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The European Union on Friday imposed sanctions on three more Russians, including deputy energy minister Andrei Cherezov, and three Russian companies over the delivery of Siemens turbines to Moscow-annexed Crimea.

Moscow criticised the EUs decision as an unfriendly and groundless act and said it reserved the right to take retaliatory steps.

The EU first introduced sanctions on Russia after the 2014 military takeover of the Black Sea peninsula from Kiev, and stepped them up repeatedly as Moscow then backed separatist unrest in the east of Ukraine.

The new tightening came in response to the delivery of Siemens gas turbines to Crimea in violation of EU sanctions, which bar doing business there since Russias annexation of the peninsula from Ukraine, a move which has not been internationally recognised.

Siemens says it has evidence that all four turbines it delivered for a project in southern Russia had been illegally moved to Crimea.

The responsibility for this decision, including possible expenses for Siemens and other German and European companies working in Russia, lies entirely with the EUs side and the German government, Russias foreign ministry said in a statement.

Russia reaffirmed its interest in developing economic cooperation with the bloc and remained committed to all previously assumed obligations, the ministry added.

The EU also said the blacklisted companies include Siemens two Russian contractors that moved the turbines.

EUs 28 states must be unanimous to go ahead with sanctions and diplomatic sources said Italys opposition meant a fourth name had to be dropped from the initial German proposal.

Diplomats in Brussels said the Russian energy ministry official is involved in bilateral cooperation with Italy and has since escaped being sanctioned. The Italian representation in Brussels did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Other EU sanctions on Russia target its energy, financial and arms sectors. The latest additions complement a blacklist that already contains 150 people and 37 entities subject to an asset freeze and a travel ban over the turmoil in Ukraine.

More than three years of coordinated EU and U.S. sanctions, however, have not forced a change of hand in Moscow, which vows to never give back Crimea and still supports the armed conflict in east Ukraine which has killed more than 10,000 people.

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Russian deputy minister blacklisted in new European Union sanctions - Hindustan Times

Poland's future within the EU has come under renewed uncertainty after the President of the European Council said the country's "arrogant" rejection of EU law signals its desire to exit the union.

Donald Tusk, Poland's former Prime Minister, hit out at his home country's ruling Law and Justice party Thursday, saying that its fragile relationship with the EU had moved closer to breaking point.

"There is a question mark over Poland's European future today," Tusk told reporters in Warsaw Thursday.

Brussels has been at loggerheads with Poland in recent weeks over the conservative government's attempts to expand their powers. The EU claims that laws aimed at reforming the judiciary undermine the independence of judges and therefore break EU treaty rules. The government has since ignored a European Court of Justice order to halt tree logging in the Bialowieza forest, a Unesco World Heritage site.

"The fact that a European tribunal decision is rejected so arrogantly is evidence of something very dangerous in my opinion it is an overt attempt to put Poland in conflict with the European Union," Tusk said.

Tusk noted that several actions of the Polish government appear to be "very controversial" and could risk the country's continued EU status. Brussels has already been considering triggering Article 7 of the EU treaty, a legal process which could suspend the country's voting rights.

"It smells like an introduction to an announcement that Poland does not need the European Union and that Poland is not needed for the EU," Tusk noted.

"I am afraid we are closer to that moment."

Tusk's comments came as he was in the Polish capital giving evidence to the Polish prosecutor's office over allegations of negligence in his government's handling of an investigation into a plane crash in 2010. The crash killed many high-ranking Polish officials, including then-president Lech Kaczynski, brother of the head of the Law and Justice party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

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Question mark hangs over Poland's European future, says EU's Tusk - CNBC

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The ability of allied forces to operate in Europe is still hindered by border restrictions which must be changed if theEuropean Union wants the alliance to succeed.

At present, forces have to battle past infrastructure challenges where roads and bridges are too weak to bear the weight of heavy equipment, and low-clearance tunnels and tiny air strips.

In a bid to solve the problem, the Netherlands, as well as Americas top army general in Europe want to change that.

In June, at a meeting of NATO leaders Dutch Defense Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert called on EU officials to create a military Schengen zone.

Ms Hennis-Plasschaert said: We must be able to move quickly to any place where there is a threat.

