Euobserver.com

New Israeli settlements around Jerusalem could do more harm to Middle East peace than Israel's deals with Arab states did good, EU foreign relations chief Josep Borrell has indicated.

The European Parliament on Tuesday adopted EU-wide rules which will allow EU consumers to team up and seek justice and redress together, covering a broad range of areas from financing to passengers rights. But only "qualified entities", such as consumer organisations, will be able to launch an action. This is the final step of the legislative procedure that started in 2018 when the European Commission unveiled its proposal.

The more the US comes to face economic headwinds, because of the corona pandemic, but also because of the stagnating productivity, growing external debt, and an increasingly unbalanced growth model, the more the tendency of economic nationalism will become manifest.

The parliamentary elections took place amid the Covid-19 pandemic but sparked hopes among Georgia's western allies that the electoral deal reached with the help of US and EU officials could pacify the deeply-polarised political actors. But actually the opposite happened.

The European Commission will sign a contract on Wednesday (25 November) with Moderna to purchase up to 160 million doses of its vaccine against Covid-19. "Once the vaccine is indeed proven as safe and effective, every member state will receive it at the same time," said European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. This the sixth contract the EU commission has signed with pharmaceutical companies against the virus.

The EU, Canada, and 11 other nations, called the "Ottawa Group", agreed Monday to lift export restrictions for medical supplies in the pandemic. The group hopes all World Trade Organisation members, including China and the US, will sign up by March 2021, to help with global vaccine distribution. "That would still be a moment when this would be relevant for the management of the pandemic," an EU official told Reuters.

Former US secretary of state John Kerry will act as climate envoy when US president-elect Joe Biden takes office, the BBC writes. Kerry was one of several people named for top positions by the Biden transition team on Monday. It comes as calls are growing for Donald Trump to concede the election. Kerry was former president Barack Obama's second secretary of state.

US president-elect Joe Biden phoned top EU and Nato officials - Charles Michel, Ursula von der Leyen, and Jens Stoltenberg - Monday, as part of his transition into the White House. The EU invited him to join a summit and Michel's office said Michel proposed to "rebuild a strong transatlantic alliance" during their 20-minute chat. Biden and his pick for state secretary, Antony Blinken, are both known as pro-Europeans.

The European Commissiona announced on Monday the purchase of 200 disinfection robots to be delivered to hospitals across Europe, with a dedicated budget of up to €12m. These robots can disinfect standard patient rooms, using ultraviolet light, in 15 minutes - what could be helpful in reducing the spread of the virus within healthcare facilities. The robots are expected to be delivered in the coming weeks.

Germany has defended boarding a Turkish-flagged ship, the Rosaline A, on suspicion of arms smuggling to Libya in violation of a UN embargo. German sailors boarded the ship Sunday, but Turkey withdrew permission for the inspection to go aead and summoned the EU, French, and German ambassadors in Ankara to complain. "We're concerned that ... various countries are suspected of smuggling weapons," German foreign ministry spokeswoman Andrea Sasse said Monday.

Authorities in Israeli-occupied Gaza have warned of a Covid-19 "disaster". "We have entered the catastrophe stage," Gaza health minister Fathi Abuwarda told Al Jazeera Monday. "What in April was a scary possibility now is likely to become reality," a UN official told EUobserver on the Gaza outbreak. The densely-populated territory is home to 2 million people, but 79 of the 100 ventilators available for coronavirus suffers are already taken up.

Some 81 percent of Poles would vote to stay in the EU in a referendum, according to pollster IBRiS for Polish daily Rzeczpospolita. Opinion was split almost evenly between those who thought the EU should tie payments of funds to respect of rule of law. But a majority of Poles (58 percent) believed that if such a mechanism were put in place, then Poland would end up being its target.

Talk of a grand Turkey-Russia realignment is premature, Nato and Russia experts say - despite Putin and Erdoğan's friendly ties.

The last decade has seen air quality improvements across the continent, but many European citizens are still exposed to illegal and dangerous levels of pollution, according to a new report from the European Environment Agency.

The European Commission exchanged 24 letters with Bulgaria, Cyprus and Malta over their 'Golden Passports' schemes between October 2019 and October 2020. Malta took 67 days to respond to the commission's first letter, followed by Cyprus (42) then Bulgaria.

The Romanian study reveals that over 60 percent of parents in the countryside have not worked during the pandemic, and close to half are unable to provide adequate food, medicine, hygiene products or school supplies for their children.

The UNESCO world heritage site in Aksum, Ethiopia, other heritage sites and religious centres are now under threat. This tragedy is compounded by a terrible loss of innocent lives, sexual violence and a destabilising refugee crisis.

On Tuesday (24 November), the Körber-Stiftung in cooperation with the German Federal Foreign Office will host the 10th Berlin Foreign Policy Forum, under the overarching topic "Turning Crisis into Opportunity? Europe in a (Post-) Pandemic World Order".

Oxford University and pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca announced on Monday their potential vaccine is 70 percent effective at preventing Covid-19, and possibly up to 90 percent effective, depending on dosage, The Guardian reported. "The vaccine's simple supply chain and our no-profit pledge and commitment to broad, equitable and timely access mean it will be affordable and globally available, supplying hundreds of millions of doses on approval," chief executive Pascal Soriot said.

Thailand's king Maha Vajiralongkorn may be expelled from Germany if he issues decrees from his Bavarian villa, the Bundestag has said, Deutsche Welle reports. "We have made clear that the policies that affect the country Thailand are not to be carried out from German soil," Germany's foreign minister Heiko Maas said in early October. The monarch's long stays in Europe have been under scrutiny amid pro-democracy protests.