Euobserver.com

One possibility for a compromise could be a declaration, attached to the rule-of-law conditionality, on how it will be used - that alleviates the concerns of Hungary and Poland.

While some fear EU leaders are unlikely to strike a deal on the new climate target without first solving tensions over the rule of law and the seven-year budget, others remain optimistic.

Greek migration minister Notis Mitarachi presented video testimonies of migrants citing Norwegian NGO Aegean Boat Report as useful in their efforts to get to Greece. Mitarachi said such NGOs contribute to "illegal migratory flows". Aegean Boat Report disputes the account.

Vaclav Havel's 2007 play, Leaving, is about chancellor Rieger, his coterie and their refusal to accept the transfer of power. And now there is Donald Trump, barricaded in the White House. Does farce come first, followed by tragedy?

The UN Agency for Palestine refugees has run out of money. For millions of Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, Covid-19 is two pandemics in one: a health crisis and a pandemic of abject poverty.

UK prime minister Boris Johnson will travel to Brussels for face-to-face talks with the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, in a last attempt to break the impasse in Brexit negotiations. In a joint statement following a phone call which lasted over one hour on Monday evening, both leaders said the Brussels meeting will be held in the "coming days".

Hundreds of people recently attended the funeral, in a Chechen village, of Abdullakh Anzorov, the man who murdered French teacher Samuel Paty, according to videos uploaded to Islamist websites, The Guardian reports. Anzorov's hero-like treatment comes after Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov harangued French president Emmanuel Macron for defending the right to show cartoons of Mohammed. Western leaders who antagonised Muslims were "forcing people to commit crimes", Kadyrov has said.

The annual meeting of elite politicians and businessmen, the Davos Economic Forum, is to hold its 2021 event in May in Singapore, where Covid-rates are far lower, instead of in Switzerland, as usual, it has said. Current restrictions in Singapore do not allow meetings of more than five people. But Davos said delegates will be tested on arrival and fitted with special contact-tracing apps to help keep them safe.

EU states have formally approved new sanctions against human rights abusers, modelled on the US 'Magnitsky Act'.

The EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, has set a new deadline for the Brexit negotiations, warning that the talks will not go beyond Wednesday, the Guardian writes. During briefings to MEPs and EU ambassadors in Brussels, Barnier said the negotiation was "not far from the very endgame", and talks are expected to continue into midweek but no further.

A new report published on Monday revealed that 50 to 80 percent of methane emissions in Hamburg stem from leaky gas pipelines. Methane, the main ingredient in natural gas, is a highly-potent greenhouse gas responsible for at least 25 percent of global warming. During their research, scientists discovered increased methane concentrations at 145 points in the Hamburg city area, 50 of which are due to gas utility leaks.

French president Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that concerns over human rights violations in Egypt would not affect the sale of French arms, as Cairo should retain its ability to fight terrorism in the region, Deutsche Welle reports. "It is more effective to have a policy of demanding dialogue than a boycott which would only reduce the effectiveness of one of our partners in the fight against terrorism," Macron said.

Sunday's parliamentary elections in Venezuela, which cemented president Nicolás Maduro's grip on power, "failed to comply with the minimum international standards for a credible process," the EU said in a statement on Monday. Opposition leader Juan Guaidó had led a boycott of the vote. The EU urged Maduro to hold "credible" elections instead. It also urged Maduro and Guaidó to create a "Venezuelan-led transition process", amid ever-worsening humanitarian conditions.

A group of 169 climate leaders and scientists on Tuesday urged EU governmets to withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty, saying this international agreement impedes the transition towards clean energy. "If governments want to be seen as leaders on climate change then they need to step away from investment agreements that tie their hands and continue to protect fossil fuels at the taxpayers' expense," they said in a letter.

With Brexit talks intensifying, MEPs are pressing negotiators to cut UK access to the EU's Schengen Information System, a database used by police and border guards.

EU ministers have set the scene for imposing sanctions on Turkey at this week's summit - but will Germany agree?

A report found the wealthiest 10 percent of EU citizens emitted the same amount of carbon dioxide as the poorer half of the bloc from 1990 to 2015.

A senior EU diplomat said Poland and Hungary should lift their veto or give a signal they are willing to do by Tuesday - otherwise there will be alternative plans for a recovery fund with the other 25 member states.

Poland is cracking, and Britain is flailing - if the EU presses its advantage at this week's summit, it has more political capital and leverage than might appear.

Women do better than men in a Nordic labour market characterised by digitalisation and rapid technological development. However, new Nordic research shows that traditionally male-dominated sectors are at risk of polarisation.