Euobserver.com

The Czech Republic is to stick to an EU scheme for buying Covid-19 vaccines instead of joining a rival World Health Organisation scheme, despite scientists' warnings about hoarding anti-viral drugs. "We're going with the initiative by the European Commission, which is negotiating with producers, and the negotiations are very advanced, we will very soon take part in [an agreement] with AstraZeneca," Czech health minister Adam Vojtech said Wednesday, Reuters reports.

African Swine Fever, a highly contagious disease estimated to have claimed a quarter of the world's pig population last year, has quietly reached worrying new levels in Europe.

European Council president Charles Michel, French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Angela Merkel had each one of them a call with Russian president Vladimir Putin on Tuesday (18 August) on the situation in Belarus, calling for dialogue.

US tech giants Airbnb, Facebook, and Google were among 100-or-so firms targeted by legal complaints to EU data regulators from Austrian data privacy group None of Your Business on Tuesday, alleging they were breaking EU law by sending European users' data to US after courts recently overturned Privacy Shield, an EU-US data security treaty. The campaign was designed to end US "mass surveillance" of Europeans, the group's Max Schrems said.

China's security crackdown in Hong Kong might see European firms leave, the outgoing EU ambassador, Carmen Cano de Lasala, has told independent newspaper South China Morning Post. "We [EU states] have 1,600 companies operating in Hong Kong ... [which] need rule of law, [and] freedom of expression and press," she said. Companies wanted to be "politically neutral", but "people working in financial services need free flow of information," she added.

Zoran Zaev, the man who ousted North Macedonia's nationalist rulers and clinched a historic name deal with Greece, is back in power as prime minister after a coalition deal with the country's Albanian minority party. Zaev resigned late last year after France temporarily blocked opening EU accession talks with Skopje despite the Greek breakthrough. Snap elections due in April were then delayed until July due to the pandemic.

The EU's foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, has "condemned" an ongoing coup in Mali after soldiers detained president Boubacar Keïta on Tuesday, forcing him to dissolve parliament and resign. "This can in no way be a response to the deep socio-political crisis that has hit Mali for several months," Borrell said on behalf of EU leaders. The EU has two security missions in Mali, a transit state for EU-bound migrants.

A Polish town that lost EU funding after it set up a zone free of "LGBTI ideology" will receive government financial support, Poland's justice minister announced Tuesday. Tuchow had its application for a European twinning programme rejected after it passed a motion rejecting "LGBTI ideology". About 100 municipalities have signed anti-LGBTI declarations since last year. Targeting the LGBTI community has become of a focal point for the nationalist Warsaw government.

New talks between the EU and the UK kick off on Wednesday in Brussels on the future relationship. EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier had dinner with his UK counterpart David Frost on Tuesday evening. The two sides remain deeply divided over competition rules, fishing rights, and how a deal would be enforced. Any accord needs to be concluded by October to give enough time for ratification.

France will make face masks compulsory in most workplaces starting from September as it struggles with a spike in new coronavirus cases. It is likely to apply to all shared spaces in offices and factories where there are more than one employee present. Since the July rise in cases, the government has made masks compulsory in enclosed public spaces, while some cities have also mandated them in busy outdoor areas.

In 2019, 146 women were killed by their partner or ex-partner in France, the ministry of interior says, reported by Le Monde. Compared to 2018, there were 25 more murder cases, or an increase of 21 percent. In the same year, 27 men were killed by their partners, putting the total number of partner-killings to 173, or one in every two days.

Britain still believes a deal with the European Union can be reached in September, prime minister Boris Johnson's spokesman said on Monday, speaking ahead of the latest round of negotiations, Reuters reports. "Our assessment is that a deal can still be reached in September," the spokesman said.

European Council president Charles Michel, on Monday, proposed a special summit on the situation in the eastern Mediterranean on 24-25 September. In a letter to EU leaders, he said: "I propose that we allow time for thorough preparation and come back to the topic". Amid growing tensions, Greece wanted to raise the issue of Turkish gas exploration and drilling in a disputed area at leaders' videoconference this week.

After France recorded its second day of more than 3,000 new Covid-19 cases, labour minister Elisabeth Borne told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper that the government was determined to avoid a new nationwide lockdown that would further threaten jobs. "We must avoid a new lockdown at any cost," she said. France's number of new infections was 3,015 on Sunday. The previous day, with 3,310, marked a post-lockdown high.

Cyprus, on Monday, criticised European Union partners over what it said was diffidence amounting to "a policy of appeasement" in dealing with Turkey, locked in a stand-off with Cyprus and Greece over energy exploration in the eastern Mediterranean, Reuters writes. "Unfortunately, we are observing a diffidence from the European Union in taking on a substantive role and adopting policies of deterrence," Cypriot government spokesman Kyriakos Koushios said.

EU leaders plan to send a message of solidarity to protestors in Belarus at an online summit on Wednesday. The EU also wants an investigation into the brutal crackdown of protests.

EU leaders plan to send a message of solidarity to protestors in Belarus at an online summit on Wednesday. The EU also wants an investigation into the brutal crackdown of protests.

The past six months of Covid-19 response have changed the EU, but has it learnt the lessons for the crises left to come - migration, conflict, and a second wave?

As the numbers of infections by coronavirus are going up again, France and Italy are taking extra measures to fight the virus. Italy has closed nightclubs and imposed the wearing of face masks in public places from 6AM until 6PM. In France, face masks are mandatory in its two largest cities, Paris and Marseille, since the country counted 3,000 new coronavirus cases a day on two consecutive days.

EU leaders are holding an extraordinary summit online on Wednesday on Belarus, where hundreds of thousands protest the fraudulent re-election of longtime president Alexander Lukashenko. European Council president Charles Michel called for the special summit, saying in a tweet that "the people of Belarus have the right to decide on their future and freely elect their leader". MIchel added: "Violence against protesters is unacceptable and cannot be allowed."