Euobserver.com

The EU ambassador to Ukraine, Matti Maasikas, welcomed on Tuesday president Volodymyr Zelensky's pledge to reform his country's judiciary. "We, as the EU, are ready to cooperate and assist in reforming the judicial system in Ukraine," Maasikas said, adding the latest ruling by Ukraine's Constitutional Court has "put a question mark over Ukraine's fight against corruption". The ambassador urged quick actions to find a "sound solution".

A coalition of 240 MEPs and MPs called on Tuesday on the European Commission to align the controversial Energy Charter Treaty with the Green Deal by excluding investment protection for fossil fuels, and by changing or scrapping the highly-controversial Investor-State-Dispute-Settlement mechanism. Parliamentarians also warned the EU executive to be prepared to jointly withdraw from the treaty by the end of 2020, if the negotiations for its modernisation fail.

MEPs and diplomats from the German EU presidency will return to the negotiating table on Thursday over rules on linking EU funds to respect for rule of law - a key political hurdle to greenlighting the long-term EU budget and Covid-19 recovery package, in parallel discussions. Negotiators were close to sealing a deal last week, but disagreements over a time-limit for member states in deciding on sanctions were too severe.

Leaders in Europe condemned the terror attack in Vienna, with Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz calling it "not a conflict between Christians and Muslims or between Austrians and migrants... [but] a fight between civilisation and barbarism."

Civil organisation say that Hungarian authorities tasked with coordinating EU funds have denied an NGO funding over noncompliance with the controversial law - which has already been struck down by the European Court of Justice.

The EU is not a club of democracies anymore. The Hungarian and Polish governments provide real-life lessons on how to destroy democracy's institutions, and they have plenty of eager students. Any attempt to paint a different picture would be hypocritical.

In the EU, only Portugal, Poland, Lithuania and Slovenia published all contracts signed by public authorities. Most countries held back information on prices paid, arguing it was necessary to preserve secrecy in order not undermine negotiations.

Uzbekistan applied for the EU's highly-prized 'Generalised Scheme of Preferences' trade tool in June this year - but despite some improvements the central Asian country still falls woefully short of these requirements.

If Joe Biden is elected tonight, there will be a sigh of relief in most European capitals. However, that should not blind us to the fact that the Biden presidency will not be a walk in the park for Europeans.

Anwar Gargash, the United Arab Emirates' minister of state for foreign affairs, said French president Emmanuel Macron was not isolating Muslims in light of social turmoil following the beheading of a French teacher in Paris and the stabbing deaths in Nice. "[Muslims] have to listen carefully to what Macron [has] said ... He doesn't want to isolate Muslims in the West, and he is totally right," Gargash told Die Welt.

An US official who later tested positive for Covid-19 had met with his European counterparts despite showing symptoms, reports the New York Times. Peter Berkowitz, a senior department official, had held face-to-face meetings with British officials and French diplomats before flying back to the US. His two week October tour also included Budapest. "What's the cost to America's image if we infect our foreign interlocutors?", said another US official.

The UK's Nigel Farage has rebranded his Brexit Party as an anti-lock down party called Reform UK as he rails against measures meant to prevent the spread of the pandemic caused by Covid-19. "It's time to end the political consensus that there is no alternative to shutting people up in their homes," he said in an op-ed in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Mass-scale pro-democracy protests in Belarus continued over the weekend after rigged elections on 9 August, despite ongoing police violence, with opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya urging the EU to ramp up sanctions. Europe should blacklist "people and companies supporting [president Alexander] Lukashenko," as well as his officials, she told the Financial Times on Sunday. She also called for visa-free EU travel for ordinary Belarusians to help morale.

Around a dozen were wounded and three people have been shot dead, including a suspected gunman, following multiple attacks in the Austrian capital Vienna. Police say a second suspected gunman is on the run. Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz called it a "repulsive terror attack". His interior minister described the suspects as an "Islamist terrorist".

The EU Parliament suspended MEPs' €323 daily allowance due to the Brussels pandemic. But neo-Nazi MEP Ioannis Lagos finds that unfair and wants parliament to create "a central register in a Covid-19-free place" so he can still pocket the funds.

A new report warned that the gas reserves over which Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, and the EU are currently embroiled could lead to an increase of greenhouse gas emissions that could undermine the bloc's climate goals for both 2030 and 2050.

The US goes to the polls on Tuesday in a vote that could normalise transatlantic relations, or, in the worst case scenario, see the world's only democratic superpower paralysed by domestic violence.

More than half a million people protested in Poland over the weekend against last week's constitutional court ruling that indirectly, but effectively bans abortion.

Polish president Andrzej Duda said Friday he will table a bill allowing abortions if the child is not expected to live after birth, but not in case of Down's syndrome. The move would soften a court ruling from last week, banning all abortions on grounds of 'foetal defects', which prompted mass protests by women over the past seven days, and a plunge in the ruling party's approval rating.

The European Commission has given Poland two months to comply with demands to scrap a law it says harms judicial independence, or face potential court action. The law, from last December, stops Polish judges from referring certain questions to the EU tribunal in Luxembourg for advice. The commission, also Friday, threatened legal action if Poland did not comply with an EU court order to scrap a politically-biased judicial disciplinary chamber.