Europe

This is Gotion’s plan to turn Valladolid into the battery hub in Europe

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The Ministry of Industry and Tourism gave the green light a few days ago to the million-dollar aid that will allow the Chinese company Gotion High-Tech to build its first battery “gigafactory” outside of Asia in Valladolid. The resolution of the State Society for Industrial Promotion and Business Development (Sepides) confirmed a subsidy of 138 million euros for a project that mobilizes nearly 950 million and that aspires to turn the city into a reference center for the electric vehicle industry. What has happened? The aid is part of the fifth PERTE of the Electric and Connected Vehicle (PERTE VEC V) and gives definitive shape to a preliminary concession that was advanced last May. The idea is that the money will be distributed between two different plants: one dedicated to the recycling of batteries and recovery of critical materials (known as “black mass”), which will receive 82.3 million euros, and another destined to the manufacture of cathodes, which will receive 55.9 million. So confirmed it the Minister of Industry himself, Jordi Hereu. Components. The cathode is one of the parts that adds the most value to batteries. Around 60%, according to has explained the Ministry of Transport itself, and until now no factory in the European Union produced it. Setting up this plant in Valladolid means that Europe can stop depending exclusively on Asia for one of the most expensive and strategic components of the electric car (stop depending, halfway, since Gotion is still a Chinese manufacturer). It was not about “making batteries, which are already done in many places”, but about “opening a new path”, counted the Minister of Transportation, Óscar Puente, during the presentation of the project. How much money is at stake. The Ministry, through Sepides, estimates the budgets of the two plants at 411.5 and 539.1 million euros. The 138 million in public aid represent around 15% of the total investment in this first phase. Who is behind the project. Gotion High-Tech is a Chinese giant that covers the entire battery industrial chain, from the extraction and transformation of raw materials to final recycling, and that already maintains commercial relations with Volkswagen and its own factories in Germany and Slovakia. The facility in Valladolid will receive raw materials from Morocco and, according to has explained The company will also serve as a platform to export to Latin America. The project comes after the Slovak company Inobat, which at the time also obtained public aid to settle in Valladolid, gave up its plan without presenting the necessary guarantees. Employment. According to the data provided by Gotion itself, the construction of the two plants will provide work about 2,500 peoplewhile the operation of the factories, once up and running, will employ around 1,000 workers directly. Works. The project plans to begin building the first phase, the recycling plant, throughout 2027. The facilities will occupy some 700,000 hectares of industrial land, although Gotion’s own project is conditional on the construction of a macro solar plant that guarantees the energy self-sufficiency of the factories, which will require up to a thousand additional hectares of land. To build the factory they will also be required to modify the General Urban Planning Plan of Valladolid, a procedure that, according to picks up El Economistais expected to receive provisional approval on July 27, although the final decision corresponds to the Junta de Castilla y León. Administrations. The Valladolid City Council, governed by PP and Vox, has already signed a letter of intent to transfer the land that the company needs, with an initial surface of 70 hectares that can be expanded to 120 if the project grows, as shared by El Confidencial. The current mayor, Jesús Julio Carnero, assured maintain “permanent contact” with Chinese managers and has committed to facilitating the corresponding procedures. Impulse. Óscar Puente, mayor of Valladolid between 2015 and 2023 and today Minister of Transport, has been the one who has pushed this operation the most since he traveled to Slovakia in 2023 to negotiate with Inobat the first attempt to install a battery factory in the city. Puente has claimed on several occasions the strategic position of Valladolid, with its own airport, high-speed connection one hour from Madrid, proximity to Portugal and a consolidated industrial hub next to Palencia and Burgos. The minister has qualified the operation as the largest industrial investment in the city since the arrival of the Renault factory in 1953. And now what. Industry’s resolution clears up one of the main administrative obstacles, but there are still pending steps, including the presentation of guarantees, the definitive urban planning approval by the Government of Castilla y León and the start of works in 2027. In addition, Gotion proposes this first phase as the start of a much more ambitious plan, which could reach 5,000 million euros of total investment and adding up to eight plants in Valladolid, according to the company itself. Cover image | Ministry of Transport and DAZE In Xataka | From selling safes to manufacturing armored vehicles for NATO: this is how this company operates in a small town in Ciudad Real

