Euobserver.com

The Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar on Tuesday called a general election for 8 February. An election had been expected as Varadkar's Fine Gael party leads a minority government relying on support from independent MPs and a confidence agreement with the main opposition party, Fianna Fáil. Opinion polls project a close race between the major centrist parties, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.

The foreign ministers of France, Germany and the United Kingdom on Tuesday condemned Iran for failing to live up to the nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). "We do not accept the argument that Iran is entitled to reduce compliance with the JCPOA," they said, noting they had referred the matter to the joint commission under the agreement's dispute resolution mechanism.

The European Parliament leader of the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) Manfred Weber said Tuesday that its Hungarian member, the ruling Fidesz party, needs to show with "clear actions" that it "sticks to the principles" of the group. Fidesz has been suspended from the EPP for its increasingly far-right tone and breaking EU rules. "That is what we expect in the upcoming days," Weber said.

The failure of successful integration of migrants and refugees granted stay in Europe puts the entire asylum and migration policy at risk. Member states have to step up their integration policies.

The European Court of Justice's advocate general on Tuesday said a Hungarian law cracking down on foreign-funded civil groups, such as ones linked to US investor George Soros, breaks EU rules. Hungary's 2017 measure "introduces unjustified restrictions" on NGOs that receive foreign donations as it "unduly restricts the free movement of capital", the advisor's opinion said. That law insisted that foreign-funded NGOs must register and publicly display their foreign affiliation.

While the European Union was too divided to help resolve Libya's civil war, Russia filled the gap. It managed to get the fighting parties to Moscow, but without result.

Fewer bees will die in Europe as a byproduct of thiacloprid, also called Calypso and Biscaya - a pesticide made by German firm Bayer and banned by the European Commission on Monday. "There are environmental concerns related to the use of this pesticide, particularly its impact on groundwater, but also related to human health", EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides said. The ban enters into force on 30 April.

Catalan separatist leaders Carles Puigdemont and Toni Comín arrived at the European Parliament in Strasbourg to take their seats as MEPs on Monday, pledging "the Catalan crisis is not an internal matter, it is a European one".

Turkey has embarked on a neo-Ottoman strategy, aiming to re-establish itself as a regional power. This involves simultaneously reaping the benefits of Nato membership whilst pursuing an overtly-expansionist foreign policy, even including a loose partnership with Russia in Syria.

The European Parliament will vote on the withdrawal agreement between the UK and the EU on 29 January at its plenary sitting in Brussels, a parliament spokesperson confirmed. The consent vote will be the last legal hurdle before the agreement comes into effect. MEPs are expected to pass the agreement, and the UK is expected to leave the EU on 31 January.

Greek foreign minister Nikos Dendias on Monday criticised Turkey's activities in the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean, claiming they were leading to Ankara's international isolation, the Greek daily Ekathimerini reported. "Turkey must understand that this behaviour is counterproductive and drives it into isolation," said Dendias, who believes the understanding on maritime borders signed between Turkey and Libya is null and will destabilise Libya and the region.

The European Parliament will propose to start the Conference of the Future of Europe, on 9 May, Europe Day, a parliament spokesperson confirmed on Monday. The parliament is to adopt its position on the two-year post-Brexit soul-searching for the EU on Wednesday. It then will enter into negotiations with member states and the commission on the scope and the objectives of the planned reform process aimed at involving citizens' proposals.

The Greek government has decided to build 10 new facilities to house 15,000 migrants, as new irregular arrivals from neighbouring Turkey continue. Nine of the 10 centres will be built in western Macedonia and one on the island of Crete. The purpose is to relocate people from overpopulated migration camps on the Aegean island as soon as possible. The first 10,000 migrants should be relocated in February.

Miroslav Marcek, a 37-year-old former professional soldier, on Monday said he killed Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee in 2018. "I am guilty ... I knocked on the door. I shot him in the chest," he told the jury at a Special Criminal Court. "Unfortunately, I saw that there was one more person, she ran into the kitchen and [I] shot her there," he added, referring to Kuciak's fiancee.

The human-rights watchdog, the Council of Europe in a report said Italy needs to offer better protection for women against violence. The report assessed Italy's implementation of the Istanbul convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. It also found that efforts to improve gender equality were facing resistance in Italy.

More than 2,500 children have disappeared from refugee centres in the Netherlands over the past decade, the NRC newspaper reported on Monday. Most of those came from Afghanistan, Morocco, Algeria, Albania, Eritrea, Syria and Vietnam. According to the refugee agency COA, a proportion of these children may end up in the hands of human traffickers or in prostitution.

The Northern Ireland Assembly in Belfast has sat for the first time in three years. The body, designed to split power between the Catholic and Protestant communities in Northern Ireland, collapsed after a 'cash-for-ash' recycling scandal in 2017, which saw hundreds of millions of pounds wasted. Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, visited the assembly on Monday, along with Ireland's taoiseach Leo Vardakar, after its first sitting at the weekend.

Catalan former leader Carles Puigdemont on Monday took up his seat as an MEP at the European Parliament, despite objections from Spain who wants him jailed given his role in the 2017 secession bid by the Catalan government. Self-exiled in Belgium, Puigdemont struck a defiant tone, demanding Spain release the jailed former Catalonia vice president Oriol Junqueras. "He should be here with us. He has the same rights," Puigdemont said.

Malta's new prime minister has pledged to "strengthen rule of law" amid EU mistrust in the government over the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

On Saturday, at midnight, Libyan general Khalifa Haftar started a truce on the condition that all fighting parties would commit to the ceasefire. Russia's president Vladimir Putin and Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier agreed on a ceasefire, after the European Union said it was unacceptable that Turkish forces would go to Libya. Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel will organise a peace conference in Berlin in the weeks to come.