European Union

The Council unanimously decided to reject a draft list put forward by the Commission of 23 "high-risk third countries" in the area of money laundering and terrorist financing.

The act foresees the setting-up of an additional pool of resources, rescEU, to provide assistance in situations where overall existing capacities are insufficient.

The presidency of the Council and the Parliament reach a provisional agreement on disclosure rules on investments' environmental and social impact.

Leaders of the European Parliament on Thursday backed Romanian former anti-corruption prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi as their pick to be the EU's chief prosecutor. The decision comes after two parliamentary committees backed her candidacy. The EP's leadership appointed three MEPs to negotiate the final choice with member states. Three ambassadors will head the council's negotiating team. Talks could drag on, as the countries picked the French candidate as their choice.

The European Commission has referred Italy to the Court of Justice of the EU over two separate cases of failing to apply EU environmental rules. The first case is about "a failure to protect citizens against the effects of nitrogen dioxide", the commission said on Thursday. The second is about waste water treatment. "Italy has not complied with EU rules in [16 Italian] regions for over 13 years," it said.

Turkey's Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu threatened in a speech he delivered in Polatlı to have German tourists suspected of being against the Turkish government arrested at airports. Following reports in German media about the speech Ankara has stressed that Soylu's words were taken out of context. What are the consequences of the speech, and how should Germany respond?

The burning of a papier-mâché puppet that is supposed to represent the person who is blamed for all the bad things that happened in the past year is a carnival tradition in Croatia. This year, however, a puppet representing Milorad Pupovac, the leader of the party of the Serb minority, was set on fire, triggering an uproar - and a debate about the tradition. Is the symbolic burning of a political figure during carnival morally acceptable?

In this year's Bloomberg Healthiest Country Index Spain came first of all the countries in the world. The index ranks 169 countries according to criteria such as life expectancy, causes of death, diet and quality of the healthcare system and water. Spanish commentators see Spain's success as an incentive to maintain this lifestyle, while the Portuguese are puzzled by the results.