Brussels says that two thirds of what is sold in Europe has problems

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In 2022, the European Commission did a study about the most popular spices on the market. The x-ray was devastating: fraud was the order of the day. Furthermore, it was extremely common. We are talking about pepper, cumin, turmeric, saffron or paprika. That was a huge scandal and the Commission itself asked the Member States to strengthen controls. What happened next cannot surprise anyone. Let’s talk about cinnamon. In 2023, cinnamon was the fifth most imported spice in the Union. In September 2025, the Commission’s science and knowledge service (the Joint Research Center) analyzed more than a hundred samples of cinnamon marketed in a dozen countries of the European Union. The result? More than 66% of the samples analyzed They have problems. What happens to them? Well, they either violate international quality regulations or the food safety legislation of the European Union. Some show signs of fraud, others a high amount of lead and some more exceed the legal limits of coumarin (a substance that, although natural, is potentially toxic to the liver). That’s without counting fraud, of course. Up to 9% of samples labeled as Ceylon cinnamon were totally or partially replaced for Cassia cinnamon, “a cheaper and lower quality alternative, with a stronger flavor and containing coumarin naturally.” What we can do. That’s the worst. Judging by the results of the JRC, we can do little with the means we have right now. “The type of irregularities detected in cinnamon, including fraudulent practices, is diverse and cannot be addressed with a single analytical technique, which is why standardized methods are needed,” says the Commission. Taking the problem seriously would entail taking action on the matter. Above all, because the high rate of irregular cinnamon samples on the European market indicates that “all actors in the sector, from policy makers to control laboratories and manufacturers, must pay attention.” A version of this article was published in 2025 Image | Michael Collett In Xataka | It looks like honey, it smells like honey, it tastes like honey, it’s not honey: the import fraud that devastates Europe

The Rhine is running out of water due to heat waves. And that is a logistical and energy disaster for Europe

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A new wave of extreme heat is hitting the heart of the European continent, and the consequences go far beyond the records in thermometers or the fact to see raised tram tracks. The Rhine River, Western Europe’s most important river highway, is seeing its water levels plummet and the result is that a logistical bottleneck is being generated that threatens the supply of fuel and fundamental raw materials for Europe. The worry. The alarm has begun to be raised when it has been detected that the barges that navigate the river can barely carry half of their capacity, putting the supply of an important part of Europe in check. And all because of these heat waves that we are experiencing in Europe. To understand the magnitude of the problem, you have to look at how inland navigation works, since the Rhine is not limited to water crossing Germany, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands, but is an industrial artery. Literally, coal for thermal power plants, chemicals for industrial giants, oil or automotive components are transported through this river. The drought. When the flow of the river begins to decrease, its depth also decreases, and this collides with vessels that have a critical threshold. This means that if the water drops below a certain level at key points such as the famous Kaub bottleneck in Germany, captains are forced to drastically reduce their load to avoid running aground on the river bottom. This makes load 50 or even 30% of the boat’s capacity It is not an exaggeration, but a physical necessity. This triggers a domino effect that means that, if a ship carries half the load, it takes a second to do the same work. And since there are no infinite ships, transportation prices skyrocket and goods either do not arrive on time or become very expensive. It’s not just the Rhine. Although the exact impact figures should always be taken with caution because they vary greatly depending on the stretch of the river and the type of vessel, the general diagnosis is incontestable. Here the Joint Research Center of the European Commission has studied in-depth how limitations due to low water levels impact European rivers. Its scientific framework perfectly explains the current collapse, since low levels not only reduce cargo capacity, but completely alter continental logistics flows, drastically increasing operating costs. The reasons. Here the different institutions are clear that the problem lies in the lack of rain in spring and the lower amount of snow accumulated in the Alps during the winter, which causes the river to lose its natural “reserve” for the summer. But also, the Rhine is clearly warming. This not only has clear economic effects, but also serious ecological impacts on the river’s fauna, which in turn forces additional restrictions to be imposed. The new normal. What we are seeing this year does not seem like an event that remains a simple anecdote to tell our grandchildren, but rather the different evidence indicates that seeing low flow will be increasingly frequent due to climate change. The proposed solution involves the use of AI to predict exactly when we will see these very low flows to optimize the supply chain, or simply build flat-bottomed boats with better drafts to be able to continue transporting cargo when the river is at even lower levels of flow. Images | Wikipedia In Xataka | Global warming has stepped on the accelerator at an unprecedented rate and we are getting closer to the point of no return

