Euobserver.com

Romania is due to join the single currency in 2024 - despite currently only meeting one of the four criteria. Now the government in Bucharest is enlisting an unlikely ally to promote the euro to the public: the clergy.

Germany alone will decide whether to enforce EU law on its new gas pipeline with Russia, after France caved in on last-minute talks.

EU and UK negotiators reopen Brexit talks as the clock tics to March. Italy's populist prime minister also shares his vision of the EU with MEPs.

EU commissioner for justice Vera Jourova was advised to ask Facebook to use its "contacts with the US administration and with Congress".

Politicians need to stop romanticising past economic ideas and establish rules that allow the next generation of success stories to happen in Europe.

EU law should govern Russia's new gas pipeline to Germany, France has said, heaping doubt on the project.

Energy use in the European Union increased 1 percent in 2017 compared to 2016, Eurostat figures published on Thursday showed. It was the third consecutive year that energy consumption went up, moving the EU away from its commitment to reduce consumption by 20 percent in 2020 compared to 1990. In 2017, final energy consumption fell compared to 2016 in only four EU states; Belgium, the UK, Italy, and Slovenia.

Days before a trial begins against 12 Catalan leaders in the Spanish supreme court, the socialist government, lead by Pedro Sanchez, is facing political turbulence over its strategy to win backing from two Catalan pro-independence parties in parliament to have the 2019 budget approved. Leader of the right-wing Popular Party (PP), Pablo Casado, accused Sanchez of "high treason" as he tried to facilitate talks with pro-independence Catalan parties.

Europe had a record high number of measles cases last year, with total 72 children and adults killed by the virus in 2018, the World Health Organisation (WHO)'s regional office for Europe said on Thursday. More children were being vaccinated against measles than ever before, but with gaps "leaving increasing clusters of susceptible individuals unprotected." Anti-vaccine campaigners in many countries warn parents against the measles vaccination.

France recalled its ambassador from Italy on Thursday for consultations, saying Italian deputy premier Luigi Di Maio's meeting with French 'yellow vest' protestors was an unacceptable provocation. Tensions between the two EU states have run high lately also over treatment of asylum seekers and the TAV Turin-Lyon high-speed rail link. Deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini said he would happily meet French president Emmanuel Macron to ease ties.

Theresa May's venture seems very similar to the attempt by Alexis Tsipras in 2015 to persuade Brussels to accept his terms for the bail out - a huge negotiation failure, presented to the public as the best possible deal.

Centrist parties are on track to get the most MEPs in Poland in May, according to a survey by the country's Institute of Public Affairs. The so-called European Coalition, led by the centre-right Civic Platform party, polled 42 percent, ahead of the ruling right-wing Law and Justice Party on 37.5 percent. A new liberal party, called Spring, led by openly gay Polish politician Robert Biedron polled 8.5 percent.

Data breaches, intellectual property theft, attacks on IT infrastructure, and hacking of classified information could in future see the EU impose targeted sanctions on foreign entities and individuals, the Bloomberg news agency reports, citing an internal EU memo dated 6 February. The new sanctions "could target those involved in these types of cyber activity anywhere, regardless of their nationality and location," the internal proposal, under discussion by EU diplomats, said.

The EU council president who, a day earlier said there was a "place in hell" for Brexiteers without a plan, told May that Britain's opposition leader could hold the key to the Brexit deal.

After Theresa May's "robust" talks with top EU officials, London and Brussels agree to talk further - even though their opposing positions have not inched closer. European Parliament president Antonio Tajani warned "We're weeks from an economic and human catastrophe."

Henrik Hololei, director-general for Mobility and Transport at the EU commission, riled against "old-fashioned, totally non-future-oriented taxi companies".

EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and British prime minister Theresa May had a "robust, but constructive" meeting on Thursday, according to a joint statement. May asked for renegotiating the Brexit deal on the Irish backstop, which Juncker ruled out, stressing the EU-27 is open to discussing more ambitious UK-EU future relations. Negotiating teams will nevertheless continue talks. May and Juncker will meet again at the end of February.

The EU Commission slashed its growth forecast for the European economy on Thursday, citing global trade tensions. The commission projected the eurozone's GDP will grow by 1.3 percent in 2019, down from 1.9 percent forecast last November. The EU's growth as a whole was revised to 1.5 percent from 1.9 percent. All EU countries are expected to grow, but projections for Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands were revised downwards.

The European Commission received more than 500 contributions to a public consultation on draft ethical guidelines for the production of artificial intelligence, a spokesman told EUobserver. Most of the contributors responded in the name of a company or organisations. Some 52 of those that gave feedback were academics. The commission had extended the deadline by two weeks and the final document is expected by March.

British Labour party opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn, in a letter to prime minister Theresa May has asked for five legally-binding commitments from the UK government in return for Labour's support for the Brexit deal. The demands include joining a customs union, close alignment to the single market, participation in EU agencies and access to the European Arrest Warrant and vital shared databases.