Euobserver.com

The EU executive wants to have new tools to address the gaps in EU rules so that it can actually tackle the problems that have popped up in member states recently but where the EU executive could do little concretely.

If Giuseppe Conte gives the Five Star Movement a complete revamp, it is likely to destroy the founding ideology and turn it into a mainstream, traditional centrist force, similar to the Democrats on pro-EU, green and equal opportunities policies.

In spite of all the denials, it seems clear the non-paper "Western Balkans – a way forward" – which explicitly proposes the redrawing of borders in the region according to ethno-national/territorial groupings – exists, though its origins remain in doubt.

The EU foreign service summoned Russia's ambassador to the bloc, Vladimir Chizhov, to voice its formal complaint on Monday, after Russia blacklisted the EU Parliament president and an EU commissioner on Friday. The move is the first time Chizhov, who has held his post in Brussels for 15 years, was reprimanded in this way. There were "no legal grounds" for Russia's sanctions, which were "purely political", an EU spokesman said.

Bulgaria will head to the polls in July after the Socialists became the third political party to refuse to lead a government following last month's parliamentary election, Reuters reports. The Socialists said it would be impossible to build a working majority in a fragmented parliament and would return the mandate immediately after the president hands it to them on 5 May.

Police fired water cannon and tear gas in the Brussels' Bois de la Cambre park to break up an anti-lockdown party of many hundreds of people this weekend, designed to defy coronavirus social-distancing rules, Reuters reports. It took place a month after police cleared 2,000 people who gathered in the same park for la Boum (the party), an event that had begun as an April Fool's joke.

New Zealand's customs agency has fired nine border workers who declined to get the Covid-19 vaccine, The Guardian writes, amid confusion in the EU on how to handle refuseniks. All New Zealand frontline border workers to be vaccinated by the end of April. In February, the government said it would not make vaccination compulsory for frontline staff, and that those who declined the vaccine would be moved into backroom roles.

The EU should relax its debt rules to allow national economies to recover from the pandemic, EU budgets commissioner Johannes Hahn told German newspaper Die Welt on Saturday. "The fiscal policy goals for these countries must be realistic," he said of Greece and Italy, who debt-to-GDP rations were more than double the prescribed EU limit of 60 percent. France is also on 199 percent, while Germany is on 54 percent.

US microchip maker Intel wants €8 billion in state aid to make it "competitive" to build a new factory in Europe instead of Asia, its CEO, Pat Gelsinger, has told Politico. "We think of Germany as a good candidate," he added, in German newspaper Handelsblatt, after visiting Brussels and Berlin last weekend. "Europe will drastically increase [chip] production capacity," EU single-market commissioner Thierry Breton tweeted, after meeting Gelsinger Friday.

The EU aims to reduce dependence on foreign suppliers, especially China, in six areas - raw materials, pharmaceutical ingredients, semiconductors, batteries, hydrogen, and cloud technologies - according to an industrial strategy paper due out Wednesday, seen by Reuters. The EU should rely on "different trading partners whenever possible, but also stockpiling and acting autonomously," it said, adding EU states should also pool funds for "Important Projects of Common European Interest".

Russia has said it was "optimistic" of a new deal on Iran nuclear non-proliferation after a meeting of senior officials from China, France, Germany, Iran, Russia, the UK, the US, and the EU in Vienna on Saturday. "We have reasons for cautious and growing optimism," Russia's delegate Mikhail Ulyanov tweeted. "Participants aim at successful completion of the talks in approximately three weeks," he added. The other delegates kept silent.

British foreign minister Dominic Raab has indicated the UK will give the EU's ambassador in London full diplomatic status ahead of a 'G7' foreign ministers' meeting this week. The EU was "not quite a normal state", but London wanted to be "pragmatic" and to "turn the page", he said. "We will treat our EU partners with all of the respect that they rightly deserve," Raab said on Sunday.

Statements, literary quotes, and jokes, but no action - that is how the EU handled Russia's decision to blacklist its highest official.

A study revealed that air-pollutant emissions from the power plant and the Turów mine caused an estimated 120 premature deaths in 2017, and 51,000 days of sick leave from work.

EU leaders will focus on a social summit in Porto this weekend, where they will hold a video conference with Indian PM Narendra Modi.

The truth is brutally simple: the G7 is a relic of the past. It deserves an emotional and respectful adieu but should be taken off life support.

The European Commission revealed on Friday the preliminary conclusions of its investigation into Apple, which accuse it of using its App Store to distort competition in the music-streaming market. "This is done by charging high commission fees on each transaction in the App store for rivals and by forbidding them from informing their customers of alternative subscription options," said EU commissioner Margrethe Vestager. The investigation began in June 2020.

India's coronavirus cases passed 18 million after another world record number of daily infections and deaths, Deutsche Welle writes. Health ministry data showed there were 379,257 new Covid-19 cases and 3,645 new deaths on Thursday, making it the deadliest day so far for the country in the pandemic. The pandemic has killed 3.1 million people around the world, with more than 200,000 fatalities in India alone.

The Czech Republic has stalled on plans to import Russia's coronavirus vaccine due to insufficient data. "We received so little material, we couldn't say if we'd recommend its use or not ... It was only a fraction of the documentation submitted by default for the registration or assessment of a drug," Irena Storová, a spokeswoman for the Czech regulator, told Radiožurnál Thursday, amid a separate row on Russian espionage.

France is planning to almost-fully end its lockdown by July, in four phases starting with reopening schools 3 May. Bars, restaurants, and non-essential shops will reopen, but with social distancing rules, on 19 May. Sports and cultural events, as well as foreign tourism, will be allowed from 9 June, for those with a "health pass". And all curfews will end on 30 June, but nightclubs will stay closed for now.