Euobserver.com

Eurozone finance ministers favoured opening the purse strings of the European Stability Mechanism, an anti-financial crisis fund, instead of issuing joint bonds as a way of soothing the economic fallout of the pandemic. But they did not agree either way in a two-hour videoconference on Tuesday, with the Netherlands and Germany opposed to bonds. "We still need more work," Mário Centeno, the EU's eurozone group chairman said.

Cybercrime and cyberattacks have increased due to the coronavirus outbreak. As a result, the World Health Organization, hospitals and research centres are being targeted by organised cybercriminals - searching for information, intelligence, and systems access.

As Li Wenliang, the deceased Chinese doctor who was reprimanded for reporting on the virus, said: "There should be more openness and transparency".

The European Parliament's internal decision making-body, the Bureau, is set to decide on whether MEPs should continue to receive a daily €323 lump sum despite working from home.

Legal limitations means the European Commission's role when it comes to tackling the Covid-19 pandemic is broadly limited to coordination and support. It is up to member states to work together.

Concern is growing that emergency powers deployed to control the coronavirus pandemic will be used to erode democracy and civil rights.

The coronavirus crisis resembles a medieval morality play. Either save as many people as possible - or keep the economy going at the cost of thousands of lives.

The EU has agreed to open accession talks with two Western Balkan states in a "strategic" move to be rubber-stamped on Wednesday (25 March).

The EU Commission said on Tuesday that it had received bids from undisclosed producers that offered to sell the EU face masks, goggles, overalls and other essential medical equipment in the fight against coronavirus. The commission launched a joint procurement on behalf of 25 of the 27 EU states a month ago. The gear should be available two weeks after EU governments sign contracts with the bidders, the commission said.

The European parliament's civil liberties, justice and home affairs committee has called for the evacuation of 42,000 people on the Greek islands as "an urgent preventive" measure to avoid "many deaths" from coronavirus, the Guardian writes. "Many of those in the camps are already in precarious health situations due to the bad conditions," Juan Fernando López Aguilar, who chairs the committee, wrote in a letter.

The number of coronavirus cases in Italy could be 10 times higher than the official figure, Reuters reported. "A ratio of one certified case out of every 10 is credible," the head of the Italian Civil Protection Agency, Angelo Borrelli, told La Repubblica newspaper on Tuesday, indicating that about 640,000 people could be infected. This week the Italian government imposed harsher measures to force people to stay at home.

The EU Parliament's civil liberties committee warned the Hungarian government that any extraordinary measure adopted in response to the coronavirus pandemic must respect the EU's founding values. "We are aware that member states have a responsibility to take protective measures in these difficult times, but these measures should always ensure that fundamental rights, rule of law and democratic principles are protected," MEP Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar said in a statement.

The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) launched on Tuesday a platform to help local and regional authorities exchange information during the coronavirus outbreak. This initiative is part of an action plan that will "allow to better targeting local communities' healthcare needs and to address the social and economic aspects of the pandemic and their impact on local and regional authorities," said the president of the CoR, Apostolos Tzitzikostas.

Spanish authorities announced on Tuesday that a Madrid ice rink has been transformed into a makeshift mortuary as the number of death for coronavirus keeps growing every day. Spain is the second-most affected country in the EU after Italy, with about 2,700 deaths and nearly 40,000 confirmed cases. Health workers account for nearly 14 percent of the cases reported in the country.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed on Tuesday that the Olympics Games in Tokyo have been postponed due to the coronavirus. The IOC president Thomas Bach and the Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe concluded that the Olympics Games must be postponed to no later than summer 2021 "to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community."

Finland's former president, Martti Ahtisaari, has been diagnosed with coronavirus, according to a statement from the office of the president, reported Finnish public broadcaster Yle. Ahtisaari's test results were confirmed on Monday. His wife, Eeva Ahtisaari, confirmed last Saturday that she had tested positive for the coronavirus. Both are 82 years old.

German regional state premier Michael Kretschmer said Monday that hospitals in the cities of Dresden and Leipzig will take on at least six Italian coronavirus patients who are unable to receive treatment in their own country, AFP reported. "In Italy they are now making an ethically very difficult decision (...) choosing six people to be put in the aeroplane," Kretschmer said, adding that this is "an important sign" of solidarity.

About 1.7bn people - one-in-five people around the world - are under lockdown and have been ordered to stay home to halt the spread of the coronavirus outbreak, the Guardian reported. As of Tuesday, 378,679 cases of Covid-19 and 16,500 deaths have been registered worldwide, while 101,000 people have recovered. Meanwhile, Chinese authorities announced travel restrictions in Hubei province would be lifted this week, except for Wuhan.

EU states' ambassadors have provisionally agreed to open accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia, ending months of uncertainty after France vetoed it last year. Ambassadors took the step Monday, with EU affairs ministers to discuss it Tuesday, prior to adopting the move by so-called written procedure. North Macedonia was due to hold snap elections over its EU bid in 12 April, but these were postponed due tot he virus.

The UK closed shops selling "non-essential goods", playgrounds, libraries, and churches on Monday as prime minister Boris Johnson spoke of a "national emergency" due to coronavirus. Police will also enforce new rules on staying home, except for daily exercise, medical care, and essential work and shopping. France limited home-excursions to once a day, in a 1km radius, and one hour duration. The measures could last several weeks, it said.