Euobserver.com

Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met with US president Donald Trump on Thursday in Washington and asked Trump to play an active role in easing the tensions with Turkey in the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean, Ekathimerini reports. Turkey has concluded maritime borders and defence agreements with Libya. Ankara also questioned the sovereignty of some Greek islands, and is putting pressure on Cyprus concerning gas drillings in the Mediterranean.

Ukraine said on Thursday that its investigators want to search the site of Wednesday's plane crash in Iran for possible missile debris used by Iran's military, Reuters reported. An initial report by Iran's civil aviation institution referred to the crash as an accident and said that the plane experienced an unspecific technical problem. The Ukrainian plane, which was flying to Kiev, went down killing all 176 people on board.

EU Council president Charles Michel urged Iran to stick to the nuclear arms deal and said the EU should play a stronger role in the Middle East, ahead of travelling to Turkey and Egypt on Saturday.

Spain's Supreme Court told the European Parliament on Thursday that the Catalan separatist leader Oriol Junqueras will not be released from prison to claim his seat as an MEP in the next plenary session in Strasbourg, El País reported. Junqueras was sentenced to 13 years in prison in October over his role in Catalonia's failed bid for independence in 2017. He was elected an MEP while he was in custody.

After a telephone call with Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, EU Council president Charles Michel tweeted that the nuclear deal with Iran (JCPOA) "remains crucial for global security." The read-out of the conversation says that Michel asked Rouhani "to avoid posing irreversible acts." The EU wants to continue with the nuclear deal, despite the call from US president Donald Trump to Europe on Wednesday to jettison it.

Frontex, the EU external border control agency, said that according to preliminary figures for 2019, irregular crossings to the EU fell by 6% to just over 139,000 per year, which is 92% lower than the record number set during the 2015 European migration crisis, the Guardian writes. Despite increasing arrivals in Greece, the total number of irregular migration is at the lowest annual level since 2013.

Russia and Turkey have inaugurated a new gas pipeline to the EU, continuing efforts to lock in Russia's best customer.

Croatia wants to focus on economic development, connectivity, internal and external security and a globally more assertive Europe over its six-month presidency - but Brexit and the next budget negotiations may put pay to that.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, warned the UK that future negotiations would be tough and that the relationship between the EU and the UK will never be the same after Brexit.

For many people, Emmanuel Macron still represents the great hope for an open and liberal Europe. So what to make of the French president's growing preoccupation with Islam, terror and security?

Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is one area where the EU has a major opportunity to apply its market power to drive down global emissions, both through methane legislation and diplomacy.

The EU gave €20m in aid to Eritrea, a dictatorship in the Horn of Africa, to build a road and stop the flux of migration. However, this road appears to be constructed by forced conscripts, the New York Times reports. The EU has no means to monitor the project and also decided to increase its aid in 2020 to €95m, funding a system the UN calls "tantamount to enslavement".

According to an opinion poll by Turkish Metropol 53.7 percent of Turkish citizens are still in favour of Turkey's accession to the European Union, while 34.7 percent are against and 11.6 percent have no position. In the group of 18 to 34-year olds, 56.3 percent are in favour. This compares with 54 percent for those older than 55, and 50.9 percent for the age group in between.

The British environment secretary, Theresa Villiers, suggested on Wednesday that the UK could introduce tariffs, under World Trade Organization rules, on imports of food from countries with lower food and farming standards, The Guardian writes. "We want to ensure all our food comes from countries that meet our standards," she said, who added that farming could be a key element of any post-Brexit trade deal.

The Dutch foreign ministry recommended on Wednesday "travel[ling] to Iran only if it is essential" due to the rising tensions in the region after Iranian missile attacks against US bases in Iraq, Reuters reported. "Rising tensions mean the security situation is unpredictable," the ministry said on its website. The Dutch umbrella organisation of travel agents, ANVR, told Dutch news agency ANP that all planned trips to Iran would be cancelled.

The EU and Belarus signed a visa-facilitation agreement on Wednesday that will make it easier for Belarusian citizens to receive short-term visas to travel to the European Union. "These agreements will improve the mobility of our citizens and help build closer links between the EU and Belarus," said EU commissioner for home affairs, Ylva Johansson. The deal is expected to enter into force in June 2020.

US president Donald Trump has said the UK, Germany and France must face the reality that the nuclear deal with Iran has come to an end. "The time has come for the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia and China to recognise this reality, they must now break away from the remnants of the Iran deal or JCPOA," he said.

About 500 migrants were evacuated on Wednesday from a reception centre in Marsa, Malta, after a large fire broke out inside one of the dormitories, the Times of Malta reported. Nine people were treated for smoke inhalation. The reception centre in Marsa hosts migrants while their asylum applications are being proceeded, or they are relocated to other EU member states.

In a statement on Wednesday, US president Donald Trump commenting on Iran's reaction to the assassination of Qassem Suleimani, said "Iran appears to be standing down." He added that Iran will never obtain a nuclear weapon as long as he is president. Trump also announced new sanctions on Iran until it "changes its behaviour". On top of that he called for Nato to be more active in the Middle East.

The EU's border and coastguard agency Frontex on Wednesday said the number of irregular border crossings by migrants detected on the European Union's external borders fell to its lowest level since 2013. The agency said preliminary 2019 data showed a six percent fall in irregular border crossings along the EU's external borders to just over 139,000. "This is 92 percent below the record number set in 2015," it said.