Euobserver.com

The debate over Fidesz had become an unbearable political burden on EPP - but it also represented a core dilemma for many centre-right, mainstream parties struggling to deal with their populist challengers.

National governments, led by the Portuguese presidency, have watered down provisions that MEPs are trying to introduce to raise the amibition of the first-ever European Climate Law.

German intelligence is to do surveillance, using informants and wire-taps, on the far-right AfD party, the third-largest in parliament, amid fears its extremist wing, which was already being spied on, was gaining influence. AfD candidates taking part in regional and federal elections later this year will be exempted from the measures, Der Spiegel reported. "The intelligence agency is acting purely politically", AfD parliamentary leader Alice Wiedel responded.

EU and US visa-bans and asset-freezes imposed Tuesday on Russian officials over the mistreatment of opposition figure Alexei Navalny had no meaning because they did not go abroad or hold assets there due to their sensitive positions, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday. "This is practically a duplication of the restrictions these people face under Russian law," he said. Russia would retaliate, "but not necessarily symmetrically", its foreign ministry said.

In its quest for a quick deliverable in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the European Union is trying to broker a deal that risks entrenching the power of Croat nationalists who are resisting moves to make the country more functional.

MEPs will hold a public cross-examination with the head of the EU's border agency Frontex, Fabrice Leggeri, on Thursday (4 March) as part of a wider European Parliament probe known as the Frontex Scrutiny Working Group. An initial draft agenda, seen by this website, had proposed to hold it behind closed doors.

EU ambassadors gave the green light to a joint declaration launching the Conference on the Future of Europe on Wednesday. The text set outs the structure, scope and timing of the conference. Until now, EU institutions have been locked in a debate on who should lead the conference, designed to involve EU citizens in policy-making. The EU's Portuguese presidency wants the conference to start on Europe's day (9 May).

Hungary's ruling Fidesz party will leave the largest group in European Parliament, the European People's Party (EPP), after an overwhelming majority of the groups' MEPs adopted new rules paving the way for the suspension of prime minister Viktor Orbán's party. 148 MEPs voted in favour of changes in rules of procedure, 28 against, with four abstentions. The move marks another episode in the long divorce between Fidesz and EPP.

The UK failed to inform EU states about 112,490 criminal convictions concerning their nationals on British territory in the past eight years due to a "massive computer failure and subsequent cover-up", revealed by The Guardian newspaper Wednesday. The omissions included 109 killers, 81 rapists, and one man judged guilty of both crimes, posing a potential security risk after they returned home to their EU states having served their sentences.

Egypt and Sudan called for international mediation on Tuesday to reach a legally binding agreement with Ethiopia on the filling and operating the of Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, the Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram writes. This mediation should involve the UN, the African Union, the EU, and the US. The EU stated that it was ready to play a bigger role on condition that all parties involved agreed to it.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told EU ambassadors in Ankara Tuesday he would "strengthen the rule of law based on human rights" in Turkey with new judicial appeals and electoral laws. He told French president Emmanuel Macron by video-link the same day that as "two strong Nato allies" they had "serious potential" to cooperate on Middle East security and counter-terrorism. The pro-EU overtures come after recent EU mini-sanctions on Turkey.

America has sanctioned Russia for the attempted murder and jailing of opposition figure Alexei Navalny, in a show of return to transatlantic unity.

Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz said his country and Denmark plan to stop relying solely on the European Union for coronavirus jabs, Deutsche Welle reports. Kurz said both countries plan to work with Israel to produce second-generation vaccines. While Israel has vaccinated a large part of its population, the EU has faced criticism for its slow vaccine rollout and slow approval of the vaccines themselves.

Judges applying to join Poland's Supreme Court should have the right to appeal against the opinions of a body reviewing candidates, the EU's top court said Tuesday, part of an ongoing rift between the EU and Warsaw. The EU court also said that amendments to the law on the National Council of the Judiciary, which in effect remove judicial review of its decisions, including judges' appointments, could infringe EU law.

The European Commission on Tuesday launched an investigation into whether German plans to compensate lignite-fired power plants for being phased out earlier than foreseen are aligned with EU state aid rules. Under the German coal phase-out law, coal will have to end by 2038. But Germany has agreed to pay €4.35bn to the main producers of lignite-fired electricity for the early closure of power plants.

France will allow people under 75 with existing health problems to get the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, the health minister said, changing the country's earlier stance that the vaccine should be for the under-65s only, Reuters reports. France hopes to speed up its vaccination campaign. As of Saturday, 4.55 million people had received at least one shot of vaccine, compared to 6.17 million in Germany and up to 20.9 million in Britain.

Saudi Arabia's crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and other high-ranking Saudi officials have been accused of committing crimes against humanity in a criminal complaint filed in Germany by Reporters without Borders (RSF), the press freedom group, The Guardian writes. The complaint focusses on the "widespread and systematic" persecution of journalists in Saudi Arabia, including the arbitrary detention of 34 journalists there and the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.

The special committee on foreign interference was created in June with the aim of assessing the foreign threat to European democracy - and identify possible tools to fight it.

Earlier this month the European Parliament set up a permanent probe into the EU's border agency Frontex. Now that the Frontex boss is set for his first grilling, MEPs have decided to keep the public in the dark.

The Nordic electricity market is an example of successful market integration plus climate action, as the share of sustainable energy keeps growing, the European Commission said. However, the decarbonisation of the transport sector remains a challenge.