In the midst of a heat wave, Europe has started buying air conditioners in droves. And China can’t cope

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I don’t know anyone who likes air conditioning, especially for sleeping. However, when the heat hits, it is impossible to spend the days indoors. if we don’t have the device on. The problem is that I am speaking from the position of a Spaniard who lives in La Mancha, where air conditioners practically come with houses. Further north or in the rest of Europe, directly, the air conditioning with 20% penetration in houses, it is a mythological animal. It was, rather. With the current heat wavecountries like France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have started buying air conditioning units like crazy only to find themselves with a problem: China is the main supplier and the manufacturers cannot cope. And I’m not going to say that air conditioners now are geopolitics, but a little… yes. Let’s see it. It’s hot and there is no solution. Two weeks ago I was at Vivatech, in Paris, and this past weekend in London and Liverpool. At 29º, the Apple Watch showed me that in Paris They were on orange alert by heat. 29º in my land is a slightly hot spring day (unfortunately). In the United Kingdom, however, things changed and it wasn’t just incredibly hot: when you entered an establishment it was even worse. Not only do they not have air conditioners because they have not needed them, but have built so that the houses retain heat. A taxi driver told me that the best time of day is when he is working because his house is a sauna, and it makes perfect sense. Spain and France are two of the most affected countriesbut northern Italy, Belgium, Poland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Germany and the aforementioned United Kingdom are also suffering the consequences. And the problem is no longer that it is hot, but that mortality due to heat has skyrocketed in recent weeks. The solution? The north of Spain and European countries have started buying air conditioning units like crazy, but there is a problem. Exhausted. The middle SCMP He has a representative in Paris and tells how, a few days ago, he approached several businesses to try to get an air conditioner. The answer that he found in several of them, and that some friends reported to him, is that everything was sold. The scene is like something out of an apocalyptic movie, with stores with shelves full of everything except the air conditioning section, which is empty. He started looking at online stores, such as a German website designed so that people can find specific models of these devices and, after searching 1,176 stores, the model he wanted was only in one of them. In these countries where air conditioning is not normal, people go out to cool off in fountains and rivers, and even French President Emmanuel Macron has addressed the population pointing out that it is impossible for them to adapt “to a peak that has no equivalent anywhere in Europe today and that has never had an equivalent in our history.” Perhaps he has become a little heated with that statement, but it reflects that the situation is becoming unsustainable. And you would think that the solution is to start importing more, right? The problem is that it is not that simple. Bottleneck in production. China, as with other everyday devices, is the main manufacturer of air conditioners. Brands such as Haier, Gree, Hisense or Midea are some of those that lead the market, even creating models adapted to European regulations in certain countries (such as the Midea PortaSplit for windows, which makes little noise and has a very low refrigerant charge, ideal for Germany). There are others like Xiaomi (whose model we analyzed last year and a year later I confirm that it is still going great), Dreo with its fans or Dreame that are starting to bring their models to Europe because they have seen that they definitely have a pull. Only in May, esteem that China exported air conditioners worth $3.33 million to France, $2.82 million to Germany and a whopping $7.69 million to the Netherlands. It implies an increase of 186.2%, 69.6% and 139.1% respectively compared to the previous year. This percentage in France is explained if we take into account that, according to French data, only between 18% and 26% of homes had air conditioning until then. Also in logistics. Another problem is that these brands mentioned do not manufacture only for themselves, but for other manufacturers that sell OEM equipment, which implies that the factories are full. It is estimated that China accounts for 40% of global air conditioning exports and, to meet that demand, some manufacturers have begun to work day and night to satisfy European demand. “China cannot ship air conditioners fast enough to meet European demand” They are prioritizing more portable models and split for Europe because they have seen a huge market, but they cannot multiply production indefinitely without incurring overcapacity the rest of the year. Giants like Cainiao, AliExpress or Joybuy they are meeting with a brutal bottleneck because, although they have had units in advance trying to tackle this summer’s situation, they have simply… flown out of European warehouses. And in the installation. Faced with this situation, and seeing that heat waves are increasingly common, Europe estimated in 2024 that expected 70 million AC devices to be installed by 2030. This would mean covering 35% of European homes, but if all these factors were not already a salad of problems full of ingredients, two more are added. The first, the regulation of each city. In Spain we are used to seeing the typical indoor split unit with a compressor hanging from the façade, but there are important heritage restrictions in historic centers that allow drilling into walls or altering the aesthetics of buildings. In neighborhood communities you must ask for permission, there are fines for installation on facades without authorization (in Italy, for example) and the price of electricity doesn’t help … Read more

Europe enjoys the cleanest skies in half a century. And that’s one of the reasons why this summer is burning up.

