Edict of June 23 at 8:25 p.m.: The leaders of the Twenty-Seven have recognized Ukraine and Moldova as candidates for the European Union, announced the President of the European Council Charles Michel, referring to a “historic moment”, in the midst of the Russian offensive.
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news of the day
The European Union, meeting at a summit in Brussels, endorsed Ukraine’s candidacy on Thursday, a highly symbolic step, nearly four months after the invasion launched by the Russian army. The EU summit, devoted to granting candidate status to Ukraine and its neighbor Moldova, “is a historic moment in geopolitical terms”, judged the President of the European Council Charles Michel before the meeting .
The formalization took place this Thursday evening and, according to Paris, a “total consensus” has emerged on the question between the 27. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who constantly repeats his country’s membership of the “family European Union”, continued Thursday its “telephone marathon” with European leaders to ensure consensus in favor of yes.
sentence of the day
We can look for ways out of the crisis situation hitting the world economy because of the selfish and thoughtless actions of some countries. »
Vladimir Putin on Thursday called on the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) to cooperate in the face of “selfish and thoughtless actions” of Westerners. He also denounced the attempts of these countries to “use financial mechanisms to make the whole world responsible for their own mistakes in macroeconomic policy”.
The number of the day
9. These are the number of suspected traffickers of human beings that a European operation made it possible to identify, during a “hackathon” on May 23. These suspects are suspected of setting up vulnerable Ukrainian victims online who fled the invasion of their country. Nine potential victims have also been identified.
The trend of the day
The gas battle continues between Moscow and the West. It began with the shutdown of Nord Stream 2 last February and continues today. While the European Union has decided to reduce its imports of Russian oil by 90% by the end of the year, Moscow counterattacked in June.
In the middle of the month, Russia decided to drastically reduce its daily delivery capacity to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, leading to an explosion in prices. Arguing a technical problem, the Gazprom group reduced its shipments by 40%, then by an additional 33% in the run-up to the European summit on 23 and 24 June with a view to granting candidate status to Ukraine.
This decision has a heavy impact on several European countries, in particular Germany, Italy, Austria and France, which no longer receives Russian gas at all: in the showdown between the EU and Moscow, the Kremlin derives much of its muscular strength from its hydrocarbons.