Euobserver.com

Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte (Liberals) said Sunday on a TV talkshow that while the European Parliament elections this May were important, they were "not as important" as national elections. "The European Parliament has its role," he said, but only after saying EU elections were "not so relevant" and that "real power" was at national level. Rutte has frequently been named as a possible candidate for a top EU post.

The EU could delay from Brexit from March until July, or longer if need be, to avoid a no-deal scenario, EU officials told British newspaper The Guardian. "A 'technical' extension until July is a probable first step ... should the [UK] prime minister survive and inform us that she needs more time," one official said. The extension option comes ahead of a vote on Brexit by British MPs on Tuesday.

"People's faith in the democratic process and their politicians would suffer catastrophic harm", if British MPs halted Brexit, British prime minister Theresa May is to say in a speech to factory workers on Monday, according to excerpts shared with press. She will add that parliament is more likely to stop Brexit, overruling the consultative referendum of 2016, than to accept a no-deal exit and the economic chaos that would cause.

Greek leader Alexis Tsipras has called a confidence vote after his defence minister, the far-right and pro-Russia Panos Kammenos, quit government and pulled his party, Independent Greeks, out of the ruling coalition. His move, which came after Greece ratified a name-deal with Macedonia opening its doors to EU and Nato membership, leaves Tsipras five MPs short of a majority in parliament. The confidence vote is expected on 16 January.

US leader Donald Trump has warned Turkey, a Nato ally, not to attack Kurds in Syria after US troops leave. "Will devastate Turkey economically if they hit Kurds," he said. Turkey hit back, saying, "Terrorists [Kurds] can't be your [Trump's] partners". The surprise US pull-out, announced last month, astonished Trump's EU allies in the Global Coalition against Islamist militants in Syria. Turkey wants to stop Kurds from creating a state.

Poland has said Nato and the EU should consider sanctions against Chinese telecoms firm Huawei after Poland arrested one of its employees for espionage on Friday. "It would make most sense to have a joint stance, among EU member states and Nato members," Polish interior minister Joachim Brudzinski said. Fellow EU security services recently ignored Poland's call to blacklist a Ukrainian activist on grounds she was a Russian spy.

The EU should stop doctors relocating within Europe to stop labour shortages, German health minister Jens Spahn has said. "Switzerland is a beautiful country. But what is clear is that there is a shortage of these professionals in Germany. And then Polish doctors work in our country, and in turn there is a shortage of them in Poland," he told Swiss tabloid Blick am Sonntag, amid German emigration to Switzerland.

Sweden's Left Party is still needed to support a four-party coalition between the Liberal Party, the Centre Party, the Social Democrats and the Green Party, that was cobbled together to keep the far-right Sweden Democrats [SD] out of power. "The Left Party faces a choice ... [to] accept an over-the-middle government or ensure that Sweden gets a right government with SD in the backseat," liberal leader Jan Bjoerklund said Sunday.

Cambodian leader Hun Sen has warned the EU he would kill opposition members if Europe enacted a threat to cut trade perks over human rights abuses. "If you want the opposition dead, just cut it. If you want the opposition alive, don't do it and come and hold talks," he said in a speech in Phnom Penh at the weekend. EU countries took 40 percent of Cambodia's exports last year.

The leader of the liberal Alde group, Guy Verhofstadt, has denied the public a debate on a controversial trade deal between the EU and Morocco, EUobserver has learned.

Britain and the EU will find out on Tuesday in London if they are heading for an orderly split or further turbulence.

Four months of political stalemate in Sweden ended on Friday when four parties, the Social Democrats, Greens, Liberals and the Centre party, agreed to back social democrat Stefan Loefven to continue as prime minister. Deadlocked since September elections the Centre Party and the Liberals were forced to break their alliance with the conservatives to get a new government that would not depend on votes from the far-right Sweden Democrat party.

Juncker warned Romania's government not to move ahead with plans to grant amnesty for corruption, as more than 200 EU laws await decisions during Bucharest's presidency.

EU commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said on Friday that he was in contact with British prime minister Theresa May over possible further assurances that the EU can give to the UK over the Irish backstop ahead of a crucial vote in the House of Commons on Tuesday (15 January) on the Brexit deal. "We are discussing with Downing Street 10 what these clarifications should amount to," he said.

Four former EU top-ministers are in the running to replace Norway's Thorbjorn Jagland as secretary general of the Council of Europe, the continent's leading human rights organisation, from 1 October. They all come from EU member states, despite the 47-member state body extends wider than the European Union. A vote in June will chose between Belgium's Didier Reynders, Lithuania's Andrius Kubilius, Greece's Dora Bakoyannis, and Croatia's Marija Pejcinovic Buric.

European regulation of crypto currencies such as Bitcoin may be needed to protect consumers, prevent money laundering, terror financing and to stop diverging national regulations from creating unfair competition, the European Banking Authority has advised. In a new report the EU's banking watchdog said that the European Commission should carry out further analysis to determine the appropriate EU-level response.

EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager opened on Thursday an in-depth into the tax treatment of Nike in the Netherlands, saying the US-based company may have benefitted from an illegal advantage in relation to taxation of intellectual property rights. "Member States should not allow companies to set up complex structures that unduly reduce their taxable profits and give them an unfair advantage over competitors," she said.

The former leader of Germany's far-right AfD party in the eastern state Saxony-Anhalt, Andre Poggenburg, announced on Thursday that he will leave the party and form a new one for German patriots called "Aufbruch deutscher Patrioten – Mitteldeutschland", together with other disenchanted AfD members. Poggenburg resigned in March from his leadership role in Saxony-Anhalt after a series of controversies including describing people of Turkish origin in Germany as "camel drivers".

Romania's first-ever EU presidency saw Tusk issue warnings on rule of law, as Romanians complained about EU "misconceptions".

Over €6bn of EU taxpayers' money was stolen by criminals in recent years and over €130m is still being lost each year, EU auditors said.