Euobserver.com

Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny will be in a glass cage in a Moscow court room answering new bogus charges, on slander of war veterans, at the same time as EU top-diplomat Josep Borrell holds a press briefing with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov Friday, Reuters reports. Navalny's hearing starts at 10AM and Borrell's briefing at 12.15PM, in provocative scheduling, after Borrell called for Navalny's release before travelling to Moscow.

German finance minister Olaf Scholz said EU institutions' coordination of coronavirus inoculation was "really shit" in a recent cabinet meeting, German newspaper Bild reported Thursday. Scholz named EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, adding he did not want "the shit to be repeated", while German chancellor Angela Merkel defended her, Bild said. The EU vaccine roll-out has been dogged by certification delays, shaky contracts, and a UK export-control dispute.

The EU foreign service "cannot actively recommend" if its diplomats and their families at the EU's embassy in Moscow should get Russia's coronavirus vaccine, leaving it to their "individual" choice, according to an email from a senior diplomat to staff on 3 February seen by the RFE/RL news agency. Russian officials were offering the 'Sputnik V' vaccine "like crazy, at every occasion, every meeting" a source in Moscow also said.

Italy's Mario Draghi began talks on Thursday to form a new government. The ex-president of the European Central Bank can count on the support from some of the main parties in parliament - but the needs the populist 5 Star Movement (MS5) to at least abstain. Draghi is not due to talk to MS5 until Saturday, when he will wrap up his consultations.

MEPs on the environment committee on Thursday adopted a report calling on the EU to impose carbon costs on imports of electricity and polluting industrial goods by 2023, Reuters reported. The report said that emissions-based "carbon border-adjustment mechanism" should eventually apply to all products sold into the EU which are currently covered by the bloc's own carbon market. The EU Commission's proposal on carbon border policy is expected in June.

The EU might restrict 'retail' share trading, as young Europeans playing the markets in lockdown threaten to cause financial turbulence.

To overcome fragmentation, the European Commission launched an interoperability gateway service, linking national apps across the EU. Unfortunately, only 11 of 27 member states have registered with the service.

A Belgian court in Antwerp has sentenced Assadollah S., an Iranian diplomat, to 20 years in prison for terrorism. In 2018 he was arrested by Belgian police as he was preparing a terrorist attack on a gathering in Paris of the Iranian opposition group, the People's Mujaheddin of Iran. Three other Iranians who were arrested with him received 18-year sentences.

The European Commission has asked Austria to clarify plans for a minimum airfare of €40, designed to curb CO2 emission from cheap short-haul flights, amid concern it violated a 2008 European law which guaranteed "pricing freedom" in the aviation sector. The EU supported "greening of aviation", but this had to be "compatible with the internal market rules", a spokesman told Reuters. Austria's ruling coalition first proposed the move last June.

US plans to pull 12,000 soldiers from Germany have been frozen, pending a review of the move, which had been authorised by former American president Donald Trump. "We need to conduct a thorough review, cradle to grave," Tod Wolters, the US general in command of American forces in Europe said Wednesday. Some of the Germany-based soldiers were to have gone elsewhere in Europe, but about half were to go home.

Britain has demanded the EU relaxed customs rules on Northern Ireland, amid threats to unilaterally suspend part of the Brexit deal.

A Paris court ruled on Wednesday that the French state failed to meet its commitments to curb greenhouse gas emissions, in what has been considered as a "historic victory for climate". The lawsuit was launched by four French NGOs in 2018. The case was supported by 2.3 million citizens, who signed the biggest-ever petition.The court ordered to pay each organisation a symbolic €1 for "moral prejudice".

Belgium has joined EU states Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia, and Sweden as a "hub" for storing extra medical equipment in the pandemic. Belgium is to keep 10m masks and 10m pairs of surgical gloves over and above its national needs, among other items, The Brussels Times reports. The material can then be sent to member states with shortfalls, as was already needed in Croatia, for instance.

The European Commission tasked on Wednesday the EU agency for cybersecurity, ENISA, with creating an EU-wide certification scheme for 5G networks. This should help businesses to trade across borders and customers to understand technical vulnerabilities of the networks. Currently, there are several security certification schemes for IT products. "Security is at the core of 5G technology roll-out," said EU commissioner for the internal market, Thierry Breton.

The slow pace of vaccination in the EU compared to the US and UK meant the bloc would likely have to keep lockdowns one to two months longer, at a cost of some €100bn to the European economy, according to a study by Bloomberg on Wednesday. The EU had vaccinated fewer than five percent of citizens by 1 February, compared to 15 percent in Britain, and 10 percent in America.

Denmark has unveiled the world's first vaccine-travel scheme, by saying Danish citizens who got the jab will be able to print a certificate from late February enabling them to go abroad for non-essential trips. Danes will be able to use a digital app for the same purposes a few months later. Vaccine transparency could also help restart cultural gatherings inside Denmark, its acting finance minister Morten Bodskov said.

British firm Henley & Partners helped a notorious Malaysian fraudster, Jho Low, to try to buy an EU passport via Cyprus in 2015, according to an investigation by the OCCRP, a journalists' consortium. Invoices showed Henley & Partners was paid €710,000 for help, though the firm denied wrongdoing. Henley & Partners also helps run Malta's EU-passport sales scheme. Cyprus suspended its 'golden passport' programme last October after corruption allegations.

In the tug-of-war between former Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi and resigning prime minister Giuseppe Conte, the winner has been Renzi. But who is he really?

The EU Commission unveiled on Wednesday a €4bn plan to improve the fight against cancer - including a proposal for alcohol products to have health warnings on labels before the end of 2023.

Ukraine had concluded zero supply contracts by the start of 2021.