Euobserver.com

Russian president Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed a decree to allow residents in the eastern Ukraine territories, held by Moscow-backed rebels, to obtain Russian citizenship under a simplified procedure. The move piles pressure on Ukraine's president-elect Volodymyr Zelensky, who won by a landslide last Sunday and promised renewed peace talks with Moscow. Ukraine's foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin called Putin's move an "aggression and interference" in Ukraine's internal affairs.

Romania's lawmakers in the parliament's lower house approved on Wednesday amendments to the criminal codes that could shut down several ongoing high-level corruption cases, Reuters reported. Opposition politicians plan to challenge the new rules at the Constitutional Court. The EU commission already warned Bucharest not to adopt the new rules that would create an amnesty for high-ranking officials sentenced for corruption.

The European Commission heavily redacted a document which minuted talks at Davos between the EU commissioner Pierre Moscovici, Tony Blair, and George Soros, about a second Brexit referendum.

Scotland will hold a second referendum on independence by May 2021 if the UK has left the EU, first minister Nicola Sturgeon announced on Wednesday. A 2014 referendum was lost by 45 to 55 percent, but Sturgeon told the Scottish Parliament she would hold another "within the lifetime of this parliament", largely due to Brexit. Authority for the referendum still needs to be sought from the UK parliament.

The leader of the far-right French National Rally, Marine Le Pen, will be in Copenhagen this week for talks with Soren Espersen, vice-chairman of the right-wing Danish People's Party. The Danish party recently broke ranks with the UK conservative-dominated ECR group in the European Parliament and supported Italy's deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini in forming a new nationalist-conservative EP group. Le Pen has pledged to join Salvini's initiative.

Manfred Weber, the leader of the centre-right EPP political group, has vowed to block the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The pledge comes amid a new threat from the CEO of Nord Stream 2 to sue the European Union.

Four in ten Spanish voters remain undecided ahead of Sunday 28 April's general election, which polls predicts could end in political deadlock. Prime minister Pedro Sanchez's socialists (PSOE) is polled to win 30 percent support but may need more than leftist Unidas Podemos plus Catalan separatists' support to rule. The opposition coalition of conservatives, liberals and a new national-conservative party is also short of the majority, supported by 45 percent.

US president Donald Trump will make his first state visit to the UK on 3-5 June, the White House announced on Tuesday. The visit includes an audience with the Queen and a meeting with prime minister Theresa May. While in Europe, Trump will also travel to Normandy for D-Day commemorations and a bilateral meeting with French president Emmanuel Macron on 6 June.

Change UK, a new British pro-EU political party, launched on Tuesday its campaign for May's European Parliament elections, with 70 candidates including journalist Rachel Johnson, sister of former foreign minister and leading Brexiteer Boris Johnson. Gavin Esler, a BBC former chief North America correspondent and Newsnight presenter, is also a candidate for the party formed by MPs who have quit Labour and the Tories over Brexit policies.

The time for genuine lobby regulation and a stop to the risk of corporate capture of EU policy-making is now. It is a question of survival and must be a priority for the next head of the European Commission.

EU institutions want Facebook to relax its rules, to allow pan-European political groups to carry out EU-wide campaigns. Facebook has yet to implement the demands - posing questions on the extent to which Europe relies on the US tech firm.

The German lead candidate of the European People's Party, Manfred Weber, will try to block construction of Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline if chosen as the next president of the EU Commission, he told Polska Times on Tuesday. "As the head of the European Commission, I will use all available laws to block Nord Stream 2," he said, according to Reuters. The German government backs the project.

EU leaders have invited Ukrainian TV comic Volodymyr Zelensky to Berlin and Brussels after he became the country's new president in a landslide victory on Sunday.

A spokesperson from the UK Home Office has warned migrants not to risk the dangerous Channel crossing. "Anyone crossing the Channel in a small boat is taking a huge risk with their life and the lives of their children," said the spokesperson on Monday. The comments come after UK border police apprehended 36 migrants, including women and children, attempting to make the crossing by boat from France.

EU countries ought to draw "red lines" for US president Donald Trump on the Arab-Israeli conflict, Herman Van Rompuy, the former head of the EU Council, has said.

Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz has spoken out against the publication of a racist poem by a local branch of his governing coalition's far-right party, the Austrian Freedom Party (FPO), according to Austrian newspaper Der Standard. The poem was published in a newspaper of the town where Hitler was born. Kurz described the poem as "abominable, inhuman and deeply racist".

The leaders of Spain's four political parties on Monday sparred over Catalonia during a live televised debate ahead of parliamentary elections next Sunday. Prime minister Pedro Sanchez of the socialist PSOE vowed there would be no referendum on Catalan independence under his watch. His ally, Pablo Iglesias of the anti-establishment Podemos party, said Spain was more than just one nation. Vox, a far-right party, did not participate in the debate.

Romanian EU presidency set to publish operational guidelines next month on how to share refugees who get stuck on NGO rescue boats in Mediterranean Sea.

Germany, the current co-chair of the UN Security Council, has called an emergency meeting on Libya, amid shelling in greater Tripoli, home to 3m people, in fighting between the EU and UN backed government and Russia-backed warlord Khalifa Haftar. The EU recently urged Haftar to withdraw, but France has also been building links with him to protect its oil interests. The fighting has killed almost 200 people and displaced 25,000.

The Brexit Party of British eurosceptic MEP Nigel Farage could win 27 percent of votes in the European Parliament election, according to a YouGov poll out Wednesday. The opposition Labour and ruling Conservative parties, which are internally divided on Brexit, are set for 22 percent and 15 percent, respectively. The pro-remain camp is also split into four parties: Greens (10%); the Liberal Democrats (9%); Change UK (6%) and SNP (4%).