Euobserver.com

So many things are happening in Europe that many of us will have missed the small political earthquake that took place in Switzerland recently.

The head of a European Parliament's delegation sent to Malta to review the rule of law on the island, Sophie In't Veld, said on Tuesday that Maltese prime minister Joseph Muscat should step aside, Reuters writes. Following a scandal over the murder of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, the parliament planned a two-day EU parliamentary mission to Malta. Muscat said he will step down as prime minister next month.

France and the EU are ready to retaliate if US president Donald Trump acts on his threats to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on champagne, handbangs, and other French products, the Paris government said on Tuesday. A commission spokesman confirmed that the "the EU will remain united". The threat came after the US government said that France's new digital service tax would harm US tech companies, Reuters reported.

Finnish president Sauli Niinisto has accepted the resignation of prime minister Antti Rinne, but asked the government to remain in place as a a caretaker executive. Rinne took office this summer as Finland launched its EU presidency in July. The Finnish Centre Party, part of the country's five-party ruling coalition, had lost confidence in Rinne over the government's handling of a two-week postal strike.

Turkey's veto of a Nato defence plan is just normal pre-summit games, Lithuania has said, as Western leaders meet in the UK.

Greece's prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called on the EU to re-open accession talks with North Macedonia and Albania in an interview with the Financial Times. Referring to the veto of French president Emmanuel Macron, he said "I hope that this mistake is going to be corrected". He also criticised Macron over his quote that Nato is "brain dead", calling Nato "a pillar of peace in the post-World War Two world".

EU antitrust regulators are investigating how Facebook and Google collects and monetises its data, the EU Commission said on Monday, adding to existing scrutiny of Facebook's online marketplace. The EU executive said it had sent out questionnaires as part of preliminary investigations into both Facebook and Google's data. The probe looks into how the tech giants leverage data gathered to block their competitors.

Russia shunned an extradition request after the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 and let a suspect leave the country, Dutch prosecutors said on Monday. The Netherlands demanded Russia deliver Volodymyr Tsemakh, believed to be a commander of pro-Russian separatists and an air defence specialist, who shot down the commercial plane. Dutch prosecutors argued that Tsemakh is a Ukrainian citizen, therefore there was no legal obstacle to the extradition.

Protesters in Malta on Monday evening blocked lawmakers from leaving parliament in frustration over the 2017 murder of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Around 4,000 demonstrators blocked prime minister Joseph Muscat amid shouts of "Prison!" and "Assassins!" and calls for his immediate resignation for his possible role in attempting to whitewashing the murder. Muscat, who promised to leave in January, was eventually able to exit via a secondary exit.

A World Trade Organization (WTO) panel found Monday that the EU had failed to remove illegal subsidies to Airbus, the centre of a dispute between Washington and Brussels, AFP reported. A WTO panel upheld a decision to give green light for the US to put tariffs on EU imports. WTO also said the US has given illegal subsidies to Boeing, and is yet to set the amount of retaliatory tariffs.

French magistrates have charged ex-defence minister Sylvie Goulard over a fake jobs scandal. The affair largely caused her to be rejected by the European Parliament as an EU commissioner, after being handpicked by president Emmanuel Macron. Goulard was indicted for embezzlement of public funds in employing parliament assistants after a hearing on Friday, AFP reported. Several figures from Goulard's small MoDem party have already been indicted or are being investigated.

Hungary is ready to start talks with Russia's Gazprom about a new long-term gas supply deal, Hungary's foreign ministry said Monday. Foreign minister Peter Szijjarto met Gazprom's chairman in Budapest earlier the same day. Hungary imports most of its gas from Russia under a supply agreement due to expire by 2020. The US has been trying to convince allies, such as Hungary, in the region to diversify their gas supplies.

Gearing up for EU spending on arms procurement will be a top priority for the subcommittee on security and defence, according to its French chairwoman - but ethical questions remain.

There is a significant risk that Nato will be weaker and more divided after the London meeting than it was before. What was supposed to be a low-key celebration of the 70th anniversary takes place against multiple crises.

A majority of EU member states are believed to be in favour of not renewing approval for the pesticides chlorpyrifos and chlorpyrifos-methyl, when they meet in Brussels later this week.

Russian president Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping supervised on Monday the launch of a landmark pipeline that will transfer natural gas from Siberia to northeast China, Reuters writes. "This is a genuinely historical event not only for the global energy market but above all for us, for Russia and China," said Putin. Europe has long been a major consumer for Russia's state-controlled energy giant Gazprom.

More than 100 civil society organisations and trade unions on Monday called on the European Commission to introduce legislation requiring companies and financial institutions "to address the human rights and environmental impact of their global operations and supply chains".

The presidents of the European Commission, Parliament and Council on Monday all attended the UN climate conference (COP25) in Madrid to ensure that Europe speaks with 'one voice' about the challenges of climate change.

About 200 heads of government and state and more than 25,000 delegates from all over the world, will gather at the UN climate conference (COP25) on Monday to negotiate on a carbon market system and establish a common time frame.

Maltese PM's slow-motion resignation still posed risks of a cover-up on the murder of a journalist, his critics have warned.