Euobserver.com

The EU has not yet replied to British appeals to allow sausages and other chilled meats to go to and from Northern Ireland without new customs checks as the deadline for the current grace period expires on 30 June. "We think we have put forward a sensible proposal," Northern Ireland minister Brandon Lewis said Sunday. The UK has previously threatened to unilaterally break the Brexit customs deal in the affair.

The EU Commission plans to toughen up the bloc's flagship CO2 emissions-curbing scheme, the Emissions Trading System (ETS), according to a draft policy paper seen by Bloomberg. The new rules would see a one-off cut in the total number of available permits, as well as further, yearly reductions. Free permits for steel, cement, aluminium and fertiliser industries would end, while the shipping industries would be forced to join ETS.

Germany is pushing fellow EU states to designate the UK as a "country of concern" due to the spread of the so-called Delta variant of coronavirus, recommending British tourists be banned from the mainland even if they have been vaccinated, The Times reports. But Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Portugal, and Spain are against the move, which is due to be discussed in the EU Council on Monday, the British newspaper added.

Russian and Turkish state media will try to influence voters in Germany's federal elections in September in what was "a real propaganda war", German parliament speaker Wolfgang Schäuble told the DPA news agency Saturday. "We know what can be done with fake news," he said. Russia Today, a Russian agency, was "quite obviously not a broadcaster that even comes close to the principles of freedom of the press," he added.

Britain sent a warship through Russia-claimed waters in the Black Sea last week, prompting Russian gunboats and wrappers to react, because it did not want to appear as though it was "scared/running away" or that it endorsed Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, according to a cache of secret files left by accident at a bus stop, and given to the BBC by a passer by who later found them.

French far-right party Rassemblement National failed to win any region in the second round of French local elections Sunday, exit polls indicated. Its top candidate, Thierry Mariani, lost by 10 percent in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. French president Emmanuel Macron's liberal La République En Marche party also won nothing, while centre-left and centre-right parties prevailed. Meanwhile, turnout was just 30 percent - a historic low by French standards.

The Ocean Viking chartered by SOS Mediterranee left the French port of Marseille on Sunday (27 June), after almost five days of onboard preparation and sevens days of quarantine.

The EU Parliament has blacklisted eight MEPs for going on fake election-observation trips, but those with friends in high places seem to be getting off the hook.

While Slovenian prime minister Janey Janša will not have an impact on the day-to-day operations on the presidency, the platform it gives to the increasingly bellicose PM has been a cause for concern.

Using an infrared camera, the environmental activists discovered methane leaks from oil and natural gas plants across several member states. Methane is the second-biggest contributor to global warming, after carbon dioxide.

Under the influence of another intense lobby campaign, EU civil servants are drafting policy options which would grant big business new legal privileges, a push that would enable industry to bypass national courts when settling disputes with EU member states.

Green groups said the deal reached on Friday by representatives of EU governments and MEPs on the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is "full of greenwashing". It was agreed that 20 percent of direct payments to farmers should flow into environmental-friendly projects in the first two years, raising to 25 percent in the final three years. The CAP does not include a binding alignment with the Green Deal.

EU leaders Thursday condemned "the ongoing atrocities, ethnic-based and sexual violence and other human rights violations in Ethiopia's Tigray region" and called "for an immediate cessation of hostilities" in the civl war. They spoke after air strikes which killed dozens in the Tigray conflict zone and after Ethiopian officials recently told EU envoy and Finnish foreign minister Pekka Haavisto they were "going to wipe out the Tigrayans for 100 years".

EU lawmakers passed a resolution on Thursday demanding the right to legal and safe abortions. The non-binding resolution passed by 378 to 255 votes, noting that women had too many constraints when it came to sexual and reproductive health and rights. The vote came after British-overseas territory Gibraltar decided to ease its tough anti-abortion laws, even as Poland recently tightened its draconian regime, prompting protests.

Syrian refugees lives were never easy and now with the Danish government's decision to revoke more than 200 residency permits and shift asylum responsibility to third countries, their prospects of living in peace here are bleaker than ever.

Silvio Berlusconi knows that he needs an heir, and that Forward Italy is on the verge of collapse.

The European Parliament has given the final green light to the first-ever EU climate law - despite Green and left-wing MEPs voting against it. They argue that the bill is not aligned with the 2015 Paris Agreement.

SOS Mediterranee's rescue coordinator Luisa Albera describes the events surrounding the tragic loss of 130 people in late April.

Fellow EU leaders rejected a French and German idea to resume EU summits with Russia on Thursday, amid confusion over their cack-handed diplomacy.

Hungary's premier Viktor Orbán argued that the law does not discriminate against LGBTIQ people - and that he himself defended the rights of "homosexual guys" when he fought against communism as a student leader.