Euobserver.com

The director of one of Brussels' European schools, Micheline Sciberras, said in a statement on Wednesday that the group had decided to suspend obligatory regular attendance of pupils and suspend lessons in situ in all European Schools, starting from Monday March 16 to March 29, adding this decision "has not been taken lightly, and been a consultative one."

Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, is to conduct enhanced surveillance on a faction of the AfD far-right political party, called Flügel, after designating it a threat to national security. The faction, led by anti-migrant and antisemitic MP Björn Höcke, has some 7,000 members, including Nazi sympathisers. The BfV move comes after a white gunman with extremist views killed nine people in shisha bars in Hessen.

The EU's only response so far is to work with Greece to strengthen the border into south-east Europe - a short-term measure which fails to deal with Turkey's intention to pressure the EU into supporting its wider agenda in Syria.

Leading EU officials have said the US was wrong to have "unilaterally and without consultation" imposed a travel ban on 26 EU states over the pandemic. "Coronavirus is a global crisis, not limited to any continent, and requires cooperation rather than unilateral action," European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president Charles Michel said on Thursday. The EU was "taking strong action" on the virus, they added.

Italy's government has ordered all shops, bars and restaurants across the entire country to close. Italy's death toll due from coronavirus rose by 31 percent in the space of 24 hours to a total of 827. Only those selling "basic necessities", such as pharmacies and supermarkets, can remain open. Prime mInister Giuseppe Conte asked people not to "rush to the supermarkets" as shelves would be restocked as normal.

The US has blocked entry to people from 26 European states, but not the UK, over the coronavirus pandemic US president Donald Trump said Wednesday. "To keep new cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from Europe," he said. The ban is to come into force Friday for 30 days and apply to anybody who had visited Europe's passport-free Schengen zone in the past two weeks.

The EU's new Africa strategy promises relentless support for "a comprehensive continent-to-continent free trade area" - and ignores the risks posed by trade liberalisation where labour, fiscal and social regulation is immensely diverse and sometimes weak.

Revelations by the New York Times that Greece is running a black site where asylum seekers are detained, denied legal rights and then deported, will not be probed by the European Commission.

British minister Michael Gove said on Wednesday that face-to-face meetings for the second round of negotiations on the future relationship between the UK and the UE could be hit by the spread of the coronavirus, Reuters reported. "It is a live question (…) We have had indications today from Belgium that there may be specific public health concerns," he said. However, the commission said that the schedule has not changed.

A German court has for the first time rejected a request to extradite a suspect to Poland, over concerns about judicial independence in the fellow EU member state, AFP reported. Judges at the court in Karlsruhe said there was a "high probability" that an extradition "would prove to be illegal, at least for the moment, because of current developments in Poland related to the 'justice reform'."

Police in Slovakia detained a dozen judges on Wednesday as part of an investigation into the murder of a journalist and his partner in 2018, which unleashed years of protests over corruption. The judges could face charges of corruption, abuse of power, and interference in the independence of the courts. Among those detained were the vice president of the Supreme Court, and a former deputy justice minister.

The US is pushing Kosovo and Serbia to make a peace deal, over a year after the last EU-led talks took place.

EU countries have introduced partial travel bans, shut down schools, sports and cultural events, closed cinemas and theatres in an effort to slow down the spread of covonavirus. Fears over the economic turmoil also grow.

EU countries have introduced partial travel bans, shut down schools, sports and cultural events, closed cinemas and theatres in an effort to slow down the spread of covonavirus. Fears over the economic turmoil also grow.

A new circular economy strategy was adopted on Wednesday intended to strengthen the EU's economy, empower consumers and protect the environment. However, it fails to set targets for the EU's so-called 'material footprint' and waste reduction for specific waste streams.

"This is the worst crisis Italy has had to face since the end of the Second World War" says Emanuele Felice, professor of economic history at the University of Chieti-Pescara, and economic advisor to Italy's Democratic Party.

"This is the worst crisis Italy has had to face since the end of the Second World War" says Emanuele Felice, professor of economic history at the University of Chieti-Pescara, and economic advisor to Italy's Democratic Party.

The World Health Organisation, a UN body, on Wednesday officially declared Covid-19 a global pandemic. "This is the first pandemic caused by coronavirus," said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. It had initially in January declared the outbreak as a global health emergency. The virus has so far killed over 4,000 people and spread across some 114 countries.

Two Turkish F-16 jet fighters on Wednesday were spotted flying at low altitude of about 150m over the Greek land border at Evros, where thousands of migrants and asylum seekers have gathered in the past week to cross. A second pair of Turkish fighters was then spotted later at a much higher altitude flying over islets in the central Aegean sea, reports Greek media outlet Ekathimerini.

The EU commission has published new ideas on how to help industry handle the digital revolution, but decarbonisation and 2050 climate goals took second place.