Euobserver.com

The European Commission will aim to publish its first annual rule of law report in all 27 member states later in the year during the German EU presidency, justice commissioner Didier Reynders told MEPs on Tuesday. The report would focus on the independence of judiciary, corruption, and media pluralism and could feed into budget conditionality, as part of the EU executive's efforts to check rule of law backsliding.

MEPs gave their initial backing on Tuesday to a free trade agreement with Vietnam in the parliament's trade committee. They supported the agreement by 29 votes to six, opening the way to a vote in the full plenary so that the deal could then enter into force on a provisional basis. However, critics have expressed concern over Vietnam's record on human and labour rights.

Environmental activist Greta Thunberg urged global leaders on Tuesday to end fossil-fuel based production, subsidies, and investments during her speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos. "This is not about right and left. We couldn't care less about your party politics," she said, adding that "no political ideology or economic structure has managed to tackle the climate and environmental emergency".

French finance minister Bruno Le Maire said on Tuesday that negotiations with the US on taxing digital companies "remained difficult," Reuters writes. However, French president Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that he had a "great discussion" with US president Donald Trump and that both countries will work collaboratively to avoid a rise in tariffs after the US threatened sanctions against France.

In an open letter sent on Tuesday to MEPs, 84 civil society organisations called on parliamentarians to reject the Projects of Common Interest (PCI) list due to its support for big gas infrastructure. "The latest PCI list still contains over 55 costly gas transmission projects," said the letter, adding that fossil gas projects have received over €1.6bn of EU taxpayers' money since 2014.

EU foreign ministers decided to revive Operation Sophia, a naval mission originally intended to stop illegal migration in the central Mediterranean, to enforce a UN arms embargo on Libya. "The mandate of Operation Sophia will be to refocus especially on the issue of the embargo ... it will require satellite and air tools ... not included in the old Operation Sophia," EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said on Monday.

Gibraltar, the UK exclave in Spain, cannot be part of the EU's passport-free 'Schengen' travel area after Brexit, despite calls by some Gibraltar officials for special arrangements, Britain has said. "The UK, including Gibraltar, is not part of the borderless Schengen zone," a UK government spokesman told the BBC. About 15,000 people enter Gibraltar every day work and Britain would try to "promote fluidity and shared prosperity", the spokesman added.

China will have to move further than the EU to secure a trade deal due to its bars to market access, trade commissioner Phil Hogan has said. "Meeting halfway won't work for the EU. Our markets are largely open, probably the most open in the world. We ... are demanding a rebalancing of the asymmetry," he said in Brussels on Monday, amid hopes to clinch the pact this year.

In her mid-70s and in ailing health, Regina Hayes still holds out hope justice will prevail after losing her life savings in a Ponzi-like scam linked back to a former EU commissioner from Malta.

MEPs and once all-powerful eurocrat Martin Selmayr just rode the first night train from Vienna to Brussels in support of the green deal, but train ticket prices remain too high.

The EU commission's white paper on AI regulation tries to balance rights of individuals with needs of industry amid global boom.

Danes still fear that EU proposals for a European minimum wage will harm their native systems of collective bargaining.

In 1994, the EU decided that, at least, the employee representatives of a multinational were to meet each other and the management from time to time. In these meetings, management had to inform and consult the employees about transnational issues.

German chancellor Angela Merkel wants her CDU/CSU party lawmakers to wait until the March EU summit before taking a position on whether China's Huawei can take part in the rollout of Germany's 5G network, Reuters reported. Merkel has been unable to bridge differences within her CDU/CSU bloc, with some supporting the Social Democrat position of shutting Huawei out, while Merkel herself has argued against moving toward isolationism.

Bulgaria's main opposition party, the Socialist Party (BSP), has filed a motion of no-confidence against the government of prime minister Boyko Borissov over lack of progress in the fight against corruption, Reuters reports. "Combating corruption is a pro-European policy, not an anti-European one," socialist party leader Ninova said. Chances are low there will be a majority for the no-confidence vote, however.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell will meet with Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido in Brussels on Wednesday, Borrell said in a press conference. Guaido is recognised as Venezuela's president by more than 50 countries including the United States and most European Union members. Last year, the EU said it "fully supports the National Assembly [Venezuelan parliament] as the democratically elected institution whose powers need to be restored and respected".

Green MEP Sven Sven Giegold said the Luanda Leaks scandal, uncovered by a group of journalists on how Isabel dos Santos, the billionaire daughter of the former president of Angola, gathered her wealth, shows how the "European tax avoidance industry is one of the enablers of the parallel system. Law firms, accountants and consultants from Europe are actively helping to hide and launder money," he warned.

The head of the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) Donald Tusk, will present his "assessment" on what to do with its Hungarian member, prime minister Viktor Orban's ruling Fidesz party, at the EPP's next leadership meeting in February. Fidesz was suspended last March after Orban's drift to the far-right. The EPP tasked a committee led by former EU council chief Herman Van Rompuy to make a suggestion regarding its future.

Norway's populist Progress Party decided to leave government after a decision to repatriate a woman suspected of having ties with the so-called Islamic State during her stay in Syria, Deutsche Welle reports. The woman was allowed to return to get medical treatment for her child. The split means Conservative prime minister Erna Solberg no longer has a majority in parliament, but she said she wants to continue with a minority.

Justyne Caruana, Malta's minister responsible for the island of Gozo, has resigned after a paper reported links between her policeman husband and the man suspected of masterminding the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, Reuters reports. "I am submitting my resignation as minister with immediate effect in view of the press story issued, even though I am completely extraneous to it and have no connection to the facts," she said.