And, while EU leaders approved a plan for greater military co-operation, it may not be enough if a crisis hits.

Officials suggest a military Schengen zone would not cost much to set up.

The Schengen zone is an area of 26 European states that allows border-free travel for many Europeans.

The agreement, signed in 1985, took effect in 1995 and abolished the need for passports and other types of border controls at their mutual bloc borders.

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And the Dutch ministers calls for wider cooperation has been backed up by the senior United States Army commander in Europe - Lieutenant General Ben Hodges.

Lieutenant Hodges, a three-star general, is stationed in Europe. He has faced passport checks and even diversions at several European countries that he and his troops have visited.

He said candidly: I wish that we could move across Europe as quickly as migrants do.

Of course, we should have to meet all the EU road laws, respect sovereignty, but it is a surprisingly cumbersome process in several countries to get permissions to move troops, weapons, ammunition, even just regular convoys.

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He added: I was nave. I just assumed, well, these are all EU countries, or NATO countries, it should be like going from Florida to Virginia on I-95.

And its absolutely not the case. So theres just a variety of reasons in terms of diplomatic clearances, regulatory procedures, infrastructure.

A spokesman for the European Defense Agency - which aids military cooperation among EU countries - was confident that a plan could get underway quickly.

It wants to work with the European Commission to ensure the military can work seamlessly between countries.

They hope to implement changes by next month.

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Every member country, no matter how large or small, has an equal say in discussions and decisions. Photo shows: Signing the North Atlantic Treaty which marked the beginning of NATO, 1949.

NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg said: Last autumn, we looked at a map of Europe which showed how difficult it was to move troops from one country to another at short notice.

We used a traffic-light analogy and we saw that large parts of the map were red. We have worked very hard since then, and made significant progress.

NATO allies have cut red tape, and updated complex procedures, with the support of ministries and parliaments.

We are now looking at what more needs to be done, for instance regarding railways, airfields and seaports.

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Military chiefs attack European Union borders: 'Why can't armies ... - Express.co.uk

HELSINKI Estonia will organize a strategic level cyber defense exercise in September that specifically caters to European Union (EU) defense ministers. The exercise, the first of its kind to be held at EU-level, will test the post cyberattack management strategies and overall capabilities of individual ministers.

One of the motivating factors behind the exercise is to promote improved cooperation between the European Union and NATO, said Jri Luik, Estonias defense minister.

Called EU CYBRID 2017, the strategic level table-top exercise is scheduled to take place in Tallinn on Sept. 7. The exercise is being run as part of Estonias six-month Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The need for such a dedicated exercise is more urgent that ever, said Luik. NATO as well as European countries, he observed, face ever more aggressive security threats in cyberspace.

There are no borders between countries or organizations on the internet. Barriers to cooperation between the European Union and NATO must be reduced to counter threats in cyberspace, said Luik.

Significantly, the September cybersecurity exercise is happening in response to enhanced defense collaboration initiatives within the European Union. These are strategically aimed at harmonizing rules of cooperation and engagement both at EU-policy level as well as project-specific collaboration between EU states.

For EU leaders, the EU CYBRID 2017 exercise will take place against a backdrop where leading global information communication technology, or ICT, corporations, including Microsoft and Deutsche Telekom, are calling for a Digital Geneva Convention-style treaty to regulate cyber operations between sovereign states.

According to ICT chiefs, a Digital Geneva Convention is fundamental to empowering nation states to better protect civilians and national infrastructure against cyberwarfare attacks in peacetime.

However, researchers at the Tallinn-based NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence, or CCD-COE, think tank are less than lukewarm to the idea of a Digital Geneva Convention, describing it as both legally confusing and politically unrealistic.

The original Geneva Convention and Additional Protocols form part of international humanitarian law, or law of armed conflict, said Tom Minrik, a research analyst at NATO-CCD-COEs Law Branch. They are designed primarily for an armed conflict, such as the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. They apply to cyber operations that have a link to an armed conflict. However, they have a limited applicability outside the scope of an armed conflict.

Other rules of international law play a major role with respect to peacetime cyber activities, said Lt. Col. Kris van der Meij, a senior researcher in NATO CCD-COEs Law and Policy Branch.

