Euobserver.com

Several EU leaders have condemned the military coup in Myanmar on Sunday. EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen tweeted "I strongly condemn the coup in Myanmar. The legitimate civilian government must be restored, in line with the country's constitution & the November elections. I call for the immediate & unconditional release of all those detained." The EU's chief diplomat and several foreign ministers reacted on Twitter similarly.

The brothel windows of Amsterdam's red-light district will close and a new "erotic centre" be set up away from the city centre, councillors have agreed, the Guardian reports. The city's mayor, Femke Halsema, proposed to shut down a significant number of the sex-trade outlets in order to change tourism in Amsterdam. She earlier proposed closing cannabis shops for tourists, but that has not yet found a majority.

The EU Commission caused uproar in Ireland and the UK when - in a rush to agree on a new regulation to control vaccine exports from the EU - the bloc's executive triggered a clause in the Brexit divorce deal.

Pharmaceutical companies will increase their supply to member states with millions of additional doses, after a heated dispute over delayed deliveries. Meanwhile, the bloc's new control mechanism on vaccine exports faces global criticism amid fears of 'vaccine nationalism'.

On Sunday night the private home of Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo was vandalised, with several swastikas painted on the walls. On Sunday there had been a demonstration by a far-right movement, but it is not clear if this was linked. "De Croo regrets the fact that people tried to intimidate his family and children," his spokesperson Tom Meulenbergs said.

The Adriatic Sea risks turning into a water desert, experts warn. Overfishing, bottom trawling, pollution, and climate change are seriously threatening the biodiversity of the Adriatic.

The difficulty of getting enough support for a mission even in extreme crisis situations was demonstrated by the six rounds of negotiations it took to raise 700 troops for the EU operation in the Central African Republic in spring 2014.

British diplomats are to carry out security vetting of Chinese academics who wanted to do research in the UK in "sensitive" subjects, such as artificial intelligence, chemistry, physics, maths, computer science, and engineering, The Times reports. The foreign office warned British universities of the move amid fears of intellectual property theft and "national security" concerns. The warning comes after security concerns aired by EU institutions over Chinese students last year.

Portugal said on Saturday it only had seven vacant beds left in intensive care units (ICUs) set up for Covid-19 cases on its mainland, as a surge in infections prompted the authorities to send some critical patients to Portuguese islands, Reuters reports. Health ministry data showed that, out of 850 ICU beds allocated to Covid-19 cases on its mainland, a record 843 beds were now occupied.

A delegation of more than 70 representatives of Libyan regional powers is heading to Geneva for five days this week to pick an interim prime minister in an EU and US-backed UN process. It is unclear if the leader chosen by the 'Libyan Political Dialogue Forum' will be accepted by warring parties, but the PM is meant to serve until elections in December, following a fragile ceasefire agreed last October.

Matteo Renzi, who triggered Italy's political crisis this month by pulling his Italia Viva party out of the ruling coalition, would like to see former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi become prime minister, a party source said on Sunday, Reuters writes. The former coalition allies are holding talks to try and overcome their differences and revive their government, which formally collapsed last week when prime minister Giuseppe Conte resigned.

Women's rights groups have protested for three days in Poland after a court verdict banning most abortions entered into force last Thursday. The protests were put on pause Sunday, in order not to disrupt an annual fundraiser for the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, a healthcare NGO with liberal views, which raised some €16m. The demonstrations against the right-wing Polish government are expected to continue this week.

Belgian police arrested more than 200 people at an anti-lockdown protest near Brussels' 'Midi' train-station on Sunday. Sizeable demonstrations also took place in Budapest and in Vienna, where they were organised by Austria's far-right FPÖ party and included neo-Nazi militants. More peaceful civil disobedience stunts, such as a mass coffee-drinking event, also took place in the Netherlands amid a heavy police presence following three days of anti-lockdown riots.

Vaccine producer AstraZeneca will supply an extra 9m doses to the EU by March European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said Sunday, calling the deal a "step forward", amid a massive shortfall in deliveries. EU officials earlier invoked a Brexit-treaty clause to impose physical checks on the Irish border to stop AstraZeneca exporting to the UK via Northern Ireland, but dropped the move after a political blowback.

The European Commission has adopted an export control mechanism on vaccines as a response to shortfalls. Meanwhile, AstraZeneca's jab was approved in the EU.

The security situation in Ethiopia remained "dire", as Finnish foreign minister Pekka Haavisto prepares to travel to the region on an EU fact-finding mission.

MEPs in the civil liberties committee have agreed to create a Frontex scrutiny working group to probe the Warsaw-based agency over a number of allegations.

The EU's foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell will travel to Moscow on Friday, raising eyebrows because leading opposition figure, Alexei Navalny, is in prison. Borrell argues this is the reason why talking is necessary.

It is well known that Vladimir Putin has for a long time been deeply dissatisfied with Lukashenko. I consider it highly unlikely, though, that Putin will accept a democratic revolution in a neighbouring country.

Hungary's drug regulator has approved China's Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine, surgeon general Cecilia Müller said on Friday, the first EU country to do so. Hungary has already approved Russia's vaccine. The government on Thursday announced that it would grant emergency use approval to any shot already administered to at least a million people anywhere in the world, Reuters reported. Prime minister Viktor Orban said he would personally choose the Chinese vaccine.