Euobserver.com

Turkey has said three vessels - the Oruc Reis, Ataman, and Cengiz Han - are to spend 10 days drilling for oil and gas in waters claimed by Greece and Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean in a move likely to redouble calls for EU sanctions. Early results in elections in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus also showed hawkish challenger Ersin Tata neck-and-neck with the more moderate incumbent in a potential new flashpoint.

Police in Belarus used water cannon and stun grenades to break up pro-democracy protests Sunday - the eighth weekend in a row of violence in Minsk after rigged elections in August. They sprayed coloured water on crowds to mark out people for arrest. The EU has said it would increase sanctions, currently covering 40 Belarusian officials, if the regime did not back down and start a dialogue with the opposition.

Lithuania's centre-right opposition party, the Homeland Union, came first in Sunday's elections with some 23 percent, early results showed. They beat into second place the Farmers and Greens party (LVZS), on 18 percent, which had led the previous ruling coalition, in a show of discontent at government handling of the pandemic, as well as economic inequalities. Voters were urged to bring their own pens to ballot boxes, as infections spiked.

The EU is to train Mozambique's armed forces and give humanitarian aid to help stop an Islamist insurgency there, the EU ambassador in Maputo, Antonio Sánchez-Benedito Gaspar, said Saturday, following Mozambique's request for help last week. Rebels linked to jihadist group Islamic State have been fighting in northern Mozambique since 2017, but the country's army has also been accused of human rights violations in the combat zone.

A Russia-brokered ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan has broken down shortly after it was agreed on Saturday.

EU regions were unevenly hit by the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new report. The most economically hard-hit regions were those under strict lockdown measures for the longest - not necessarily those with the highest death-rates or most cases detected.

Talks between the UK and the EU have progressed painfully slowly, but a deal on future relations needs to be agreed by the end of October. MEPs and diplomats will have another go at settling the next EU budget.

With the support of EU institutions, the fossil industry is investing in natural gas infrastructure all across the continent, from Tallinn to Athens and from the Baltic to the Aegean. But does Europe truly need all this natural gas?

The EU Commission wants to reduce cancer rates in Europe. So it's imperative this week's chemicals strategy properly regulates substances that can cause cancer - despite the efforts of the chemicals lobby, which has spent years successfully preventing tough action.

Founded in 2012 by local Greeks, Pikpa is a community refugee shelter on the Greek island of Lesbos. Now Greek authorities are threatening to shut down the facility, which won a UN humanitarian prize award.

The Spanish government invoked a two-week state of emergency on Friday to impose a partial lockdown on Madrid, after weeks of tension with the regional government of the capital, El País reported. Spain's prime minister Pedro Sánchez previously urged the regional government chief, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, to impose restrictions to limit the movement of citizens in Europe's worst Covid-19 hotspot - after a Madrid court had struck down the measures.

Mathieu Michel, brother of European Council president Charles Michel, and himself a Belgian state secretary, has tested positive for Covid-19, the office of prime minister Alexander De Croo said. Mathieu Michel is going into quarantine. The Belgian federal government will not go into quarantine, as the state secretary did not have high-risk contacts with other members of the government, the statement said.

China has officially joined World Health Organization-led Covid-19 vaccine programme, Covax, which aims to distribute 2bn vaccines around the world by the end of 2021, The Guardian reported. "This is an important step China has taken to uphold the concept of a shared community of health for all and to honour its commitment to turn Covid19 vaccines into a global public good," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Friday.

After a lengthy captivity by Islamist insurgents, freed Malian politician Soumaila Cisse, French aid worker Sophie Petronin and two Italians arrived in Bamako on Thursday aboard a Malian military transport plane, Reuters reports. French president Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter that with this the last French hostage in the world was freed.

Belgium's ambassador to the EU noted, during Brexit talks in Brussels Wednesday, that British king Charles II had granted 50 Flemish fishermen from Bruges "eternal rights" to use British fishing waters 350 years ago in 1666, The Guardian reports. The ambassador said it to make the point Belgian-British relations had long roots. Charles II had sheltered in Belgium after a civil war in the UK.

MEPs are requesting additional, new funding of €39bn for 15 EU programs. The German presidency argues that budget ceilings, agreed by EU leaders at a marathon summit in July, will be impossible to change without a new leaders' meeting.

The German EU presidency is striving to sort a political agreement on the migration and asylum pact before the end of the year. In reality, it means two months when factoring Christmas holidays.

A group of 86 MEPs wrote on Thursday to the European Commission urging a ban on all cages for farmed animals, highlighting that over 300 million farmed animals in Europe spend all, or a significant part, of their lives in such captivity. They said many EU countries have introduced national laws going beyond EU standards, while calling on the commission to create a level playing-field for farmers.

Two Belgian regional governments, the Brussels regional government and the government of the region of Wallonia have gone into quarantine after a minister in each tested positive for Covid-19. The minister-president of the Brussels region, Rudi Vervoort, announced on Thursday that he had also tested positive. On Wednesday the Brussels government decided to close all bars for at least one month as corona numbers are rising in the Belgian capital.

A Madrid court on Thursday struck down a government order imposing a partial lockdown on the city and nine surrounding towns, Reuters reported. The court sided with regional government chief Isabel Diaz Ayuso, who had opposed the order, saying it would ravage the region's economy. The court said the restrictions are an "interference by public authorities in citizens' fundamental rights without the legal mandate to support it."