Euobserver.com

The German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations, a business lobby, is to hold a controversial video call with Russian president Vladimir Putin later this year despite the Ukraine crisis, German media report. Its members include leading German firms Allianz, BASF, Siemens, and Volkswagen, but it declined to disclose who would take part, saying only that between 10 and 15 firms who had invested in Russia would be involved.

Europe is a haven for stolen art trafficking and EU states should be doing more about it, France has said.

The UK is sending more troops to eastern Europe and threatening to seize Russian money in London, as the world waits for Russia's next move.

Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki attended a congress with Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán and French and Spanish far-right politicians Marine Le Pen and Santiago Abascal in Madrid this weekend. They pledged to work more closely in the EU Parliament together on migration, despite widely divergent views on Russia between Poland and Le Pen. Polish ruling party chief Jarosław Kaczyński also hosted Le Pen at a Warsaw summit last year.

MEPs in the foreign interference committee will have a discussion with the 2021 Nobel peace prize laureate, Filipino-American journalist Maria Ressa, and MEPs will discuss the Pegasus spyware targeting journalists.

Scotland's EU accession process could reasonably take four to five years. If the referendum were in held 2023 and the transition to statehood took three years, Scotland could join the EU at the start of the next decade.

Citizens participating in the Conference on the Future of Europe have shown an enormous appetite for structural EU reforms. EU commissioner for democracy Dubravka Šuica is convinced that this democratic experiment can live up to expectations and deliver feasible results.

The European ombudsman has criticised the European Commission for its handling of a request for public access of text messages that were exchanged between president Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla.

The EU Agency for Asylum on Friday said the number of asylum applications in November 2021 was the second-highest in five years, narrowly below the level in September. About 71,400 applications for international protection were lodged in the "EU+" (EU, plus Norway and Switzerland) in November 2021, up by nine percent from October. "This was the second-highest level since 2016," it said.

The EU Commission has urged Facebook subsidiary WhatsApp to let users know what it was doing with their private data. "WhatsApp must ensure that users understand what they agree to and how their personal data is used," EU justice commissioner Didier Reynders said in a statement on Thursday. "I expect from WhatsApp to fully comply with EU rules that protect consumers and their privacy."

The UK has lifted all mask-wearing restrictions, scrapped vaccination-pass requirements for public venues, and dropped its guidance for people to work from home, following its booster roll-out. It now had "some of the strongest defences in Europe," allowing a "cautious return" to normality, health secretary Sajid Javid said. "As we learn to live with Covid, we need to be clear eyed that this virus is not going away," he said.

The European Medicines Agency approved Pfizer Inc's antiviral Covid-19 pill for treating adults at risk of severe illness. The drug, also known as Paxlovid, is set to be distributed near the end of the year. Belgium, Germany, and Italy are among the EU states that have already purchased the drug. "Paxlovid is the first oral antiviral for home use in our portfolio," said EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides.

"The current uptake of a booster dose achieved by early January may reduce future Omicron hospital admissions by 500,000 - 800,000" in Europe, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), an EU agency, said Thursday. Its figures covered the 27-nation EU sates plus Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein. About half the EU population has so far received a booster shot.

German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock told parliament Thursday her government's "strong package of sanctions" against Russia, if it should invade Ukraine, included the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. "If Russia invades Ukraine, one way or another, Nord Stream 2 will not move forward ... I think the statements coming out of Berlin even today are very, very strong," Victoria Nuland, a US undersecretary of state, said the same day.

"President [Joe] Biden said that there is a distinct possibility that the Russians could invade Ukraine in February," White House spokesperson Emily Horne said Thursday. "Russia for the next two weeks is likely to remain on the diplomatic track," but might attack subsequently, Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said. Moscow, the same day, said it had little grounds for optimism after the US and Nato rejected its outlandish security demands.

Libya's department for combating illegal migration - itself infiltrated by armed militia units - has been carrying out collective expulsions at its no-man's land borders of people who would otherwise be eligible for international protection, says a UN rights expert.

Dozens of Europeans have flocked to an anti-vax, far-right "paradise" in Paraguay, hoping to attract thousands of likeminded people in future.

The move signifies a further escalation between the two economic giants. It is also a politically symbolic move by the EU towards one of its smaller member states.

Rising prices have fuelled the debate among economists about inflation risk - with some arguing that central banks should increase interest rates, while others urge governments and central banks to adopt more precise and targeted measures.

The European project moves forward not 'despite' criticism, but thanks to those critical voices pushing for more cooperation and more democratic transparency. That is why European journalism is essential to the European project.