Euobserver.com

The president of Catalonia, Quim Torra, will be prosecuted by the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia on Monday for failing to comply with an order from the Spanish authorities to remove symbols from governmental buildings in Barcelona in April - during the run-up to elections. "A condemnatory sentence is very likely" which could provoke the dissolution of the Catalan parliament and a call for early elections, El País writes.

Despite the neighbourhood's beautiful name, the reputation of Rosengård (Rose Garden) does not so much evoke images of roses as headlines of crime and social challenges. This area of Malmö has been struggling with its notorious, mythical, image for years.

Microsoft announced on Monday that it was updating the privacy terms of its commercial clouds - after the EU's data watchdog (EDPS) suggested in October that Microsoft's contracts with the European institutions fail to meet EU's data protection rules (GDPR). "We will increase our data protection responsibilities for a subset of processing that Microsoft engages in when we provide enterprise services," said the tech company in a statement.

A World Wildlife Fund study revealed that a massive wildfire in the UK in May doubled Scotland's greenhouse gas emissions during the six days it burnt. About 700,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent were released into the atmosphere during these days, reported the BBC. The research calls on the government to protect and improve peat bogs since the quality of this wetland can help to minimise emissions when wildfires occur.

Although the European Parliament tries to keep a geopolitical balance within the committees, the breakdown of the actual chairs of the committees by political party and nationality is uneven - with a clear under-representation of central and eastern EU countries.

Europe's bee population is dying. The number of pollinator species threatened by extinction is increasing each year, and human activity is the main cause.

Western Balkan countries should become EU members via a new, step-by-step process, France has said in a detailed proposal seen by EUobserver.

MEPs will decide on Monday if they want the Hungarian commissioner-designate to come back for a second hearing, as commission president-elect Ursula von der Leyen hopes to finally take office on 1 December.

The hearing over the arrest warrant issued by Spain for the extradition of two Catalan ex-ministers, Toni Comín and Lluis Puig, was postponed until 16 December by a Brussels court on Friday, conjoining their case with the one of ex-president of the Catalan government, Carles Puigdemont. However, the decision of the Court of Justice of the EU on Puigdemont and Puig's immunity as an elected MEP could change the date.

The European Commission has started an infringement proceeding against the United Kingdom for failing to nominate a commissioner-candidate. The new commission, which wants to launch on 1 December, first requires a commissioner from each of the 28 EU states.

Over the years, both real and perceived levels of corruption in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia have remained high. The necessary reforms in those countries, to put it mildly, are not yet effectively carried out.

German finance minister Olaf Scholz said at a press conference in Berlin that the idea of a banking union is moving forward and that an agreement might be possible in December, Bloomberg reports. "The time of the new presidency and the new commission of the European Union is the time to get all the necessary agreements and to start with the work on that question," Scholz said.

In a landmark decision, the European Investment Bank has decided it will stop funding fossil-fuel projects by the end of 2021. Some low-emission gas projects will still be possible. The implementation date was postponed from 2020 to 2021 after pressure from some member states and the European Commission. Greenpeace applauded the decision and called on the European public and commercial banks to follow the EIB's example.

The UK's chief of the defence staff, Nick Carter, said increasing threats from Russia could lead to miscalculations and that it could inadvertently trigger a third world war, Bloomberg reports. Carter warned that new Russian techniques including "disinformation, subversion, manipulation, assassinations and of course the use of mercenaries, which are very easily undeclared and non-attributable" could easily lead to escalation, miscalculation and therefore also war.

The answers of Romanian's new commissioner-designate for transport, Adina-Ioana Vălean, did not manage to convince MEPs from the Greens group, who will ask her additional questions concerning environment and consumer rights.

Hungary's commissioner-designate for enlargement, Oliver Varhelyi, will face further written questions from MEPs, parliament sources said Thursday. Party coordinators in the EU parliament's foreign affairs committee failed to approve him after their hearing, with only the centre-right EPP, conservative ECR, and far-right ID supporting him. The Socialist S&D, the liberal Renew Europe, the Greens and far left GUE/NGL wanted to see further questions.

Lara Comi, a former MEP for Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party (2009-2019), was Thursday put under house arrest by Italian police in relation to a corruption probe, Italian news agency ANSA reported. In 2015 she demanded an investigation from the European Commission into the sale of Maltese citizenship after a hike in residence permits issued to Libyan nationals. In May she was investigated in Milan for illegal party funding.

A two-year scheme to send asylum seekers from Greece and Italy to other EU states fell short of its potential, say EU auditors. Some 35,000 were helped - but auditors say 445,000 in Greece alone could have also potentially benefited.

In the first of three commissioner-designates hearings on Thursday, prime minister Viktor Orban's EU ambassador said he would defend EU interests against any government - including Hungary's.

In a resolution approved on Thursday, the majority of MEPs voiced their concerns over a Polish draft law that criminalises sex education. This initiative could put teachers who provide sex education in prison for up to three years. MEPs called on the Polish parliament to avoid adopting the bill, which follows recent attempts of the government in Poland to limit sexual and reproductive rights, including the right to abortion.