The European Union must avoid locking itself into years of dependence on fossil fuels as it races to replace Russian oil and gas with supplies from other countries, 11 former EU policy chiefs have said in a letter to the bloc's current leadership, Reuters reported. The European Commission will this month unveil plans to end Europe's reliance on Russian energy, which are expected to expand renewable energy faster while encouraging the urgent replacement of Russian gas with alternative supplies.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi called on the European Union on Tuesday to tackle surging energy costs, saying it should adapt schemes deployed to handle the COVID-19 epidemic to the impact of the Ukraine conflict, Reuters reported. In an address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Draghi said national budgets alone could not finance the spending necessary to uphold sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine without risking domestic upheaval.

Norway's $1.2 trillion sovereign wealth fund is prepared for a rocky ride as it confronts the biggest geopolitical changes in three decades, its chief executive said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. "We probably face the greatest changes for 30 years," Nicolai Tangen told a Norwegian parliamentary hearing, adding the world's largest sovereign wealth fund expects "growing frictions between superpowers and a reversal of globalisation".

May 4 Report: Snarled-Up Ports Point to Worsening Global Supply Chain Woes Global supply chain problems look to set to worsen, a new report published on Tuesday said, as China's COVID-19 lockdowns, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and other strains cause even longer delays at ports and drive up costs, Reuters reported. The study by analysts at Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) found that one-fifth of the global container ship fleet was currently stuck in congestion at various major ports.

Ukraine’s central bank warned that its financial lifeline to the government has its limits and urged the finance ministry in Kyiv to lean on outside help in efforts to shore up the economy as Russia presses forward with the invasion, Bloomberg News reported. The monetary authority, which began direct purchases of Ukrainian government bonds after the war began in late February, added 50 billion hryvnia ($1.65 billion) to its debt portfolio in April, bringing the tally to 70 billion hryvnia.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree cutting the state-backed mortgage rate and extending the programme, part of wider measures aimed at stimulating economic growth, Reuters reported. Russia is grappling with the fallout from Western sanctions over what Moscow calls a special military operation in Ukraine to demilitarise its neighbour and rid it of extreme anti-Russian nationalism. The state-backed mortgage scheme that has helped support a construction boom in Russia had been due to expire on July 1.

Poland urged its European Union partners on Monday to unite and impose sweeping sanctions on Russia’s oil and natural gas sectors over the war in Ukraine, and not to cave in to pressure to pay for their gas in Russian rubles, the Associated Press reported. The appeal came as EU ministers met in Brussels to discuss their response to Russia’s decision last week to cut gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland. Energy giant Gazprom says the two countries failed to pay their bills in April. “We will call for immediate sanctions on Russian oil and gas.

The sanctions imposed on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine will not be lifted until Moscow reaches a peace agreement with Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, adding that it was for Ukraine to determine the peace terms, Reuters reported. Scholz, in an interview broadcast Monday on ZDF public television, said Russian President Vladimir Putin had miscalculated if he had anticipated he might be able to gain territory from Ukraine, declare an end to hostilities, and see Western countries drop sanctions. "He didn't think his entire Ukraine operation through," Scholz said.

Ireland needs to sort out a group of zombie companies that have survived on Government support during the pandemic, leading law firm McCann Fitzgerald says. And other “viable but broken” businesses that have built up debt through forbearance need to act now to protect their operations, the Irish Times reported. David O’Dea, a restructuring and insolvency partner at the law firm McCann Fitzgerald, says insolvency business in Ireland will return to normal levels after two years when company failure numbers fall back to the easy-credit Celtic Tiger era.

Euro zone economic growth was slower than expected in the first three months of the year, preliminary data showed on Friday, as the war in Ukraine started on Feb 24 hit economic activity and helped drive inflation to a new high, Reuters reported. The European Union's statistics office Eurostat said gross domestic product in the 19 countries sharing the euro rose 0.2% quarter-on-quarter for a 5.0% year-on-year gain. Economists polled by Reuters had expected 0.3% quarterly growth.