Euobserver.com

The European Commission has concluded that code of practice to fight disinformation fails to guarantee enough transparency and accountability from tech platforms like Facebook, Google, and Twitter - saying it is time to go beyond this self-regulatory mechanism.

The consequence of the attacks of 9/11 was not a more united, but a more divided West. Today, divisive and populist leaders are gaining ground. But this year the tide can be turned.

The European Commission will attempt to spin its way out of bearing any responsibility for the disaster that is Moria. Piecemeal efforts to help those in Moria will not resolve a policy Brussels created.

A recent report noted apparel and footwear as the leading exports from the Uighur region - with a combined value of $6.3bn [€5.3bn] representing over 35 percent of total exports.

Sixteen members of German chancellor Angela Merkel's bloc in parliament have demanded the relocation of 5,000 refugees in a letter to interior minister Horst Seehofer, DPA reported. "Germany, if possible together with other EU countries, but if necessary alone, take in 5,000 refugees from mainland Greece," they said. The German government is under pressure to act after the fire at the Moria migrant camp on the Greek island of Lesbos.

The government of the Netherlands has announced they are willing to take 100 people from the Moria camp in Lesbos. Fifty of them should be children, with the other 50 vulnerable people. Germany and France also agreed to take 400 children. The Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos burned down on Tuesday night. Around 12,000 people were living in the camp.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Commission on Thursday kicked off the first meeting of the high-level facilitation council, leading global collaborative efforts to speed up the development and deployment of vaccines, tests and treatments against Covid-19, as well as to improve worldwide health systems. WHO said that the facility is facing a financing gap of nearly €30bn since the United States decided not to join this initiative.

European Commission vice-president, Maroš Šefčovič said in London on Thursday the EU gives the UK government three weeks to drop its internal market bill that would breach international law, the Guardian reports. He warned that the UK should "withdraw these measures from the draft bill in the shortest time possible and in any case by the end of the month", adding the EU is ready to take legal measures.

MEPs on the environment committee on Thursday backed increasing to at least 60 percent the emission-reductions target for 2030 - from the current 40 percent. The committee also supported the creation of an independent scientific body to monitor EU progress, and the phase-out of all fossil fuel subsidies by 2025 at the latest. The European Commission is expected to propose a target of 55 percent next week.

The European Parliament's leadership on Thursday decided to suspend Aung San Suu Kyi from the Sakharov Prize Community, over her failure to defend the rights of the Rohingya people. The move does not mean the prize for freedom of thought, awarded to her in 1990 for her fight for democracy in Myanmar, would be revoked. It excludes Aung San Suu Kyi from all activities of the community of Sakharov laureates.

The US will not sign a UK trade pact if it reneges on its Brexit withdrawal agreement, endangering open Irish borders, as it has threatened, House speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday. "If the UK violates that international treaty and Brexit undermines the Good Friday accord [a 1998 peace deal on Northern Ireland], there will be absolutely no chance of a US-UK trade agreement passing the Congress," she said.

The EU is preparing to lift sanctions on Aguilah Saleh, leader of rebel-held eastern Libyan parliament, in order to help push the peace process forward, Reuters reports. Aguilah is blacklisted by the EU since 2016, being accused of obstructing peace efforts, but now he has become an important powerbroker for a possible accord. "There's a window of opportunity now for the EU to move", one EU diplomat said.

Yousif Al Shewaili, a 21-year old from Iraq who obtained refugee status, witnessed the fires that struck Moria on Tuesday evening. He recounted that at least two people may have died.

Additional 'top-ups' requested by the parliament could amoung to €110bn, an EU source estimated, while member states are giving very limited room for manoeuvre in budget talks with the parliament.

French far-right MEP Thierry Mariani said he is resigning as a board member of the European Endowment for Democracy. His replacement may be Jerome Riviere - another far-right French MEP from the Identity and Democracy group.

Members of the European Parliament's environment committee on Thursday will vote on a crucial report about the new EU climate law. Lead rapporteur MEP Jytte Guteland expects that most MEPs will support at least 60-percent target for 2030.

With the EU's support, Belarus has a chance to shed its 'oldest dictatorship' title and become instead, the youngest democracy in Europe.

Serbia has pulled out of military exercises with Russia and Belarus, due to start Thursday in Belarus, amid the pro-democracy protests there, the AP news agency reported Wednesday. Serbia's decision came "after tremendous and undeserved pressure" from the EU, Serbian defence minister Aleksandar Vulin said. He also complained of EU "hysteria" and "increasing [Western] attacks against our country". Serbia is an EU accession candidate, but maintains close ties with Russia.

Spain's foreign minister Arancha González Laya has announced that Madrid will negotiate with Britain, Germany and Scandinavian countries to open travel corridors to the Balearics and Canaries islands, El País reported Wednesday. Travellers will be exempted from self-quarantine. Spain has asked the EU to consider regional differences as many have classified nearly all Spain as a 'red area'. The country recorded this week in total almost 9,000 new daily cases.

France has blasted the European Parliament's decision to skip this month's session in Strasbourg, over coronavirus fears. "The decision is incomprehensible and was taken in a rather unilateral way ... The prevalence rate of the virus in Strasbourg is lower than in Brussels," French government spokeswoman Gabriel Attal told media in Paris Wednesday. The EU parliament is obliged to hold 12 sessions a year in France under the EU treaty.