Euobserver.com

The UK become on Wednesday the first country in the world to approve the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, the BBC reported. The department of health and social care said the vaccine would be distributed starting next week. The emergency-use authorisation followed "months of rigorous clinical trials and a thorough analysis of the data" by experts who concluded that the vaccine meets safety, quality and effectiveness standards.

At least five people, including a 9-week old baby, were killed in Trier, Germany, after a car drove into a pedestrian zone in a "zigzag" pattern. Authorities said the driver, a 51-year old man, has been arrested, Deutsche Welle reports. The baby's mother was also being treated in hospital for her injuries. The incident resembled a previous jihadist attack in France, but authorities declined to immediately identify the driver's motives.

Michael Gove, the British minister in charge of Brexit, has said the UK could still crash out of its EU transition period on 1 January with no trade deal in place. "It's certainly the case that there is a chance that we may not get a negotiated outcome," he told British broadcaster ITV Tuesday, as negotiations intensified. "That's why it's important business prepares for all eventualities," he added.

Ahmadreza Djalali, a Swedish-Iranian scientist sentenced to death in Iran on espionage charges, may face execution as early as Wednesday, his wife has warned. The campaign group Iran Human Rights said: "Djalali is at imminent risk of execution and only a strong and urgent reaction from the international community can save his life," the Guardian reports. Dialali was a visiting professor at Brussels University (VUB) before he traveled to Iran.

Czech prime minister Andrei Babiš broke EU and domestic rules on conflict of interest by continuing to secretly control his Agrofert conglomerate, which received EU grants while he was in office, according to an internal European Commission report seen by the Politico news agency. "Mr Babiš as a public official was (and continues to be) in breach … of the conflicts of interest act," the report, dated 22 October, said.

Germany has outlawed neo-Nazi group 'Wolfsbrigade 44', which calls for the abolition of democracy in Germany and the re-establishment of a Nazi dictatorship, triggering raids by 180 policemen on the homes of 11 members to seize funds and propaganda materials. "Whoever fights against the basic values of our free society will get to feel the resolute reaction of our government," German interior minister Horst Seehofer said Monday.

France will seek an EU-wide reaction if the US imposes tariffs on French exports in January, as planned, in repose to a new French tax targeting US tech firms. "If there are American sanctions against the French decision, which ... is the application of French law, we will immediately seek a riposte at the European level," French finance minister Bruno Le Maire told press in Paris on Tuesday, Reuters reports.

The EU is preparing to freeze €90 million of budgetary support for Ethiopia after it launched an attack against rebels in the northern Tigray region last month, according to EU officials cited by the Bloomberg news agency. "The EU will take further decisions on budget support for Ethiopia in light of developments on the ground," an EU spokeswoman also said, amid reports of human rights atrocities committed by government forces.

More than 60 NGOs and media, including EUobserver, have signed a call for an EU-wide law to stop the rich and powerful from silencing critics with malicious litigation.

EU border-agency chief, Fabrice Leggeri, ought to go over allegations of illegal pushbacks in Greek waters, the centre-left group in the European Parliament said.

The Netherlands has become one of the final European countries to make face masks compulsory in indoor public spaces, such as shops, railway stations and hairdressers. The measure entered into force on Tuesday for all those over the age of 13 and it will remain in place for at least three months, the BBC reported. Those who ignore the new rules will face a fine of up to €95.

Jozsef Szajer, a Fidesz MEP and close ally of Viktor Orban, was found to be trying to escape down a drainpipe from the lockdown party.

Environmental organisations have brought the multinational Shell to court, arguing that their current policies violate human rights by knowingly undermining international climate goals.

The rest of the EU is now witnessing the kind of legal-political brutalism that these two governments, Poland and Hungary have been employing against their own judges, citizens, opposition and media for many years.

The EU border agency Frontex's annual budget for 2020 is €460m. Now they are launching court proceedings against two pro-transparency campaigners for not paying them €24,000 in legal fees after losing a case last year.

Beyond privacy, the EU should equalise political party access to online ads and improve the oversight of digital campaigning. It can borrow from how governments have curbed big money in politics.

The European Medicine Agency (EMA) announced on Tuesday that the pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Biontech/Pfizer have submitted data on their potential Covid-19 vaccines, in order to obtain a conditional market authorisation. The EMA is expected to express an opinion on the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on 29 December, while the discussion of the Moderna vaccine will take place on 12 January, according to the Financial Times.

Eurozone finance ministers agreed, on Monday, to upgrade the currency bloc's bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, enabling it to also help out failing banks, in a transformation to be ratified next year. "The [bank] backstop is a last resort. It's a further safety net at our disposal should we need it," Irish finance minister Paschal Donohoe, who chairs the meetings of the so-called 'Eurogroup', said.

Trade unions on Tuesday urged European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to name the date for a pay transparency directive, following her first year in office. In 2019, von der Leyen pledged to "table measures to introduce binding pay transparency measures" within "the first 100 days of her mandate" to tackle the bloc's 15-percent gender pay gap. So far, the proposal disappeared from the 2020 legislative calendar, however.

China and Russia are posing an increasing threat to Western allies, as Nato tries to heal internal splits with the US and Turkey.