Euobserver.com

The UN high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, warned Monday about possible brutality by law-enforcement forces during the lockdown, Reuters reported. "Emergency powers should not be a weapon government can wield to quash dissent, control the population, and even perpetuate their time in power," said Bachelet, denouncing shootings and detentions in countries that have declared a state of emergency. 15 states are listed as "most troubling", including EU Hungary.

The United Nations special rapporteur on human rights and the environment has said "this is the most important climate change court decision in the world so far, confirming that human rights are jeopardised by the climate emergency."

As debate around the issue of contact-tracing grows, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reveals that the new science of predicting and monitoring population movements is already here – and EU agencies have been testing it on refugees and migrants.

Doctors, nurses, paramedics, carers, cleaners, porters and ambulance drivers are at the sharp end of this pandemic. 8,000 Dutch healthcare workers have tested positive, with several in intensive care. Spain has 24,000 infected care-workers and Italy 16,950, with 150 dead.

EU tourism ministers on Monday discussed the need for common rules and protocols, referred to as "corridors", to make summer travel secure under the coronavirus pandemic, if border controls are to be lifted. Ministers did not discuss possible measures in detail - that will happen once the EU Commission unveils its proposals, possibly this week or next week, a spokesperson familiar with the discussion said.

Italy is the first EU country to seek help from the bloc's solidarity fund, which was set up to deal with natural disasters, but has recently been extended to public health emergencies. Countries have until 24 June to apply. The commission will assess the requests and then make a proposal on aid for the European Parliament and the Council to approve. The fund has €800m at its disposal for 2020.

There is a pan-European systemic issue: from Spain and Italy to France, Belgium, or Poland, harvests are under threat and Europeans are entirely dependent on the hard labour and sweat of foreign-born workers. The elephant in the room? Regularisation.

Boris Johnson returned to work at Downing Street on Monday, after the British prime minister recuperated from catching the coronavirus, which saw him spend three nights in intensive care in a London hospital. Johnson, in his first appearance since he left hospital on 19 April, warned the UK lockdown must continue, and called on opposition parties "as far as we possibly can" to join a national consensus on the pandemic.

The EU foreign service has watered down language about China in a report on disinformation out on Friday. A previous draft of the text, seen by Politico and EUobserver, had prompted Beijing to complain vociferously. The New York Times reported that aides of EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell agreed to censor the text. But an EU spokesman called the report "ungrounded, inaccurate allegations" that contained "factually incorrect conclusions".

In Ukraine's Chernobyl, fires are blazing close to where the world's worst nuclear disaster took place exactly 34 years ago, Deutsche Welle reports. Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky visited firefighters still trying to extinguish the flames. Environmental experts feared the fires could stir up radioactive ash and potentially blow contaminated smoke to the capital, Kyiv - about 100km away from the power plant.

German foreign minister Heiko Mass has warned against restarting tourism too early. "A European race to see who will allow tourist travel first will lead to unacceptable risks," he said in German newspaper Bild am Sonntag. "We must not let the hard-won successes of the last few weeks be ruined," he added, noting that a trendy ski resort in Austria, Ischgl, became a contagion hotspot in March.

A survey published this weekend in France showed that less than half the population - 43 percent - now supported the maintaining of strict "confinement" measures, down eight percentage points from the previous week, the Guardian writes. The French government will announce details of its plan to slowly ease restrictions across the country from 11 May, including the phased reopening of schools, on Tuesday.

France, Italy, and Spain are starting to relax their lockdowns this week amid more manageable infection rates. Italy is to restart manufacturing on 4 May, but schools will remain closed until September. Spain is letting children play outside for the first time this week. France is to announce its exit strategy on Tuesday. Austria, the Czech Republic, Greece, and Portugal have also begun phasing out the measures.

EU ministers will discuss how and when to reopen borders after the pandemic abates, as lockdown-Europe waits with baited breath for summer.

At this time of mutual solidarity, but also anxiety and concern, we must consider the European security and relevant geopolitical connotations. If we fail to do this, we could rapidly slide from a potential 'Rook' to that of a 'Pawn'.

The Berlin-based public relations agency Story Machine has been working with European Commission president Von der Leyen since her days a a candidate for the top EU post. Despite offering the same in-house service, the Commission defended the president's choice.

A decentralised approach to coronavirus contact-tracing apps is starting to gain ground in the privacy debate within the EU and beyond - especially after centralised solutions are reported to pose a risk for fundamental rights.

EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said Friday that there has been little or no progress in talks on state aid and taxation, fundamental rights standards, fisheries, and the framework of the future trade deal. Meanwhile London refuses to extend the December 2020 deadline for an agreement. "The UK cannot refuse to extend the transition and at the same time slow down discussions on important areas," Barnier said.

With his opinion article Kenneth Roth joins what are now dozens of critics to criticise the Orbán government and insult the Hungarian people with the charge that Hungary's extraordinary measures to fight Covid-19 amount to "dictatorship."

The EU commission is double-checking emergency measures in every member state, as fundamental rights have been temporarily abrogated. But Hungary and Poland are problematic, yet no actions are planned.