Euobserver.com

There is a place in Italy where the coronavirus has already been defeated. Its name is Vo', a small settlement of 3,000 inhabitants in the countryside of the Veneto region, about 70km from Venice.

This week Spain hopes it may see the longed-for 'peak' of the epidemic - if measures taken so far prove to be effective in the fight against the coronavirus. Yet the government is set to extend lockdown until 11 April.

Doing EU foreign policy by videoconference works, but legal and security constraints vexed the process, Lithuania's foreign minister has said.

Italy is not the only European country turning to China for help in fighting the crisis, and the Chinese authorities consistently use European requests for self-aggrandisement. Europe should be wary of being used to advance an authoritarian state's propaganda.

The EU commission wants countries to allow goods to flow undisturbed in the bloc, warning that further congestion at borders can lead to shortages.

Ceasefire violations in east Ukraine rose above the daily average for 2019 in recent days despite the coronavirus pandemic and a UN appeal for peace, international monitors from the OSCE said in their last report. There were more than 580 explosions along the contact line, the OSCE said, leaving several people injured, Ukraine added. Russia had detected 438 coronavirus cases by Monday, the WHO noted, while Ukraine reported 73.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday that the coronavirus pandemic is "accelerating" as there are over 300,000 cases registered worldwide, Reuters reported. WHO director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, urged G20 countries to boost production of medical supplies and protective equipment. Meanwhile, the head of WHO's emergencies program, Mike Ryan, warned that Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games would not proceed if it poses a risk to athletes and spectators.

EU finance ministers on Monday backed suspending EU limits on government borrowing to give member states space to fight the devastating economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. EU rules require that governments cut budget deficits and not exceed three percent of the GDP and that they reduce public debt until it is below 60 percent of GDP. The EU is expected to enter deep recession this year.

Trade in counterfeit pharmaceutical products worldwide is worth just over €4bn, according to a study conducted by the OECD and the European Union Intellectual Property Office. It says India and China are largest producers of counterfeit pharmaceuticals, which are primarily shipped through the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Hong Kong. Most end up in Europe and the United States.

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres has appealed for a global ceasefire, in order to be able to fight the "common enemy: Covid-19." In a statement Guterres said "the virus does not care about nationality or ethnicity, faction or faith. It attacks all relentlessly. Meanwhile, armed conflict rages on around the world," adding "it's time to put armed conflict on lockdown and focus together on the true fight of our lives".

A male employee at the European Parliament has become the first known person among EU institutions' staff in Brussels to die after contracting the coronavirus, a source said on Monday, and the parliament later confirmed. The man worked at the parliament's technical services and was in his early 40s. EU institutions sent most of their staff home to work last week as Europe became the centre of the pandemic.

German chancellor Angela Merkel has tested negative for coronavirus, state radio Deutschlandfunk announced on Monday. On Sunday Merkel had announced she was going into self-isolation, after a doctor who had previously treated her tested positive for the virus that is currently ravaging both Europe and the world.

At the moment, Europe clearly lacks a true moral leadership and coordination to deal with this emergency. We, members of Volt Belgium, call on you to stand up and show more solidarity and unity across the EU.

According to Johns Hopkins University, the number of people confirmed infected with coronavirus around the world has passed 350,000, of whom 15,328 have died and 100,182 have recovered, the Guardian reports. The country with the most confirmed infections remains China, with 81,496, followed by Italy, Europe's worst-hit country, with 59,138, then the US with 35,225, Spain with 33,089, and Germany with 26,220.

The European Commission has announced that its Civil Protection Mechanism helped return 1,381 EU citizens since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak. The citizens were repatriated "from Wuhan, Japan, Morocco, Tunisia, and a number of other countries since the beginning of the outbreak," a spokesperson told reporters in Brussels. Belgium over the weekend returned 223 EU citizens from Tunisia.

Swedbank Bank, based in Stockholm, carried out €37bn of transactions with a high risk of money-laundering between 2014 and 2019, according to a report published Monday by Clifford Chance, a UK law firm hired by Swedbank. The scandal was first revealed by investigative journalists at Swedish broadcaster SVT. Swedbank was fined a record €350m fine by Swedish and Estonian regulators last week and is facing US investigation.

The EU Commission declined on Monday to comment on Hungary's draft emergency bill granting sweeping powers to prime minister Viktor Orban's government. A commission spokesman said that any emergency measure needs to be in line with EU and international obligations relating to human rights. He also added all emergency measures should be "temporary" to address particular crisis situation, bit it is for member states to take measures.

Swedish prime minister, Stefan Löfven, on Sunday urged in a direct TV speech his countrymen to react with responsibility and stay home if feeling sick. Stronger measures might be needed, he warned, but Sweden's political approach to the coronavirus remains more relaxed than the harsher measures taken in neighbouring Denmark. Gatherings of 500 people are still allowed in Sweden and only university and higher education has been moved online.

Just five EU states out of 27, as well as the UK, have fulfilled an EU law on transparency on beneficial lowers of shell firms five years after Europe agreed the directive in the wake of the Panama Papers scandal. "It's disappointing that despite having two years to get this right many of those in the EU are still dragging their feet," British NGO Global Witness said, unveiling the research.

Italy has banned any movement inside the country and closed all non-essential businesses as it desperately seeks to stem the spread of coronavirus following a weekend of horror in which more than 1,400 people died, the Guardian writes. More than 5,500 Italians are testing positive every day, with the average age of those dying 78.5. In total more than 5,400 people in Italy died of the virus.