Euobserver.com

The EU Commission on Thursday launched a legal action against the UK for breaching its obligations under the Brexit withdrawal agreement. The commission has sent a letter to London beginning a formal infringement process, to which the UK now has one month to reply. The UK's internal market bill will violate the agreements on the Northern Ireland border issue, and London has already acknowledged it breaks international law.

The inaugural annual rule of law review highlighted shortcomings in member states - but will not lead to concrete action.

The Czech Republic's foreign affairs ministry filed a complaint to the European Commission against Poland on Wednesday to stop the re-licence of operations at the Turow lignite mine. Environmental groups welcomed the decision, urging the EU executive to act since the mine expansion violates four EU environmental directives. The commission has now three months to react to the complaint before the Czech government can take Poland to court in January.

The European Commission's first report on the rule of law has raised concerns over the lack of effective anti-corruption efforts in some members sates - while it considers Denmark, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands have good governance measures.

Portugal has sought to be a leader at the EU level with regard to refugees and migrants, advocating a liberal position. It has consistently shown a willingness to take in refugees.

The European Commission says the EU is not providing any financial aid to Caprera, the Italian warship caught smuggling cigarettes from Libya. A recent investigation by the New York Times said the Caprera had stopped some 7,000 migrants from reaching Europe and had also smuggled some 700,000 contraband cigarettes from Libya. The EU helps fund Italian projects to shore up the Libyan coast guard.

EU regulators should have new laws ready by end-of-year on data transfer by EU firms to the US, the EU's digital affairs commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in Brussels Wednesday. The revamp comes after an EU court overturned a previous EU data-privacy pact that governed the exchange. The new regime was "very ambitious and [we] hope that it can be in place before Christmas," Vestager said at a Politico congress.

The UK has offered to let EU fishing boats use its waters between 2021 and 2024 in a post-Brexit transition period that would see their allowable catch scaled down over time, British newspaper The Guardian reported Wednesday. "If the other problematic issues can be sorted, it doesn't look like fisheries will stand in the way of an agreement", a senior EU diplomat said. Other problems concern access to state aid.

Germany has welcomed China's recent pledge to become carbon-neutral by 2060, while regretting the US was not following suit. "Unlike other large emitters, it's encouraging that China stands by the Paris climate accord," Merkel told MPs on Wednesday, referring to the US decision to exit the so-called Paris climate accord. "This is a very ambitious [Chinese] goal that should spur us in Europe to really fulfil our targets," she added.

The Czech Republic and Slovakia are to call states of emergency of 30-45 days' length in response to the second wave of coronavirus infections. The Italian parliament also suspended all meetings after two out of its 319 deputes tested positive on Wednesday. Infection rates are currently the highest in Belgium, France, Greece, the Netherlands, Spain, and the UK, as well as parts of central Europe, according to EU statistics.

German chancellor Angela Merkel said in a speech to MPs on Wednesday she looked forward to "soon" meeting Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and paid tribute to Belarusian women's stand against regime corruption in Minsk. "I admire it and find it really impressive," Merkel said. Tikhanovskaya is due in Berlin on 5 October. She also met French president Emmanuel Macron in Lithuania earlier this week.

Swedish prime minister Stefan Lofven will not take part in the EU summit in Brussels starting on Thursday, and Finnish PM Sanna Marin will represent the Swedish government. Lofven is attending his mother's funeral. Lofven and Marin are both Social Democratic party leaders in their respective countries.

Polish MEP Sylwia Spurek of the Socialists & Democrats group in the European Parliament on Wednesday announced that she will defect to the Green party. Spurek becomes the first Polish member of the Green group. Spurek said she wanted to act in accordance with her values of human rights, animal rights, and combatting climate change.

Seven parties finally agreed on a government in Belgium on Wednesday morning - 16 months after the elections. The parties are the Flemish and Francophone socialists, liberals, greens and the Flemish Christian Democrats. If the members of the seven parties now agree, a new prime minister will be appointed. His or her first task will be to deliver the government declaration in parliament on Thursday, 1 October.

The EU's Court of Auditors has warned that child poverty is increasing due to the pandemic's economic fallout, with 23 million under-18s already below the poverty line and with overall unemployment forecast to increase from 7.5% to 9.5% next year. "EU legislation does not target funding directly at combating child poverty," the court said Tuesday. "It is becoming more critical because of the expected impact of the pandemic," it added.

Britain's controversial internal market bill, giving the government powers to renege on its EU withdrawal agreement, passed a second reading vote by 340 MPs against 256 on Tuesday. It still has to be approved by the upper house. And MPs added an amendment that required follow-up votes in order to actually trigger its provisions. The EU, on Monday, repeated calls for Britain to drop the legislation.

More and more people have come to understand that today's challenges can only be dealt with at the European level. That is why today, perhaps even more than 20 years ago, there is an urgent need for independent, European, journalism.

A ruling by the Spanish Supreme Court to uphold the decision to ban the separatist leader from public office for 18 months, has been criticised as "disproportionate".

France's minister for digital, Cédric O, said on Tuesday that more work was needed to convince French people to download the Covid-19 tracing app, The Guardian reported. Only three million people have downloaded the French app, called StopCovid, based on a central server. Meanwhile, the UK's app has had 12 million downloads and Germany's 18 million. Both these are based on a decentralised system.

The UK on Tuesday slapped sanctions on Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, his son and other senior government officials. The British government imposed the sanctions, along with Canada, which include a travel ban and asset freeze on eight individuals from the Belarusian regime. The EU is unable to reach similar sanctions against the regime given a Cypriot blockade over Turkey.