percent on last year. Yet Norway’s electricity grid runs almost entirely on renewables — because under the Paris Agreement, emissions are counted where fossil-fuels are consumed, not where they are extracted.

EU leaders are preparing to back Ukraine at next week's summit, unless Russia-friendly Hungary throws a spanner in the works, while also fine-tuning plans to use Moscow's frozen funds for Kyiv.

The EU on Wednesday promised to save business a further €1bn per year by stripping down more environmental reporting standards. Among the changes, reforms will exempt more than 38,000 farms from having to report on energy and water use, while companies manufacturing plastics and electronics will no longer be held responsible for what happens to them after consumers get rid of them. 

EU states are struggling with upcoming border rules that critics say could led to detention-like centres. Under the new regime authorities will have only seven days to screen a prospective asylum seeker.

Today, we kick off an anniversary campaign to convince new supporting members to join EUobserver's mission of providing the information citizens need to safeguard EU democracy.

Russian spies are still active in the EU capital and have a "higher risk appetite" than before the Ukraine war — despite Belgium's efforts to push back against their plots.