The US becoming more and more like China.

Look at how China subsidizes and how the EU does. These are two different things.

It’s somewhat related:

After 16 years in prison for the murders of a lawyer and a journalist, former Russian neo-Nazi activist Yevgeniya Khassis is free and talking

The Ford CEO has again said someting … yeah, five months ago he said that “China’s car industry is the most humbling thing he has ever seen”, two months ago the same Ford CEO and some Western executives were “terrified” when coming back from China over the countries EV car industry, and a year ago he was shocked how good China’s EV industry is. Now the same Ford CEO is criticizing Europe.

Just a detail: all these posts are coming from OP with just the same anti-European and pro-China content over and again.

Below the map in the linked site (here again: https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/) there are all countries listed according to their assigned group, from ‘critically insufficient’ to ‘Paris compatible’. Just click on the button of the country that interests you and you’ll see all the data. For example, here is Germany: https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/germany/

The rankings of Climate Change Tracker and Climate Action Tracker are very similar as it exposes the countries’ level of (in)action. As all ratings they’ll have some limits, but both work with a lot of data and provide a very good overview imho. The CAT breaks down each country’s rating when you search for the particular country, including each EU country or the bloc as a whole.

Yeah, here is some sort or rating which governments are headbutting even more than others … https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/

The US president and his ally in the Kremlin want to use 100bn euros* of Russia’s frozen assets to be invested in a venture to rebuild Ukraine, while 50% of the venture’s profit would go to the US (according to point 14 of Trump’s initial ‘peace plan’ for Ukraine).

*Additional information: Total frozen assets of Russia that will eventually be used as collateral for the EU preparation loan amount to 140bn euros.

Second addition: In addition to the EU, UK and Canada are also working on a scheme to hand frozen Russian assets to Ukraine.

That’s a global phenomenon,unfortunately. Researchers found PFAS chemicals in tap and bottled water in major cities across the UK and China., just to provide an example.

But are there European countries banning such second jobs?

Many European nations decided to ban MPs from having second jobs precisely for this reason.

I agree with what you’ve said including on the ban of MP’s second jobs, but are there countries in Europe that ban such jobs? It may not be as easy as in the UK, but it’s not completely banned anywhere afaik. Am I mistaken?

Yes, it would make no sense to ditch Russian oil and gasl only to get then independent from U.S. or other countries’ oil and gas or Chinese renewable energy tech. This is also done, however, although there may be some reason to speed up the development, and Europe definitely must revive its own RE industry.

EU finalizes the phasing-out of Russian gas imports by 2027

• Pipeline gas imports from Russia in to the EU under long-term deals must halt by Sept. 30, 2027, with a possibility of an extension to Nov. 1, 2027, depending on fulfillment of gas storage targets set by the EU. That compares with an end-2027 ban on those contracts originally put forward by the commission.
• Short-term contracts for LNG concluded before June 17, 2025 will be prohibited as of April 25, 2026. Pipeline gas brought into the EU under short-term deals will be banned as of June 17, 2026.
• To phase-out Russian energy, the deal obliges member states to prepare plans to diversify their supplies. The commission also plans to put forward a legislative proposal on phasing out Russian oil imports no later than the end of 2027.

Dictatorships dont have the checks and balances. That is just a fact

And? The trend of a society that gets older and older can’t be reversed by dictatorial order. The issue of a countrywide worker shortage can’t be cracked down. A lack of resources to pay reasonable pensions is a problem you can’t shoot at.

Why?

the EU is supposed to “do something”.

The first funding instruments are in place with some of them already issued.

Stockpiles should have been built in the past already. European managers and politicians talked about it during the pandemic, but didn’t do much, but the learning curve might have been steep in the more recent past as Europe might have learned that foreign countries - particularly China - aren’t reliable.

Ukraine was facing a population decline already before 2022, and the war made the situation worse. But Ukraine is by far not alone with the problem of a shrinking population as almost the entire world will face it in the next decades. Only a few countries in Central Asia and Africa are exempted. The decline is especially pronounced in China, where the population will decline by a factor of 2.2 in this century reaching ~600 million, down form the current 1.4 billion) as well as in the U.S., and Russia, where fertility rates have fallen below the population replacement level.

TL;DR:

Lithuania’s interests had been safeguarded and that the country’s annual exports to China had recovered to levels similar to those recorded before Beijing began applying economic pressure on Lithuania [due to Lithuania’s allowance of opening a Taiwanese representative office in Vilnius under the name “Taiwanese”, rather than “Taipei”] … The EU said “the main objectives of the dispute were achieved and the relevant trade has resumed."

Yes, but Europe must also revive its renewable energy industry to avoid dependence from malign influence and dependence from abroad …

Germany’s foreign minister to visit China next week, as EU prepares to toughen up on trade

The European Union is expected to toughen its trade stance on China next month, with signs that Germany - the EU’s largest member and economy - is aligning with the shift and that the 27-member bloc may be sufficiently united to push through policy changes that deepen ties with like-minded trading partners …

China’s weaker economy and its move up the value chain of industrial production means it is no longer the reliable market it once was for German exports.

But Germany still remains a key investment partner for China, which is struggling to attract fresh funds as its post-COVID recovery struggles for momentum …