Euobserver.com

The Danish parliament agreed on Sunday to exhume about four million mink, culled over a mutant coronavirus strain earlier this year, over contamination concerns. The announcement comes after some of the mink had resurfaced, triggering a wave of local complains over the potential risk of contaminating drinking water and a nearby lake, according to the DW. The exhumation is expected to start in May next year.

Negotiations over the post-Brexit trade deal are expected to continue this week after EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier and his UK counterpart David Frost failed to reach an agreement over the weekend, the BBC reported. Barnier said talks were at a "crucial" point on Sunday, while a British government source described the negotiations as "difficult" because of the "significant differences" regarding fisheries rights and the so-called level playing field.

Many countries have announced restrictions on UK travel after a new coronavirus strain was detected there, triggering tighter measures in the country, including a lockdown affecting more than 16 million people in London and the southeast of England, Reuters reported. The new variant discovered could be up to 70 percent more transmissible. British prime minister Boris Johnson will hold an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss the international travel restrictions.

A report from France's high council on climate published on Saturday warns that the rollout of 5G networks could be responsible for an extra 3-7bn tonnes of CO2 emissions. "Our request [for a moratorium] is even more relevant today, now that the high council has said that we need to assess the technology's environmental impact before deploying it," said Éric Piolle from the French Green party.

Germany and Finland have repatriated five women and 18 children from Syrian camps housing suspected family members of Islamic State (Isis) militants, the BBC reports. The foreign ministries of both countries said the women and children were brought back this weekend for humanitarian reasons. Three of the women were under investigation for allegedly belonging to Isis. Hundreds of Europeans who joined Isis are in Kurdish-run camps in northern Syria.

Former US secretary of state James Baker and former national security adviser John Bolton, two of the most influential Republican voices on foreign policy and national security, have criticised the Trump administration's recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, urging the administration of president-elect Joe Biden to reverse the move, Haaretz reports. The recognition was part of a broader deal to establish diplomatic ties between Israel and Morocco.

Anthony Gardner, the former US ambassador to the EU, urged president-elect Joe Biden on Twitter to sack all ambassadors appointed by president Donald Trump on Inauguration Day. "Exactly four years ago I received telegram from incoming Trump team to vacate on Jan 20,'" Gardner tweeted on Sunday. "Time for similar telegram to go out now: all Trump politically-appointed ambassadors to leave Jan 20."

Russian president Vladimir Putin on Sunday hailed the country's "courageous" spies as he visited the headquarters of the Foreign Intelligence Service to mark its 100th birthday, The Moscow Times reports. Putin, himself a former KGB officer, thanked all those who protect Russia from "external and internal threats" and called them "reliable and courageous people," and for guaranteeing "the sovereign, democratic and independent development of our multinational society."

Sherin Khankan is a female Imam who runs the Mariam Mosque in Copenhagen. The idea for the mosque came a month before two planes slammed into the World Trade Center skyscrapers in New York on 11 September, 2001.

Our special anniversary magazine gives an overview of the major events of these past 20 years - and, for every event, we talked to one of the key players. It makes this magazine a historic document of recent EU history.

Europe's new century began with the peaceful overthrow of an old monster, Slobodan Milošević - but Serbia is less free today than it was before the revolution, Vesna Pešić said.

At present, when 'rainbow families' move from one EU member state to another, they could lose their legal recognition as a family.

12 months after the European Parliament and the European Commission gave their views on the Conference on the Future of Europe, member states are still fighting over who should chair the event - which has blocked the launch for months.

The Kamiano food distribution centre in Brussels is expecting 20 people every half hour on Christmas Day. For many, Kamiano is also more than that - a support system for those made homeless or impoverished.

Concluding an investment agreement between the EU an China now is a symbolical victory for China and makes it harder for Europe to engage it on critical matters in the future, experts on EU-China relations argue.

Belgian budget state secretary Eva De Bleeker tweeted EU-negotiated prices for coronavirus vaccines on Thursday, which were meant to be a commercial secret. The tweet was deleted and called "a mistake on the part of the communications team". But Belgian media, such as HLN, republished the figures: Oxford/AstraZeneca: €1.78. Johnson & Johnson: $8.50. Sanofi/GSK: €7.56. BioNTech/Pfizer: €12. CureVac: €10. Moderna: $18. Meanwhile, Belgium said it was spending €279m on vaccines.

A group of 86 refugee children, most of whom had previously been staying on Greek islands, flew to Hannover, Germany on Thursday as part of a resettlement program of 1,024 asylum seekers which began last July, Ekathimerini reports. The group that left on Thursday consisted of children with serious health problems, along with family members. In total, more than 1,500 people have already left for Germany.

The EU has blacklisted Minsk-based real estate firm Dana Holdings, saying president Alexander Lukashenko's daughter-in-law, Lilya, "has a high-ranking position in the company" and, "as such Dana Holdings/Dana Astra is benefiting from and supporting the Lukashenko regime". It also listed six other companies, two business tycoons - Aliaksandr Shakutsin and Mikalai Varabei - and over 20 regime officials. An EUobserver investigation earlier revealed Lilya's role in Dana Astra.

German car maker Volkswagen deliberately cheated EU emissions tests by installing "defeat devices", the EU top court has ruled, in a blow to industry in the 'Dieselgate' affair.

"On 27, 28, and 29 December vaccination will start across the EU," European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen tweeted Thursday, referring to the roll-out of a Pfizer/BioNTech anti-corona drug. All 27 EU states would get access from 27 December, whether they were rich or poor EU members, German health minister Jens Spahn also said Thursday in an online meeting, in what he called an "important signal of European solidarity".