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Slovak prosecutors have charged Peter Kažimír, the country's central bank chief, who sits on the European Central Bank (ECB's) board, with bribery in an old case involving national tax officials. "I do not feel guilty of any crime ... nor I am aware of breaking the law," he told Reuters. The case follows a bribery affair in Latvia in 2018, when Riga barred its central bank governor from ECB meetings.

EU health ministers discussed forcing pharmaceutical firms to keep production facilities in the West for strategic reasons at informal talks in Slovenia Tuesday. "Imagine a world when vaccines only had been developed in China or Russia, and Western democracies and the European Union would be dependent on these autocracies for a vaccine. It would not be a good world," German health minister Jens Spahn told press, Reuters reports.

Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki has said Poland had no plans to leave the EU despite its court ruling denigrating EU treaties. "Our dear opposition are trying to insinuate we want to weaken the union by leaving the EU," he said at a regional summit in Budapest Tuesday, adding: "This is obviously not just fake news, it is something worse - it's a lie that aims to weaken the Union".

The Dutch crown princess Catharina-Amalia (17), heir apparent to king Willem-Alexander, can marry a person of whatever gender she chooses without forfeiting her right to the throne, prime minister Mark Rutte said on Tuesday. Questions arose when a recent book 'Amalia, Duty Calls' argued that old laws seemed to exclude the possibility of a same-sex couple on the throne. However, same-sex marriage has been legal in the Netherlands since 2001.

The European Union launched its first-ever green bond on Tuesday, taking a step to becoming the biggest issuer of environmentally-friendly debt in the world. The 15-year green bond, which will raise €12bn, received more than €135bn in demand, a trading manager told Reuters, making it the largest green-bond launch and the highest level of demand for a green bond sale to date.

A nationality and borders bill prosed by UK home secretary Priti Patel violates international human rights, say immigration lawyers. "This bill represents the biggest legal assault on international refugee law ever seen in the UK," said a legal opinion commissioned by the human-rights group Freedom From Torture. The bill says its objective is to make asylum more fair, deter illegal entry, and deport those not entitled to protection.

The EU has promised that Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline will be bound by anti-monopoly laws, making it harder for Moscow to cut off Ukraine in future.

Leaked files show how Copa-Cogeca, the EU's main farming lobby, waged what NGOs called a "massive disinformation" campaign among MEPs to water down an EU strategy on sustainable food.

The EU top court's advocate general is to deliver his opinion on 2 December, putting it into doubt if the EU top court will rule on the issue this year.

Reports detailing alleged violations against migrants in Lithuania are now around 20 in number, the head of EU border agency Frontex, Fabrice Leggeri, has said.

Orano, a French-owned nuclear firm has already shipped 1,000 tonnes of uranium to a Russian dump site where it is likely to stay for ever.

If the democratic right in EU politics gets too weak, then the left and everybody loses, because the far-right and extremists start setting the agenda.

The challenge for the Conference on the Future of Europe is to address shortcomings in EU's model of dual democracy and prevent backsliding in member states.

EU values commissioner Věra Jourová said Monday "if we don't uphold the principle in the EU that equal rules are respected the same everywhere in Europe, the whole Europe will start collapsing" in reaction to Poland's Constitutional Court ruling negating the legal primacy of EU treaties. "That is why we will have to react to this new chapter which the Polish constitutional court started to draw," she said, Reuters reports.

Ten EU states have signed a statement saying nuclear power should be classified as green-friendly in the EU's upcoming industrial "taxonomy", designed to steer private capital. "There is no science-based evidence that nuclear power is less climate-friendly than any of the energy sources," Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia said, adding nuclear power was "a crucial and reliable asset for a low-carbon future".

Russia has reduced gas flows via Ukraine to Moldova, prompting Moldova's new, pro-EU government to seek EU help, while asking industrial plants to cut consumption. EU states will shortly discuss joint gas-purchasing amid a wider market-crunch, according to a draft "toolbox" seen by Reuters. But Russia's EU envoy, Vladimir Chizhov, told the Financial Times Russia-friendly politics would also help. "Change 'adversary' to 'partner' and things get resolved easier," he said.

The European Court of Justice held on Monday its first hearing in the case of Hungary and Poland challenging the rule-of-law conditionality mechanism which links EU funds to the respect for the rule of law. It was agreed by the majority of member states last year, and entered into force this year. In court, 10 member states also supported the EU institutions' arguments that the new tool was legal.

The World Health Organisation on Monday urged nations to step up climate action, warning that air pollution causes 13 deaths per minute worldwide. "The burning of fossil fuels is killing us," reads the report, which calls for a healthy, green, and just recovery from the pandemic. Meanwhile, 300 organisations representing 45 million health professionals called for "cutting all related permits, subsidies and financing for fossil fuels" in a letter.

Iraqi forces captured a high ranking "Islamic State" figure who served as deputy to the slain leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, prime minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi announced on Monday, Deutsche Welle reports. "While our ISF [Iraqi security forces] heroes focused on securing the elections, their INIS [Iraqi national intelligence services] colleagues were conducting a complex external operation to capture Sami Jasim," he said in a post on Twitter.

Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney on Monday accused the UK of dismissing EU solutions to the post-Brexit Northern Ireland customs rules before they were presented, the BBC reported. "Each time the EU comes forward with … new proposals to try to solve problems, they are dismissed before they're released," he said, adding that that was happening also this week when Brussels is to announce a reform of the Northern-Ireland protocol.