Euobserver.com

Seventeen World Trade Organization members, including the EU and China, agreed Friday to create a temporary mechanism to settle trade disputes after the US paralysed the WTO's appeals body last month. The contingency step would preserve the WTO's two-step dispute system until its own Appellate Body became operational again, the EU commission said. Washington froze the body, the supreme court for international trade, by blocking appointments for over two years.

The EU Commission on Friday asked the European Court of Justice, the EU's highest court, for interim measures against Poland's new law to discipline judges for criticising the government. Poland's parliament, dominated by the eurosceptic PiS party, passed a bill on Thursday that would allow judges who criticise the government's reforms to be disciplined, including through dismissals. Commission vice-president Vera Jourova will be in Poland next week.

The European Parliament's internal market committee (IMCO) insists humans must remain in control automated decision-making processes, ensuring that people are responsible and able to overrule the outcome of decisions made by computer algorithms.

The moment Europe revels in its carbon free carbon transport system, most of the cars that emitted too much for EU standards will still be driving around for years somewhere else in the world.

French arms sold to Egypt and the UAE risk ending up in Libya despite a UN embargo, as EU powers face a war of "who dares wins".

George Soros, the New York-based billionaire philanthropist demonised by right-wing populists in Europe and beyond, is to invest $1bn (€0.9bn) in universities designed to promote liberal values, he said at the World Economic Forum, an elite congress in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday. The "Open Society University Network" project comes after Hungary's right-wing prime minister, Viktor Orban, ejected a Soros-funded university from Budapest amid an antisemitic and anti-EU hate campaign.

MEPs move to approve the Brexit deal, and EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen and EU council president Charles MIchel prepare to sign it on Friday. The future relationship talks can only start late February, early March.

The EU commissioner for the Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, said on Thursday that member states have a responsibility to implement taxes on carbon to show that emissions have a cost.

Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday in Davos said the country had made the mistake of not being prepared for the arrival of large numbers of asylum-seekers and refugees in 2015. "The mistake was not to have paid attention to create an environment where people can stay in their own country," she said, warning against any sort of repeat in light of the current Libya conflict.

Serbia's president Aleksandar Vučić at the World Economic Forum in Davos said his country still wants to the join the European Union. "We don't see the real alternative to that path ... But, you know, we have been on that path for 20 years already. I think, apart from Turkey, not a single country has been waiting so many years," he said.

MEPs in the European Parliament's economic affairs committee on Thursday refused to back Gerry Cross, a senior Central Bank of Ireland regulator, as a candidate to take over the European Banking Authority. He lost, by 27 to 24 votes, in the committee. The European Parliament plenary is set to vote on the matter again, but as a whole, sometime later this month.

Fiat Chrysler's Jeep Grand Cherokee and Suzuki's Vitara diesel models have breached EU emissions rules, according to Reuters. Under a ruling by the Dutch road authority RDW on Thursday, the models face a possible sales-ban throughout the European Union. "Suzuki must come with adequate improvement measures, or the RDW will begin the process of revoking its European type approval," said the RDW in a statement.

The Germany Trade and Invest (GTAI) agency on Thursday said some two dozen British firms had told German authorities in 2019 they plan to open offices in Germany. "We are witnessing a constant increase in the activity of British companies in Germany," said GTAI chief Robert Hermann, linking it to Brexit. The UK move into Germany is expected to create 680 new jobs, more than the past two years combined.

The UK's Brexit bill received royal assent on Thursday, formally becoming law as the EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Act. The passing of the bill ends a three-year saga since the 2016 referendum where the UK voted to leave the EU by 52 percent to 48 percent. MPs then voted repeatedly against the bill under PM Theresa May, before Boris Johnson's election victory in December gave the Conservatives an 80-seat majority.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday in a joint statement with the presidents of the European Parliament and the European Council, said "any form of racism, antisemitism and hatred have no place in Europe and we will do whatever it takes to counter them." The statement was made in Jerusalem to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.

The share from renewable sources in energy consumption in the EU reached 18 percent in 2018, up from 17.5 percent a year earlier, Eurostat said Thursday. The EU's target is to reach 20 percent by 2020, and 12 member states have already reached their national binding targets. Sweden has the highest share with 54.6 percent and the Netherlands has the lowest with 7.4 percent.

A trade deal with Vietnam sailed through the European Parliament's international trade committee and after its embassy sent MEPs bottles of Moet and Chandon Imperial champagne over Christmas.

The EU diplomat suspected of spying for China had permission to work as a lobbyist, but the case poses questions on whether EU ethics rules work.

'Cybersecurity is not only a security issue, but also an internal market issue" warns the boss of the EU Commission's internet future directorate.

The EU Commission rolled out its proposals for the two-year conference on the future of Europe - but fought shy of any commitments to put citizens's ideas into action.