Euobserver.com

German climate and economy minister Robert Habeck revealed a drastic deficit in the country's greenhouse-gas emissions reduction efforts.

As an independent watchdog, the EU Commission can launch infringement procedures, taking member states to the European Court of Justice if they do not comply. But all too often the watchdog just barks a little before returning to its kennel.

New research has discovered fundamental flaws in a key component of the European Union's flagship Emissions Trading System. The little-known 'Market Stability Reserve' fixes a problem of the past but amplifies future shocks and undermines market stability.

The EU has got next to nothing for €700 million of its tax-payers' money meant to help rule of law in the Western Balkans.

David Sassoli, the 65-year old centre-right Italian EU Parliament president, died in hospital on Tuesday, his spokesman said. "David Sassoli passed away at 1.15AM on 11 January at the CRO in Aviano, Italy, where he was hospitalised ... The date and place of the funeral will be communicated in the next few hours," Roberto Cuillo, the spokesman, tweeted. Sassoli had been in hospital since 26 December with an immunological disorder.

Denmark has jailed its own Defence Intelligence Service chief, Lars Findsen, for six years for leaking "highly classified information", it emerged at a hearing in Copenhagen City Court on Monday. Details of the charges were kept secret, Danish newspapers said, but according to sources cited by DR News the 57-year old intelligence director was punished for passing secrets to Danish media. "This is completely insane," Findsen said at Monday's hearing.

Russia and the US made little progress at talks in Geneva on Russia's threat to escalate war in Ukraine. "We have a great disparity in our principled approaches," Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said, Reuters reports. Many Russian proposals were "simply non-starters," US senior diplomat Wendy Sherman said. Germany's ruling SPD party, the same day, urged the country to let Russia start using its Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

"We will not allow the realisation of so-called 'colour revolution' scenarios," Russian president Vladimir Putin said during a videoconference on Monday, The Moscow Times writes. Putin's remarks came days after 2,500 Russian, Belarusian, Armenian, Tajik and Kyrgyz troops were deployed across Kazakhstan cities to defend key state facilities. Echoing the Kazakh authorities, Putin accused unidentified "outside forces" of interfering "in the internal affairs of our states."

Afghans who fled the Taliban risk dying in freezing temperatures in Calais, NGOs have warned, The Guardian writes. Charities have raised the alarm that conditions are deteriorating sharply, putting thousands of lives at risk, through a combination of freezing temperatures, increasingly forceful evictions of refugees from makeshift shelters by police and cuts to funding for charities working on the frontline has created a perfect storm, the organisations said.

The last seven years have been the warmest on record globally, the EU's climate monitoring service said on Monday. Last year was the fifth-hottest year on record, marginally warmer than 2015 and 2018. In the EU, the maximum temperature record was reported in Sicily this summer (48.8°C). The EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service also reported that global concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane continued to increase in 2021.

The European data protection supervisor on Monday ordered Europol to delete all data concerning individuals with no proven link to criminal activities, and imposed a six-month retention period to filter and analyse large datasets, following an investigation launched in 2019. This means that data older than six months that has not been categorised must be erased. The Hague-based police agency has now 12 months to comply with the order.

Members and observers of the European Commission's advisory group on sustainable finance rules, and experts from EU member states, will have until 21 January to provide feedback on the EU taxonomy, a commission spokesperson confirmed on Monday. The previous deadline was 12 January. Several EU member states, green groups, and experts have so far opposed the EU executive's plans to label natural gas and nuclear as a 'green' investment.

The new Dutch government has taken office, with left-leaning liberal Sigrid Kaag taking over the influential ministry of finance from fiscal hawk Wopke Hoekstra.

Poland is facing a deadline on Tuesday to spell out to the EU Commission how it wants to bring its domestic judicial reforms into line with the order from the European Court of Justice on how Warsaw disciplines judges.

Socialist and Greens MEPs on the internal market committee have criticised the European Commission's proposal on political advertising for what they see as a lack of ambition.

In recent months, 140,000 citizens and 152 MEPs have joined the #EUforAnimals campaign, demanding more prominence be given to animal welfare by making it explicit in the name of the relevant directorate-general and job title of the appropriate EU commissioner.

The Nato-Russia council will take place in Brussels on Wednesday, as western and Russian officials begin a series of meetings this week in an effort to de-escalate tensions over Ukraine's eastern border - where Russia has amassed troops.

The foreign minister of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, released a statement Sunday revealing that he had tendered his resignation several days ago and hinted at a possible bid for the presidency in the 2023 elections, Ekathimerini writes. "My resignation is the result of a series of events and statements, public and otherwise, that have recently unfolded and have seriously impacted the important role of the government," said Christodoulides.

Some 5,000 people marched in protest against corona restrictions in Belgium on Sunday, according to police, in a peaceful event including families and children as well as politicians, including some MEPs. The unmasked demonstrators called for "freedom" from having to show a vaccination pass to access public places. And organisers claimed the numbers were much bigger than police had said, citing figures of 25,000 or more.

A Myanmar junta court on Monday convicted Aung San Suu Kyi of three criminal charges, sentencing her to four years in prison in the latest in a slew of cases against the ousted civilian leader, France24 writes. The Nobel laureate has been detained since 1 February, when her government was forced out in an early-morning coup, ending Myanmar's short-lived experiment with democracy.