Euobserver.com

Poland's health minister Adam Niedzielski on Tuesday ruled out a nationwide lockdown, although he announced a curfew on bars and restaurants in the areas most-affected by the coronavirus, Reuters reported. There would also be a limited number of people who can attend leisure events, such as weddings, and the wearing of face masks will be obligatory outdoors in hard-hit regions. Poland is currently reporting about 1,300 daily cases.

Hungary has called for the resignaiton of the commission vice-president, in the latest bellicose political move from the Hungarian PM.

Armenia says Turkey shot down one of its fighter jets, in the conflict with Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. The Armenian defence ministry said the Armenian Sukhoi Su-25 was shot down by a Turkish F-16, a claim disputed by Turkey. "We are determined to resist with all our capacities and neutralise the intentions of this Turkish-Azerbaijani alliance", tweeted an Armenian official from the ministry of foreign affairs.

A report from the NGO Earthsight on Wednesday revealed that major European car manufacturers, including BMW and Jaguar Land Rover, are using leather linked to the destruction of a South American forest inhabited by one of the world's last uncontacted tribes. The 18-month investigation focused on the Paraguayan Gran Chaco forests. Earthsight estimated an area of one football pitch was cleared every two minutes in 2019.

Safeguarding Europe's position starts with recognising the unpleasant reality that Europe's power is waning. Behind the facade of European cooperation, national self-interest still predominates and that has never been any different.

The first ever report on the state of the rule of law in the EU due to be published this week by the European Commission marks a significant change in its mindset.

Spain's Supreme Court has barred the regional president of Catalonia, Quim Torra, from holding office because he displayed separatist banners from a government building during Spain's general election last year. He "repeatedly and stubbornly disobeyed the orders of the Central Electoral Board to remove certain symbols," the court said. Torra said the ruling violated his "free speech". His predecessor in the post, Carles Puigdemont, lives in self-exile in Belgium.

Taiwan has thanked the EU for help in a sensitive name dispute with China, Reuters reports. The Brussels-based Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy had listed six Taiwanese cities as being in China, but Taiwanese complaints saw their location changed back to Taiwan. And the EU "helped us in this effort" Taiwan foreign minister Joseph Wu told his parliament Monday, risking China's diplomatic wrath.

Belarusian writer and opposition activist Svetlana Alexievich has left the country to seek medical treatment, but her trip was not linked to politics and she planned to return home, her aides said on Monday. EU diplomats in Minsk have been helping to shield her from harassment. French president Emmanuel Macron will also meet Belarus opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya in Lithuania on Tuesday, raising hopes of French help in the crisis.

German foreign minister Heiko Maas has gone into self-quarantine after a bodyguard tested positive for coronavirus, a spokesperson told AFP on Wednesday. Maas himself tested negative in an initial test, but the ministry is tracing who he may have had contact with as a precaution. The news follows a similar case with European Council president Charles Michel and one of his security detail earlier this week.

A study published on Wednesday by the EU Fundamental Right Agency found that a quarter of Roma and Travellers in western Europe cannot afford heating or healthy food - while up to 20 percent of their children go to bed hungry. Consequently, life expectancy of these communities is 10 years below the general population. Next month, the European Commission will present a new Roma strategy for equality.

The US coronavirus death toll has passed 200,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the BBC reports. More than 6.8 million people are recorded to have been infected in the US, more than in any other country in the world. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the death toll was a "horrible thing", adding China "should have stopped" the virus.

Divisions among EU governments remain between those who want to suspend EU funds if rule of law is not respected, and those who want to narrow down conditionality.

EU countries agree on the need to better coordinate their Covid-19 measures, but the issue remains highly sensitive as health competencies belong to member states.

The EPP, S&D, and Renew Europe have all dropped their support for a Belarus dissident with homophobic views, hours after EUobserver published an expose.

Athens and Ankara have agreed to start the 61st round of exploratory contacts in Istanbul to discuss their contested maritime claims in the eastern Mediterranean and Aegean, Greece's Foreign Ministry said in a brief announcement on Tuesday, Ekathimerini reports. The announcement follows a call between the leaders of Turkey, Germany and the European Union.

Energy ministers from Egypt, Israel, Greece, Cyprus, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and Italy signed on Tuesday the charter of a new Middle East energy forum that will promote natural gas exports from the eastern Mediterranean to Europe and other markets, Ekathimerini writes. "The East Mediterranean Gas Forum, [...] is in fact becoming a real international organisation," said Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz. Turkey has not been invited.

Denmark, Greece, Hungary and Sweden joined Germany and Romania as host states of the medical equipment strategic reserve, the EU Commission announced on Tuesday. The stockpile, that was set up in the wake of the pandemic and is financed by the commission, is building up common European stocks of lifesaving protective and other vital medical equipment that can be distributed across Europe at times of medical emergencies.

Maltese police have arrested Keith Schembri, the former prime minister Joseph Muscat's chief of staff, in an investigation into alleged money-laundering connected to the sale of Maltese passports. A Maltese court also issued an order for all his assets and those of his family and companies to be frozen. Schrembi is friends with the person suspected of the 2017 murder of anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

The European Commission is being legally pressed to investigate alleged infringements by Greece on migration and asylum - following reports of push-backs and the denial of basic rights for people demanding international protection.