Euobserver.com

British foreign secretary Lizz Truss is to take over post-Brexit talks on Northern Ireland customs after Lord Frost, the former British negotiator, quit on Saturday saying he was unhappy with the current government. "My team and I will continue to cooperate with the UK in the same constructive spirit on all important tasks ahead," the EU negotiator, Maroš Šefčovič, said.

The EU has suspended its military mission in Central African Republic after Russian mercenaries began taking control of EU-trained soldiers. "The temporary suspension of our operations aims to avoid any overlapping with these mercenaries and ensure they do not use the Central African soldiers we have trained," general Jacques Langlade de Montgros, the commander of the EU mission, said in The Times. Dozens of EU instructors have already gone home.

Germany imposes quarantine on travellers from Britain starting on Monday and require a negative Covid-19 test for entry into the country, the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases said, Reuters reports. Germany's regional health ministers had urged the national government on Saturday to introduce tougher rules on people arriving from Britain and called on Berlin to classify Britain as a virus-variant area, enforcing a two-week quarantine on all travellers.

Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte announced on Saturday evening a sudden hard lockdown, ordering the closure of all but the most essential stores, as well as restaurants, hairdressers, gyms, museums and other public places from Sunday until at least 14 January. In a press conference, Rutte said that he was shocked over the rise of the new Omicron variant, leaving the government no other choice than going back into lockdown.

Russia's threat of war against Ukraine should be seen in in terms of its geopolitical and political needs, Kyiv's new ambassador in Brussels has said.

German defence minister Christine Lambrecht said that Nato will discuss Russia's proposals for the alliance's military affairs on its eastern border, but it will not permit Moscow to "dictate" its security affairs, Deutsche Welle writes. Moscow provided a list of military demands on Friday to the US and its allies. These demands included withdrawing Nato's enhanced forward presence battalions from the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

France is set to bring in corporate sponsors for its EU Council presidency in the first half of 2022, despite calls to end with this controversial practice.

Ahead of EU environment ministers' meeting, environmental groups sent a joint letter urging ministers to "uphold the 'polluter-pays' principle, as enshrined in EU law when reforming the Emissions Trading System."

Energy has emerged as a key dividing issue between EU countries, with leaders failing to agree on a common statement on the rise of energy prices (and how to tackle them) last week at their summit in Brussels.

In these times of unprecedented social and economic challenges, the EU must self-critically rethink decades of poor decisions.

The EU Commission on Friday unveiled a new proposal to ease medical flows from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, with conditions to ensure that UK-authorised medicines do not enter the EU market. Changing the rules on medicines and manufacturing authorisations highlights "the flexibility of the [Northern Ireland] protocol," said EU Commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič. Meanwhile, Malta, Cyprus and Ireland will also benefit from certain legal exemptions for a three-year period.

Businesses in the eurozone dipped in December as renewed restrictions imposed to curb the Omicron coronavirus variant curtailed the recovery in the bloc's dominant services industry. In the German private sector, growth evaporated as restrictions hit the services sector in Europe's largest economy. In France - the only other country in the bloc to report flash data - shutdowns also hammered hospitality and travel companies.

MEPs have criticised the Slovenian government over its "attacks, smear campaigns, and slander" against journalists, saying it had created a "climate of hostility, distrust and deep polarisation". Thursday's non-binding resolution did not mention prime minister Janez Janša, who has personally insulted reporters on social media. But it was an embarrassment for his country in the last days of its EU presidency.

EU leaders failed to agree on how to respond to high energy prices on Thursday's European Council summit.

The European Central Bank took another step in rolling back its crisis-era asset buying programme on Thursday (17 December). It will hold down borrowing cost next year however, and even said it may restart emergency stimulus if necessary. With the euro zone economy near its pre-pandemic size, pressure is mounting on the bank to follow its global peers in turning off the money taps, and hiking rents.

Germany's infrastructure regulator, the Bundesnetzagentur, will not make a decision on allowing natural gas flows to Europe from Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline before July next year. "A decision won't be made in the first half of 2022," Jochen Homann, the agency's president, told reporters on Thursday. Russia's Gazprom owns the pipeline.

EU leaders failed to guarantee a coordinated approach to travel measures for the Christmas holiday season during their summit meeting. Instead they stressed that boosters shots are "crucial" and "urgent" to curb the new wave of Covid-19 infections.

Almost 12,000 prospective asylum seekers in Europe were illegally forced back across a border this year, says the Danish Refugee Council (DRC). Some 6,000 alone took place between July to November, it says.

This election will be further tarnished by the total absence - for the first time in Hong Kong's history - of opposition parties, following the all-out war waged by Beijing against the city's historically spirited pro-democracy movement.

France will ban non-essential travel to and from the UK from the weekend, for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people, to slow the spread of the Omicron Covid-19 variant that is causing record numbers of cases, AFP reported Thursday. The government wants to buy time for its vaccination-booster campaign. French citizens and EU nationals could still return, but will need a negative test, and a blanket quarantine will be enforced.