Euobserver.com

The leadership of Greece's neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party are guilty of running a criminal organisation, according to a verdict by an Athens court. Voted into office in 2012, the party came under investigation following the murder of an anti-fascist rapper a year later. Golden Dawn's leader, Nikos Michaloliakos, and six colleagues were convicted of heading a criminal group. Golden Dawn supporter Giorgos Roupakias was also found guilty of murder.

The European Commission adopted on Wednesday a 10-year plan to support Roma in the EU, including new targets and recommendations for member states on how to achieve them. For example, the EU executive wants to ensure that at least 95 percent of Roma have access to tap water. Now member states will have to submit their national strategies, by September 2021, and report on implementation every two years.

All bars and cafés in the Belgian capital, Brussels, have to close their doors for one month, starting from Thursday (8 October), minister-president of the Brussels region, Rudi Vervoort, has announced at a press conference. Restaurants and sport facilities can remain open if they respect the 1.5m social-distancing rules. The tighter measures come after one-in-seven people tested for Covid-19 in Brussels appeared to be infected.

Some sixty eight members of a Greek neo-Nazi party, Golden Dawn, face jail terms of between five and 20 years if found guilty of crimes, including murder and attempted murder, in a Greek court verdict due Wednesday. The court will also rule if the party itself is a criminal organisation. The Golden Dawn defendants include its leader Nikos Michaloliakos and 18 ex-MPs, who won office in Greek elections in 2012.

There were 1,069 cases of far-right extremism reported among members of German military and 377 cases in its civilian law enforcement agencies in the past three years, according to a report by Germany's domestic intelligence service, the BfV, Tuesday. The real number was likely to be much higher, the BfV noted, adding that even a small group of radicalised officers posed "a significant danger for the state and for society".

The likelihood of new EU sanctions on Russia has grown after international experts in The Hague said opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned by a chemical weapon.

Amazon is leading an assault on workers' rights in Europe, using big data and surveillance to crush efforts by workers to improve their conditions. It's symptomatic of a climate of impunity around breaches of privacy that benefit corporations over workers.

Lithuania has clarified its role in the EU's purchase of surveillance drones for Belarusian authorities, saying it gave money only and paid it out before protests began in Belarus.

A group of 30 MEP from the Interest Group on Antimicrobial Resistance wrote to EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakideson Tuesday advocating for the Pharmaceutical Strategy to integrate the development and access to affordable and quality antimicrobials in a sustainable way. MEPs also highlighted the need to ensure transparency in the pharmaceutical industry throughout the value chain and the importance of addressing market failures in clinical research.

The European Court of Justice ruled on Tuesday that surveillance practices of France, Belgium, and the UK fail to safeguard fundamental rights, since indiscriminate data-retention is allowed under EU law only when the country faces a "serious threat to national security" that is present or foreseeable. The court also concluded that national courts cannot use information obtained from data-retention practices against suspects in criminal proceedings.

Poland and Lithuania have recalled their ambassadors from Belarus. "We've made a joint decision to recall for consultations some of the ambassadors accredited to Belarus," said Polish foreign minister Zbigniew Rau, earlier this week. Both countries are currently hosting exiled Belarus opposition leaders. The move follows a decision by Minsk to recall its ambassadors from the two EU countries.

Lawmakers entering Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, will now be required to wear facemasks or risk a fine of up to €5,000. The new restrictions began on 6 October are set to last until at least January 17, 2021. Masks may be removed only after people have taken their seats and are at least 1.5 metres from one another.

The European Commission on Tuesday said Turkey "has continued to move further away from the European Union with serious backsliding in the areas of democracy, rule of law, fundamental rights and the independence of the judiciary." The statement is part of an enlargement report. The commission also noted that Turkey's accession talks to the European Union remain at a standstill.

The European Union is at risk of failing to meet its plastic packaging recycling targets for 2025 and 2030, due to changes in the EU's reporting rules, plus an international agreement on plastic waste exports.

Two-in-five young Arabs, or 42 percent, have considered leaving their home country and emigrating, the Arab Youth Survey revealed on Tuesday. Fifteen percent are actively trying to emigrate, while 27 percent considered it but is not actively planning it. Some 25 percent of Arab youth say they have not considered it yet, but might do so in the future.

While the ECJ ruling says the Orban government's legislation breaks EU law, it does not change the facts on the ground, which has seen the university already leave Budapest for Vienna.

Two services of European Union's Copernicus programme, implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts on behalf of the European Commission, not only provide quality-assured data but concrete insights to help with crucial decisions.

The member states themselves are the weakest link in the defence of democracy in the EU. They have been sitting on the Article 7 procedure against the Polish government for almost three years.

Anguilla and Barbados were added on Tuesday to the EU list of "non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes", while the Cayman Islands and Oman were removed from the list, having passed the necessary reforms to improve their tax-policy framework. Twelve jurisdictions still remain on the blacklist: American Samoa, Anguilla, Barbados, Fiji, Guam, Palau, Panama, Samoa, Seychelles, Trinidad and Tobago, the US Virgin Islands and Vanuatu.

The EU's top court ruled on Tuesday that Hungary broke EU law with a 2017 law that forced the Central European University to move from Budapest to Vienna. The European Court of Justice said Hungary failed to comply with rules under the framework of the World Trade Organization, which the court deems part of EU law, and provisions of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU.