Euobserver.com

The European Commission has launched legal action against Hungary and Poland to defend LGBTIQ+ rights, in the latest battle over values with the two nationalist governments in central Europe, The Guardian writes. The announcement that Hungary and Poland's governments could end up in the EU's highest court is part of an ongoing fight for the rule of law and freedom from discrimination in the two countries.

Germany will be unable to boost deliveries of Russian gas to Europe via its Opal pipeline, after the EU's top court sided with Poland on Thursday in saying this would violate the principle of "energy solidarity". Opal links Russia's Nord Stream 1 pipeline from Germany to the Czech Republic. Russia is also building a Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will distribute gas in Europe via an onshore pipeline called Eugal.

The European Commission wants to impose an import levy on certain goods produced in third countries with lower environmental standards, from 2026 -from 2023 to 2025, importers will only have to report emissions embedded in their goods.

A group of MEPs delivered their final report into the EU's border agency Frontex. After a four-month probe, they found it had failed to take its responsibility to protect fundamental rights at Europe's external borders.

Why should any Israeli politician view this lack of commitment to the EU's human rights principles as anything other than a licence to continue sending bulldozers to remove Palestinians from land the EU deems part of a future viable Palestine?

Australia had denounced EU plans to tax exporters of CO2-intense products, such as steel, in order to create a level playing field for EU firms bound by emissions rules. "The last thing the world now needs is extra protectionist policies being put in place," Australian trade minister Dan Tehan said Wednesday. The EU carbon-tax would hit Russian products worth $7.6 billion, including iron ore, steel, aluminium, and pipes, Russia said.

The European Parliament's civil-liberties committee has backed a tougher version of the European Commission's Digital Services Act, an EU law to discipline tech giants such as Google. The EP is now moving toward forcing firms to let people use their services anonymously, remove targeted political ads, and take down hate speech. Parliament's final position is due to be by 2022, when the new law is designed to enter into force.

The EU's border-control agency, Frontex, failed to investigate reports of migrant pushbacks by EU states, according to a report by the European Parliament's Frontex Scrutiny Working Group, seen by Politico. Frontex had "found evidence in support of allegations of fundamental rights violations in [EU] member states with which it had a joint operation, but failed to address and follow-up on these violations," the report, due out on Thursday, said.

Poland has taken a first step over the rubicon in its war on EU law by saying the EU's top court has no authority to impose an injunction on its legal reforms.

Brexit has become a disaster for British fishermen, the head of industry body the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations, Barrie Deas, said Wednesday, Reuters reports. "It's a tale of woe, very far away from the sea of opportunity that some spoke about," he said. EU fleets can still fish in British waters until at least 2026, he noted. British exporters of shellfish to the EU also struggled with red tape.

Crowds attending France's annual Bastille Day parade on Wednesday had to show Covid vaccine papers, documents of a recent infection, or negative-test results and wear masks, with similar restrictions for an Eiffel Tower fireworks show in the evening. A few hundred anti-mask protesters chanted "Liberty!" and scuffled with police, who fired teargas, but there was no violence, AP reports. The parade was led by French soldiers fighting jihadists in Mali.

The European Central Bank (ECB) is pressing ahead with plans to launch a digital version of the euro, it said Wednesday, unveiling a new two-year "investigation period". The time will be used to create a design for the currency, see how it fits with EU laws, and examine data-privacy concerns arising from its use. The digital euro would not replace the physical one, but would be used alongside it.

Poland is to buy 250 Abrams-class US tanks for $6bn [€5bn] in order to deter a potential attack by Russia, its defence minister said Wednesday. "This is a response to the challenges we face in terms of international security ... Our task is to deter a potential aggressor. We all know where that aggressor is," Mariusz Blaszczak said, Reuters reports. The US price tag covers ammunition and training.

The European Commission's proposal would effectively ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars and lorries in the EU from 2035, as part of its massive 'Fit-for-55' package.

The EU's wants to become the first continent to reach net-zero. But revenues from the Social Climate Fund will be low, and not commensurate with the task of renovating 35 million homes or getting millions of cars off the road.

A group of Syrians fleeing their country say that Greece has become too dangerous and expensive as an option to enter the EU, in order to claim asylum. They have instead opted for Libya and the highly-risky Mediterranean sea-crossing.

To have a real chance for peace, the negative attitude and actions of the Houthi militia towards peace must change. And this change also requires, in particular, a new European approach to help solve the Yemeni crisis.

At least 1,146 people lost their lives on maritime routes to Europe in the first six months of this year, according to the International Organization for Migration. The figure is more than double that for same period in 2020. "The Mediterranean Sea was the main site of these fatalities," it said, noting 896 people are known to have died attempting to reach Europe on this maritime route.

Havana must free Cuban journalist Camila Acosta, who writes for Spanish newspaper ABC, and who was detained with some 100 others in recent anti-regime protests, Spanish foreign minister José Manuel Albares said. Cuban authorities also confirmed one protester, Diubis Laurencio Tejeda, was killed Monday, amid social media reports of police violence. It said he had attacked a government facility, but eyewitnesses told the BBC the police had attacked a crowd.

Russia has failed to provide the European Medicines Agency (EMA) with clinical data on adverse effects of its Sputnik V anti-corona vaccine and on its drug's "master cell bank", its biological core, in what amounts to a "major" problem for EU approval, according to EMA sources speaking to Reuters. Russia said there were "no reported serious adverse events", while blaming the "Western pharmaceutical lobby" for sowing anti-Sputnik V "disinformation".