In recent days, Europe has been covered by a wave of abnormal heat, which has led to forest fires in many southern countries, Western media reported on Wednesday.
The Portuguese authorities said that several fires led to the evacuation of about 700 people, about 120 needed medical attention, one local resident and one firefighter were seriously injured. 1,300 firefighters and several water-dropping aircraft were sent to fight the elements in the central region of the country, while about 1,000 firefighters are working in other regions.
In the southwest of France, a forest fire has engulfed an area of more than 1.2 thousand hectares near the commune of La Teste-de-Bouche, which is located south of Bordeaux. On Wednesday morning, about 6,000 people were evacuated from the area. Also, about 500 people were evacuated from the outskirts of the city of Landira. More than 800 firefighters are fighting fires in France.
The flames continue to be fought in Italy, which this summer faced the worst drought in 70 years. Firefighters are fighting a fire near Bolzano on Tuesday afternoon and a fire in Tuscany on Wednesday morning. Two helicopters and six teams of firefighters were sent to fight the second.
In Spain, abnormal heat is recorded in all regions, in some the temperature reached 44 degrees Celsius. In the west of the country, a forest fire destroyed 3.5 thousand hectares of land, more than 450 people were evacuated.
A forest fire was also recorded in southwestern Turkey near the resort of Datca on the Aegean Sea. At least nine water-dropping helicopters and five planes were dispatched to fight the fire.
In 2021, many European countries were also seriously affected by forest fires, which were the result of abnormal heat. Then a difficult situation with natural fires was observed in Greece, Italy, Turkey, Montenegro, Algeria and North Macedonia.
The European Parliament on Tuesday voted to liberalize Moldova’s agricultural exports to the European Union, MEP Siegfried Muresan, who co-chairs the committee for cooperation with Moldova, said.
Under the EP resolution, export quotas will be doubled for a year for seven goods to which tariff quotas still apply. They include tomatoes, garlic, table grapes, apples, cherries, plums, and grape juice. Moldova used to export plums and grapes in large quantities to Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.
The decision was made because the situation in Ukraine “has strongly affected Moldovan farmers, who are no longer able to export their goods to the East,” Muresan said.
The EU is already Moldova’s biggest trading partner, accounting for almost two-thirds of total exports, he said.
The average price of access to the interstate cross-section for the export of 100 MW of electricity to Romania as of June 30 at UAH 4,200/MWh became a record, and the auction itself for its redemption, held for the first time after the opening of exports by Europe, proves the ability of Ukraine to earn billions of hryvnias on this, Board Chairman of NPC Ukrenergo Volodymyr Kudrytsky said.
“This is the first auction for access to the interstate cross-section after the synchronization of the Ukrainian and European energy systems, and record UAH 4,200 per MWh of access. In just one day, the state-owned company Ukrenergo earned UAH 10 million,” Kudrytsky wrote on his Facebook on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday.
He suggested that if the export capacity was increased to 1,000 MW and auctions were held to buy access to interstate cross-sections at the same level, the state could earn up to UAH 100 million per day, or UAH 36 billion per year. Accordingly, 2,000 MW can bring the state about UAH 72 billion a year, the head of Ukrenergo said.
“This is the price of European rules and the transparency and competitiveness of the auction procedure, as opposed to the traditional desire to ‘steer,’ which can multiply UAH 72 billion by zero. And that is why Ukrenergo will always actively profess and defend these principles – a deviation from them will cost the state very dearly,” he stressed.
As reported, on June 30, the commercial export of the first 100 MW of electricity to Europe will start after the synchronization of the Ukrainian and European energy systems, agreed by ENTSO-E on June 27. At first, the resource will be supplied to Romania, then the directions to Slovakia and Hungary will be opened, but in general, the capacity for export is still 100 MW. In a month, Ukrenergo expects an increase in exports.
Ukrainians imported 211,000 cars from Europe on preferential terms, and the number of imported cars increased by 48,000 in two weeks, Yaroslav Zheleznyak, deputy head of the Verkhovna Rada committee on finance, tax and customs policy, said.
“As of June 27, 211,000 cars entered Ukraine under preferential customs clearance. Over the past 2 weeks, an additional 48,000 cars have been brought in,” he said on the Telegram channel on Monday.
The total amount of the benefits provided amounted to UAH 23.5 billion, he added.
After the news about the abolition of benefits from July 1, as envisaged by the legislative changes adopted by the Parliament, the pace of car imports has increased significantly. On weekdays in June, an average of 4.7 thousand cars are imported per day compared to 3.2 thousand in May, the People’s Deputy specified.
“In fact, it would probably be many times more, the throughput capacity of foreign and our customs limits. To understand, there are now a line of 1000 cars and 9.5 km at the same Budomez-Grushev, the Polish side passes very slowly. At the checkpoint” Yagodin “The queue is generally 40 km,” Zheleznyak pointed out.
“It is also significant that four times more than usual was imported over the weekend. This Saturday, 2,400 cars drove in, although this figure was usually less than 650 cars on weekends,” he added.
The volume of gas supplies from Russia to Europe has now halved compared to last summer, and their further decline is not ruled out, European Commission energy member Kadri Simson said on Monday.