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This is not another article about heat. It’s July: we all know it’s hot. However, there is a reason behind these high temperatures that we do not usually discuss and, for many people, is very surprising: that the skies over Europe are much cleaner than they have been in the last half century. As the popularizer Jorge Alcalde explained In COPE, the rise in temperatures in Europe is accelerating “at a rate of 0.56 degrees per decade since the 1990s, almost double the global average of 0.27 degrees.” And this is interesting because, “although the climate is warming globally, it is crucial to understand why some regions like Europe are more affected.” In that sense, Mayor pointed out that “sending less pollution into the atmosphere contributes to the increase in temperatures on the continent, there is a greater amount of solar radiation that impacts the ground.” It’s not that the air generates heat, of course. It is that the particles that we release when burning fossil fuels (especially sulfur sulfates) reflect sunlight and make the clouds whiter. That is, they cool. The data is crystal clear: in a series of the northeast of the peninsula, in Gironasolar radiation reaching the ground has increased by about 2.5 W/m² per decade since the late 1980s, especially in summer. And that is largely due. wing improvement of regulation against polluting aerosols. It is not the only thing that cools, it is not even the main cause. Copernicus attributes it to several things at the same time: atmospheric circulation, less snow that reflects light, the proximity to the Arctic, the drop in pollution and, of course, greenhouse gases (which They alone explain half of the increase in European heat waves). However, it is one of the most striking. And it is important to explain it well… because stated like this it may seem that the reduction of pollutants is warming the climate in Europe and that is not the case. What the pollution did was hide that warming. The conditions behind the rise in temperatures were there, it’s just that the sulfur didn’t let us see them. We were cooler, but the cost of that was paid by our lungs. We must not forget that Lowering fine particles to the levels recommended by the WHO would prevent around 182,000 premature deaths per year in the EU alone. Furthermore, while aerosols last a few days in the atmosphere, CO2 lasts for centuries. We were covering up a huge problem that was very difficult to solve. Dirty the world again. I insist on this idea because when the effect was discovered in the Atlanticmany proposed intervene again in the atmosphere to lower the temperature. The problem is that, as we can see, this doesn’t solve anything. Clean air is the first good news and, at the same time, what forces us to look squarely at the second: how much we have already warmed up. Image | Chris LeBoutillier In Xataka: The waters of the oceans are not only rising in temperature. They are also starting to change color

Spain turns in the opposite direction to the rest of Europe. It is part of a geological plan: close the Mediterranean

