Euobserver.com

Elio Di Rupo, minister-president of the government of the region of Wallonia in Belgium said he was against a trade deal between the EU and the South American trade bloc Mercosur, adding that he would not give the Belgian federal government the power to negotiate it. The main reason was that South American beef would compete with beef production in Wallonia and its 9,000 beef farmers, he said.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has written a letter to the European Parliament in which he states that the EU will cut pre-accession aid to Turkey by 75 percent, Deutsche Welle reports. The cut is a response to Turkey's invasion of Syria and its illegal gas drilling off Cyprus' coast. It will receive just €185m for strengthening democracy and rule of law and rural development.

The Libya conference in Berlin on Sunday concluded with a "new spirit" to find a lasting solution for peace, German chancellor Angela Merkel said. World leaders agreed on applying a stricter arms embargo to Libya and to refrain from intervening in the conflict. But the warring parties of prime minister Hayez al-Sarraj and war lord Khalifa Haftar refused to sit together at the talks.

About 1,000 EU financial services firms plan to open offices in the UK after Brexit to serve British clients in a sign Britain will remain the continent's banking hub, consultancy firm Bovill has said, Reuters reports. Firms from Ireland, France, Cyprus, and Germany have applied for 228, 170, 165 and 149 temporary permits respectively, to do so already. The investments will offset British firms' opening new offices on the mainland.

The spectre of another peace agreement looms: that of the doomed Versailles treaty, which, by sowing resentment and perpetuating misunderstanding of each other's true ambitions and principles, created more tensions than it dissolved.

The year is off to a rocky start in Vaslui, one of EU's most impoverished regions and Romania's poorest county, where two 12-year olds were found in alcohol-induced coma after having spent their Christmas carol-singing money on alcohol.

Around 7,500 applications were sent to Frontex to fill 700 new border guard posts. The guards will become official EU staff and wear a yet to be unveiled 'European Union' uniform.

MEPs have called on the EU commission to move away from voluntary commitments on biodiversity protection and propose a more "ambitious" strategy for 2030.

The all-powerful will meet in Davos after Berlin tries to resolve the Libyan conflict over the weekend, while MEPs will set the stage for final ratification of the Brexit deal.

The former EU ambassador suspected by German prosecutors of spying for China was Gerhard Sabathil, according to EU officials speaking on condition of anonymity.

EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan said during his visit to the US the EU has "no objection in principle" on cooperation with the Chinese telecom giant Huawei to set up its 5G network in Europe, the Guardian reports. He also said the UK can "call Donald Trump's bluff" on threats to withdraw US cooperation with the UK on intelligence and security over Huawei, referring to the American president.

France is to send its aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, and its battle group to the eastern Mediterranean for the next four months to support its operations against Islamist group Isis in the Middle East, French president Emmanuel Macron said Thursday. The move comes amid a spike in tension after the US killed a top Iranian general in Iraq and after Turkey invaded northern Syria to fight Kurdish forces.

EU states should consider banning facial-recognition technology from public places for the next five years to give governments a chance to assess risks of abuse, the European Commission said in a proposal, Reuters reports. The ban would exempt security services and research projects. EU states should also create special authorities to monitor rules on new technology, including artificial intelligence, the commission suggested in its consultation paper.

European businesses have urged EU institutions and states to press China to play fair on market access. "The EU must reconsider its modus operandi towards China and put more emphasis on reciprocity and conditionality," BusinessEurope, a Europe-wide lobby group said in a report on Thursday. Barriers to investment, curbs on joint ventures, a closed procurement market, and state subsidies for Chinese firms left EU firms struggling to compete, it said.

Israel has sped up demolitions of EU-funded and Palestinian structures in the West Bank amid hawkish talk on taking over the territory.

Counter to popular beliefs among policymakers, the positive effects of support schemes are found to be very limited. In order to revitalise Europe, the newly appointed EU Commission needs to reconsider government's role in innovation and entrepreneurship.

The former head of the Catalan regional government, Carles Puigdemont, and one member of his government, Toni Comín, have requested to join the Greens/EFA group - but they do not close the door to other political groups.

The former head of the Catalan regional government, Carles Puigdemont, and one member of his government, Toni Comín, have requested to join the Greens/EFA group - but they do not close the door to other political groups.

The EU's trade commissioner Phil Hogan said Thursday that the bloc would check to see if a major trade deal struck by the US and China is compliant with global rules. "The devil is in the detail," he said in Washington where he is meeting US officials. "We will have to assess whether it is WTO-compliant," he said after the US and China scaled back their 18-month trade row.

The US threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on cars to push Europeans to initiate proceedings against Iran for violating the nuclear deal, the German defence minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said. "This threat exists," she told a press conference in London. The Washington Post reported that US president Donald Trump had secretly warned France, Germany and the UK that the US would impose tariffs on European cars over Iran nuclear policy.