These protections are included in the Council of Europes Convention on Cybercrime as well as customary legal rules regarding the responsibility of states for unlawful activities that have been set down in the International Law Commissions Draft Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, van der Meij said.

The momentum exists for states to improve cybersecurity as it relates to critical infrastructure, said Minrik. For states, the focus should be on extending the right to privacy extra-territorially while curbing indiscriminate online surveillance and data retention.

Addressing international law violations by governments are important and realistic goals, Minrik said.

They are achievable through gradual progress and do not require universal consensus. Devoting efforts to a Digital Geneva Convention that has little chance of ratification by most countries would be counterproductive, said Minrik.

Minrik questions the level of inter-state unity that exists for a Digital Geneva Convention given that a number of member countries in the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts, or UN-GGE, recently failed to agree on a joint position as to whether armed conflict applies to cyberspace.

The UN-GGEs special area of focus covers developments in the field of information and telecommunications that impacts international security.

It is hard to imagine, said Minrik, the adoption of a broadly multilateral cyber-specific treaty anytime soon.

Even in the unlikely event of such a treaty coming to fruition, it is unclear if there is a technically viable mechanism by which it could be verified, Minrik said.

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EU defense ministers to get cyber defense training in Estonia - DefenseNews.com

Irelands prime minister has suggested that Britain could strike a Norway-style deal with the EU forging a bespoke customs union with Europe and joining the European Free Trade Association (Efta).

In his first visit as Taoiseach to Belfast, Leo Varadkar hit out at the advocates of a hard Brexitand said their plans for border controls would throw up a trade border across Ireland.

He also said promoters of such a way forward had failed to come up with detailed proposals in the 14 months since the EU referendum last year and that he believed they would never be able to do so.

The Eftaincludes Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein and previously included Britain, before it joined the EUs predecessor, the EEC, in 1973.

Eftas members adopt nearly all EU legislation and standards so they can trade with the bloc, but with exceptions in certain areas, such as agriculture and fisheries. Downing Street has not yet ruled out Efta membership.

There are people who do want a border, a trade border between the United Kingdom and the European Union and therefore between Ireland and Britain and therefore across Ireland, Mr Varadkar said in a speech at Belfasts Queens University on the future relations of northern and southern Ireland.

These are the advocates of the so-called hard Brexit. I believe the onus is on them to come up with proposals for such a border and to convince us and convince you: citizens, students, academics, farmers, business people, civil society, that such a border is in your interest and that such a border would not be a barrier to trade and commerce.

They have already had 14 months to do so, which should have been ample time to come up with detailed proposals. If they cannot, and I believe they cannot, then we can start to talk meaningfully about solutions that might work for all of us.

Theresa May has said Britain will leave the single market and EU customs union (AP)

Turning to the subject of trade, he continued: If the United Kingdom doesnt want to stay in the Customs Union, perhaps there can be an EU-UK customs union instead. After all the EU has a customs union with Turkey, surely therefore its possible to have one with the United Kingdom?

If the United Kingdom doesnt want to stay in the single market perhaps it could enter into a deep free trade agreement with the European Union and rejoin Efta, of which it was a member prior to accession, or the European Economic Area.

The Irish PM, who took office in June, also suggested a long transition period where Britain remained in the single market so that future long-term arrangements could be worked out.

He said: If these things cannot be agreed now, then perhaps we can have a long transition period during which the United Kingdom stays in the single market and the customs union while we work all of these things out.

Theresa May ruled out staying in the single market and EU customs union in her Lancaster House speech at the start of 2017.

Efta members, except Switzerland, are also all separately members of the European Economic Area, except Switzerland, which effectively participates in the area through a series of bespoke treaties.

All the Efta member states are members of the Schengen borderless area, except for four remote self-governing areas of Norway, including the arctic archipelago Svalbard.

Irelands ambassador to the EU revealed on Friday that a record 500,000 British people had applied for Irish passports in the first half of 2017 to safeguard their positions as EU citizens.

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Ireland's prime minister tells Theresa May to strike Norway-style Brexit deal with the EU - The Independent