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Spain and Portugal are dancing to a different rhythm than the rest of Europe. They are moving clockwise and the consequence is clear: a long-term closure of the Mediterranean that connects the Iberian Peninsula directly to North Africa. The convergence between continents is slow, a few millimeters a year (so we will continue needing the tunnel between Spain and Morocco), but one thing is clear: another Pangea is on the way. And the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco will be a unit. In short. Continental plates move. Some separate, others collide, and that continental drift has caused the emergence the Pangea Ultima theory. In 250 million years, there will only be one continent. There is a long way to go for that, but now, researchers from the University of the Basque Country, in collaboration with the universities of Palermo and Granada, have analyzed geodetic data that allows them to affirm that the Iberian Peninsula is rotating clockwise. This east-west rotation is driven by the convergence between the Eurasian and African plates, and the conclusion is clear: both are moving between four and six millimeters closer each year. This information is not new, but the researchers’ discovery is to specify the processes that take place at the diffuse boundary of the two western Mediterranean plates. Thanks, Gibraltar. Although the boundaries of other plates are well defined, this does not occur in the Western Mediterranean. There, the processes are much grayer, and there is something called “Gibraltar Arch” which plays an interesting role in this tectonic dynamic. To the east of the strait, the crust absorbs the deformation caused by the collision between the Eurasian and African plates. This ‘Gibraltar Arc’ acts as a buffer, but it has a consequence: in the west of the strait there is a direct collision between the plates, while in the east it is absorbed by the Gibraltar Arc. This lack of buffering from the southwest is what causes the clockwise rotation. Rotational strain rate field. Positive values ​​correspond to clockwise rotation, while negative values ​​refer to counterclockwise rotation. Active and potentially active faults are marked with solid and dashed gray lines, respectively. Double analysis. The researchers combined two types of accuracy analyzes to obtain these results. On the one hand, those of satellite deformation through GNSS system (Global Navigation Satellite System). Analyzing the data, they measured surface displacements with millimeter precision, relying on both permanent and occasional GPS markers. On the other hand, they also analyzed information from recent earthquakes that allowed them to determine the tectonic “stresses” in the area. They are independent data sets, but by crossing them they were able to draw a series of ‘lines’ that have allowed them to better specify the boundary between the plates. So that? Well, to better understand which sectors are in direct collision between plates and which are still more protected by the Gibraltar Arc. And the neighbors? The problem is that, although they claim that it is a rapid tectonic movement, this is true in geological terms. For us it is invaluable, but it also comes into play that we only have satellite data since 1999 and detailed seismic data since the 1980s. Even so, if with such a short range of data we have reached that conclusion in the annual approach, it is because the phenomenon is not in a hurry, but it does not pause either. And the most interesting thing is that this only affects the Iberian Peninsula. It is not that we are going to separate from France, since we ‘drag’ the rest of the continent thanks to the effect of the Gibraltar Arc, but we are not turning in the same direction as other neighbors. Italy, for example, experiences a counterclockwise rotation that exerts pressure in the alpine zoneand in the anatolian plate (where most of Türkiye is), there is also this counterclockwise rotation. Hello, Morocco. While in Turkey the consequence may be more earthquakes or mountain formations, this current speed of between 4 and 6 millimeters will cause, at some point, the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco to unite. This continental collision would close the Mediterraneanbut there is a lot left for it. How much? About 100 million years. They estimate that for 20 million years we will continue at the same speed, but within about 50 million years, things will gain momentum, accelerating the process and turning the region into one of the most active volcanic and seismic areas on the planet. It’s… foolish to worry. present utility. Now, beyond curiosity, the most immediate implication that the researchers point out is a better identification of active faults or areas in which previously unidentified tectonic structures could exist. Asier Madarieta-Txurruka, one of those responsible for the investigation, explains This information indicates where to look for these structures and boundaries to determine what type of folds and faults there may be. Thus, we can anticipate the type of earthquake that there will be and its magnitude in areas such as the Western Pyrenees or the region of Cádiz and Seville in which we know that there are numerous places with significant deformationbut we do not have well identified the active tectonic structures that cause them. And, although there is still a long way to go before the Alps and a new mountain range are founded across the peninsula and all of North Africa to Arabia, knowing better what we have right under our feet is much more useful. In Xataka | We knew that Africa was going to split in half. What we didn’t know was that it would happen so quickly.

sell more cars than Citroën in Europe

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It is no secret that Chinese car brands They are conquering Europe. For a few years now, the streets have been filled with cars from companies such as BYD, Omoda, Jaecoo, Leapmotor, MG and many others. And it makes perfect sense, since they have come with their entire arsenal at truly competitive prices and loaded with technology. You have to go to last review of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) to really see how much they have achieved in a very short time. And in the case of BYD, the firm has registered more cars than Citroën during the month of May in Europe (specifically in the group formed by the European Union, the EFTA countries and the United Kingdom). According to the agency’s data, the Chinese manufacturer registered 32,380 units compared to 31,665 for Citroën. The difference is small, but it has symbolic weight, since it is the first time that a Chinese brand overtakes such a historic name in European motorsport. In detail. He BYD growth It is being truly groundbreaking, especially outside its domestic market. And in May of this year, its registrations shot up by 136.6% compared to the same month in 2025, raising its market share in the EU+EFTA+UK region to 2.8%, compared to 1.2% a year ago. Citroën, on the other hand, closed the month with a decline of 1.6%. Of course, it should be said that the bypass occurs in the EU+EFTA+UK region, because if we look only at the figures for the European Union, Citroën is still ahead, with 29,227 registrations compared to BYD’s 26,017. But the distance has shortened considerably compared to last year. The driving force behind this expansion has been above all in Italy, France and Germany, where BYD has multiplied its sales, while in the first five months of the year the Chinese brand already has 135,307 cars registered in this region, 145.2% more than in 2025. And BYD is not the only one. Chinese brands as a whole reached a market share of 10.7% in Europe in May, their all-time high, according to data from Automotive News. Chery has skyrocketed its registrations by 244.1% and Leapmotor, backed by Stellantis, has multiplied them by more than five, with a growth of 465.1% in the EU+EFTA+UK region. Even Tesla, although it is not Chinese, has benefited from that same push towards electrification, with an increase of 107.9% thanks to the arrival of the new Standard versions of the Model 3 and the Model Y. Although the tariffs that the European Union imposed on Chinese electric companies in 2024, something that has partially stopped this offensive, Chinese brands continue with overwhelming growth. And now what. The context in which this surprise occurs is that of a European market in full transition towards electrification. According to ACEA data, between January and May 2026, battery electric cars already represent 20% of registrations in the European Union, compared to 15.3% a year ago, while hybrids continue to be the most popular option with 37.8% of the market (in the latter it must be taken into account that the microhybridswith more prominence of the gasoline engine than the small battery as a whole). On the other hand, the sum of gasoline and diesel has fallen to 30.1%. And on this board, increasingly favorable to electrified vehicles, BYD and the rest of the Chinese manufacturers have an advantage due to their specialization in these technologies. Cover image | BYD and Citroën In Xataka | On July 1, buying on Shein, Temu or AliExpress will be more expensive: Europe imposes a fixed tariff of three euros for small packages

