Euobserver.com

Spy agencies in the UK and the Netherlands are restricting the intelligence they share with Austria given its Russia ties, opposition lawmaker Peter Pilz told Reuters news agency. Pilz said Western intelligence agencies are refusing to cooperate with Austria's main intelligence agency, the BVT. "Those are to my knowledge British agencies, in particular MI5, and the Dutch intelligence agency," he said.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears poised to win the national election following a tight race with his rival, former general Benny Gantz. With 97 percent of the seats counted, Netanyahu's right-wing Likud won 37 of Knesset seats, against 36 for Gantz' centrist Blue and White. The final tally is set for later in the day.

The EU and US have stepped up talks of trade tariffs over a 15-year old World Trade Organisation (WTO) dispute on aid to rival aircraft makers, Airbus and Boeing. US president Donald Trump threatened to impose surcharges on €10bn of EU products, such as wine and cheese if the WTO found in its favour. The EU would also "promptly take action" if the WTO verdict said it had been victimised.

Italian football player Antonio Candreva has offered to pay the school lunch fees of a girl from an immigrant family after her story gained popularity online when she was fed tuna and crackers while other children got pasta in her primary school canteen because her family could not afford the fees. The mayor of her hometown, Minerbe, from the ruling far-right League party had earlier defended the downgraded meal.

Russia's National Central Bureau has asked international police agency Interpol to seek the arrest of Bill Browder, a British campaigner for tougher sanctions on Russia, over tax fraud allegations. The police body rejected six previous Russian requests on grounds they were politically-motivated, but Browder was briefly arrested in Spain last year due to glitches in Interpol's system. He has called for Russia to be banned from issuing further requests.

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said the EU is open to delay Brexit but will need a clear timeline from British premier Theresa May on how she wants to deliver an orderly withdrawal from the EU.

The EU is still "on track" towards its goal of 20 percent of 2020 energy coming from renewables, but mostly because of pre-2014 progress, the European Commission said Tuesday. It said "the pace of increase of the renewable energy share has slowed down" and increases in absolute energy consumption has lowered the renewable share in 2017 in seven EU states. In France, Ireland, Poland and elsewhere, "additional efforts" were needed.

The EU is "at risk" of failing to reach its 2020 energy savings target, the European Commission said in a report Tuesday. Primary energy consumption (including consumption of the energy sector itself) rose by 0.9% in 2017. Energy use had decreased in 2007-2014, but is rising again. The commission said that "in recent years, energy savings were not high enough to offset the impact of the growth in economic activity."

Britain has taken steps to hold European Parliament elections in May, triggering anger by eurosceptics in what could turn into an informal second referendum on Brexit.

As EU and China leaders meet for a summit in Brussels, EUobserver looks at a commitment made at a previous EU-China gathering.

The EU Commission presented on Monday its first set of ethical guidelines for development of artificial intelligence (AI), saying that algorithms must not discriminate on grounds of age, race or gender, and demanding that AI projects should be transparent. The commission wants to bring the strategy's seven principles to create "trustworthy" AI ethics to the global stage, saying "technologies, data and algorithms know no borders".

The EU's Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, was Monday in Dublin to discuss the Irish border situation after Friday, when the UK leaves the EU unless an extension of its exit date is agreed at a summit in Brussels. Border checks of animals and food, storage of excess Irish beef and a major marketing effort to sell more Irish products into EU markets are considered, the Irish Times reported.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian president Vladimir Putin on Monday in Moscow discussed a deal for Turkey to purchase Russia's S-400 air defence missile systems. The weapons are incompatible with Nato defence systems, prompting US vice president Mike Pence to warn Turkey it must choose between being a critical player in Nato "or risk the security of that partnership by making reckless decisions".

We live in an age when the financial sector is becoming increasingly detached from the productive sectors, which is also one of the main reasons for the financial crises that have repeatedly shaken our societies.

The European Commission says better use of taxation can steer consumers' behaviour in a more climate-friendly direction.

Far-right parties from Denmark, Finland, Germany, and Italy have said they will form the core of a new group - to be called the European Alliance for People and Nations - in the next European Parliament. "We want to bring radical change," Joerg Meuthen, from Germany's AfD party, said after meeting delegates from the Danish People's Party, the Finns party, and Italy's League party in Milan on Monday.

The EU has appealed to Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar to stop fighting, amid concern that a civil war could prompt more people to flee to Europe.

British prime minister Theresa May will fly to Paris and Berlin on Tuesday (9 April) to make a dramatic last-minute plea face-to-face with president Emmanuel Macron and chancellor Angela Merkel to grant a short Brexit extension, Downing Street announced on Monday. Her bid comes just 24 hours before an emergency EU summit on Wednesday to consider if, and how long, to grant another Brexit extension to the UK.

EU and Chinese leaders are meeting on Tuesday in Brussels as Europe seeks concrete guarantees from Beijing that it will treat EU firms fairly, and conclude agreements on trade and investment. But that might be a distant prospect.

Danish, Finnish, German, and Italian far-right political figures will discuss plans for an EU alliance in Milan on Monday, prior to a larger congress in May.