Euobserver.com

Giving up the Nord Stream 2 project now would be the right message, demonstrating that EU member states are united in condemning violations of international laws and human rights by the Kremlin, writes the Polish permanent representative to the EU.

In this episode Daniel Ziblatt discusses the dilemmas facing Europe's modern-day conservative parties - including the German Christian Democratic Union and the European People's Party.

The European Court of Justice ruled on Wednesday that Hungary "manifestly failed" to adopt timely measures to tackle pollution as required by the timeframe set out in the EU law on clean air. From 2005 to 2017, the daily limit value for particulate matter PM10 was "very regularly exceeded" in the Budapest, Sajó and Pécs regions. PM10 derives from various emission sources like road transport, industrial processes or agriculture.

Italian president Sergio Mattarella is to ask former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi to form a new ruling coalition Wednesday. The move comes after a previous one fell apart over infighting between a minor party and ex-PM Giuseppe Conte, who stepped down. Mattarella appealed to "all the political forces in parliament to give their confidence to a high-profile government able to deal promptly with the serious emergencies" Italy faced.

Reunifying ethnically divided Cyprus in line with the long-established formula of federation is off the table in any future peace talks and any deal should be negotiated between two equal sovereign states, Turkey's foreign minister said Tuesday, Ekathimerini writes. Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu's remarks after talks with Turkish-Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar could further complicate a meeting that UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres intended to convene next month.

The EU will need to invest €80bn in electric car charging points by 2030 if it is to meet its climate change-related automotive targets, according to power industry firm Eurelectric and auditing company Ernst & Young. The EU had about 615,000 electric cars at the end of 2019, but fewer than 250,000 public charging points. But there would need to be 3m such points in future, their report said.

Photos from inside the prison where opposition hero Alexei Navalny is being held show the grubby reality behind Russia-EU diplomacy.

Asadollah Assadi, an Iranian diplomat accused of plotting to blow up dissidents in Paris and of espionage, travelled widely across Europe, usually staying in smaller towns to avoid detection, and opting to meet contacts in tourist spots, according to court documents seen by Belgian broadcaster VRT. Assadi was arrested two years ago outside Brussels with a bomb in the boot of his car and faces 20 years' jail.

The issue will be discussed on Wednesday at a video conference between EU Commission vice president Maroš Šefcovic, British cabinet minister Michael Gove, Northern Ireland's first minister Arlene Foster, and deputy first minister Michelle O'Neill.

Russia's Sputnik V vaccine has 91.6 percent efficacy against symptomatic coronavirus, interim trial results have suggested, the Guardian writes. The preliminary findings are based on analysis of data from more than 20,000, mostly white, adults, published in the peer-reviewed journal The Lancet. This is the fourth vaccine — after from those made by Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca/Oxford — for which phase-three trial data has been published.

The European Commission published a redacted version of the AstraZeneca contract - only for large parts to be uncovered by using the bookmark tool in Adobe Acrobat's Reader. "It was certainly not our intention for this to happen," it said.

Germany's biggest opposition party in parliament, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), may be wire-tapped and infiltrated by undercover agents of the domestic security agency.

The Moscow visit of Borrell and efforts to test the ground for selective engagement seems ill-placed and timed. But the trip might at least have some value if approached wisely and turned into a clear manifestation of the EU's position.

The EU foreign service has urged Kosovo to reconsider opening an embassy in Jerusalem, following a digital ceremony with Israel on Monday.

UN high commissioner for refugees Flippo Grandi says immediate access for humanitarian relief is needed in areas torn apart by the war in Ethiopia. He is appealing for an extra $117m of international funds to help refugees throughout the country.

Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell "can ... sort of choreograph the actions" of Tehran and Washington in brokering new talks on a nuclear non-proliferation deal. "There can be a mechanism to basically either synchronise it or coordinate what can be done," Zarif told CNN Monday. The EU brokered the existing accord in 2015, but the former US administration abandoned it 2018.

"We must not make any compromises on this. To say 'best efforts,' that's cheap ... they [China] should sign and ratify the labour conventions," former European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said at a videoconference organised by the German region of Baden-Württemberg. He spoke after the EU signed an investment pact with Beijing without obliging it to halt the kind of forced labour imposed by China on its Uighur Muslim minority.

The EU's recent decision to restrict exports of vaccines to make sure it gets its doses delivered first will cause ripples around the world, Taro Kono, a Japanese minister in charge of fighting the pandemic, indicated on Monday. "The EU has enacted this export transparency mechanism, and it is affecting Japan's supply schedule," he said, Reuters reports, as Japan prepared to start its inoculation drive later this month.

Russian prosecutors have said they will seek a three-and-a-half-year jail term for opposition leader Alexei Navalny at a court hearing due Tuesday, despite EU and US appeals to free him. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said pro-Navalny protesters were "hooligans and provocateurs", after Russia detained 5,300 people at last weekend's demonstrations. Meanwhile, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell is keen to visit Navalny when he goes to Moscow on Friday.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) launched on Monday its Covid-19 vaccine tracker, a nearly-live dashboard that provides the latest data reported about vaccination programs in member states. "Vaccination campaigns are not to be viewed merely as a race for the largest numbers at the quickest speed," said ECDC director Andrea Ammon, adding that inoculation programmes will need to be "flexible and adaptable".