Euobserver.com

US president Donald Trump's decision to defund the World Health Organisation was unjustifiable, the EU's foreign policy chief has said. "Deeply regret US decision to suspend funding to WHO. There is no reason justifying this move at a moment when their efforts are needed more than ever," Josep Borrell said on Twitter on Wednesday. Trump explained his decision by accusing the WHO had helped China to cover up the outbreak.

Germany, Europe's leading economy, is to gradually reopen for business Monday, German chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday. "We must learn how to live with this virus," she said. Schools and shops with a large surface area of 800 square metres or more will reopen first, but restaurants and bars will stay closed and public events will remain cancelled. Belgium is to also reopen DIY and gardening shops on 3 May.

Around half of the 600 residents have tested positive for Covid-19 at the Ellwangen camp in Baden-Wurtenburg, in southern Germany. Camp residents, many of them families, are forced to share facilities with those infected as police impose a lockdown.

If the new challenge for democracies at the time of Covid-19 is to avoid mass surveillance and authoritarianism, Rome seems to be much less equipped than Berlin.

The coronavirus outbreak has been a pretext for government censorship and a crackdown on journalists, who have been exposed to new criminal charges as well as violent attacks.

The Commission argues that by using the next EU budget to leverage money guaranteed by member states, it could both circumvent the tricky issue of 'coronabonds' and allow larger overall investment.

The coronavirus outbreak exposed the need to transform the EU's farming and food systems, to a more sustainable agricultural system that can be resilient to future shocks. The long-anticipated 'Farm to Fork' strategy can make this difference, campaigners say.

Half-open schools, masks, no mass events, mobile tracing apps, online working, and a slow and gradual opening of borders - this is what Europe can expect in the next year.

The EU will host an online conference on 4 May for governments and organisations to pledge money to support the search for a vaccine to the coronavirus, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday. "I hope that countries and organisations all over the world will respond to this call," she said. The commission did not reveal the exact target amount but said around €8bn would be needed.

Renew Europe on Wednesday urged a discussion in the European Parliament on the practical and ethical implications of tracing apps used as part of the Covid-19 pandemic response. "Full transparency will be of the essence regarding the decision-making process, special (commercial) interests and technical aspects (open source), in order to make sure that European citizens gain trust in such systems," they said in a statement.

The European Court of Auditors warned on Wednesday that mitigating the coronavirus crisis using European structural and investment funds to help member states requires both flexibility and accountability. The European Commission must monitor the situation "to ensure the temporary and exceptional measures are in place only as long as the extraordinary situation requires," they say. This proposal is currently being discussed in the EU Parliament and Council.

The Bulgarian health minister Kiril Ananiev said on Wednesday that the Balkan country will start large-scale testing for coronavirus, after tackling a shortage of testing kits, Reuters reported. "We will start massive testing of Bulgarians," Ananiev said during a visit to the ski resort of Bansko, where authorities are beginning to test residents. Bulgaria is one of the member states with the lowest cases of coronavirus registered.

National airline Finnair is planning to set up a joint venture with Chinese carrier Juneyao Air, Yle Uutiset newspaper writes. Both firms have been cooperating since July 2019. "Despite these immensely challenging times for our industry, we at Finnair remain steadfast in our belief and commitment to China as a key market and to Juneyao Air as a key partner," chief commercial officer Ole Orver said.

Some 40% of people polled in Spain and 38% in the UK have seen some form of deliberate coronavirus disinformation on digital platforms like Facebook or Twitter, according to a new survey in six countries by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford. The figures were lower in the other four countries, down to 33% in the US and 28% in Germany.

EU export restrictions will be limited to masks only from 26 April and will exclude the Western Balkans, according to a draft regulation seen by Reuters. Protective spectacles and visors, face shields, protective garments, gloves, and mouth and nose masks can only be exported to non-EU countries under special permits granted by member states, for now. EU hopefuls in the Balkans had in the past complained about lack of solidarity.

US president Donald Trump, who has been under criticism for his handling of the response to the coronavirus, blamed the World Health Organisation for what he called its failures and said he planned to halt American funding of the organisation, the New York Times reports. "Everybody knows what is going on there," he said, blaming the organisation for a "disastrous decision to oppose travel restrictions from China and other nations."

Poland is preparing to read a controversial new law in parliament on Wednesday and Thursday, forbidding women to have abortions even if the child was to be born handicapped. The president, Andrzej Duda, has said he would sign it. But women's groups and other activists accused the government of using the pandemic to ram through unpopular legislation, with public protests, for instance, currently limited to people honking horns outside parliament.

EU governments seek difficult balance between restarting economy and risking resurgence in pandemic. The commission wants them to coordinate, but some countries are already easing lockdowns.

Most EU countries are organising distance e-learning to support students amid the coronavirus pandemic, but skills and opportunities are not the same among member states.

Some 180 European politicians, business leaders, MEPs and environmental activists have called for green recovery investment packages to develop "a new model of prosperity" after the pandemic ends.