Euobserver.com

Hungary will shut down its borders due to the spread of coronavirus, prime minister Viktor Orban announced to MPs on Monday. The government will also ban events as of midnight, close cinemas and clubs. Cafes, restaurants and shops will also have to close after 3pm. Grocery stores and pharmacies remain open. "A very serious wave of unemployment is threatening Hungary," Orban added.

EU Council president Charles Michel has called for another EU summit on coronavirus response coordination by viodeconference for Tuesday, after EU leaders last coordinated online last Tuesday. "Containing the spread of the virus, providing sufficient medical equipment, boosting research and limiting the economic fallout is key" Michel tweeted. EU countries have been taking unilateral measures to mitigate the spread of the virus while the EU urges coordination and common action.

EU financial affairs commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis has dampened UK hopes to settle, by 30 June, the terms of access for City of London firms to Europe after the Brexit transition period expires. "As agreed in the political declaration [added to the UK withdrawal deal], this means proceeding with the assessments, not taking political decisions by that date," Dombrovskis said in a letter to London seen by British newspaper Financial Times.

Islamic fundamentalist group Isis has warned its people to avoid Europe due to coronavirus. "The healthy should not enter the land of the epidemic and the afflicted should not exit from it," al-Naba, the group's news weekly newsletter, said in its last edition, according to US publication Homeland Security Today. Isis is based in the Middle East and Africa. "Cover the mouth when yawning and sneezing," al-Naba also said.

Former Nato secretary general and EU foreign affairs chief, Javier Solana, 77, was hospitalised with coronavirus in his native Spain last Wednesday, Spanish newspaper ABC reported Friday. Solana was doing well and was in hospital for observation only, sources told the Reuters news agency. Solana himself, who now works with several think-tanks, also continued to tweet about macroeconomics and climate change over the weekend in a sign of health.

Spain's King Felipe IV was a beneficiary of an offshore fund called the Lucum Foundation which held €65m in donations by Saudi Arabia to his father, Juan Carlos, British newspaper the Sunday Telegraph reports. The news prompted Felipe IV to renounce his father's inheritance and abolish Juan Carlos' state stipend of some €194,000 a year. Juan Carlos abdicated in 2014 due to corruption scandals, with Felipe IV promising a clean-up.

Belgian political leaders agreed Sunday to form an emergency government to fight the coronavirus. The caretaker government of prime minister Sophie Wilmès (MR/liberal) would receive extraordinary powers to take all measures needed for six months. Several opposition parties - the centre-left PS and Sp.a, the right-wing NVA, and two Green parties, Cdh and Défi - would support the minority government. On Monday, Wilmès will be appointed "formateur" by the king.

Turkey is winding down its two-week operation to aid the movement of tens of thousands of people toward Europe, following a tough on-the-ground response from Greek border guards and a tepid diplomatic reaction from European politicians, the New York Times writes. Migrants at the Greek-Turkish land border began to be transported back to Istanbul by bus this week, eyewitnesses said.

The US administration attempted to persuade a German firm developing a possible vaccine for coronavirus to move its research work to the United States, German officials said, raising fears in Berlin that Washington was trying to ensure that any inoculation would be available first, and perhaps exclusively, in the United States, the New York Times writes. The US reportedly offered roughly $1bn (€0.9bn) for exclusive access to the vaccine.

The democratic engine of the EU - the European Parliament - has closed due to the virus, but one MEP explains how deputies continue to try to work.

Exports of virus-related medical equipment outside the EU will be subject to a new "authorisation" scheme to keep essential supplies in Europe, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said Sunday. "By producing more, keeping it in the European Union and sharing with each other we can protect our health workers and patients and contain the spread of the virus," she said in a short video published on social media.

The EU should impose asset fezzes and visa bans on Russian national Yevgeniy Prigozhin and his Wagner "mercenary" firm, five US senators have said in a letter to the EU ambassador to Washington Stavros Lambrinidis. Wagner was active in conflicts in the Central African Republic, Libya, Madagascar, Sudan, Syria, and Venezuela, the senators said. But its status as a private firm gave Russia "deniability" on "spreading malign influence" overseas.

Seven EU states have sealed their borders to non-nationals over the pandemic, despite experts saying it will do more harm than good.

Six EU states have sealed their borders to non-nationals over the pandemic, despite experts saying it will do more harm than good.

A caretaker nurse with 23 years experience helping the elderly in Brussels is on the front line of a pandemic that has put the country into semi-lock down.

EU economic ministers are set to meet on Monday and Tuesday to discuss economic affairs within the EU and beyond - including the impact of coronavirus. Parliament's committees will also work on new measures to fight consequences of the pandemic.

By 18 March, trade commissioner Phil Hogan wants to sign a deal with the Trump administration which, to add a bit of spice, includes fast-tracking GMO imports in an attempt to please the US farming industry.

Beware the modernisers and saviours - autocrats often play the 'saving democracy' card as they undermine it.

The Belgian foreign office advises "against any travel abroad," because "countries around the world are taking action to contain the coronavirus and end the pandemic. Many have put in place mandatory quarantine measures or have closed their borders. (...) Many airlines are also drastically reducing the number of flights they offer. Consequently, the risk that Belgian citizens get stuck in a foreign country is becoming a lot higher."

Airports will come to a standstill and land borders will be closed by noon Saturday (14 March) in order to halt spread of the coronavirus in Denmark, prime minister Mette Frederiksen announced on Friday. Only trucks transporting goods and people with special permission will be allowed to pass the borders under control of the army. Neighbouring countries and the European Commission were informed of the new measures in advance.