Europe has realized that nothing matters in technological sovereignty if it does not spend money on something crucial: defending its submarine cables

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There is a type of technological infrastructure that is invisible, but that has become essential in recent years: submarine cables. Conflicts like those of the Red Sea either the ukrainian war have shown that the seabed is a new battlefield. Damaging submarine cables havoc can be wreaked, and the European Union has just outlined its plan to strengthen the security and resilience of these cables. The goal? Track and stop threats in real time, but also repair underwater cables that enemies have attacked as soon as possible. Plan of action. In recent months, Europe has been weaving a plan to protect its submarine cables. These cables carry most of the world’s Internet traffic (an estimated 99%), but also other essential goods such as energy, vital when we want to tackle offshore energy. Hence the importance and, obviously, why the attacks also focus on them. Only in the first months of 2025 were more than a dozen submarine cables cut which seem few, but it really is something that can wreak havoc. And, therefore, Europe started to define an Action Plan with four main categories of action: Prevention: carry out risk assessments coordinated by countries and prioritize the financing of “smart” cables with redundancy. Detection: improve the monitoring capabilities of sea basins such as the Mediterranean or the Baltic to obtain a situation picture in real time. Response and recovery: strengthening rapid repair capacity and improving EU crisis protocols to act in a coordinated manner when a cable is damaged. Deterrence: use diplomacy and ultimately sanctions to respond to hostile acts. With global partners, promote a pact to encourage “cable diplomacy.” Repair of a cable Quick response. But of course, if deterrence does not work, we must act, and more recently, the European Commission has announced the steps to reinforce that strategy that aims to ensure that a damaged submarine cable causes as few headaches as possible. With an allocation of 40 million euros, the Commission seeks to guarantee a rapid and effective response to disturbances of submarine cables in emergency situations through adaptable modules. These modules, like repair kits, will be strategically positioned in various sea basins so that, in the event of a cable break, the ships repairing the cables will have quick access to these modules. It is one more step in a strategy that already had a first pilot call for 20 million euros a few months ago and whose objective was to finance modules in the Baltic Sea. Booster. Another measure will be the installation of the first two regional cable centers. In the Baltic, a Regional Center will be opened that will be responsible for strengthening surveillance and response mechanisms. The idea is that, with an allocation of 2.5 million euros, the information exchange platform and the capacity to both detect and prevent threats to maritime infrastructure will be improved. Finland will be the coordinator of the center together with Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Latvia and Sweden. On the other hand, in the Mediterranean, another center will be supported with 3.3 million euros. The task will be to make decisions, exchange information in real time and the same as in the Baltic: anomaly detection and coordinated response to incidents. Italy will be the coordinator together with Greece, Cyprus and Malta. With the first regional cable centers, Europe moves towards enhanced capabilities, strengthening our ability to detect threats, act faster and respond together – Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice President for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy Next steps. In the end, these two strategies are part of a much larger plan in which they had already been assigned 595 million euros to 74 continental connectivity projects. In February of this year, the Commission also advertisement a package of some 347 million euros exclusively for submarine cable projects (construction, monitoring and repair), which shows that it is a strategic, basic infrastructure that fits in with the technological sovereignty plan that Europe is pursuing after seeing associations with allied countries weakened in recent years. Image | What’s Inside? In Xataka | A third of the world’s population cannot read this: the UN reveals that 2.9 billion people have never accessed the internet

