Euobserver.com

Implementing new voting technologies and procedures for processing ballots, especially right before an election, can introduce new security risks.

The EU has rejected a proposal from the UK government for a system to reunite children seeking asylum with their families in the UK or Europe, the Guardian writes. EU Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, said it was "not in the EU mandate". According to one NGO "these are unaccompanied children in [...] Europe who have family in the UK and a legal right to unite with those family members."

Spain's health minister Salvador Illa on Thursday ruled imposing a new nationwide lockdown like the one implemented in March, El País reported. "A perimeter lockdown is not appropriate right now," he said. The latest figures indicate an increase of the number of coronavirus cases in all regions - apart from Aragon, Catalonia and the Basque Country. Spain is currently the country in the EU with the highest infection rate.

German chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday faced new criticism over the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will transport gas from Russia to Germany, following the poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny. Norbert Roettgen, head of Germany's parliamentary foreign affairs committee, said that if the pipeline is completed now, "it would be the maximum confirmation and encouragement for [Russian president Vladimir] Putin to continue this kind of politics."

Ireland will put forward two nominees for the EU Commission to consider as a replacement for Phil Hogan as the country's representative on the EU executive, following the trade commissioner's resignation last week, Reuters reported. EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen requested Ireland to nominate both a female and male candidate. Prime minister Micheal Martin said Thursday that a decision would be made on nominees "very quickly."

The European Commission announced on Thursday a strategy for critical raw materials to diversify supply chains and improve resource-efficiency and circularity. The list of raw materials was also updated - adding lithium, essential for a shift to e-mobility, for the first time. "Europe is highly dependent on non-EU countries, [but] a sustainable supply of raw materials is a prerequisite for a resilient economy," EU commissioner Maroš Šefčovič said.

The French government releases on Thursday its €100bn stimulus plan to fight the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis over two years, lining up billions of euros in public investments, subsidies and tax cuts, Reuters reports. The government plans. €35bn for making the eurozone's second biggest economy more competitive, €30bn for more environmentally friendly energies and €25bn for supporting jobs, officials said ahead of the press conference on Thursday.

Covid-19 infection rates in the EU - 46 per 100,000 were almost back to those at the height of the Spring lockdown, Andrea Ammon, the head of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, told MEPs in video-talks Wednesday. "The virus has not been sleeping over the summer. It did not take vacation ... We are almost back to numbers that we have seen in March", Ammon said added.

A story about a gay man who beat depression has seen a Norwegian news website taken offline for well over a year in Russia.

The European Parliament passed new rules last December aimed at greater accountability of the unregulated bodies known as friendship groups. Not one group has since made public any declarations of support, which is a requirement.

MEPs have raised concerns about the lack of coordination and common Covid-19-related criteria among member states - while the EU virus-alert agency said that priority should be given to the harmonisation of test capacities and methodologies.

There are two avenues available for states to ensure that evidence of the abuses by Belarus authorities is collected, analysed, and preserved by impartial and independent international experts.

German chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday said Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny "was to be silenced", and is a "victim of a crime". Merkel said Navalny, now in a Berlin hospital, was a victim of an attack with a chemical agent of the Novichok group. She condemned the attack, saying "it raises severe questions that only the Russian government can answer and will have to answer," she said.

EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said on Wednesday he is "worried and disappointed" by the UK's lack of engagement in negotiations over the future relationship. Barnier said London has not engaged on "credible guarantees for open and fair competition", a compromise on fisheries or a meaningful dispute-settlement mechanism. The two sides need to reach an agreement by October to have enough time for formal ratification.

A court in northern Spain on Wednesday ordered that the descendants of dictator Francisco Franco must hand over the Galician villa, 'Pazo de Meirás', where Franco spent his summer holidays, with the judge ruling that it is property of the state, The Guardian reported. Spain's justice ministry started proceedings in the summer of 2018 after the dictator's heirs put the property on sale for €8m.

Fourteen people accused of helping jihadist gunmen storm French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket went on trial Wednesday, five years after the terror attack, AFP reported. The suspects face charges of conspiracy in a terrorist act or association with a terror group. The three assailants were killed by police. Charlie Hebdo marked the trial by republishing cartoons of prophet Mohammed that had angered Muslims around the world.

A 40-year old recognised refugee from Somalia has contracted Covid-19, making him the first case in the EU 'hotspot' camp of Moria in Lesbos, Greece. The man is now being treated in a local hospital but fears of contagion in Moria have since heightened, given the camp hosts some 12,000 people, but designed for only 3,000.

The German government has said tests on samples taken from Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny showed the presence of the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok. Navalny is being treated in Berlin after falling ill in Russia last month. Novichok is a type of chemical weapon developed by the Soviet Union and Russia, and used in a 2018 attack in Salisbury, UK, against former GRU officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

The name of Didier Reynders, the current European commissioner for justice, is circulating as a possible candidate to take over the portfolio of trade from Phil Hogan, De Standaard writes. Hogan resigned because of breaching Ireland's coronavirus measures. Ireland needs to find a replacement for Hogan, but chances are low it can hold the important trade post. The centre-right, however, would be against the portfolio going to a liberal.

Other institutions should follow the lead of an EU bank agency in preventing improper staff moves to industry, the EU Ombudsman has said.