Euobserver.com

Finance ministers of eight EU member states released a signed letter calling for a renewed effort to "reduce excessive debt" among member states. It is the starting point for renewed debates on debt and deficits in Europe.

Pro-cashless lobbying efforts, mainly coming from private financial institutions, have stepped up. Banks and companies providing financial services are interested in the transaction fees they receive from cashless payments and offer incentives to merchants and consumers to stop using cash.

MEPs on the environment and agriculture committee have adopted a joint position on the Farm to Fork strategy - calling for binding targets to reduce pesticide use in the EU.

The majority of members of the European Parliament's energy committee, including the Socialists and the Left, look set to green-light measures proposed by conservative parties which would lock the EU into fossil gas for years to come.

Russia and Belarus have begun the largest military drill seen in Europe in decades, with the 'Zapad 2021' exercise to see more than 200,000 troops mobilised in a simulated war with Nato powers. Russian leader Vladimir Putin, at a meeting with Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko Thursday, also agreed to loan Minsk $630m and to maintain low prices for gas and oil exports, after the EU imposed economic sanctions on Belarus.

Polish president Andrzej Duda has snubbed German chancellor Angela Merkel by declining to meet her in Warsaw Saturday on her last visit before stepping down. The official reason was an agenda problem, saying Duda was on a trip to the town of Katowice that day. But in reality, the affront was due to a new Russian-German gas pipeline and to Germany's unfriendly attitude to Poland's nationalist-conservative government, Polish media said.

Almost half of Russians still have friendly feelings towards the West despite years of hostile propaganda, a new poll has shown in a snapshot of the EU's giant neighbour on the eve of elections.

Robert Dover from the University of Hull said intelligence work nowadays is mostly data warehousing to "improve the behavioural models of how state and individuals will act and behave" - and how to encounter that.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said it still needs more data on Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine before the jab can be authorised for use across the EU, The Moscow Times reports. The regulator said it was still in discussions with Moscow over data submitted to support the application. Russia submitted its application in February, following the publication of research in The Lancet showing the vaccine had 91.6-percent efficacy.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has rejected a request from Greek healthcare workers to apply a pause to their mandatory Covid-19 vaccination, Ekathimerini reports. The decision concerned two applications lodged by 30 health professionals who work independently or in public health institutions, who requested a suspension of the Greek law. The court noted that it grants such requests "only on an exceptional basis."

A new Greenpeace study found natural disasters can cause market prices to swing - both up or down. These 'inflationary pressures' will increase in the coming decades, as natural disasters are expected to become more frequent due to climate change.

"Europe needs to scale up, in order not to be thrown out of the race or left behind" when it comes to space exploration, Josef Aschbacher, head of the European Space Agency (ESA), has warned in a press conference. "I want to develop Europe's space capabilities. That means European astronauts on European rockets," he added. Aschbacher also said he saw tourism as something space agencies were "underestimating."

Americans and dozens of other Westerners took off on a Qatar Airways flight bound for Doha on Thursday, the first time an international flight departed Kabul airport since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan last month, Deutsche Welle reports. Qatari officials said Taliban authorities had permitted a flight out of Kabul for passengers with the correct documents. The flight landed earlier at Kabul airport with humanitarian aid.

MEPs on the environment committee have raised the alarm over the possible implications that new climate policies - aimed at cutting emissions from cars and buildings - may have on poorer households.

Britain is on course to lose its status as one of Germany's top ten trading partners this year for the first time since 1950, as Brexit-related trade barriers drive firms in Europe's largest economy to look for business elsewhere, Reuters writes. In the first six months of this year, German imports from Britain dropped nearly 11 percent year-on-year, to €16.1bn, while German exports to Britain rose 2.6 percent to €32.1bn,

A French cement plant in Syria accused of financing terrorism was used by western intelligence agencies to gather information on hostages held by Islamic State, sources connected to the operation have said. A Jordanian intelligence officer who was central to the spying effort has confirmed the story to the Guardian. The Lafarge cement company is under investigation for having paid €13m to IS in order to keep functioning.

NGOs are appealing for EU lawmakers to stop work on Eurodac reforms, a bill that collects the biometric data of migrants and asylum seekers. But the lead MEP on the file says the European Parliament intends to adopt it anyway.

Belgrade has been generous, but there are also other reasons at play. The first one is the keystone of Serbian foreign policy: Kosovo. The countries receiving Serbian generosity have been the ones that did not recognise an independent Kosovo.

EU finance ministers meeting Friday to discuss the government debt pile arising from the pandemic will discuss exempting investments in green technologies and infrastructure from the EU's fiscal probity targets, Reuters reports. "The challenge in coming years will be to consolidate deficits while increasing green investments to achieve the ambitious targets of the EU to cut emissions or any other investments," a meeting note by the Slovenian EU presidency said.

Morocco's liberal RNI party has won the most seats in the country's parliamentary elections, while the co-ruling moderate PJD Islamists suffered a crushing defeat, preliminary results showed, the Guardian writes. RNI took 97 of the 395-seat parliament. Another liberal party, PAM, secured 82 seats and the conservative Istiqlal took 78 seats. The PJD, which had been a coalition partner in the previous two governments, took only 12 seats.