Euobserver.com

Firms in the EU should be able to stop workers from wearing religious symbols, such as headscarves, so long as their rules on religious neutrality "applied to all workers in a general and undifferentiated way", the EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg ruled on Thursday. The ruling came over a Belgian case in which L.F., a headscarf-wearing Muslim woman, was refused an internship at SCRL, a social-housing company.

Some 143 UN states voted in favour of an EU-drafted resolution condemning Russia's "attempted illegal annexations" of eastern Ukraine in New York Wednesday, with five against, and 35 abstentions. Belarus, Nicaragua, North Korea, and Syria joined Russia in opposing the text. China, India, Pakistan, and South Africa abstained. "The world has sent a clear message ... Russia cannot erase a sovereign state from the map," US president Joe Biden said.

There is still no consensus on gas price caps — but EU countries reached a general agreement to purchase gas through a joint platform before next summer.

The EU, in June, already granted candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova, and to Georgia with conditions — with the Russian aggression speeding up the accession process.

Nato would likely fire on military bases in Russia if it hit ones in Poland in a "proportionate" exchange of conventional air strikes, a European former military chief has said.

Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that "lost" gas flows from damaged Nord Stream pipelines could be redirected to the Black Sea, to create a European "gas hub" in Turkey, Reuters reported. Putin also insisted that gas supplies could be delivered to Europe through one part of the Nord Stream 2 which is not affected. Nord Stream 2 was put on hold after the invasion of Ukraine.

A verdict is expected soon on the EU Commission over projects it financed to help sketchy governments abroad spy on people, which could then be used against rights defenders, journalists, and dissidents.

Belarus opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya Wednesday called on "every Russian soldier" to leave Belarus and said all involved in Russian attacks from Belarus' territory "must be held accountable". Referring to Russia, Tikhanovskaya said Belarus and Ukraine has the same enemy. She argued that Ukraine and Belarus' fate is intertwined. "Without [a] free Belarus, there will be a constant threat to Ukraine and our neighbouring countries," she said.

A group of 45 NGOs on Wednesday issued a manifesto urging EU countries to ban so-called 'forever chemicals' — technically per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) — in consumer products by 2025, and across all uses by 2030. The European Commission pledged to ban all non-essential uses of PFAS in 2020, under the EU chemicals strategy for sustainability. In May, MEPs called to speed up restrictions on these chemicals.

Sanctions were "melting away" Russia's ability to finance the war, the EU has said, but China and Turkey are helping it to get around Western blockades.

The first opportunity to discuss the creation of a 'Human Rights League' will be the event organised this Thursday in the European Parliament.

"The Covid-19 pandemic is still not over," EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides, the director of the World Health Organization's European branch, Hans Kluge, and the head of the EU agency monitoring viral infections, Andrea Ammon, said on Wednesday. They said vaccines remain the most "effective tool" to protect the most vulnerable, as the new wave of cases and the normal flu this winter is expected to increase pressure on hospitals.

Some of Europe's largest pension funds are investing billions of euros in volatile commodity markets, risking the hard-earned income of millions of workers while fuelling a global hunger crisis caused in part by such investments, a new investigation has found.

"This is not a moment when we are going to send flowers to all of you saying that you are beautiful," he warned EU ambassadors early in his speech.

"I wake up every morning, thinking this may be my last day. I have never lived like this", a young woman in a calm and normal Kyiv told me 10 days ago. But this week the missiles came back.

"Hybrid and cyber-attacks can trigger Article 5," Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday when asked about the act of sabotage on the German rail network at the weekend and the twin leaks at the Nord Stream pipelines. Stoltenberg refused to comment on specific events, as investigations are ongoing, but warned that hybrid and cyber-attacks "can constitute armed attack against a Nato ally", triggering the joint defence action.

It is the responsibility of EU member state to proceed with bilateral meetings but the EU's position is that "it makes no sense to engage with Russia at a time when they are so openly disregarding and dismissing every single civilised norm of the rules-based world", EU Commission spokesperson Peter Stano said on Tuesday of Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó's visit to Moscow later this week for Russian Energy Week.

The European Union seeks to expand gas trade with Algeria, as part of its wider efforts to diversify energy supplies away from Russia.

Germany has no plans to back a joint European Union loan mechanism, a government source said.

The sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines was the first major attack on European maritime infrastructure. But while the EU Commission has a critical infrastructure directive in the works, it largely focuses on cybersecurity —not physical attacks.