“Gas deliveries from Russia now make up half of the volumes that we received at the same time last year. They may continue to decline,” Simson said before the EU meeting at the level of ministers of energy, transport and telecommunications.
With regard to gas supplies, the EU is ready for any developments, she stressed.
Simson added that at the meeting on Monday, she will present to the ministers concrete steps that, in her opinion, would help the countries of the union to be better prepared for the reduction in gas supplies. One such step is coordinating a reduction in demand for gas.
On Saturday, Simson said that 12 EU states were completely or partially left without gas from Russia. She added that last week the EU reached an agreement to increase gas supplies with Israel and Egypt, deepened cooperation with Norway, and final direct negotiations with Azerbaijan.
Simson stressed, BNS reports, that joint gas purchases require unanimity and coordination between member states, and that the work of the European Commission creates the necessary conditions for this.
“The good news is that in May, a record was once again set for the flow of LNG to Europe – 12.8 billion cubic meters – this is the largest monthly volume in history,” she said.
At the end of May, it was reported that Poland, Bulgaria, Finland and the Netherlands, due to their refusal to accept the new settlement system, had lost the opportunity to receive Russian gas.
The number of refugees from Ukraine registered for temporary protection or similar national protection schemes in Europe stood at 3.207 million as of June 16, 2022, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported on its website.
Compared to the June 1 data, the increase was almost 0.5 million, including 0.2 million in the last week, significantly contributed by data updates in Germany, France and the UK.
According to UNHCR data collected from national governments, the largest number of refugees with temporary protection status in Poland is 1 million 169.5 thousand, while 4,166 arrived in the country from Ukraine, according to the Polish border service, from the beginning of the war to June 18 million people, and 2.195 million went to Ukraine in the opposite direction.
Following are Germany and the Czech Republic, where the number of refugees registered for temporary protection from Ukraine amounted to 641.39 thousand and 373.82 thousand, respectively.
The UN, referring to government data, indicates that in total in Germany, where Ukrainians are allowed to stay without registration until the end of August, 780,000 refugees from Ukraine were recorded. Based on the data presented, a significant proportion of them have not yet applied for temporary protection status in that country.
In the Czech Republic, the situation, according to UN information, is different: almost all arrivals applied for protection status – 373.82 thousand out of 373.97 thousand.
In the vast majority of other countries, the picture is similar to the Czech Republic: the statistics of registered refugees is completely or almost equal to the statistics of those who applied for protection status, which is probably due to the peculiarity of their registration. An exception, similar to Germany, is only Romania – 37.83 thousand with the status of 90.3 thousand refugees registered in the country, Estonia – 27.49 thousand out of 42.26 thousand and Italy – 97.31 thousand out of 129 .62 thousand
In addition to Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany and Italy, more than 50 thousand refugees from Ukraine have also registered for the status of temporary protection in Spain – 119.74 thousand, France – 87.97 thousand, Slovakia – 78.11 thousand (out of 270 thousand). net inflow across the border since the beginning of the war), Austria – 71.83 thousand, Great Britain – 70.5 thousand, the Netherlands – 64.48 thousand and Switzerland – 55.92 thousand.
At the same time, in Lithuania, the number of refugees with temporary protection status decreased from 53.89 thousand to 46.55 thousand over the week.
Next come Belgium – 46.85 thousand, Portugal – 42.15 thousand, Sweden – 38.05 thousand, Ireland – 36.91, Denmark – 28.29 thousand, Latvia – 26.8 thousand and Finland – 26.75 thousand, as well as the above-mentioned Romania and Estonia.
From 10 to 25 thousand refugees from Ukraine with the status of temporary protection in Hungary – 24.45 thousand, Norway – 18.51 thousand, Greece – 14.89 thousand, Croatia – 14.26 thousand and Cyprus – 13 .05 thousand
In addition, the UN statistics on those who received the status of temporary protection include Ukrainian refugees in Slovenia – 7.1 thousand, Luxembourg – 5.25 thousand, Montenegro – 3.98 thousand, Iceland – 0.9 thousand, Malta – 0 .92 thousand, in Serbia and Kosovo – 0.75 thousand and Liechtenstein – 0.22 thousand.
In addition, the table contains data from Bulgaria, possibly entered with an error: according to them, 79.2 thousand refugees from Ukraine were recorded there, but 114.88 thousand received protection status.
The UN also indicated the countries in which refugees from Ukraine were recorded, but there is no data on their obtaining status: Moldova – 85.5 thousand, Georgia – 20.39 thousand, Azerbaijan – 4.84 thousand, Albania – 1.53 thousand, North Macedonia – 1.21 thousand, Armenia – 0.49 thousand and Bosnia and Herzegovina – 0.33 thousand.
Turkey, where 145,000 refugees from Ukraine were listed a week ago, is now excluded from the data.
Separately, it is worth mentioning Russia and Belarus, the Ukrainian border with which, respectively, 1 million 230.8 thousand and 16.66 thousand people crossed. The UN information indicates that in the Russian Federation all those who crossed the border were recorded, while in Belarus – 9.01 thousand. There is no data on any status of these people, as well as data on crossing the border of Ukraine in the opposite direction.
