Euobserver.com

"Exploiting the pandemic to create a state ruled under a permanent exception is ... morally unacceptable," Donald Tusk, the head of the centre-right EPP party, said in a letter to members, referring to steps taken by Hungary's authoritarian prime minister Viktor Orban, also an EPP member. Some 13 EU states - including France, Germany, Spain, the Benelux, and the Nordic states - said the same in a joint statement Wednesday.

An already fragile business model for journalism might be dealt a lethal blow in the corona crisis. And the freedom of the press itself is coming under extreme pressure, as governments take swift and debilitating measures fighting the pandemic.

EU countries reported shortages of ventilators, personal protective equipment and testing kits, but also being victims of fraud. Meanwhile, the European Commission has scaled up its efforts to avoid shortages of ani-virus gear and faulty medical supplies in the EU.

The EU's latest navy operation, Irini, designed to counter arms trafficking to Libya, is keeping details on migration rescue procedures a secret. The mission was agreed earlier this week.

Right now, we are about halfway between utopia and dystopia. This is our watershed moment.

Formula 1 engineers have joined American auto manufacturers General Motors and Ford, and French car companies PSA and Renault, in response to a massive global shortage of vital ventilators, France24 reports. The "Project Pitlane" mission takes advantage of "the core skills of the F1 industry: rapid design, prototype manufacture, test and skilled assembly," Formula 1 said in a statement.

Russia has dispatched a cargo plane with masks and medical equipment to the US after Donald Trump accepted an offer of humanitarian aid from Vladimir Putin to fight the coronavirus outbreak, the Guardian writes. The US has more than 188,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus and more than 3,900 deaths. On Monday, Trump said "Russia sent us a very, very large planeload of things, medical equipment, which was very nice."

The European Space Agency, together with the Italian minister for innovation and digitalisation, launched on Wednesday funding to support projects in the field of healthcare and education - citing the contribution that space can bring to fight the coronavirus. "We believe that, in this emergency, space, now more than ever, has to be put at the service of everyone," said Giorgio Saccoccia, president of the Italian space agency.

After the failure of the European Council, a dynamic compromise between Germany and the nine states advocating 'coronabonds' is urgently needed.

The Danish Conservative People's party has called for the the expulsion of Hungary's ruling Fidesz party from the centre-right European political family, the European People's Party (EPP). "For too long we have watched the democratic decline in Budapest!," MEP Pernille Weiss tweeted. The party has sent a letter to EPP president Donald Tusk. Fidesz is suspended in EPP, but a decision on its membership was delayed earlier this year.

The EU has cancelled April Fool's to combat Russian disinformation, it said in a statement. But the cancellation was no more than a joke, it also said.

The 1948-51Marshall Plan provided about €118bn in today's figures in American assistance to European countries. These numbers are dwarfed by prospective needs, and the needs are not just European or American - but global.

Clear-headed thinking becomes nearly impossible under this relentless barrage of bad news and apocalyptic analysis, Ferraris writes - a state of mind he describes as "cogito interruptus".

Berlin's justice minister Dirk Behrendt has said the city is ready to airlift up to 1,500 asylum seekers and refugees stuck on the Greek islands, as German activists collect money to pay for the evacuation.

The EU Commission called on member states not to trample on democratic rules in the fightback against coronavirus - without mentioning Hungary by name. It will monitor all EU countries and discuss emergency measures on Wednesday.

Air pollution has dramatically decreased across Europe following the coronavirus lockdown measures - although experts warn an 'emissions surge' is likely to happen as economies recover. Meanwhile, experts point out the link between air pollution and Covid-19 "underlying conditions".

The EU should press ahead with new human rights sanctions despite the virus crisis, a group of MEPs has said.

Dutch finance minister Wopke Hoekstra said on Tuesday he should have shown more empathy at a meeting of EU finance ministers last week about financial tools to tackle the economic shocks of the coronavirus crisis. "We should have made it more clear that we want to help," he told brpadcaster RTL Z. EU finance ministers last week clashed over joint debt instruments, with primarily Germany and the Netherlands rejecting it.

France said it would pay for hotel rooms for victims of domestic violence and open pop-up counselling centres after figures showed the number of abuse cases had soared during the first week of the coronavirus lockdown, News Wires reports. Gender equality minister Marlene Schiappa said about 20 centres would open in stores around the country so women could drop in for help while getting groceries.

France, Germany and Britain have exported medical goods to Iran, in the first transaction conducted under a trade mechanism set up to barter humanitarian goods and food after the US withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal, Germany said on Tuesday, France24 reports. The German foreign ministry said the goods were now in Iran, adding the Instex trade mechanism would now work on more transactions and on enhancing the system.