Euobserver.com

Almost 100 MEPs, from different political parties, have urged German chancellor Angela Merkel to stop the Nord Stream 2 gas project. "Germany's position on Nord Stream 2 runs counter to the goals of the European Energy Union ..... it increases the EU's energy dependency on Russia," their appeal said. German signatories included Elmar Brok (EPP), Hans-Olaf Henkel (ECR) and Rebecca Harms (Green), while no German Social Democrats signed.

The EU's plans to introduce a three percent tax on large companies' digital revenues appears stranded, after a group of countries - including Ireland, Denmark and Sweden - on Tuesday said they would veto it. Germany said the EU should now wait for an OECD decision on digital taxes, whilst other countries have moved ahead with their own national digital taxes. Tax can only be unanimously agreed in the EU.

European commission vice-president Frans Timmermans on Tuesday said he will, as the centre-left candidate, become the next president of the European Commission. "Don't count us out. We will fight this election, we will win this election," he said. He cited climate change, the next 'industrial revolution' of automation, and lowered social protections following the economic crisis, as among the issues that need to be resolved for a united Europe.

The full-scale war on academia and critical and independent thinking and the longstanding attacks on the rule of law shows that it's time for the EPP to move from words to action and expel Fidesz.

Irish MEP Brian Hayes, vice-chair of the parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee, announced on Tuesday he will leave politics to become CEO of the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland, a lobby group. Green MEP Sven Giegold complimented Hayes, of the centre-right European People's Party, for his transparency on the move - but criticised the decision itself as an example of the 'revolving door' syndrome.

One of the successful campaign groups behind the UK's decision to leave the EU at the 2016 referendum has been fined for data breaches, along with the insurance group owned by Leave donor Arron Banks. The 'Leave.EU' campaign and Eldon Insurance, owned by Banks, were both fined £60,000 (€68,800), with another £15,000 fine for the Leave group for illegal cross-marketing of emails in the run up to the referendum.

The scandal involving cheating with emissions in diesel cars is "still not over", according to EU industry commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska. "It seems that industry is still using loopholes," she said Tuesday at a conference in Brussels. Bienkowska said only eight of 28 member states have a mandatory recall programme for dirty diesels, and noted EU ministers were "not very...eager" to come to a diesel summit she is organising.

The European Commission wants to increase the return rates of rejected asylum seekers, following pressure from EU states. But the reforms proposed seek to increase detention, and put people who are appealing their decisions at risk.

The Polish government could prompt Poland's EU exit the same way Britain stumbled out of the bloc, Donald Tusk has said.

Eurozone finance ministers tell the reluctant Italian government to revise its budgetary plans in discussions with the European Commission.

I am an easy target for anyone who wants to attack Serbia for the media situation, because of a brief participation in Milosevic's government, 20 years ago, but I would ask all of them to use facts.

Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz backed Serbia's efforts to join the European Union during a visit to Belgrade on Monday. Speaking to press after meeting with Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic, Kurz said Austria is doing everything it can to support Serbia's EU bid, adding that "the EU will be complete when the Western Balkans countries join it". Austria holds the EU Council presidency until end of the year.

Some 60 years ago, the first major World Fair after World War II was held in Brussels. Sixty years on, China International Import Expo (CIIE), the first world expo dedicated to expanding imports, will open in Shanghai, China.

The majority of people in the UK would now vote to remain part of the European Union, according to the largest survey carried out on Brexit since the referendum in June 2016. Some 20,000 people were canvassed in the Survation poll for Channel 4. It suggested that Remain would win a new poll by 54 percent to 46 percent.

The European Central Bank's governing council decided with effect from Monday to withdraw the banking licence of Malta's Pilatus Bank. The bank's Iranian chairman and owner, Ali Sadr Hasheminejad, was arrested in March in the United States over money laundering and bank fraud. Pilatus was also accused by investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia of processing corrupt payments. She was killed a year ago by a car bomb in Malta.

Cuts in the Greek health care system, following the austerity cuts demanded in return for international bailouts, have violated the European Social Charter on the right to health, says Council of Europe's human rights commissioner, Dunja Mijatovic.

An estimated 33,000 people die annually as a direct consequence of an infection due to bacteria resistant to antibiotics, according to a study from the Sweden-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). The burden of these infections is comparable to that of influenza, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS combined, it said. Italy and Greece had a substantially higher estimated burden of antibiotic-resistant bacteria than other EU and EEA countries.

The risk Poland is accidentally forced out of the EU due to the ruling party's meddling with the judiciary is real, EU Council chief and former Polish leader Donald Tusk said in Warsaw Monday. "Polexit is possible, not because Kaczynski is planning it," he said, referring to Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the head of the Law and Justice ruling party. "The threat is very serious. Deadly serious. Polexit is possible," he said.

The centre-right political family plans a resolution defending 'European values' - in an effort to cement its place in the political centre ahead of elections in May, and remind members (including Hungary's Fidesz) what the party is about.

Slovak EU commissioner Maros Sefcovic announced on Monday he will back Dutch EU commissioner Frans Timmermans as Social Democrat Spitzenkandidat in May's European Parliament elections. I understand "the power of team spirit and shared goals", he announced in a tweet endorsing Timmermans as the PES party's common candidate. Sefcovic had previously announced in September that he was interested in succeeding Jean-Claude Juncker as the next European Commission president.