Euobserver.com

MEPs say concrete plans at Glasgow's COP26 climate summit are still lacking, as the clock ticks. And according to new research, bad data may be underreporting carbon emissions.

The one lesson these MEPs should have learned before enjoying Taiwan's superb hospitality (great food, marvellous hotels, great headlines) is a simple one: "Don't Rock the Boat".

Liberal lawmaker Sophie in 't Veld says the European Union's survival depends on overcoming creeping sclerosis, ending acquiescence to autocrats, and embracing the kind of political spectacle that captures the public imagination.

French far-right TV pundit Eric Zemmour would likely make it into the second round in presidential elections next year with 17 percent of the vote in the first round, according to an Ifop-Fiducial poll Sunday. Incumbent Emmanuel Macron would get 23 percent and far-right contender Marine Le Pen would come third on 16 percent, the survey showed. Zemmour said Sunday he was "ready" to soon officially declare his bid.

Mounting Serbian separatism in Bosnia risks aggravating other old conflicts in the Western Balkans, an international peace envoy has warned.

Belgium has urged people to start working from home once again from Monday due to surging Covid infections, as Europe grapples with the pandemic's fourth wave.

Gas flows via the 'Yamal-Europe' pipeline from Russia, via Poland, to Germany stopped again on Saturday, following a previous, temporary, stoppage last weekend, German pipeline operator Gascade said. The previous stoppage caused prices to jump 23 percent on gas futures markets. Russia denies accusations it is using gas cuts to force Germany to let it run its new pipeline, Nord Stream 2, as a monopoly in violation of EU laws.

The EU has warned Britain it could trigger a trade war if it suspended a Brexit-customs deal on Northern Ireland. "There is a danger" the EU would suspend the whole Brexit withdrawal deal if the UK went ahead, Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney said Sunday, echoing warnings by EU commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič Friday. Masked men burned a bus in Northern Ireland Sunday amid a recent flare-up in sectarian tension.

The EU has "condemned" the attempted assassination of Iraqi prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi using an exploding drone which struck his home Saturday. "The perpetrators of this attempted attack must be held accountable. Any violence is unacceptable and must not be allowed to undermine the democratic process," the EU foreign-service chief Josep Borrell said Sunday. "Calm, restraint, and dialogue are essential in the post-election period," Borrell also said.

Czech president Miloš Zeman has urged prime minister Andrej Babiš to resign and for opposition leader Petr Fiala to form a ruling coalition after Babiš's party lost recent elections. "I think there will be no problem there, because Andrej Babiš, who I spoke to on the phone a little while ago, is not interested in becoming prime minister," Zeman said Friday in his first remarks after being hospitalised last month.

Thousands of protesters marched against a recent anti-abortion law in several Polish cities on Saturday following the death of a woman, Izabella, after doctors declined to intervene in her pregnancy complications. Leading opposition politicians Szymon Hołownia, Rafał Trzaskowski, and Donald Tusk joined the Warsaw rally. But government propaganda outlet, TVP, attacked them for playing "political games" with "tragedy". Tusk was a "supporter of killing unborn children" TVP said.

Spanish police are looking for 12 people who ran away from an Air Arabia Maroc flight from Casablanca to Istanbul, which landed in Mallorca Saturday after a passenger fell seriously ill. "These people have arrived, not by sea, but in an illegal way and therefore at the very least ... they will be returned to their country of origin," Spanish regional government spokeswoman Aina Calva said on the "unprecedented" event.

France's agriculture ministry has put the country on high-alert over growing cases of bird flu, potentially fatal to humans, around Europe. "Since the beginning of August, 130 bird flu cases or clusters have been detected in wild animals or on farms in Europe," it said. "Reinforced prevention measures will therefore be implemented to protect poultry farms," it added, following similar Dutch restrictions last week on keeping poultry birds indoors.

A group of 450 banks and insurers, led by Mark Carney, have committed €112 trillion to tackle climate change between now and 2050 - but not all green projects are bankable raising questions about the for-investor profit model.

Neglect in Bulgarian state psychiatric hospitals and social care homes have led to degrading and inhumane conditions, says a report. It is the first time a public statement condemning such abuse has been made among the Council's 47 member states.

The EU should not seek Beijing's permission to strike trade deals in the Indo-Pacific region. China itself signed a trade agreement with Taiwan in 2010.

Facebook whistleblower is expected to meet with MEPs and representatives of the French senate this week. Meanwhile, eyes turn again to the Glasgow UN climate summit as pressure is mounting for negotiators to finish the 2015 Paris Agreement rulebook.

Lithuania, last week, started building a 3.4-metre high steel fence topped with 0.6 metres of razor wire along its shared land border with Belarus, Reuters reports. The fence is aimed at warding off migrants entering from Belarus. Lithuania has set aside some €152m to erect the 500km fence, which it intends to complete by September next year.

Russia has expelled a Dutch journalist, Tom Vennink, from the Volkskrant newspaper for "administrative violations", three months after it expelled a senior BBC correspondent, Sarah Rainsford. "It is not acceptable for the Netherlands when a journalist is forced out of the country against his will," Dutch foreign minister Ben Knapen said. Vennink had once failed to register his home address and seek permission to visit a Russian region, Russia said.

Portugal is set to hold snap elections on 30 January, said the country's president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. Portugal's national assembly had rejected the government's draft budget for 2022. De Sousa said it was the first time a draft budget had been knocked back in decades.