Europe

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Europol’s growing appetite for data and artificial intelligence is transforming European policing, largely out of public view, and without clear oversight.

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In recent weeks, Hungarians have been outraged by videos showing children being abused in state-run juvenile facilities. Tens of thousands attended a protest called by opposition politician Peter Magyar at the weekend.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6179455

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The German Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD) and the Danish Defence Intelligence Service (FE) have released their annual threat assessment reports, prepared against the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine war. Both documents note a further deterioration of the security environment for NATO and EU states.

The intelligence agencies of these countries reach similar conclusions: Russia remains the primary source of military, espionage, and hybrid risks. MAD notes that the Bundeswehr continues to be a priority target for Russian intelligence due to its role as a NATO logistical hub and its support for Ukraine. FE emphasizes that Moscow is already conducting hybrid warfare against NATO. Danish military intelligence assesses the risk of Russian sabotage against its armed forces as “high” and considers the possibility of a conflict with Russia in the Baltic region likely.

China is identified in the reports as a long-term strategic threat. Beijing’s intelligence activity encompasses technological and scientific espionage, infiltration of European defense and research programs, and the use of economic and political influence tools. According to MAD, in 2024 the number of Chinese intelligence incidents in Germany increased by 15% compared to 2023, and Chinese intelligence systematically recruits its citizens for espionage activities.

The deepening of Russia-China interaction is considered an additional risk factor. FE highlights China’s supply of components to the Russian defense industry, enabling Moscow to increase its weapons production.

The intelligence agencies also forecast a further rise in hybrid threats. Focus areas include more extensive disinformation operations, economic pressure, cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, and attempts to destabilize European armed forces.

The published reports confirm a persistent trend: Russia’s hybrid activities are intensifying, while China is gradually expanding its tools of influence over European states.

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A security doctrine published by the European Commission has identified solar inverters from Chinese suppliers as a high-risk dependency.

The document, on how to strengthen EU economic security [opens pdf], outlines how the bloc plans to react to growing external economic threats. It says the commission’s immediate focus will be on six priority high-risk areas, identified as reducing strategic dependencies for goods and services; attracting safe investment into the EU; supporting Europe’s defence, space and critical industrial industries; securing EU leadership across critical technologies; protecting sensitive data and shielding Europe's critical infrastructure.

The communication goes on to specifically highlight reliance on solar inverters as an example of a security risk due to supplier concentration, cyber-manipulation risks, access to grid-relevant operational data and the possibility of actors infiltrating supply chains. Today, around 80% of Europe’s PV systems rely on Chinese inverters.

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Mainstream semiconductors, battery electric vehicles, key components for drones and detection equipment at EU borders are listed as other high-risk dependency areas in the communication.

The European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC) has released a statement saying it strongly supports the strategic shift outlined in the document.

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The council says it particularly welcomes the council’s intention to “support the development of trusted suppliers of critical subcomponents in the EU and in trusted third countries so that there are viable alternatives” and reiterated that European and other Western manufacturers remain on the technological forefront, with the manufacturing capacity to meet all of European demand.

ESMC is calling for a series of actions, including the establishment of an EU-level whitelist of trustworthy inverter vendors based on cybersecurity and jurisdictional risk criteria that is integrated into NIS2, the ICT supply‑chain toolbox, NZIA Articles and all relevant EU network codes. It also says EU member states should be permitted to deny grid connection to inverter hardware from high-risk vendors.

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The council has established an Inverter, Storage and Energy Management Systems Forum, open to ESMC members and eligible Western non-members, that it says will work with grid operators, energy-security agencies, standardization bodies and other stakeholders to advance Europe’s digital and energy resilience.

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Nearly 90 flights linked to Jeffrey Epstein reportedly arrived at and departed from UK airports, some with British women onboard who allege they were abused by the convicted child sex offender.

Analysis by the BBC found three British women who were allegedly trafficked appear in Epstein’s records of flights in and out of the UK and other documents related to the late disgraced billionaire.

The flight logs were among thousands of court documents and papers released by Epstein’s estate that have been made public over the past year.

The BBC said it had uncovered 87 flights linked to Epstein – including many that were previously unknown – arriving or departing from UK airports between the early 1990s and 2018.

The broadcaster said unidentified “females” were listed among the passengers travelling into and out of the UK, while 15 of the UK flights took place after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting sex from a minor.

US lawyers representing hundreds of Epstein victims told the BBC it was “shocking” that there had never been a “full-scale UK investigation” into his activities in the country.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6163809

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• Italy completes first solar auction excluding Chinese gear
• Average price 17% above ordinary renewable auction
• Auction backs EU push to cut reliance on Chinese components

Italy awarded more than 1.1 gigawatts of capacity to 88 projects in its first auction exclusively for solar projects built without equipment manufactured in China, setting an average price of 66.38 euros per megawatt hour.

