Euobserver.com

Kazakhstan has been lobbying the European Parliament to scupper a vote on human rights, as it attempts to gain international standing. But most political groups will move ahead to pass a resolution naming victims of the regime.

If you want to measure how powerful Europe is, ask its neighbours.

Convening citizens' panels and conducting multi-level debates on various policy topics in the timespan of one year, and under social-distancing restrictions, will be either impossible, or will boil the Conference on the Future of Europe down to a mere window-dressing.

EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell told MEPs Tuesday he would propose a list of Russian names to blacklist over the jailing of opposition figure Alexei Navalny. "I will put forward concrete proposals using the right of initiative that the high representative [for foreign affairs] has," Borrell said, referring to new EU human rights sanctions. He indicated it would be by the next EU foreign ministers' meeting on 22 February.

German economy minister Olaf Scholz offered to spend €1bn of German taxpayers' money to subsidise US liquid gas imports last year, if the then US president Donald Trump quashed Congressional sanctions against Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Scholz did it in a letter to Trump's treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, dated August last year, and published by German green NGO Deutsche Umwelthilfe Tuesday, amid heightened EU-Russia tensions.

Russia's TurkStream pipeline with Turkey to south-east Europe, which began work in January, has seen Bulgaria and Greece get almost all their gas via the new route this year, instead of via Ukraine, as before, according to UK energy consultancy Platts. Bulgaria received some 6.4 billion cubic metres via Ukraine last year, and "almost zero" this year. Russia is also building a pipeline to Germany to bypass the pro-Western Ukraine.

Britain called on Monday for a reset in relations with the European Union and the "refinement" of a Brexit deal covering trade with Northern Ireland, Reuters writes. Relations between Brussels and London strained by years of bruising Brexit talks took a turn for the worse last month when the EU threatened to use emergency measures to stop coronavirus vaccines going into Northern Ireland.

The EU and UK, backed by the US, have called for an emergency session of the UN human rights council in Geneva Friday to discuss the coup and anti-coup protests in Myanmar, amid fear the new military junta could turn to violence. "We must respond urgently to the plight of the people in Myanmar and the rapidly deteriorating human rights situation there," Julian Braithwaite, the UK's ambassador in Geneva, said.

Russia has cast doubt on EU top diplomat Josep Borrell's account of his "tense" talks in Moscow, as more than 70 MEPs called for his resignation.

EU foreign relations chief Josep Borrell voiced "strong concern" about China's "treatment of ethnic and religious minorities, in particular in Xinjiang" in a videoconference with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi Monday. Borrell also "underlined the EU's strong bonds with the US", amid China-US trade and military tensions. Wang complained about "disinformation" on China's treatment of the Uighur minority in Xinjiang, despite credible reports of mass-scale forced labour and rape.

The EU has urged Eritrea to withdraw troops from Ethiopia and for access to diplomats, aid workers, and journalists to war-torn regions. "The EU joins the United States' call for the withdrawal of Eritrean troops from Ethiopia, which are fuelling the conflict in Tigray, reportedly committing atrocities, and exacerbating ethnic violence," it said Monday. The Eritrean forces are fighting alongside Ethiopian government troops against local rulers in Ethiopia's Tigray region.

Nearly 29 percent of the EU population with a disability (aged 16 or over) was at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2019, compared with 18.4 percent of those with no activity limitation, according to statistics on Monday by Eurostat. The highest proportion of people at risk was recorded in Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Ireland - while the lowest was in Slovakia, Denmark, Austria and Finland.

The European Commission has told Hungary to reform its public procurement laws, according to Reuters news agency. "Competition in public procurement is insufficient in practice," said an internal document, obtained by the media outlet. It noted "systemic irregularities" that "led to the highest financial correction in the history of (EU) structural funds in 2019".

The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine offers only 10 percent protection against the Covid variant first seen in South Africa, researchers have suggested, The Guardian writes. Scientists said it showed very little protection against mild to moderate infection, though they expressed hope that it would still offer significant protection against more serious infection. The results came as tests on the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine found it may still provide substantial protection against the variant.

The European Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, has identified "gaps" in both their transparency practices and effectiveness of the EU agency in charge of preventing and monitoring viral infections.

EU officials on Monday said that no decision on the disbursement of funds can be taken before the so-called "own resources" decision is approved by EU countries. So far six countries have ratified them.

An investigation into Luxembourg's tax regime has uncovered how the Italian mafia, the Russian underworld, and billionaires attempt to stash away their wealth. The European Commission has put itself on standby amid suggestions changes to EU law may be needed.

Russia, a heavily-corrupted and bureaucratic country, can't meet the West's standards in terms of social, economic and political efficiency. The Kremlin's only chance to keep power is to mobilise its society in a forged confrontation with external and internal scapegoats.

Germany, Sweden, and Poland are each expelling a Russian diplomat, according to AFP. The move follows Russia's expulsion of three diplomats from those EU member states last week. The German, Swedish and Polish diplomats were told to leave on Friday, shortly after EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell was humiliated by his Russian counterpart at a press conference in Moscow.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has ruled it has jurisdiction over alleged war crimes committed in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, Gaza, and West Bank. The ruling, on Friday, paved the way for an investigation into a 2014 Gaza war, more recent Israeli shootings of Palestinian protesters, and settlement expansion. Israel rejected the ICC move, saying it opened up hundreds of its officials to potential prosecution.