Euobserver.com

Belarus' "Ryanair hijacking must be sanctioned" and the opposition blogger it snatched must be freed, European Commission president Ursula von Der Leyen has said.

Italian prime minister Mario Draghi said he would raise the issue of the onward redistribution of migrants landing on the southern shores of Europe at the summit.

Workers such as United Nurses Association of India are furious that the EU is undermining their best efforts and exacerbating the crisis by continuing to put big-pharma profits ahead of Covid vaccine patent-waivers. Is this what solidarity looks like?

The EU has agreed to roll out Covid certificates as of 1 July, allowing people to prove their status in order to ease summer travel across the 27 member states.

Trust in national governments fell sharply in Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Greece, and Poland during the pandemic, according to a survey out Thursday by EU agency Eurofound. National confidence was the highest in Nordic countries Denmark and Finland. But people in France, Hungary, Malta, Portugal, Romania, and Spain also trusted EU authorities more than their own administrations, Eurofound said, while warning of rising "economic and social inequalities".

Four hundred soldiers and police officers are trying to hunt down an armed Belgian extremist for three days, without result. Belgium put the highest security threat on the man, a radicalised far-right soldier, who succeeded in stealing heavy weapons from a military depot where he worked. He left a note before disappearing that he is on a mission and might not come back alive, creating fears of a terrorist attack.

Hungary has vetoed a new trade and development deal with 79 African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries countries on grounds it would open the door to migrants. "All of our proposals have been swept off the table, so we will surely not give our names to this agreement," Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó said of the 'Post-Cotonou' deal Thursday. "There is no need for fresh migration waves, especially now," Szijjártó added.

The fact the Polish justice minister has "unfettered, unreviewable and non-transparent discretion" on jobs for judges undermined judicial independence, an EU legal expert has said.

A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza appeared to be holding as of early Friday morning, after the two sides fought for 11 days. It began at 02:00AM local time on Friday. The ceasefire was brokered by Egypt. Two Egyptian delegations will travel to Tel Aviv and the Palestinian territories to observe the implementation of the truce, according to AFP. The ceasefire also included Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad.

Covid vaccines in use in Europe appear to protect against all new variants but progress in region remains "fragile" and international travel should be avoided to prevent pockets of transmission quickly spreading into "dangerous resurgences", the World Health Organization has said, The Guardian writes. "The pandemic is not over yet," the WHO regional director, Hans Kluge said. "Increased mobility and interactions may lead to more transmission."

Hungary is the only EU country that has decided to opt out of a new vaccine deal the bloc has signed with Pfizer and BioNTech for the supply of up to 1.8 billion doses of their Covid-19 jab, an EU spokesman said, Reuters reports. The Commission confirmed the new deal for the possible purchase until 2023, following 600 million doses under two previous contracts.

Some 19 Left MEPs are demanding the EU put an end to Israel's privileged relationship. In a letter sent on Thursday to the EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, they request the EU suspend Israel's trade agreement, cut Israeli firms from any EU research funding, and end student exchanges under Erasmus. The letter is a response to the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Gaza Strip.

MEPs, in a resolution on Thursday, demanded China lifts sanctions against European individuals and entities - including five MEPs - before they consider the EU-China investment deal, agreed in principle by EU Commission negotiators and China in December. MEPs also said that they will take the human rights situation in China, including in Hong Kong, into account when deciding whether to endorse the agreement or not.

"To have solved the problem, the unacceptable problem of inadequate access to vaccines, we have to be holistic, it is not one or the other," the WTO chief told the European Parliament's trade committee.

A new report from the European Court of Auditors found member states risk missing new e-waste collection targets, as they struggle to ensure compliance with the existing rules, and fight criminal illegal dumping.

German Green MEP Daniel Freund is spearheading efforts at the European Parliament to create a new independent ethics body, common to all the EU institutions. The body is slowly taking shape - but still has to go to a vote.

Alexander Lukashenko's administration has forced over 14,000 citizens to flee the country. This gives the International Criminal Court a sliver of a chance to hold the Belarus regime to account.

A member of the Belgian armed forces vanished after leaving a note that he might not come back alive. He is in possession of heavy guns, stolen from an army warehouse. It seems the man has plans for an attack: he has far-right sympathies and figures on a list of possible terrorists. The Belgian army is on a manhunt, but there is still no trace of the 46-year old.

A senior Hamas official said that talks with mediators over a ceasefire were underway, predicting that a truce could be reached within days, Deutsche Welle reports. Hamas' remarks came as Israel and the Gaza militants continued to pursue cross-border attacks. "I expect a ceasefire to be reached within a day or two, and the ceasefire will be on the basis of mutual agreement," Moussa Abu Marzouk said on Lebanese TV.

Iran and the US are likely to revive a nuclear non-proliferation deal, an EU official brokering talks between UN powers on the issue has said. "I am quite sure that there will be a final agreement. ... I think we are on the right track and we will get an agreement," Enrique Mora, the EU envoy, told Reuters on Wednesday following a fourth round of international talks in Vienna.