Euobserver.com

EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell has washed his hands of an EU statement, on 6 January, which called Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó part of an "outgoing National Assembly", instead of "interim president", as in the past, over rigged elections. Guaidó's EU-downgrade was "not a statement [by me] but … a unanimous statement by the 27 EU member states. They're the ones who approved this," Borrell told MEPs Tuesday.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday it was "completely legal" under a 1982 'Law of the Sea' for Greece to extend its territorial waters for 12 nautical miles from its islands, Ekathimerini reports. He spoke amid a dispute between Greece and Turkey over the move, which Lavrov said ought to be settled through "dialogue". Lavrov's remarks came as a surprise after Moscow and Ankara had recently forged closer ties.

MEPs urged the EU to stop a Russian gas pipeline and invoke 'Magnitsky Act' sanctions on oligarchs over the arrest of Alexei Navalny, but was anyone listening in Paris or Berlin?

Coronavirus infections in Switzerland plus the principality of Liechtenstein passed 500,000 on Tuesday, data from Swiss health authorities showed, as new infections rose by 2,260, Reuters reports. Switzerland was a popular destination for other Europeans during Christmas holidays as it kept its ski slopes open. The death toll in Switzerland and Liechtenstein rose by 75 to 8,166, while 129 new hospitalisations kept pressure on the health care system.

German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and heads of the 16 states, agreed on Tuesday to extend the country's lockdown until 14 February. The new rules have made the use of "clinical masks" compulsory in shops and public transport. Netherlands and Denmark are also expected to extend their lockdown restrictions amid concerns over a more contagious variants of Covid-19, first detected in the UK and South Africa, the Guardian reported.

Former EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier will become special adviser to EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen starting February, the commission said on Tuesday. The French politician will advise her on the implementation of the EU-UK withdrawal agreement and on the finalisation of the EU's ratification process of the EU-UK trade and cooperation agreement, both of which he negotiated with his British counterparts.

European Commissioner for home affairs Ylva Johansson will be visiting the destitute Lipa migrant camp in Bosnia and Herzegovina in February. "I intend to visit Lipa and visit Bosnian authorities in February," she told MEPs on Tuesday. Some 2,000 people were left stranded and exposed to harsh winter conditions. Of those, around 900 have returned to Lipa, following pressure for the army to set up tents and heaters.

The European Commission has announced targets to accelerate the roll-out of vaccination, and the intention of "a common approach" on possible vaccine certificates. Both topics will be discussed by EU leaders on Thursday.

Portugal's prime minister António Costa will on Wednesday discuss with European Parliament president David Sassoli and MEPs and try to resolve the issue of who will chair the conference.

MEPs are drumming up support for an inquiry into the EU's controversial border and coast guard agency, Frontex. So far, the Greens, the left-wing GUE, and Renew Europe are on board - amid expectations the centre-left S&D will also join.

The time has come to address the enduring flaws of the single market and to launch the necessary reforms to create a stronger and more prosperous Union.

Washington's dazzling security-dominated Asian engagement may get all the attention - but the EU has done a pretty good job of hammering out its own Asia policy over the last few years.

The greatest mistake the EU institutions can possibly make at this juncture, is to turn the Conference on the Future of Europe into yet another round in the outdated feud between the federalists and the inter-governmentalists.

The European Union wants to set up a mechanism that allows member states to share surplus Covid-19 vaccines with poorer countries, after the World Health Organization warned that "the world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure" regarding equal access to vaccines. "We are working with member states to propose a European mechanism to share vaccines beyond our borders," EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides told MEPs on Tuesday.

Some 59 percent of Europeans thought China will become more powerful than the US in the next 10 years and 60 percent said the American political system was "broken" due to outgoing president Donald Trump's antics, according to a survey in 11 EU states for the European Council on Foreign Relations think-tank out Tuesday. Poles and Hungarians were the most pro-American. The survey was in December, before the Capitol riot.

A coronavirus mutation has been discovered among 35 newly infected patients in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria, Germany, Deutsche Welle reports. It is different to the new variant found recently in the UK, but doctors do not yet know if it is highly infectious. "We have to wait for the complete sequencing. We cannot say at all at the moment whether this [mutation] has any clinical relevance," a doctor at the hospital said.

On Tuesday, the Italian senate will vote on the government of prime minister Giuseppe Conte after former prime minister Matteo Renzi pulled out his ministers from the ruling coalition, Il Corriere della Sera writes. On Monday, the house of representatives already voted in favour of Conte's government, but the majority in favour is much smaller in the senate. Conte has said he did not plan to resign despite Renzi's move.

The UK has appointed judge Gary Hickinbottom to lead a special enquiry into increasing lawlessness in its Caribbean protectorate, the British Virgin Islands (BVI). The BVI has long been known as a tax and money-laundering haven, including in several EU bank scandals. But massive hauls of cocaine and reports of tens of millions of dollars in embezzled funds from government construction projects in recent years prompted Britain to take action.

It remains to be seen if Laschet will be the CDU's candidate for German chancellor, but some of his foreign policy views have raised eyebrows in the past.

EU countries hinted new sanctions might come if Russia further harms opposition hero Alexei Navalny, but France and Germany want business as usual for now.