Euobserver.com

The Dutch government has allocated €2bn to develop a carbon capture and storage project under the North Sea, Reuters reported on Monday. The initiative, involving oil majors Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil, is expected to reduce emissions in the industrial area surrounding Europe's largest seaport by around 10 percent. It is set to be operational in 2024.The Netherlands is among the member states with the highest emissions-per-capita.

Germany on Monday said the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will now be made available to all adults, Reuters reported. Previously, older people were given priority access to this brand of vaccine. Last month, the EU drug regulator backed the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, after reviewing rare cases of bloc clotting in the US. Germans over 60 are expected to be vaccinated by late May or early June.

Economy commissioner Paolo Gentoloni said the real challenge is whether member states can stick to their national plans and timelines. However, more than a dozen EU countries still need to ratify legislation to start the funding.

Italian media have reported some 1,400 migrants arrived on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa on Sunday. EU home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson is asking EU states to help relocate some in a bid to help Italy.

The EU-Mercosur trade agreement, as it stands, would exacerbate the 'boomerang effect' of pesticides banned in the EU re-entering the bloc on food imports.

The question remains whether the EU can take advantage of the latest talks, and other shifts in the Middle East, to reverse its own diplomatic marginalisation.

Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko has signed a decree allowing the transfer of presidential power to the security council if he is murdered or otherwise unable to perform his duties, Reuters reports. Lukashenko said in April he was planning to change the way power in Belarus was set up. Previously, if the president's position became vacant, power would be transferred to the prime minister until a new president took oath.

German finance minister Olaf Scholz is to be the centre-left SPD party's candidate for chancellor in September's elections, after more 96 percent of 600 party delegates backed him Sunday. The former Hamburg mayor has campaigned on climate neutrality, a €12/hour minimum wage, and more investment in the healthcare sector. The SPD is currently on 16 percent in polls, behind the Greens (26 percent) and the centre-right CDU/CSU bloc (23 percent).

The European Union has not made any new orders for AstraZeneca vaccines beyond June when their contract ends, European internal market commissioner Thierry Breton said, after the EU signed a deal with Pfizer-BioNTech, the Irish Times reports. The Commission last month launched legal action against AstraZeneca for not respecting its contract for the supply of Covid-19 vaccines and for not having a "reliable" plan to ensure timely deliveries.

EU institutions needed to take more powers from national capitals, for instance, in the health sector, the pandemic has showed, according to French president Emmanuel Macron, speaking on Sunday. "We need to learn the lessons given this major shock of the pandemic; we need to beef up our common capacity," he said. "We've noted, oftentimes, that Europe wasn't moving forward quickly enough, was lacking ambition," he added.

Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon has vowed to hold a second independence referendum after the pandemic, after her Scottish Nationalist Party won a fourth consecutive term in power and increased its number of seats in elections last weekend. Only a court ruling could stop the referendum, she noted. But talk of "ripping our country apart" would be "irresponsible and reckless", British prime minister Boris Johnson said.

More than 1,000 migrants arrived on the small Italian island of Lampedusa on Saturday amid good weather for sea crossings, prompting fresh political tension. The arrivals mean some 11,000 people have come to Lampedusa so far this year, up from 4,105 in the same period last year. "With millions of Italians in difficulty, we cannot think of thousands of illegal immigrants," Italy's xenophobic former deputy PM Matteo Salvini said.

The EU embassy in Tbilisi has posted €9,600 bail for Nika Melia, a jailed opposition leader, in order "to allow for [his] release from pre-trial detention", it said Saturday. The unusual move came after police arrested Melia in February on charges linked to pro-democracy protests, sparking a crisis between his UNM opposition party and the ruling Georgian Dream party, which is controlled by Russia-friendly billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili.

Prince Michael of Kent, a minor British royal, and his associate, the Marquess of Reading, have been peddling their alleged influence in Russia in return for fees of €11,000 a day to foreign companies, according to an investigation by The Times newspaper and Channel 4 broadcaster. The marquess told a South Korean firm, for instance, the prince was the Queen's "unofficial ambassador to Russia" and could secure Kremlin contracts.

The EU and US have voiced alarm over growing violence in Jerusalem, while urging Israel to curb settlement expansion.

Lawyers in Greece accuse Frontex of incorrectly labeling minors as 'adults', a violation. Among them was 17-year old William, sent to the adult section of Moria, where he says he was abused. He was later able to prove his age.

While I welcome Albania's EU integration, it is questionable whether they have fulfilled all the conditions. It surprises me that the commission claims that Albania already has; to whitewash inconvenient facts will not help neither Albania, nor the EU.

Attention will return to vaccines, after US president Joe Biden put the EU in a tight spot when he backed waiving the Covid-19 vaccine patent.

Most EU states are sending their ambassadors to Russia's WW2 victory parade on Sunday despite tense relations.

After long negotiations, the European Parliament finally managed to convince EU member states and the European Commission of the need to include citizens proposals in the outcome of the conference.