Euobserver.com

The EU's highest court has issued an injunction against a judicial disciplinary board in Poland after the European Commission said it was politically-biased and could be used to stop Polish judges referring cases to European courts. The first Polish judge to face the board was to have been Igor Tuleya, a fierce government critic who risks prison over alleged procedural infractions, but his case was postponed due to the pandemic.

EU finance ministers will continue discussions on plans to offset the economic shock caused by the coronavirus pandemic - after failing to bridge deep divides over how to manage debt.

In repointing Europe's approach to industrial policy, some policymakers have prized China as an example to follow. Luckily, the European Commission is moving towards a European approach.

From the Netherlands to Italy, refugees and asylum seekers are stepping forward to help in the fight against the pandemic. Some are trained doctors, others are cleaners, while others help out the homeless on Europe's streets.

Welcome to the Hobbesian jungle of international anarchy.

Belgium has the most overcrowded prisons in the EU, according to a report by the Strasbourg-based human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe. Prisons in Austria, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, and Romania are also severely overcrowded.

EU and member states should increase support to victims of domestic violence during the coronavirus crisis, the EU parliament's women's rights committee said Tuesday. New help could include simple ways to alert police, such as text messages, online chats, the use of code words with doctors or pharmacists, and more places in shelters. Cases of domestic violence rose by a third globally in the week after the lockdown.

The EU's Agency for Fundamental Rights has warned that Roma inequality and discrimination is growing due to the coronavirus outbreak. Meanwhile, the EU Commission will present a strategy for Roma equality to tackle discrimination.

"Luxembourg will welcome next week 12 unaccompanied minors currently on the Greek islands of Lesvos and Chios," said Luxembourg's interior minister Jean Asselborn, in a statement. The dozen are among the 1,600 places pledged by eight EU states to help decongest the overcrowded islands. According to the latest figures released by the Greek government on 6 April, Lesvos has 20,952 migrants, while Chios has 5,595.

Thirteen national delegations in the EU parliament from the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) Tuesday called for suspending Hungary's ruling Fidesz from the group, after the government was granted sweeping powers. Benelux, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Portuguese, Polish, Maltese, Lithuanian, Czech, Slovak, Estonian MEPs, with the support of Irish MEPs, signed the letter to group leader Manfred Weber. Fidesz is suspended in EPP but countiues to work with the parliamentary group.

The Facebook-owned app WhatsApp will impose a strict new limit on message-forwarding to slow disinformation spreading and the dissemination of fake news, The Guardian reported on Tuesday. Under the new rules, when a user receives a message that has been forward more than five times, they will only be able to send it to one single chat at the time - which represents one-fifth of the previous limit.

Mauro Ferrari resigned on Tuesday as the president of the European Research Council, saying that he has "lost faith in the system". "I have been extremely disappointed by the European response to Covid-19," said Ferrari in a statement published by the Financial Times. Ferrari proposed to establish a special programme to fight the coronavirus outbreak, but it was rejected unanimously "without even considering what shape or form it may take".

EU peacekeeping missions overseas, such as Althea in Bosnia or Atalanta in the Indian Ocean, were "continuing operational tasks," despite the virus, the European Commission has said, but some military and police training courses had been scaled back. There were two cases of infection in Althea and one in Atalanta, it said Tuesday. The EU has 5,000 personnel in 17 ongoing operations mostly in Africa and the Middle East.

The EU is planning to ask industry what it thinks of potential new safeguard measures to protect businesses from future pandemics, according to a draft consultation paper seen by Reuters. "It is important ... to buffer against the risk of future pandemics," the European Commission said, referring to potential new capital requirements. "Biodiversity loss" also had a "growing negative impact ... on companies' profitability and long-term prospects," the commission added.

Authorities in Paris have banned outside exercise between 10:00AM and 19:00PM local time from Wednesday, after politicians complained that the streets of the French capital still featured a lot of people jogging during quarantine, Reuters reported. "We are still in a worsening phase of the epidemic," the health minister, Olivier Véran, told broadcaster BFMTV. France has one of the highest death tolls worldwide.

Two teams of European doctors and nurses, from Romania and Norway, on Tuesday were sent to Milan and Bergamo through the EU civil protection mechanism, to help to fight the coronavirus outbreak. Austria also offered over 3,000 litres of disinfectant to Italy via this mechanism. "This is EU solidarity in action," said the commissioner for crisis management, Janez Lenarčič, who said that similar aid will be sent to Spain soon.

We are experiencing the first global pandemic unfolding in the 24/7 news cycle and taking its toll, in real time, on our daily lives, our financial security and the global economy.

Lawmakers from Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party have pushed through measures to ensure that the 10 May presidential election goes ahead, despite the coronavirus lockdown. On the second attempt, PiS MPs forced through measures in parliament to conduct the election by mail. Opposition parties want a postponement, and the deputy PM resigned in protest. PiS-ally and incumbent president Andrzej Duda is set to win the election.

Miroslav Marcek has been sentenced to 23 years in jail for killing Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée. Both were shot dead in early 2018. Kuciak was working at news media outlet aktuality.sk, where he was probing links between corrupt businessmen in Slovakia, EU subsidy and VAT fraud, Italy's 'Ndrangheta mafia and ties to Slovak politicians.

A new report from the World Health Organization published on Tuesday reveals gaps in the nursing workforce and calls for increased investment in nursing education, jobs, and leadership. Although there are about 28 million nurses worldwide and 90 percent are female, it found only a few nurses are in senior health leadership positions. "Nurses are the backbone of any health system," said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom.