Euobserver.com

According to a poll published on Monday, 56 percent of Italians want, in one way or another, Giuseppe Conte as their prime minister.

Chinese president Xi Jinping urged the new US administration not to drag the EU into a Cold War with Beijing in his pre-recorded speech at 'virtual Davos' on Monday, an annual meeting put on by elite Swiss think-tank the World Economic Forum. "If we walk down the path of confrontation - be it a cold war, a hot war ... all countries are going to suffer," Xi said.

An EU forum for discussing UK financial services will mirror one the bloc used already for relations with Wall Street in New York, EU financial affairs commissioner Mairead McGuinness told MEPs Monday, Reuters reports. "What we envisage for this framework is similar to what we have with the United States, a voluntary structure to compare regulatory initiatives," she said, after billions of euros in trading moved to Europe over Brexit.

"It's not a friendly signal - the first one that the United Kingdom has sent to us immediately after leaving the European Union. If things continue like this there are no good prospects," EU foreign relations chief Josep Borrell said Monday, after the UK denied full diplomatic privileges to the EU's ambassador in London. The step was "unacceptable" because the EU had full recognition in 143 countries worldwide, Borrell said.

Italy's prime minister Giuseppe Conte is to resign only to form a new government, reports the Reuters news agency. "My aim is to find an agreement that gives a clear political perspective to govern until the end of the legislation," he told La Repubblica newspaper on Monday.

EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides said on Monday that AstraZeneca's explanations over its decision to delay Covid-19 vaccines supplies to the EU have not been "satisfactory" so far. "We want clarity on transactions and full transparency concerning the export of vaccines from the EU," she said, adding that future manufacturers of vaccines will have to provide early notification whenever they want to export vaccines to third countries.

Moderna has confirmed its Covid-19 vaccine is expected to be protective against the new South African and British strains of the virus, Reuters reports. In a statement, Moderna said on Monday "its Covid-19 vaccine produced virus-neutralising antibodies in laboratory tests against new coronavirus variants found in the UK and South Africa" and that the "vaccine is expected to be protective against emerging strains detected to date."

Finnish foreign minister Pekka Haavisto will travel to Ethiopia in February as an EU "envoy" to try to broker peace in a civil war, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said Monday. His trip comes amid "credible reports" of "extrajudicial executions of civilians" and looting of hospitals, including by forces from neighbouring Eritrea, Human Rights Watch, an NGO, said the same day, while calling for a UN-led inquiry.

EU ambassadors on Monday urged the global phase-out of coal in energy production, discouraging further investment into fossil-fuel-based infrastructure in third countries "unless they are fully consistent with an ambitious climate neutrality pathway". The European Council also called on all nations to enhance their climate ambitions for the next decade, as part of their commitments under the Paris Agreement and ahead of the next UN climate summit in November.

The EU's top diplomat Josep Borrell is going to Moscow in February, even though its opposition star Alexei Navalny will most likely be in prison at the time.

European Democracy Consulting study said continued low numbers, or "even just a feeling of lasting under-representation", will lead to frustration and impact EU governance.

Negotiations on the European Commission's asylum and migration pact among EU states continues. But a rift is widening on the eight-month deadline for capitals to sponsor returns of failed asylum seekers.

The European Commission has proposed additional measures to limit non-essential travel within and to the European Union - amid fears over more transmissible mutations triggering a new surge in cases across the bloc.

Ultimately, the European Pact on Migration and Asylum, only unveiled in September, risks reinforcing bottlenecks and misery at the borders, should be thoroughly amended before final agreement.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen warned AstraZeneca representatives on Monday that they must meet contractual obligations in vaccine delivery supplies, following news of delays. "She reminded Mr Soriot [AstraZeneca CEO] that the EU has invested significant amounts in the company upfront precisely to ensure production is ramped up even before the conditional market authorisation is delivered," a commission's spokesperson said. No legal action has been taken so far.

Kaja Kallas, a former MEP and a daughter of a former EU commissioner, is to become Estonia's first woman prime minister after a coalition deal between her centre-right Reform Party and the left-wing Centre Party Sunday, Estonian news agency ERR said. "Best wishes to the new, gender-balanced, pro-European, reform-minded government!", Dutch MEP Sophie in 't Veld tweeted. A previous, Centre Party-led government coalition recently collapsed in a corruption scandal.

Greece and Turkey are to resume talks over competing maritime claims in the eastern Mediterranean on Monday, according to Reuters. The talks were a "window of opportunity", but Ankara needed to "abandon this line of confrontation", EU foreign relations chief Josep Borrell told the news agency, after Turkish warships and gas-drilling vessels routinely violated Greek and Cypriot-claimed waters, recently prompting targeted EU sanctions.

Rioters looted stores, started fires, and clashed with police in several Dutch cities on Sunday in protests against anti-corona lockdown measures, resulting in more than 240 arrests, Reuters reports. National broadcaster NOS said riot police had been deployed in at least 10 cities and towns after a curfew went into effect at 9PM. Vehicles were set alight, police were pelted with stones, and public property was destroyed, it reported.

Wind, solar, and other renewable energies created 38 percent of EU electricity last year, while fossil fuels, led by coal and gas, generated 37 percent, a report by think-tanks Ember and Agora Energiewende said. The renewable sector overtook fossils for the first time, but the bloc aso showed wide disparity, with Denmark, for instance, using 61 percent of renewables and Germany 33 percent, but Czechs and Slovaks under 5 percent.

"There is an emergency" in France because the more contagious coronavirus strain first discovered in Britain was "the equivalent of a second pandemic", Jean-Francois Delfraissy, the head of France's Scientific Council, which advises the government, told French broadcaster BFM Sunday. "If we do not tighten regulations, we will find ourselves in an extremely difficult situation from mid-March," he also said, indicating that France might soon adopt a third national lockdown.