Euobserver.com

EU industry was responsible for almost 80 percent of the world's cross-border movements of 1.8bn live animals in 2019, according to UN statistics cited by The Guardian. EU subsidies promoted exports of European sheep to North Africa, despite there being local alternatives, NGO Animals International noted. Danish exports of three-month old piglets, on eight-hour train journeys, caused heat-stress, suffocation, and dehydration, the Animal Protection Denmark NGO also said.

The City of London was so big a financial centre it should shape EU regulation in future, not the other way around, Catherine McGuinness, the head of the City of London Corporation, its historic governing body, told Reuters. "It's clear that we can't be rule-takers - we must be rule-makers," she said Wednesday. Recent capital flight by some traders to EU financial centres was "not at all catastrophic," she added.

As the EU Commission gets entangled in a dispute with one of the vaccine producers and gets heat for the perceived slow roll-out of the vaccines, we take a look at what the EU has done and not done.

"The view that the company is not obliged to deliver because we signed a 'best effort agreement' is neither correct nor acceptable," said EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides, after the company's CEO tried to justified delayed deliveries to the EU.

The marketisation of health and long-term care, the push for Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), and the public spending cuts encouraged by EU economic governance processes all contributed to the increased commercialisation, privatisation, and reduction of health and long-term care services.

The EU's border and coast guard agency, Frontex will suspend operations in Hungary. The move follows a European Court of Justice ruling in December demanding Hungary stop pushing people back into Serbia.

The European Parliament environment committee on Wednesday called on the EU Commission to set binding targets for 2030 "to significantly reduce the EU material and consumption footprints" as part of their Circular Economy Action Plan. The report, to be voted in the next plenary, urges tackling plastic pollution, including micro-plastics, and the implementation of eco-design requirements. Up to 80 percent of products' environmental impact is determined at the design phase.

Global coronavirus cases surpassed 100 million on Wednesday, according to a Reuters tally, as countries around the world struggled with new virus variants and vaccine shortfalls. Almost 1.3% of the world's population has now been infected with Covid-19, and more than 2.1 million people have died. One person has been infected every 7.7 seconds, on average, since the start of the year. Around 668,250 cases have been reported each day.

The UK has offered EU nationals living in the UK up to £2,000 (€1,650) plus the cost of flights home if they would rather undergo a "voluntary return" than apply for "settled status". "Some people may choose not to obtain [settled] status ... and may not wish to remain in the UK after the deadline" to obtain it had expired, a Home Office spokesman told The Guardian.

The global economy is set to lose over €18 trillion between 2020 and 2025, due to the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday, Deutsche Welle writes. The economy will likely see a strong rebound this year, but the pandemic is causing severe damage, the IMF said. The spread of vaccines, however, is expected to power a stronger global economic recovery in 2021.

Civil society on Monday urged the European Commission to reduce its dependency on bioenergy, after a commissioned report revealed that biomass burning emits more greenhouse gasses than fossil fuels. In 23 out of the 24 scenarios examined by experts, biomass burning had a negative impact on climate, biodiversity, or both. The study will be considered for the reform of the Renewable Energy Directive.

The new European Public Prosecutor's office will become operational in March. It is tasked to carry out criminal fraud investigations of the EU budget. But of the 140 required European prosecutors, only nine have so far set up office.

The Norwegian data protection authority (DPA) said on Tuesday that it will fine the dating app Grindr nearly €10m for breaching the EU's data protection law (GDPR) over the exploitation of consumers' data by online advertising companies. This follows a complaint by the Norwegian consumer group Forbrukerrådet in January 2020. The European Consumer Organisation has urged all DPAs to ensure Grindr's practices comply with the GDPR in all countries.

Estonia's new government has been sworn in with the first female prime minister since its independence in 1991, the Guardian reports. The centre-right Reform party, chaired by Kaja Kallas, and the left-leaning Centre party, Estonia's two biggest political parties, secured a deal on Sunday. The 15-member cabinet of Kallas, a 43-year-old lawyer and a former MEP, was approved by parliament, after being appointed by president Kersti Kaljulaid.

Portuguese justice minister Francisca Van Dunem, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, argued that the Lisbon government was only following the advice of the country's magistrates when pushing for its candidate.

The European Commission wants to control exports of coronavirus vaccines to outside the bloc, after pharmaceutical firms said EU countries will receive fewer jabs than they ordered due to alleged production problems.

Hungary's justice minister will submit a bill in the spring to regulate 'Big Tech' companies. Judit Varga announced the plan on Facebook, saying Hungary will continue working on similar regulation at an EU-level but "recent events have shown that we need to act faster to defend people". Former US president Donald Trump's social media accounts were shut down earlier in January after he incited riots in the US Capitol.

America's legitimacy will ultimately rest in its capacity to get boots on the ground in heavily-contested environments, to undo Chinese surprise campaigns, and not to allow China to do what Russia did in the Crimea.

Trump's legacy in the region is mostly linked to the bilateral accords normalising economic relations between Kosovo and Serbia. During the signing of the Washington Agreement, Trump allegedly pressured the Serbian president to move Serbia's embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

The Office of the High Representative, tasked with coordinating international actors and ensuring implementation of the non-military components of the 1995 Dayton peace accords, has languished for a decade and a half.