Euobserver.com

Slovakia's far-right party is at a historic high, as the murder trial of a journalist and his partner reveals corruption at the highest state level and lead to general disillusionment among the voting public.

As someone who has been personally targeted by Benjamin Netanyahu's incitement against Arabs and Palestinians, Christians, Muslims and Druze, I still believe that peace is possible. But Donald Trump's 'plan' will be a gift to Netanyahu's campaign.

Slovenian prime minister Marjan Sarec on Monday resigned and called for an early election after his government failed to push through key legislation. Slovenian president Borut Pahor is now negotiating with parties to see if a new coalition can be formed. However, Janez Jansa, leader of the opposition, populist, Slovenian Democratic Party, said that an early election was "by far the most likely option".

German chancellor Angela Merkel is pushing the European Union to start accession talks for Albania and North Macedonia. "Above all, we want to reach an agreement at the next European Council in March to start accession negotiations with Albania, and also with North Macedonia," she told reporters in Berlin on Monday.

German foreign minister Heiko Maas said on Monday the UN should pass a sanctions resolution against continuing military attacks in Libya and violations of arms embargo. The UN Security Council should agree "this would not remain without consequences," Maas said. Libya's UN-backed government said earlier that forces of renegade commander Khalifa Haftar have launched attacks despite his earlier promises to respect the ceasefire at a Berlin peace conference in January.

Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar has suggested that the European Union will have the upper hand when it comes to trade talks with the UK. "The European Union is a union of 27 member states. The UK is only one country. And we have a population and a market of 450 million people," he told the BBC, noting the UK has a population of around 60m and a smaller market.

The EU Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) published a report on Monday highlighting seven challenges for member states under the new EU telecoms legislation. The new rules require telecom providers to implement security measures, such as encryption. "Our goal is to ensure that these new provisions will be rolled-out effectively and efficiently, with maximum benefit for the security and privacy of EU consumers," said ENISA executive director Juhan Lepassaar.

Italian far-right chief Matteo Salvini failed to topple the left in a regional poll on Sunday, but his comeback bid is not over yet.

Several European countries are to evacuate their citizens out of the Wuhan area in China where the coronavirus has already killed at least 80 people and affected around 2,700, despite China's massive efforts to contain the epidemic, Deutsche Welle reports. France has confirmed three cases of infection within its borders. French health minister Agnes Buzyn said repatriations by plane will start by midweek, with the agreement of Chinese authorities.

As the first EU member state leaves the bloc, commemorations will be muted in Brussels. Meanwhile, the presidents of the three EU institutions will gather in France to discuss Europe's future.

Despite its historic connotation with windmills and dams, the Netherlands is in fact far behind most EU countries in the production of energy from renewable sources - alongside stragglers such as Malta, Luxembourg and Belgium.

Poland has called for Nato solidarity on Russia, but judicial meddling and populist hate speech have made it unpopular on the Western stage.

The European Commission says it is working on proposals to fight terrorism, organised crime, drugs and now wants to expand the EU's police agency Europol. A whole raft of measures covering all three areas have been proposed since 2001.

Austria and Italy have blocked an EU proposal to refloat a naval mission in the Mediterranean, called Operation Sophia, to police a UN arms embargo on Libya, German newspaper Die Welt reported Saturday, citing EU diplomats on secret talks between EU ambassadors in Brussels Friday. Austria voiced concern Sophia would be used to rescue migrants, while Italy said the EU needed to also police land and air corridors to Libya.

European council president Charles Michel sent an invitation to the EU heads of state and prime ministers for an extra EU summit on 20 February in order to find a consensus on the EU budget of 2020-2027. He wrote that any further delay would lead to "serious practical and political problems". There is a deep disagreement between some member states, the commission and the EU parliament on the budget.

Britain's withdrawal from the Union on the 31st of January is a good thing for the EU, even if Brexit as such is not.

The Spanish Supreme Court has decided to strip Catalan premier Quim Torra of his seat in the regional parliament, increasing tensions between the regional and central government, El País reported. However, Torra said he will not step down. "I am a lawmaker and premier of Catalonia because that's what the people decided and that's what was ratified by parliament," he said when the verdict was made public.

Over 90 percent of energy deals struck at the UK-Africa investment summit, a total of around €2.4bn, were for fossil fuels, the Guardian writes. British PM Boris Johnson said the UK is committed to "support African countries in their transition to cleaner energy", but most of the commercial deals were for oil and gas production. "[The] hypocrisy of the government's position is breathtaking," said UK Green MP Caroline Lucas.

A dozen MEPs from leftwing parties visited the jailed Catalan leader Oriol Junqueras in prison on Thursday evening, according to the online daily Catalan News. Irish members complained that the former head of the government of Catalonia and now MEP, Carles Puigdemont, could not accompany them, for fear of arrest. "It's absolute madness, he has immunity everywhere in Europe, yet he cannot come to Spain," said MEP Clare Daly.

Bulgaria is considering expelling two Russian diplomats who may have been spying on the Balkan country, Reuters reports. "We have received letters from the prosecutors with the allegations. We will undertake the action that we are obliged to undertake and will most probably declare them 'persona non grata'," Bulgarian foreign minister Ekaterina Zaharieva said on Friday. Zaharieva is expected to meet with the Russian ambassador to Sofia later on Friday.