Euobserver.com

There has been a lack of food and of basic necessities in many Roma households, which were already living in a state of extreme poverty and vulnerability: more than 40 percent experienced difficulty in accessing food.

Most EU leaders want an agreement before the summer break, but the Dutch PM, leading the 'Frugal Four', warned there might not even be a deal then. But the ECB's Christian Lagarde has warned of a "dramatic" economic fall.

The EU has urged the Belarusian authorities to immediately release presidential candidate Viktar Babaryka and his campaign-manger son from pre-trial detention to ensure "a meaningful and competitive political contest". "No potential candidate should be prevented from fulfilling the registration procedure due to politically-motivated restrictive measures," said the EU external action service. Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko has ruled his former Soviet republic since 1994.

Some 369 households have been put under quarantine in Berlin's Neukölln district, the German capital's Covid-19 hotbed, where 70 people have tested positive, and hundreds of tests are pending, Deutsche Welle reports. More than a quarter of Neuköln's population falls along the poverty line, which in Berlin means a monthly net income of less than €1,004, amid mounting reports that socio-economic factors have played a big role in the pandemic.

"In reply to a possible offer [to Serbia] to recognise Kosovo and that Kosovo enters the UN, and we receive nothing in return, except EU membership, our answer would be 'No'," Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić said Thursday after meeting Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in Belgrade. Russia was against "hastening" any deal, Lavrov said. Russia's entry into the debate comes amid an EU-US split on who is handling peace talks.

The Russian government ordered the murder, on German territory, of an exiled Georgian rebel, last year, Germany's federal prosecution service said Thursday. "State authorities of the central government of the Russian Federation" had ordered the assassination, which took place in a park in Berlin in broad daylight in summer, the prosecutor said. It charged a Russian national, "Vadim K.", who was arrested near the crime scene, with carrying it out.

Belarusian authorities have detained the main opposition candidate, Viktor Babaryko, ahead of presidential elections in August, saying he was an "organiser and leader of illegal activities, [and] tried to influence witness testimony". They also arrested his son and campaign manager on tax evasion allegations. Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko has ruled his former Soviet republic with an iron fist since 1994, but protesters are preparing to test his authority in August.

Nato is to investigate French allegations that a Turkish warship targeted a French one in a confrontation over the Libya conflict, which has divided allies.

Although Friday's summit was supposed to be an opportunity for Poland to commit to climate neutrality by 2050 - like the rest of the EU - the coronavirus has postponed that discussion, with domestic elections also upcoming.

Three MEPs received numerous death threats in the Czech Republic for asking questions about how EU funds are being spent. One of them had his entire family under police protection after people threatened to murder his four children.

In meticulous detail it exposes the ways Andrej Babis has obscured the fact he remains the sole beneficiary of his agrochemical corporation, Agrofert and how he has been fraudulently accessing subsidies both on the European and the national level.

EU leaders on Friday will share their takes - online - on the €750bn recovery and €1.1 trillion budget plans, before they try to seal the deal at one or two likely head-to-head meetings in July.

More than 3.3 million EU and European Economic Area citizens have been granted the right to remain in the UK permanently after Brexit, the Home Office has said, according to The Guardian. More than half of those had been granted "settled status", having demonstrated they have been in the country for five years or more. It is estimated between three million and 3.8 million EU citizens live in the UK.

A report published on Thursday by European Agency for Fundamental Rights revealed that 41 percent of EU citizens do not want to share any personal data with private companies - almost double the number compared with public bodies. Additionally, findings show some national differences - 47 percent of users in Belgium and Cyprus do not read online terms and conditions, whereas in Estonia only 22 percent do not.

The Spanish government announced on Thursday a nearly €4.3bn plan to support the tourism industry after the coronavirus crisis halted one of the crucial sectors for the country's economy. About €2.5bn will be grants offered by the government for tourism operators, Reuters reported. The announcement comes a few days before Spain opens its border on 21 June to European tourists. Spain usually receives about 80 million tourists yearly.

The European Commission is in advanced talks with pharmaceuticals giant Johnson & Johnson to reserve or make an up-front purchase of its COVID-19 vaccine under development, Reuters reports. It would be the first deal by the European commission since it was mandated by the 27-EU national governments to use an emergency fund of more than €2bn to strike deals with up to six vaccine producers.

EU leaders are expected on Friday to extend economic sanctions against Russia over annexation of parts of Ukraine until the end of January 2021, senior EU officials said. The sanctions on the energy, financial and arms industry were introduced in 2014. Leaders will hear an update from French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Angela Merkel on the Minsk agreement aimed at ending the fighting in Ukraine.

The EU Parliament has called for the Conference on the Future of Europe, a reform process of the bloc, to begin this autumn, in a resolution on Thursday. The conference was planned to be launched in May, but delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The precise outlines of the conference still need to be negotiated between EU countries, which have lacked a common position, and the parliament.

The president of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, wrote on Thursday to the Belgian prime minister Sophie Wilmès to denounce the "traumatic experience" that MEP Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana suffered from Belgian police after she took pictures of police arresting two black teenagers at Gare du Nord in Brussels. Sassoli condemned the use of violence and urged Wilmès to take necessary measures to address the issue.

The European Parliament adopted on Thursday the taxonomy regulation, a crucial legislation for the Green Deal that aims to boost private sector investment in green and sustainable projects. Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis welcomed the decision. "The adoption of the taxonomy marks a milestone in our green agenda," he said, adding that "it creates the world's first ever classification system of environmentally sustainable economic activities".