The tariff is 17% higher than the average price for a renewable auction earlier this year that had no restrictions on equipment origin, according to data from Italy's electricity services agency (GSE).

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The auction is among the first in Europe to apply non-price criteria linked to the European Union's Net-Zero Industry Act, a package of measures that aims to curb reliance on low-cost renewable components from China.

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Germany will take in former Belarusian political prisoners Maria Kalesnikava and Viktar Babaryka, who were released on Saturday ... A statement from German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt cited by broadcaster ZDF confirmed Berlin’s offer to Kalesnikava and Babaryka.

Kalesnikava and Babaryka were among more than 120 people pardoned by Alexander Lukashenko and freed in recent days. Other prominent figures on the list included veteran human rights activist Ales Bialiatski, the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

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Maria Kalesnikava is a Belarusian political activist and a key figure in the 2020 protest movement. She served as the head of Viktar Babaryka’s campaign during the 2020 presidential election, was a representative of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s united campaign team, and was a member of the Coordination Council’s presidium. She helped coordinate peaceful protests against Alexander Lukashenko following the disputed election results. In September 2020, authorities attempted to forcibly expel her from the country, but she refused to leave and was arrested. In 2021, a Minsk court sentenced her to 11 years in prison.

Viktar Babaryka is a Belarusian banker and politician, former chairman of Belgazprombank, and one of the most popular opposition contenders in the 2020 presidential race. He was detained in June 2020 while collecting signatures for his candidacy and was sentenced a year later to 14 years in prison.

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cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6143296

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The EU has announced a €3 billion ($3.52 billion) strategy to reduce its dependency on critical raw materials and other goods from China, citing the nation’s “weaponization” of supplies.

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EU industry commissioner Stéphane Séjourné said the trading bloc is considering legally forcing industries to reduce purchases from China in order to insulate Europe from future hostile acts.

The Commission's newly unveiled ReSourceEU program seeks to de-risk and diversify the bloc’s supply chains by introducing new rules to stop scrap aluminum leaving the bloc, recycling of magnets used in car batteries and a new €2 billion-per-year fund backed by the European Investment Bank to support industries diversifying away from cheap Chinese supplies.

Séjourné said that, if European industry did not respond, the commission reserved the right to introduce legislation.

“We would force European companies legally to diversify their sources of supply. That is not the case now, and it is not what is proposed in the plan [ReSourceEU], but this is a wakeup call, a strong wakeup call,” said Séjourné.

The EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič said Brussels remained committed to the concept of open access to its markets but that was repeatedly “fire-fighting” a succession of crises, including the disruption to the car industry caused by the recent, now lifted, ban on exports of chips by China in response to the Dutch government taking control of the Chinese-owned chip firm Nexperia.

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Meanwhile, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas also warned that China is increasingly weaponizing economic ties for political gains.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6143475

European producers of inverters, crucial components for connecting solar panels to the grid, are teaming up outside established European industry lobbying structures in a new challenge to China’s tightening grip on the supply chain.

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Solar panels, essentially a collection of wires and refined polysilicium, are generally considered too “dumb” to be vulnerable to cyberattacks. Not so the inverters, which are often vulnerable to easy access by ill-intentioned actors.

China dominates the solar panel supply chain, including the production of inverters, with 78% of the devices shipped to the EU coming from the world’s second-largest economy in 2023. This accounts for nine out of the 12 firms that dominate the EU market, potentially putting Beijing in a position to “significantly” affect the grid, according to a report by lobby group SolarPower Europe.

Now, Europe’s remaining inverter producers, including Austria’s Fronius, which recently quit SolarPower Europe over Huawei’s continued membership, have banded together in a bid to shore up their market – and, they say, the cybersecurity of Europe’s electricity grid.

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The Austrian firm is joined by Germany’s SMA, Spain’s Ingeteam and others to create a “resilient, competitive, and cyber-secure ecosystem of Western inverter, storage, and EMS [energy management system] manufacturers,” according to a statement shared with Euractiv. The initiative was facilitated by the Made-in-EU solar lobby group ESMC.

Inverters are a highly sensitive topic because their vulnerability to attack poses a credible risk to Europe’s electricity security.

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SolarPower Europe estimates that remote access to just 5 GW of solar panels through internet-connected inverters could, if abused, allow an actor or firm to “significantly” affect the grid. There are currently 13 manufacturers that could, in principle, commit such sabotage, the group suggests.

But the decision by inverter manufacturers to split from the main solar PV lobby has widened a divide with Europe’s solar sector.

On the one hand, SolarPower Europe represents Chinese manufacturers and developers who rely on their low-cost products. On the other, ESMC and the inverter producers argue for EU-based production and say the security benefits justify higher prices.

“Non-technical risk factors – such as governance structures, ownership, external influence, and the overall trustworthiness of entities – are as decisive for security as technical safeguards,” the new alliance says.

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