Europe has been left without cheap gas from Russia. Their new hope is in the renewables of Morocco and Tunisia

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With the war in Russia and Ukraine, Europe forgot with blood, sweat and tears about the gas of the first to throw themselves into the arms of the United States. The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has made it clear that looking for a supplier far away and through inhospitable territories is not the best idea, so the old continent has set its sights on its neighbor: North Africa, an area with enormous potential and several essential projects (for Europe) under way. After all, it has everything: abundant sun and wind, available land and it is just a stone’s throw away. That they can produce energy is a fact, the question is whether they can connect it to Europe reliably and profitably. North Africa, energy cluster. While they cook two giant African gas pipelinesthe Trans-Saharan led by Nigeria, Niger and Algeria and the pharaonic Africa-Atlantic and are committed to green hydrogen with projects such as the Algerian ALTEH2A and the Moroccan investment worth 32.5 billion dollars, in the north of the continent there are several clear and concrete plans in renewable energies: Morocco wants add 16GW of capacity and plans an investment of 16,000 million dollars in five years to materialize it. Tunisia wants to reach a 50% renewable share by 2035. It has already put out to tender 2.3 GW of wind and solar infrastructure. Norwegian Scatec closed financing and began construction of the 120 MW Sidi Bouzid II solar plant together with Toyota Tsusho, with completion scheduled for 2027. The connection to Europe is advancing with the 600 MW Elmed submarine cable bound for Sicily. Algeria plans to connect 15 GW of renewables to the grid by 2035, with a first tranche of 3.2 GW solar. Why is it important. For North African countries, these projects entail economic development, creation of critical infrastructure and technological employment and foreign investment. For Europe it is a real lifesaver: the old continent imports enormous quantities of gas, oil and electricity and since the war in Ukraine and Russia, The EU desperately seeks to diversify suppliers and has its sights set on northern Europe as a priority source of hydrogen in its Hydrogen Strategy. If these projects materialize, Europe would have cleaner, cheaper energy close to home. Context. The Strait of Hormuz crisis has revealed something that we already knew: depending on third parties for your energy is a tremendous risk. Tunisia suffers it first hand: 95% of its electricity comes from natural gas and more than 60% of that gas is imported. It’s not new: according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), in 2024 the Middle East and North Africa region supplied more than 30% of the world’s oil and almost 20% of natural gas, but its electricity generation continues to depend on fossil fuels for more than 90%. Making the move to renewables is also a question of energy sovereignty. In these movements there is a key Italian company: Snam. In 2023 acquired a 49.9% stake in the two gas pipelines that connect Italy with Algeria and the Algeria-Tunisia gas pipeline, this places it as a natural operator facing a possible conversion to hydrogen. Despite be an “energy island” On the continent, Spain starts from a privileged position if North Africa becomes the European tap: it will be one of the entry doors. In detail. At a technical level, the most important thing is how to bring that energy to Europe: by submarine electric cable or by converting existing gas pipelines to transport hydrogen, which will have implications in both cost and management. While the second is in the study phase, the cable option is advancing: Italy has already hired Prysmian the construction of a 600 MW interconnection with Tunisia. Meanwhile, Spain and Morocco agreed in 2019 a third electrical interconnection, but to this day it still has not materialized. Yes, but. The conversion of North Africa into an energy hub is a promise full of official commitments, GW targets and billions of dollars on the table, but it is not an installed and operational capacity. And unfortunately, the region has a history of advertisements that fell flat, serve as an example the Desertec solar project. Without going any further, geopolitics is already leaving warnings of the complexity of the matter. On the other hand, there is the question of the price of green hydrogen: although in North Africa it is cheaper than in the rest of the world thanks to the sun, it still cannot compete with hydrogen from natural gas, which costs between 1 – 2 dollars per kg. According to a study by the Technical University of Munichonly a tiny fraction of African sites could approach competitive prices in 2030. Without subsidies, most projects are not profitable today. In Xataka | Russia turned off the tap and Europe looked south: the two pharaonic African gas pipelines that want to change the energy map Xataka | The first natural gas that does not depend on fossil sources is already a reality in Europe: it is manufactured in Extremadura by combining hydrogen and CO2 Cover | Matthew Henry and Anirudh

