Euobserver.com

"Playing brinkmanship will not work" for British prime minister Boris Johnson when the UK and EU start negotiating their future trade deal, EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan warned Thursday. Johnson has been "unwise" to set an end-2020 deadline to seal a trade deal with the EU, the Irish commissioner said. Johnson has said he does not want to extend the transition period, which is due to end this year.

The Financial Times newspaper reports Germany struck a €44bn deal with its coal-producing regions to phase out coal power by 2038. "We are the first country that will exit from both nuclear and coal [power]. That is also an important international signal that we are sending out," said Germany's environment minister Svenja Schulze.

Croatia's national oil company has become the EU council presidency's "official gasoline supplier" - in a move that appears to clash with aspirations of the European Green Deal. Critics say such sponsorships pose a reputational risk with the wider public.

French leader of the far-right National Rally party, Marine Le Pen, announced on Thursday that she plans to run for the French presidential elections in 2022. Le Pen made it to the second round of French elections in 2017 with 34 percent of the votes, but lost against to Emmanuel Macron. Her party received 23 percent support at last year's European elections.

In a resolution adopted by 446 votes to 178, with 41 abstentions, MEPs called for EU states to act on Poland and Hungary for breaking EU rules and values under the Article 7 procedure. MEPs said the situation in both countries has deteriorated since triggering the sanctions procedure. A large majority of centre-right EPP lawmakers supported the resolutions, despite Hungary's ruling Fidesz party being a suspended member of EPP.

The EU Parliament's leadership designated Thursday an MEP from each three largest party groups, centre-right EPP, Socialists & Democrats and liberal Renew Europe, to run the operational body of the Future of Europe conference. The Executive Coordination Board would be responsible for the daily management, according to the parliament's proposal. One representative for the commission and the council would join. Renew will have Guy Verhofstadt, the EPP Manfred Weber.

A former German diplomat who later worked for the European Commission and EU foreign service, where he served as EU ambassador in several foreign countries, is under investigation for sharing or being willing to share commercially-sensitive information with Chinese spies, German daily Der Spiegel reports. The German probe saw police raids in Brussels, Berlin and other locations, but no arrests. The former diplomat left his EU job in 2017.

Malta's new government does not look likely to turn itself into a normal, law-abiding EU state any time soon, the son of slain journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has said.

The CEO of Danish shipping firm Maersk, Soren Skou, has said EU competition law could see China and the US outdo European firms by holding back "the creation of a European global champion". "Competition policy should not be just about protecting consumers ... if it doesn't allow us to build the right European companies that can compete globally, it could become a huge problem," he told Danish business newspaper Finans.

The European Commission will exempt high-wage Nordic countries, where trade unions do collective deals with employers, from its bid for an EU-wide minimum wage, according to an internal consultation document seen by British paper The Guardian. "EU action would not seek the introduction of a statutory minimum wage in countries with high coverage of collective bargaining and where wage setting is exclusively organised through it," the document said.

Britain is to celebrate Brexit day on 31 January with speeches, music, and fireworks in front of parliament in London after anti-EU campaign group Leave Means Leave got a permit, on Wednesday, to stage the event. "It is a big moment in the history of this nation to celebrate," Nigel Farrage, a eurosceptic British MEP said. Some 12,000 people already applied for tickets for the party, Reuters reported.

The European Commission has voiced solidarity with Poland over Russian claims Poland was to blame for World War 2. "The European Commission fully rejects all false claims seeking to distort history," Czech EU values commissioner Vera Jourova said in the European Parliament Wednesday. Russian president Vladimir Putin the same day said he would "defend the truth of our [Russian] victory" in the war, promising to create a new historical archive.

Iranian president Hassan Rouhani warned that European troops might be in danger if the UK, Germany and France trigger the dispute mechanism in the nuclear deal (JCPOA) that could lead to new sanctions on Iran. "Today, the American soldier is in danger, tomorrow the European soldier could be in danger," Rouhani said. After the US killing of Qassem Suleimani, Iran declared it was no longer committed to the deal.

We have invested €200bn in research and innovation since 1984, but have we achieved any leadership in quantum, semiconductors, storage, artificial intelligence? The simple answer is no.

Two-thirds of people in Europe, the US and China think their individual behaviour can help tackle climate change - but Europeans and Chinese are more willing to change their living standards to limit global warming than Americans.

In a draft resolution, MEPs say that EU countries inability to deal with rule of law breaches by Poland and Hungary undermine the EU's integrity and credibility.

Although non-binding, a critical opinion from the EU's top court could mean laws in Belgium, France and the UK allowing for the indiscriminate bulk collection of people's data may have to be eventually amended to respect EU privacy rules.

Despite Warsaw's refusal to commit to the 2050 emissions-neutrality goal, Poland will receive the upper limit of €2bn from the Just Transition Fund - while Germany is set to enjoy €877m.

EU eco-design legislation (for greener product design) and energy-labelling (consumer information on energy consumption and environmental performance) are contributing to improving energy efficiency, a new report of the European Court of Auditors showed on Wednesday. However, the auditors concluded that non-compliance of products with EU law by manufacturers and retailers remains a significant issue. The EU is committed to improving its energy efficiency by 32.5 percent by 2030.

Italian police have arrested 94 people in Siciliy over allegations of EU farm subsidies fraud worth €10m since 2010. Members of the Batanesi and Bontempo Scavo mafia clans, in league with corrupt officials, had declared non-existant farmland to get the grants, prosecutors say. The dawn raids, involving over 600 Italian military police on Wednesday, followed the murder of a Slovak investigative journalist looking into mafia-linked EU subsidies fraud in 2018.