Euobserver.com

The British and Irish governments have agreed to start a new round of talks on 7 May to restore the power-sharing government in Northern Ireland, which collapsed in January 2017. Northern Ireland has not had a government since then. The new process comes after Irish and British premiers attended the funeral of Lyra McKee, a journalist killed during rioting in the Creggan area of Derry on 18 April.

iPhones and Android products don't use the same charger. This is annoying for consumers and harmful for the environment. Old chargers produce more than 51,000 tons of electronic waste per year.

Some member states continue to impede the European Commission's annual attempt to define the state of Europe's justice system, by not providing data on their national situations.

Spanish voters are heading to the polls, while in other EU member states campaigning for the European elections is picking up after Easter. The EU's top court will issue important rulings on both the EU-Canada free trade agreement and Airbnb.

Spain will head for the ballot boxes on Sunday to elect a new government, in an election that likely to be the country's most fragmented and unclear vote.

Merger talks between Germany's two biggest banks, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, ended in failure on Thursday, as the risks were deemed too high. German finance minister Olaf Scholz had supported the merger in order to form a national champion in the banking industry able to compete with top banks on Wall Street. The German government owns 15.5 percent of Commerzbank after the bank was bailed out during the financial crisis.

Despite the US decision to withdraw, the European Union and Japan reiterated on Thursday their support for the Iranian nuclear non-proliferation deal reached at UN-level in 2015. At a summit in Brussels, Japan's prime minister Abe and EU presidents Juncker and Tusk also committed to further develop the EU-Japan economic partnership agreement. It entered into force on 1 February bringing a third of the world's Gross Domestic Product together.

Chinese president Xi Jinping on Friday pledged a more open approach to the Belt and Road initiative, saying China will allow foreign investors to operate businesses in more sectors. "Everything should be done in a transparent way and we should have zero tolerance for corruption," he told world leaders at the second Belt and Road Forum in Beijing. EU members have been divided in their approach to the Chinese initiative.

In a speech aimed at quelling yellow vest unrest, French president did not come with radical new European proposals.

Following an investigation into the Dieselgate scandal, the European Parliament recommended a single commissioner should be responsible for both air quality and setting industrial standards. But only the Greens want to commit to carry out that advice.

Russian president Vladimir Putin's decree to allow residents in the Moscow-backed rebel-held Ukrainian eastern regions citizenship in a simplified manner "is another attack on Ukraine's sovereignty by Russia," the spokesperson for EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said in a statement on Thursday. The move "shows Russia's intention to further destabilise Ukraine and to exacerbate the conflict", it said, adding the EU expects Russia to refrain from such actions.

Facebook removed three far-right networks in Spain but only after Avaaz, an NGO, handed over a 60-page investigation detailing the abuse.

The Japanese PM comes to Brussels to discuss the first results of the new EU-Japan free trade deal, plus WTO reform - a sensitive topic before he moves onto Washington to face Donald Trump.

Deutsche Bank has started providing financial records to New York state's attorney general, related to loans it gave to Donald Trump and his business before he was elected US president. Deutsche Bank was one of the few big banks willing to lend to the Trump Organisation at the time. The investigations are a part of a larger Democratic effort to dig into Trump's finances and reveal links to Russia.

The EU is badly prepared for a new refugee crisis, according to UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi. "Europe is not prepared for a refugee crisis today. The states are not pulling together," he said in an interview to German newspaper Die Welt. "The European public underestimates any threat, any displacement that does not take place in Europe" he added. Italian-born Grandi has held the UN post since 2016.

France's president Emmanuel Macron will Thursday announce a package of measures that could include lowering taxes after five months of often violent protests by the 'yellow vests'. Macron held a three-month long national debate to quell the anger. Leaked reports suggest measures could include cutting income tax, halting hospital and school closure in rural areas, and abolishing the Ecole Nationale d'Administration civil service college, a symbol of a privileged elite.

Italy has asking the EU to prepare a plan of action for a new wave of migrants escaping from the armed conflict in Libya, Italian foreign minister Enzo Moavero announced at a joint news conference in Rome on Wednesday after meeting UN's Libya envoy, Ghassan Salame. Armed men raided the Qasr Ben Ghashir detention centre, south of Tripoli on Tuesday, and shot a number of the people being held there.

Far-right populist party leaders will meet in Prague on Thursday, as their numbers are expected to surge at the EU elections next month. France's National Rally chief Marine Le Pen and Dutch Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders are among the speakers. Italian League leader and interior minister Matteo Salvini will send a video message. Czech lawmaker Tomio Okamura will host the event, who heads the Freedom and Direct Democracy party.

A priest at the funeral of Lyra McKee, the 29-year-old journalist killed in recent violence in Northern Ireland, asked politicians why it took her death to unite them after the power-sharing executive body in the region collapsed in 2017. Father Martin Magill's comments received a standing ovation at the funeral. The leaders of republican Sinn Fein and loyalist Democratic Unionist Party have pledged to enter talks to resume power-sharing.

The foreign affairs minister of Haiti calls for the replacement EU-Africa, Caribbean, Pacific 'Cotonou' agreement of 2000 to be updated to take account climate change, infrastructure and tourism to help the country transition away from aid-dependence.