Mistral CEO warns Europe that time is running out to build its own AI infrastructure

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When the United States Claude Mythos blocks people from outside the USsends a clear message: it is a cutting-edge export technology subject to control, like chips are. And in that scenario, Europe is practically an observer: the old continent is a pioneer in legislating AIbut its infrastructure, business ecosystem around it, and LLM models are behind what the United States or China have. Simply put, Europe depends on third parties for the best AI. But that can change. A little less than a month ago, Arthur Mensch appeared in May 2026 before the French National Assembly with another very clear message: if Europe wants to stop being an observer and descend into the mud, it has to do it now. Time is running against them. The deadline given by the co-founder and CEO of the main European artificial intelligence company is short: two years. The warning from the CEO of Mistral AI. In his exhibition, Arthur Mensch gave a warning macroeconomic with concrete figures: Europe has approximately two years to build its own AI infrastructure, or it will be structurally subordinated to American technology companies. If it does not arrive in time, Europe will become “a vassal state.” The future if we don’t achieve this is dark: “Once the supply is monopolized by American companies, we will suddenly run out of supply and will no longer be able to transform electrons into tokens.” His argument is technical but with a political background: whoever controls the calculation controls the economy. AI is not just another digital service: it is the infrastructure on which everything else will work. Like electricity or roads, but privatized and in foreign hands. Why is it important. Because under this approach, being dependent on third-party AI is not only a mere technical issue, which is no small thing considering its use in critical sectors such as defense or banking, it is also a serious problem of productive sovereignty and balance of payments. The CEO of Mistral refers to AI as a strategic asset, in the same way that gas is. Europe had a hard time understanding the cost of its energy dependence on Russia and Mensch’s argument is that the old continent is making the same mistake. In statements to CNBCdelved into the impact on the macroeconomy: “You cannot afford a trade deficit of one trillion if you really want to remain competitive in the race” because every euro that Europe pays to US companies for AI services is financing the competitor’s R&D. And that money is not coming back. Furthermore, we have already seen that using AI will be increasingly expensive, so much so that There are companies like Uber or Microsoft cutting licenses. Imagine if what depends on AI is your safety. Context. The game board shows that Europe does not exactly start with a good hand: according to data from Epoch AI, collected both by the US Federal Reserve as by RAND Europethe United States controls 74% of global high-level computing for AI, China 14% and the EU just 4.8%. He Draghi report of September 2024 has already identified that much of the blame for Europe’s productivity gap with respect to the US lies in the technology sector, or rather, the absence of it. One year later, Draghi himself was pessimistic: barely had been fulfilled 11.2% of almost 400 recommendations. In detail. Europe has already started with the plan action plan called “AI Continent” which is committed to tripling the capacity of data centers and deploying up to five gigafactories, but the question is whether it will be enough and if it will arrive on time. Without going any further, the 500,000 chips in these gigafactories planned are very far from what there is in the US: by the end of 2025, OpenAI I had already planned exceed one million chips. Mensch did not stop at warnings, but made concrete proposals. The first of them: use public procurement as a lever. Given that 50% of European GDP is generated through public spending, it is clear that it is a magnificent instrument to catalyze this development. On the other hand, Mistral is exploring the development of its own chips and has already announced a new data center in France. Yes, but. The main argument against Mensch’s words is obvious: he is one of the major stakeholders in the policies he proposes. Mistral has 1,000 employees, a valuation of 12 billion euros, a target of 1 billion euros in revenue by the end of 2026, this year it has invested 1 billion in R&D and approximately 75% of its sales are in Europe. On the other hand and for the moment, not having your own servers does not mean not being able to use AI, of course, being clear that it is a third party who dictates the conditions, prices and limits of that access. In Xataka | Europe wanted to set an example to the world with its AI Law. What you are achieving is becoming evident In Xataka | To become technologically “independent” from the US, the European Union already has a plan: four desperate measures Cover | Flickr and Wikimedia Commons / ALEXANDRE LALLEMAND | Igor Omilaev | Markus Spiske

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