Euobserver.com

The European Parliament has urged EU states to go after alleged Syrian war criminals in Europe, 10 years after the start of the bloodiest war in its neighbourhood.

Russia's Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation has sent technical information on its 'Su-35' and 'Su-57' fighter-jets to Turkey and said it was "ready for negotiations" on their purchase. The potential deal comes after Turkey bought Russian 'S-400' air-defence systems, triggering US sanctions and debate on its Nato future. EU leaders will also discuss future Turkey relations and potential new sanctions over gas-drilling at a summit later this month.

A cross-party group of MEPs from France, Germany, Poland, and further afield has urged European Parliament president David Sassoli to curb access for Belarusian diplomats in response to Belarus' expulsions of EU diplomats in recent months. The "symbolic but important" move would be "a sign of support to European diplomats" and "a sign of solidarity with democratic opposition of Belarus," after more than six months of anti-regime protests, MEPs said.

The European Commission drafted a confidential report outlining the cooperation of migrant returns in 39 countries. It is now ready to start imposing visa restrictions for those that don't take back their nationals.

The CEO of Italian energy giant Eni was granted access to commissioners and EU officials to push for gas in the bloc's energy transition - while being on trial in an alleged billion-dollar corruption scandal.

MEPs in the environment committee will also hold a discussion on Covid-19 variants - and the vaccines' efficacy against them.

It is in Europe's interest to vaccinate undocumented people - the race towards herd immunity cannot afford the luxury of another EU standstill.

The Romanian city of Sfântu Gheoghe plans to bridge the language gap between Hungarian and Romanian speakers by pioneering a programme to incentivise learning each other's languages.

Do tech giants like Google, Apple or Facebook have too much power? Is their growing power a threat to democracy? These topics are highlighted in the latest Nordic Talks podcast, featuring three specialists - among them EU commissioner Margrethe Vestager.

The UK is sending a senior official to Washington to argue the Brexit deal on Northern-Ireland customs must be changed because it endangers the 'Good-Friday' peace accord, The Times reports. The move comes after a senior EU official, Maroš Šefčovič, and the Irish foreign minister, Simon Coveney, lobbied congressmen to keep the existing agreement. US president Joe Biden, who has Irish roots, has pledged to protect the Good Friday accord.

Support for Russia's pro-Kremlin ruling party has dropped to an eight-year low ahead of legislative elections in September where it seeks to retain a supermajority, independent poll results said according to the Moscow TImes. United Russia, which enjoys a two-thirds majority in the country's lower house of parliament, would receive 27 percent of the vote if it was held this Sunday, according to the Levada Centre independent polling agency.

China, Eritrea, Libya, North Korea, Russia, and South Sudan are to be stigmatised as the world's worst human-rights abusers under new EU sanctions.

Turkey lashed out over comments by US secretary of state Antony Blinken indicating a sterner stance by Washington over Turkish gas-drilling activities in the eastern Mediterranean, Ekathimerini writes. "We have called out actions, including by Turkey, that violate international law or commitments as a Nato ally and that includes provocative actions against Greece," Blinken said earlier. "The US should be neutral in the eastern Mediterranean," Turkish vice-president Fuat Oktay responded.

Denmark and Norway on Thursday temporarily suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, after reports of the formation of blood clots in 22 people among the three million who had received the shot, Reuters reported. The move comes after Austria stopped using a batch of AstraZeneca while examining a death from coagulation disorders. Estonia, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Latvia have also stopped providing this vaccines while investigations continue.

MEPs pledged that the parliament will request an expedited procedure at the European Court of Justice, to speed up deliberations, and urged the EU Commission not to wait for the ruling and take action.

European markets got a boost Thursday after the European Central Bank promised to accelerate its pandemic-related asset-purchase programme. "The governing council expects purchases under the [programme] ... over the next quarter to be conducted at a significantly higher pace than during the first months of this year," the bank said. Interest payments on benchmark 10-year German bonds dropped 0.03 percent, while European stock markets rose by 0.4 to 1.8 percent.

"We need to ... change the mindset and give up on trying to score points on disputes of the past and focus ourselves on doing what we can in making the most out of the agreements we made," the EU's envoy to London, Joao Vale de Almeida, said Thursday, Reuters reports, amid multiple rows on his diplomatic status, vaccine exports, and Northern Ireland customs. "We need ... trust," he said.

The self-confessed murderer of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017 told a Maltese courtroom Wednesday he and accomplices were paid €150,000 by a Maltese oligarch, with a downpayment of €30,000 in a brown leather bag of €50 notes. The car-bomb was "imported", made of stainless steel, with a SIM card that detonated when sent a specific SMS. Alleged political links to the case are being investigated in a separate enquiry.

Leftwing MEPs tend to table amendments that seek to save jobs should arms producers have to stop exports to war zones, while rightwing counterparts try to weaken any hardline restrictions.

Green groups warned that if heavy industry continues to receive free allowances even after a carbon border levy is in place, this would essentially be a double subsidy for those sectors. "The European Commission must correct this," the WWF warned.