Euobserver.com

Belarus has expelled a Polish diplomat from its consulate in Brest because he took part in a ceremony, on 28 February, honouring Polish WW2-era resistance fighters, on grounds those fighters were guilty of "war crimes" and "genocide" against Belarusian people. Poland indicated it would expel a Belarusian diplomat in response. The row is the latest bid by Belarus to provoke tensions with its EU neighbours amid anti-regime protests at home.

The EU and UK have reignited a row on vaccine exports, while Italy has defied EU warnings in a new deal to manufacture Russia's vaccine at home.

Johnson & Johnson has told the EU it is facing supply issues that may complicate plans to deliver 55 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine to the bloc in the second quarter of the year, an EU official told Reuters. Any delay would be a further blow to EU's vaccination plans, already hampered by bumpy supplies from other vaccine-makers and a slow rollout of shots in many member states.

The European Commission said on Wednesday that at least 80 percent of EU adults should have basic digital skills by 2030, by when there should be 20 million people employed as ICT specialists in the EU, with a higher share of women. In 2019, 42 percent of citizens were unable to perform basic tasks. In less than a decade, the EU wants all key public services available online.

One-in-four women and girls around the world have been physically or sexually assaulted by a husband or male partner, according to the largest study yet on violence against women, The Guardian reports. The report, conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO), found that domestic violence started young, with a quarter of 15- to 19-year-old girls and young women estimated to have been abused at least once.

Members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard attempted to recruit British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert as a spy "many times" during the more than two years she spent as a prisoner in the country, offering to free her if she "made a deal" with the regime, she has claimed according to The Guardian. She was arrested in Tehran in September 2018 after attending an academic conference in Qom.

"The Kremlin is creating a mental image of a Germany, where a few sane voices are heard among a chorus of irrational 'Russophobia'," the report said.

John Kerry, the US special presidential envoy, was in Brussels to discuss how to tackle climate change with the European Commission. His appearance also marked a major shift in relations after the previous US administration under Donald Trump.

Global tobacco watchdogs and pro-transparency campaigners in a new report have outlined seven industry tactics used to influence EU legislation in the European Commission. The tactics include promoting untruths, postponing regulations, playing the victim, and protesting against regulators, among others. "Insufficient EU transparency has long allowed tobacco industry lobbyists to avoid scrutiny," said Olivier Hoedeman, head of Corporate Europe Observatory, an NGO in Brussels.

The time for euphemisms is over. The attack on media freedom in Poland clears the way for an all-out assault on fundamental EU values. You need to protect them, writes the editor of Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza.

The charlatan is "like a doctor who brings relief from suffering and pain". The word charlatan comes from the Italian 'ciarlatano': someone selling herbal brews and rejuvenating waters at street markets, often also pulling teeth and doing magic tricks.

I know first-hand how difficult it is to take a firm stance against Turkey. As Council of Europe's commissioner for human rights, I engaged in tough discussions with Ankara, wrote highly-critical reports, and tried to rally member states.

Catalan separatist MEPs Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí lost their parliamentary immunity - a result they have hailed as a "political victory" for bringing the conflict between Catalonia and Spain closer to the heart of Europe.

Europe's steel, chemicals, cement, and fertiliser lobbies have signed an email to MEPs urging them to keep CO2-emissions perks, despite an upcoming carbon-border policy, Reuters reports. The EU is preparing to tax CO2-causing importers from June to protect European firms from global competitors with lax climate policies. At the same time, it aims to cut CO2-emissions allowances for EU firms, to avoid giving them 'double protection', but industry wants both.

Italy's coronavirus death toll passed the 100,000 mark on Monday and prime minister Mario Draghi warned that the situation was worsening again with a jump in hospitalisations, Reuters reports. Italy is the seventh country in the world to reach the bleak milestone, following the United States, Brazil, Mexico, India, Russia, and Britain. Infections rose 23 percent last week by comparison with the week before.

The commission president also backed Italy's recent decision to block a shipment of AstraZeneca's vaccine to Australia, for the first time using a new EU rule on exports.

Nikolas Löbel, a German MP from the ruling 'CDU' party, has resigned his seat and left the party, after it emerged his firm earned €250,000 from government purchases of masks. Georg Nüsslein, an MP from the CDU's sister party, the 'CSU', has also left his party, but not his seat, in a similar affair. The mini-scandals come ahead of regional elections in two German states, amid falling CDU/CSU popularity.

EU-mediated talks between Kosovo and Serbia on normalising relations are "the only path to Europe" for either of the parties, the EU foreign service said Monday - the 10-year anniversary of the talks' launch. "In our public opinion, the significance of the dialogue is at sixth, seventh place," Kosovo's likely new PM Albin Kurti said last week, adding that he wanted to amend the constitution to enable unification with Albania.

Turkish ex-PM Ahmet Davutoğlu, now in opposition, has told Greek newspaper Ekathimerini that president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's authoritarian style was "pulling Turkey away from the European model of democracy and administration". "Institutional contacts and long-term strategy have been replaced by personal contacts. If Erdoğan's relations with [Russian president Vladimir] Putin are good, then relations with Russia are also good. It was the same with [ex-US president Donald] Trump," Davutoğlu said.

The EU is to sanction firms "generating revenue for, or providing financial support to, the Myanmar Armed Forces", according to an internal document seen by Reuters. Two likely targets, diplomats said, are Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited and Myanmar Economic Corporation - conglomerates in the mining, manufacturing, food, beverages, hotels, telecoms, and banking sectors. Foreign ministers are to discuss the moves on 22 March in response to murders of anti-coup protesters.