Belgium

BRUSSELS/BEIJING, April 1 (Reuters) - China offered the European Union assurances on Friday that it would seek peace in Ukraine but said this would be on its own terms, deflecting pressure for a tougher stance towards Russia.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told EU leaders that Beijing would push for peace in "its own way", while President Xi Jinping said he hoped the EU would treat China "independently", in a nod to Europe's close ties with the United States.

BRUSSELS, April 1 (Xinhua) -- The annual inflation in the eurozone accelerated to a record 7.5 percent in March, according to a flash estimate published on Friday by Eurostat, the European Union's (EU) statistical office.

Inflation has been driven primarily by the 44.7 percent year-on-year hike in energy prices in March. The figure for February was 32 percent.

Food, alcohol and tobacco prices rose by 5  percent in March compared to the year prior. In February, the annual inflation rate in this category was 4.2 percent.

01 April 2022European Union antitrust regulators, on Friday, scrapped their investigation into Qatar Energy after evidence they collected did not confirm their initial concerns, Reuters reported.

"Today's closure decision is based on a thorough analysis of all relevant evidence, including information received from Qatar Energy and the European gas importers," the European Commission said in a statement.

Last month, Reuters exclusively reported that the state-owned company was no longer in the EU crosshairs.

BRUSSELS, March 30 (Reuters) - The European Commission is readying new sanctions against the Kremlin over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, EU sources told Reuters on Wednesday, with the magnitude of the new measures depending on Moscow's stance on gas payments in roubles.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has said he wants "unfriendly" countries, including EU states, to pay their gas bills in roubles, a request rejected by Western nations.

The new package of EU sanctions could be ready as early as next week, two of the sources said.

BRUSSELS, March 25. /TASS/: Participants of the European Council’s Friday meeting failed to adopt any concrete measures to address the energy price growth, and could not come up with a unified approach to Russia’s decision to receive payments for its gas only in rubles, according to the final statement.

"Sustained high energy prices have an increasingly negative impact on [European] citizens and businesses," the statement says, adding that this trend is further exacerbated by the Russian special military operation in Ukraine.

BRUSSELS, March 25 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Joe Biden has said he was in favor of Russia being excluded from the Group of 20 (G20).

If Russia is not excluded, at least Ukraine should also be invited to the G20 group as an observer, said Biden at a press conference at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Headquarters in Brussels on Thursday.

Biden is in Brussels to attend three summits addressing the Russia-Ukraine conflict, including the NATO extraordinary summit, the Group of Seven summit and the European Council meeting.

BRUSSELS, March 25 (Xinhua) -- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies gathered here on Thursday, for what Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called "an extraordinary NATO summit in an extraordinary security situation" amid the Ukraine crisis.

The meeting, held on the day that marked one month since the start of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, might temporarily boost unity across the Atlantic, but could not easily balance the demands of relevant parties or put out the fires in Ukraine.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The United States and European Union on Friday announced a new partnership to reduce the continent’s reliance on Russian energy, a step top officials characterized as the start of a years-long initiative to further isolate Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine.

U.S. President Joe Biden asserted that Russian President Vladimir Putin uses energy to “coerce and manipulate his neighbors” and uses the profits from its sale to “drive his war machine.”

BRUSSELS — NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says any chemical attack by Russia on Ukraine would change the course of the war but he is not saying whether NATO would take military action.

Asked whether a chemical weapons attack is a red line for NATO, Stoltenberg said, “I will not speculate beyond the fact that NATO is always ready to defend, to protect and to react to any type of attack on a NATO-allied country.”

BRUSSELS (AP) — As the war in Ukraine grinds into a second month, President Joe Biden and Western allies are gathering to chart a path to ramp up pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin while tending to the economic and security fallout that’s spreading across Europe and the world.