Euobserver.com

Romania's justice minister Tudorel Toader said Monday that he has prepared an emergency decree that could invalidate hundreds of corruption cases involving the country's most senior officials, AP reported. On Tuesday he meets with prime minister Viorica Dancila to discuss the issue. The EU commission criticised Romania over rule of law with commission vice-president Jyrki Katainen on Monday tweeting: "Unbelievable news!! Romanian people deserve rule of law."

British prime minister Theresa May went back to parliament after the crushing defeat of her Brexit deal - but she continues to push MPs to accept the withdrawal agreement.

European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic discussed the security of gas supplies this winter with Russia and Ukraine on Monday. "The good news that everything is fine, under control, and we do not foresee any complications this winter," he said. The EU mediates between Ukraine and Russia on a new gas contract, with the current one expiring this year. Russia has previously cut gas supplies as a political tool.

The European Commission reportedly will call on EU member states to be cautious offering so-called golden visas, because of "risks of infiltration of non-EU organised crime groups in the economy, money laundering, corruption and tax evasion". Bulgaria, Cyprus, and Malta effectively sell EU citizenship with their passport schemes. According to Reuters and FT, the commission will publish a report Wednesday, also covering residency schemes in 20 EU states.

The Italian ambassador to France was summoned Monday to explain comments by Italian deputy PM Luigi Di Maio. The leader of the Five Star Movement blamed French policy on colonial-era French African currencies for holding back development. "If people are leaving today it's because European countries, France above all, have never stopped colonising dozens of African countries," said Di Maio. French diplomatic sources called it "hostile and without cause".

In the wake of the UKIP-Five Star Movement (M5S) link up, restrictions on creating political groups in the European Parliament are being formulated.

The UK's withdrawal from the EU will heighten fears of marginalisation among the eight member states - Bulgaria, Denmark, Croatia, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Czech Republic and Hungary - that have not adopted the euro.

British prime minister Theresa May announced on Monday that the proposed £65 [€74] fee for EU nationals in the UK to apply for "settled status" after Brexit would be scrapped, and previously-paid fees reimbursed. The U-turn came as May detailed to British MPs her 'Plan B' Brexit deal, following the defeat by 230 votes last week of the agreement with Brussels she had spent two years negotiating.

Turkish NBA basketball star, Enes Kanter, gave up joining teammates in a London match over fears of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan's reach into the EU.

Negotiations planned for Monday evening were cancelled because national governments could not support a new mandate.

The French data protection authority CNIL handed Google a €50m fine on Monday for violations of the general data protection regulation (GDPR). It said Google was not transparent about the data it collected. "The relevant information is accessible after several steps only, implying sometimes up to five or six actions," CNIL said in a statement. It also said users were not sufficiently informed when consenting to personalised advertisements.

The EU on Monday imposed travel bans and asset freezes for chemical weapons' use for the first time against individuals linked to the poisoning of Russian former double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Britain last year. The sanctions target the two GRU [Russia's intelligence agency] officials "responsible for possession, transport and use in Salisbury of a toxic nerve agent," and the head and deputy head of the agency.

The EU commission warned on Monday that the British government should not look for concessions from the EU in their search for an alternative Brexit plan. "Don't look for answers to Brussels. This is the moment for London to speak, not for us," a commission spokesman said. Last Friday the EU commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and British prime minister Theresa May talked on the phone.

Germany's economy minister, Peter Altmaier, on Monday warned the UK not to 'misuse' the patience of the EU over a Brexit deal compromise ahead of the scheduled 29 March exit date. Altmaier, a close confidante of chancellor Angela Merkel, tweeted: "Sympathy, patience & readiness to wait until the UK's position will be clarified are of utmost important to avoid the worst. They should not be misused for party politics."

Amendments have been prepared by two cross-party groups of MPs, each of which would allow the House of Commons to delay Brexit.

Under the EU's Dublin rules, Germany deported 8,658 asylum-seekers to other EU countries in the first eleven months of 2018, significantly more than the year before, when 7,102 were deported, according to information from the interior ministry given to the Left Party and published in German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Almost one-in-three were sent to Italy, while Hungary received none of the refugees deported in 2018.

Poland has buried the murdered liberal mayor of Gdansk - but the funeral itself saw more of the same kind of hateful rhetoric that may have led to his murder.

French president Emmanuel Macron's popularity has risen four percent since December, to 27 percent, an Ifop/Journal du Dimanche poll showed on Sunday, following a drop in popularity for Macron when the 'Yellow Vest' protests were at their height. An Ifop poll published last week on the May 2019 European parliament elections showed Macron's centrist movement at 23 percent support while Le Pen's Rassemblement National stood at 21 percent.

"Our economy is broken, with hundreds of millions of people living in extreme poverty while huge rewards go to those at the very top," Oxfam concluded in their global wealth report, published ahead of this week's Davos gathering. Oxfam says last year 26 people owned the same as the 3.8 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity. The number of billionaires doubled since the financial crisis.

A plan by Siemens and Alstom to create a European rail champion to face Chinese competition hangs on approval from EU antitrust regulators, with French media reporting that company representatives will meet EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager in Paris on Monday over the matter. The rail merger deal would create the world's second-largest rail company, but Vestager has maintained Europe should not build industrial champions by undermining competition.