Euobserver.com

The Spanish government and the regional government of Catalonia have agreed to have monthly meetings in Madrid and Barcelona to discuss the situation of the region "within the framework of legal certainty," after their initial summit on Wednesday. According to the head of the Catalan government, Quim Torra, Madrid did not offer a "clear response" to their demands for amnesty and self-determination.

The EU is open to relaxing budgetary rules for countries hit by the coronavirus outbreak, the Italian EU commissioner for financial affairs, Paolo Gentiloni, has said. The rules contained "flexibility clauses linked to so-called exceptional circumstances," he said in Brussels on Wednesday, according to Reuters. There was already "partial materialisation" of the outbreak's negative economic impact, he added, after Italy urged the EU for greater leniency earlier this week.

A Chechen opposition blogger, Tumso Abdurakhmanov, who fled to Poland, defended himself against an assassination attempt by a Russian attacker on Wednesday, he said in a video post. The incident comes after Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a Georgian exile in Germany, was shot dead in Berlin last August in a killing also linked to Russia and after the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy, in the UK in 2018.

The European Commission also urged EU member states to review their pandemic plans and to inform it about their healthcare capabilities in response to the outbreak.

Two pro-transparency campaigners received a €23,700 bill from the EU's border agency Frontex after having lost a court case. Frontex's budget for 2020 is €460m. The campaigners refuse to pay, saying the agency doesn't need the money.

Some 13 Turkish warplanes violated Greek airspace 30 times on Tuesday in an Agean 'Cold War', amid mounting cost of an arms build-up.

Saturday's elections in Slovakia could herald the rise of the far-right People's Party Our Slovakia, or the emergence of a populist anti-corruption candidate, in a country wracked by mistrust since the assassination two years ago of an investigative journalist.

As the European Commission meets the African Union in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on Thursday, prior to a new EU-Africa strategy, the obsolete donor-recipient mentality must be junked, writes European Parliament development committee chairman Tomas Tobé MEP.

Germany's top court ruled on Wednesday that prohibiting assisted suicide is incompatible with the constitution, opening the door for legislating euthanasia in Germany, and allow doctors to provide patients lethal treatment after counselling, DW reported. The court concluded that individuals have a right to "self-determined" suicide. In Europe, euthanasia is legal in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands - although Spain wants to legalise it for terminally-ill patients.

The EU's trade commissioner Phil Hogan has told the Financial Times that a US mini-trade deal is possible. "They have given us 30 days of suspension of those tariffs on Airbus products which will give us that chance hopefully to make some sort of an agreement," he said. The comments follow a visit earlier this year to Washington and broader disputes given US punitive tariffs on Europe's aircraft sector.

The head of the Spanish People's Party, Pablo Casado, said on Wednesday that the bilateral negotiation between Spain and Catalonia would break up Spain's sovereignty. "[Spanish prime minister] is even taking the health minister with him [to talks with the Catalan government] to negotiate with the pro-independence virus rather than implementing measures to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus," he said. The liberal Ciudadanos (Citizens) party also questioned the meeting.

On Thursday commission president Ursula von der Leyen, foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell and 20 other European commissioners are in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for a meeting with the African Union. Von der Leyen said "Europe and Africa are natural partners (...) we share many of today's challenges. One of our main objectives is to turn the green and digital transformation of our economies into opportunities for our youth."

Slovenia's opposition leader, Janez Jansa, can form a new government - possibly giving birth to a new nationalist government led by an ally of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban. President Borut Pahor nominated the anti-migrant Jansa as prime-minister designate, scrapping plans by former PM Marjan Sarec to trigger early elections. Sarec unexpectedly resigned last month, in a tactical move aimed at winning more seats in parliament.

Asylum applications from Venezuela, Colombia, El Salvador, and Honduras - which do not need visas to enter Europe - surged last year, helping to push up overall numbers by 13 percent to 714,000, the EU said Wednesday. Largest national numbers came from Syria (72,000) and Afghanistan (60,000). Syrians stood the best chance of getting shelter (85 percent approval rate), but the 22,000 Venezuelans who applied had a five percent chance.

The US had opened a "window of opportunity" for a "mini deal" on tariffs, EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan has told the Financial Times. "We're in a better place than we were some weeks ago  . . .  With political goodwill on both sides we can do a lot in a short period of time," he said, amid hope that an initial accord can stave off a full-blown trade war.

The EU has joined Sweden in urging China to give access to a dissident book publisher, but its low-level statement did little to make a difference.

"Food and agriculture are at the heart of the ecological crisis. This is one area where doing right by the planet means doing right by people in the most obvious way," said head of policy at NGO BirdLife, Ariel Brunner.

Panic-buying, plus resentment at the media for fuelling the panic, are the paradoxical responses of residents of the Italian towns of Vicenza and Vo', where Italy's first victim of the coronavirus died last Friday.

Talks on the future EU-UK trade deal will start next Monday - but tensions are already high over the EU's efforts to stop the UK undercutting the bloc's standards and London's wobbling position on Northern Ireland.

Residents on the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios have been met with riot police, following protests against plans to erect new migrant detention camps. The European Commission says measures by Athens' authorities must be "necessary and proportionate."