Euobserver.com

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban has announced a referendum on his country's controversial new anti-LGBTIQ law - in response to criticism from the European Union which called the new legislation discriminatory.

The US says a deal has been reached with Germany to prevent Russian gas from being used as political leverage by Moscow over Europe in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project. The deal sees Ukraine get $50m (€42.3m) in green energy technology credits and a guarantee of repayment for gas transit fees it will lose by being bypassed by the pipeline through 2024, reports the Associated Press.

The EU deploys thousands of advisers to its missions abroad. Without addressing reform as a profoundly political struggle, however, the EU will remain successful only in operational advisory and trainings.

The UK is pressing to rewrite the Brexit protocol for Northern Ireland, describing it as a flawed concept. But the European Commission is not interested in re-opening talks. Maroš Šefčovič, the EU vice-president in charge of EU-UK relations said Brussels "will not agree to a renegotiation of the protocol," noting it had been ratified by the UK parliament.

The survey was carried out in seven member states that have not yet adopted the single currency: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden. Denmark has decided not to join, having negotiated an opt-out.

Slovenian foot-dragging on the appointment of prosecutors to a new EU anti-graft office may trigger a decision by the European Commission to take it to court. Slovenia's prime minister Janez Janša said they would be appointed by autumn.

The European Commission proposed on Tuesday rules that would see companies transferring cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, collect details of senders and recipients, in order to help authorities detect money laundering or terrorism financing, Reuters reported. This will ensure "full traceability of crypto-asset transfers," the commission said. Anonymous crypto-asset wallets will be banned since anonymous bank accounts are already forbidden under EU anti-money laundering rules.

Moroccan intelligence agencies targeted French president Emmanuel Macron with the Israeli-made spyware software Pegasus, according to Le Monde newspaper. Although targeted, it remains unclear if his phone was compromised by the software. They also reportedly went after EU Council president Charles Michel, when he was prime minister of Belgium.

The UK will pay France €62.7m to prevent migrants from crossing the English Channel, in a deal hammered out on Tuesday. The plan includes doubling the number of French officers deployed along the coast. The deal comes a day after a record 430 people crossed the Channel on small boats.

Greece has launched an investigation into four NGOs, accusing them of facilitating illegal entry of foreigners and espionage. Among those targeted is Aegean Boat Report, which details pushbacks of migrants and refugees. Greek migration minister Notis Mitarachi last December accused it of helping migrant smugglers, a charge denied by the NGO.

The European Commission on Tuesday proposed a new set of anti-money laundering and countering terrorism-financing rules. The legislative package includes the creation of a new EU-level Anti-Money Laundering Authority, which will seek to coordinate with national authorities to ensure the rules are applied consistently throughout the private sector. The package has been described a major step forward by the Greens.

A recent study shows that gun homicide has increased in Sweden - as opposed to the rest of Europe, where it's been in decline for years.

The concern of Germany's Constitutional Court was that the European Court of Justice did not sufficiently check the action of other EU branches of power. The Polish situation is the exact reverse: the government is taking control of the courts.

The rule of law report comes in a crucial moment as Brussels is currently approving member states' recovery plans, conditional to having a robust justice system and anti-corruption framework.

The governing body of the Conference on the Future of Europe agreed on Monday to allocate six more seats in the conference plenary to both regional and local representatives, and four more seats to social partners. This means that the current 534 plenary would become a body with 550 representatives. The first European Citizens Panels will take place in September, when some 200 people will discuss about the way forward.

German officials have rejected accusations that floodwater warning systems failed, reports Reuters. Critics say early warnings about record rainfall last week did not reach communities most at risk. Some 160 people died in the floods in Germany alone. "Flood warnings are up to local authorities because they require local knowledge," said Germany's interior minister, Horst Seehofer.

The EU, the UK and Nato have accused China of carrying out a cyberattack on Microsoft exchange email servers earlier this year that affected some 30,000 organisations globally, the BBC reported on Monday. "The EU and its member states strongly denounce these malicious cyber activities, which are undertaken in contradiction with the norms of responsible state behaviour as endorsed by all UN member states," the EU said in a statement.

Europe continues to be one of the most-affected regions in the world by the surge of Covid-19 cases - driven by the spread of the more contagious Delta variant and relaxation of measures.

An international investigation over the weekend by 17 media organisations, led by the Paris-based non-profit journalism group Forbidden Stories, said 180 journalists had been targeted by Israeli spyware. Among them were Hungarian reporters.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has begun his third year mired in mid-term unpopularity with a poll showing only 21.8 percent of Ukrainians would vote to re-elect him. More than half would prefer him not even to run for a second term.