Eurotopics.net

In 2015, a majority of countries worldwide agreed to aim to limit global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The UN has now announced that this target can no longer be met and that the average rise in temperatures will be higher. The media examine what can – and must – be done now.

In response to the finding that Russia was behind the Leipzig drone incident, Germany is closing the Russian Consulate-General in Bonn and the Russian House in Berlin, which is suspected of serving as a front for Russian agents. Entry restrictions for Russians and a crackdown on the country's shadow fleet have also been announced. Meanwhile, the EU is preparing another sanctions package.

Romania missed a key EU funding deadline at the end of August by which it would have had to pass or amend a number of laws - including legislation on a gradual phase-out of coal. The country with the highest budget deficit in the EU will now lose up to 870 million euros in funding from the EU recovery fund. The Romanian media are incensed.

Nine years after the bomb attack that killed Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, tycoon Yorgen Fenech has been acquitted of orchestrating the crime. It therefore remains unclear who ordered the murder. Suspicions that members of the government may have been involved led to the resignation of the Maltese prime minister in 2020. In its Rule of Law Report, Brussels notes that Malta has made limited progress on the protection of journalists.