Euobserver.com

The lead candidate is the centre-right European People's Party's (EPP) Maltese MEP Roberta Metsola, who has been outspoke against corruption and rule-of-law issues - but some MEPs are concerned over her anti-abortion voting record.

A lead MEP is calling for a temporary opt-out for homes and private cars under reforms of the EU carbon market rules, as the new rules are expected to increase fuel and energy prices for households.

Ukraine has been hit by a large cyber-attack, which has put the websites of several government departments including the ministry of foreign affairs and the education ministry down, The Guardian reports. Suspected Russian hackers left a message on the foreign ministry website, saying : "Ukrainians! … All information about you has become public. Be afraid and expect worse. It's your past, present and future."

Russia has refused to rule out a military deployment in Cuba and Venezuela if talks with the West on European security and Ukraine failed to go its way, while warning the latest discussions with Nato were hitting a dead end, The Guardian writes. Sergei Ryabkov, who recently led Russia's delegation in a meeting with the US, said "it all depends on the actions by our US counterparts".

"It seems that the risk of war in the OSCE area is now greater than ever before in the last 30 years," Poland's foreign minister, Zbigniew Rau, who currently chairs the Vienna-based intergovernmental body, said Thursday during the latest round of talks on Russia. Russia's deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said the same day Russia saw no reason for further talks with Nato, as its demands were being ignored.

Huge numbers of French teachers went on strike Thursday, with the biggest teachers' union saying half of primary schools were closed as staff demanded clarity from the government on coronavirus measures, France24 writes. They complained that their members were unable to teach properly, not adequately protected against coronavirus infection and frequently heard about changes to health precautions via the media rather than from higher-ups.

Enlargement commissioner Várhelyi "openly colluded [with Dodik] in potentially breaking up Bosnia and Herzegovina", according to dozens of MEPs who wrote to Várhelyi's boss.

A report from Denmark's Security and Intelligence Service said on Thursday there has been an increasing espionage threat from Russia, China, Iran and others against Denmark and the Arctic region in recent years, Reuters reported. The agency argues that Copenhagen's active global role has made it a target of spying attempts. Geopolitical tensions run high in the Arctic as climate change is expected to reshape trade routes.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Thursday that Turkey remains committed to full membership in the European Union, Ekathimerini writes. "Turkey, which is geographically and historically a part of Europe, is committed to its target of becoming a member," Erdoğan said during a meeting with EU ambassadors in Ankara, however adding that certain countries, which he did not name, were seeking to undermine the country's bid.

A court in Germany has given a former Syrian intelligence officer a life sentence for crimes against humanity, in the first such case of senior Bashar al-Assad official facing justice, writes The Guardian. Anwar Raslan, a former colonel who gained asylum in Germany, was found by the Koblenz court to have overseen the murder of 27 people and the torture of at least 4,000 others.

The EU is planning to impose tough sanctions on Mali, after its junta postponed elections for five years and invited Russian mercenaries to replace French soldiers fighting a jihadist insurgency there, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said Thursday. "The risk that the situation in this country deteriorates is evident," he said. "The new sanctions regime was agreed and these discussions will now continue," French defence minister Florence Parly added.

Italy's centre-right bloc will support former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's bid to become the next president of the republic, League party leader Matteo Salvini says, Reuters reports. "The centre-right is firm and unanimous in its support for Berlusconi, we will not accept ideological vetoes from the left," Salvini said in a statement, referring to centre-left parties that have denounced Berlusconi's presidential ambitions. The vote is on 24 January.

EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell has gone against Germany by saying the fate of Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline was tied to events in Ukraine.

For each of the possible future conflicts in the EU's neighbourhood, the EU will need Turkey as a strategic partner. Therefore it is time to put past slights and sensitivities aside.

Experts and activists have warned the European Commission that including natural gas and nuclear power in its plan for sustainable finance will lead to further greenwashing, split financial markets and undermine the bloc's climate objectives.

Invasion is unlikely to be Vladimir Putin's preferred option. Yet this game of brinkmanship has another part of the equation. If Russia invades Ukraine, the costs for Europe will be equally devastating.

Baltic States are seeking to host more Nato troops due to Russia's aggressive behaviour, Estonia's prime minister, Kaja Kallas, told Reuters on Wednesday. "We are discussing with our allies to increase their presence here to act as a deterrent ... If you look at the map, the Baltic states are a Nato peninsula and therefore we have our worries," she said. Nato currently has three multinational battalions in the region.

Some 20 percent of the 130m tonnes of CO2 emitted annually by shipping in the EU would not be covered by the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which forces polluters to pay for permits, due to loopholes, NGO group Transport & Environment has warned. Shipping is to enter the ETS from 2023, but rules would not cover ships under 5,000 gross tonnes in weight, excluding most fishing and military vessels.

EU plans to say that burning gas is a "green" form of energy creation in its new "taxonomy" for investors "would seriously "compromise Europe's status as a global leader in sustainable finance," according to the The Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, a club of 370 firms with over $50 trillion of assets under management. "We remain strongly opposed to any inclusion of gas [in the taxonomy]," it said.

The US would blacklist Russian president Vladimir Putin, cut off Russian firms from the 'Swift' international payments system, and block it from pumping gas in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany if Russia, once again, invaded Ukraine, according to a new Senate sanctions bill proposed by US Democrats Wednesday. "The US Senate will not stand idly by as the Kremlin threatens a re-invasion of Ukraine," senator Robert Menendez said.