News
Good morning and welcome to your Unbound Daily Briefing, for Monday 13th July - topics we are covering today include:
- Record EU LNG Purchases From Russian Suppliers in 2026
- UK Proposed Cap on EU Youth Mobility is "Non-Starter"
- Changes to Gibraltar Border in Effect from 15th July
Record EU LNG Purchases From Russian Suppliers in 2026
As has been reported in the Financial Times this morning, the EU in the first half of 2026 has imported more liquified gas from Russia's leading LNG project in Siberia, than it ever has done - with this news coming out alongside tense negotiations running through the weekend on the next round of sanctions due to the war in Ukraine.
The EU in the first half as 2026, as shown through data from analytics company Kpler, purchased nearly all of the LNG output of the Siberian Yamal LNG facility - a total of 9.89m tonnes, which may have cost as much as €6bn.
- Read the FT article on the EUs purchases of LNG from Russia
- Read the Reuters article on the EUs purchase of LNG from Russia
UK Proposed Cap on EU Youth Mobility is "Non-Starter"
EU diplomats have warned the UK that their current proposal of a 50,000 person cap on youth mobility - youth mobility being a key demand of the EU in the reset negotiations, and a former red line for the UK - would be a non-starter.
The concerns raised with the 50,000 figure have been from the smaller EU nations, and their share of the allocation were it to be divided fairly between the 27 member states based on population figures.
The position of the EU has been that there will be no reset agreement without a youth mobility scheme, and that they wish to have a completely uncapped ability for living and working in the UK - which would effectively be Freedom of Movement for a subset of the EU population, something promised would not happen within the Labour manifesto.
Changes to Gibraltar Border in Effect from 15th July
On Wednesday this week, 15th July, Gibraltar will come under the umbrella of Spain's membership of the Schengen free movement area, removing the border controls between Gibraltar and Spain, and ceding control of entry into Gibraltar to the Spanish.
Britain Unbound will have more to say on this topic in the coming days, as it is our belief that the terms of the agreement made have been intentionally downplayed, and that the general public in both the UK and Gibraltar have been effectively misled on what has been agreed to.
