Euobserver.com

The Greek government has decided to transform the camps and create "closed facilities", where identification, relocation, and deportation are made easier for authorities.

The EU can hardly criticise Eastern Partnership countries for disrespecting media freedom. Five EU member states, including current presidency Croatia, came below Armenia and Georgia in the 2019 RSF Press Freedom Index. Bulgaria ranked nine places behind Ukraine.

The European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) has published a fresh risk assessment on the new coronavirus and the risk to European travellers to China and Wuhan. The report warns "the upcoming Chinese New Year celebrations at the end of January will cause an increased travel volume to/from China and within China, hence increasing the likelihood of arrival in the EU of possible cases."

European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said in a speech at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday that Europe needs "credible military capabilities" to respond to crises.The EU has already "set up the building blocks of a European defence union," she said, adding "It is complementary to Nato and it is different." She said for Europe "hard power is an important tool...but never the only one."

US president Donald Trump on Wednesday once again threatened to impose high tariffs, as much as 25 percent, on imports of cars from the EU if the bloc does not agree to a trade deal. After meeting EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in Davos, Trump told CNBC that the EU had to make a deal on trade. "They have no choice," he added.

The so-called "three wise men" tasked with advising the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) on whether to kick out Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz from the group propose keeping the Hungarian ruling party suspended until Orban makes gestures towards EPP, German daily FAZ reported. The wise men reported their findings to party president Donald Tusk earlier this week. A decision is pecpected by the EPP leadership in early February.

Residents of the Greek islands Lesbos, Samos and Chios went on strike on Wednesday, demanding the Greek government empty the migrant camps and 'return the islands to its citizens', Deutsche Welle reports. The islanders closed shops and public services and went on the streets with Greek flags, shouting "we want our islands back, we want our lives back". Greece is building new camps on the mainland for these migrants.

The UK's data protection watchdog published on Wednesday a set of design recommendations to protect the privacy of children online. "The focus is on providing default settings which ensures that children have the best possible access to online services whilst minimising data collection and use," the report says, adding that profiling should be switched off by default in services that are "likely" to be accessed by children.

Jacek Krawczyk was on Wednesday nominated by his group to become the next president of the European Economic and Social Committee, an EU body. His nomination to the post comes one day after the EU's anti-fraud office Olaf alerted Belgian authorities of alleged abusive behaviour against staff and members by Krawczyk. His nomination still needs to go to a formal vote among all 350 EESC members in October.

The Greens/European Free Alliance (EFA) coalition group in the European Parliament on Wednesday failed to reach agreement during a "reconciliation committee" on whether to accept the former head of the Catalan regional government, Carles Puigdemont, and a member of his cabinet, Toni Comín, as members. EFA already gave Puigdemont and Comín a green light to join the group. Now all Green/EFA MEPs are expected to vote on it.

MEPs on the parliament's energy committee (ITRE) approved on Wednesday the EU's list of priority energy projects, which includes more than 55 gas projects - now eligible for EU funding under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). NGOs say the projects put the climate-neutrality goals of the Green Deal in jeopardy. "There can be no truly Green Deal with more fossil gas," said Colin Roche of Friends of the Earth Europe.

Italy could be heading for a snap election after deputy prime minister Luigi Di Maio resigned Wednesday as leader of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, coalition partner of the centre-left Democratic Party. The 33-year-old Di Maio faced mounting internal criticism as Five Star plunged in opinion polls and lawmakers abandoned his party. More than 20 lawmakers have left or been expelled since the government came to power last September.

The European Investment Bank, a lending arm of the EU, has said it will keep restrictions on Turkey imposed in light of its gas drilling operations in Cyprus' waters. "Unless there is a change in direction at EU level, we will probably maintain the selective approach [to lending in Turkey] we have had in the past couple of years, at least for the foreseeable future," a bank spokesman told Reuters.

A group of 14 migrants tried to reach the UK by boat from Belgium but capsized near the Belgian coastal town of De Panne, forcing them to swim back ashore. "It's the first time to my knowledge this happens on a beach in Belgium," Bram Degrieck, the mayor of De Panne said. It was "rare" for people to use Belgium to try to reach Britain, Belgian prosecutor Frank Demeester said.

European counter-intelligence services need to "seriously raise the level of vigilance" on Russian spies, UK activist Bill Browder has said after news of a botched operation at Davos.

The Libya case might finally give the EU some strategic clarity. This sounds like a small thing, but EU foreign policy is in such bad shape that it would be a big leap forward.

The commission's draft communication on the EU's two-year reform excercise drops any mention of treaty chages, and remains "vague" on details.

Some say GDPR is the most developed data protection law in the world, but the US has opted for a very different approach - a "voluntary tool" based on privacy risk management.

A Polish official seeking to become president of the European Economic Social Committee, a minor EU institution, could face Belgian charges for psychological harassment after the EU's anti-fraud office Olaf alerted authorities.

The European Centre-Right LGBT+ Alliance demands Germany give up its resistance to the Anti-Discrimination Directive and suggest the commission and centre-right parties exert further pressure on Polish and Hungarian authorities to improve conditions for the LGBT+ community and people.