Euobserver.com

Italy's far-right former interior minister, Matteo Salvini, appeared before a judge in Palermo, Sicily, on Saturday, in connection with his order to block migrants from disembarking in August 2019. The judge is to decide in March if he is to face charges on abuse of power. "I am totally at ease and proud of what I did," Salvini told media after the closed-door hearing, British newspaper The Guardian reports.

"The UK government must ... provide an urgent multibillion package of compensation to Scotland to mitigate the lasting Brexit harm done to Scottish businesses, industries, and communities," Ian Blackford, a leading MP from the Scottish National Party said Sunday, British newspaper The Guardian reports. Scottish fishermen, for instance, have suspended exports to the EU due to excessive paperwork after the UK's Brexit transition-period ended on 1 January, among other disruptions.

British citizenship and international awards are not enough to make Belarusian dissident Natalia Kaliada feel safe after a high-profile death threat.

The European Parliament's environment committee will hear from the person who negotiated the vaccine contracts, commission director-general of health and food safety, Sandra Gallina.

The European Court of Justice last month ruled Hungary had breached EU asylum laws. Budapest was told to stop pushing asylum seekers back into Serbia - yet nearly 2,500 people have been forced across the border since that judgement.

The three pillars of Italy's G20 presidency - "people", "planet" and "prosperity" aimed at building a more sustainable future, as well as digital innovation - are shared by Joe Biden, which raises hopes of a positive EU-US dialogue.

Given China's size and interconnectedness with Europe, a strategic policy of non-engagement hardly deserves the label "strategic".

The European Commission refused to comment on whether a bilateral deal between Germany and BioNTech for 30 million additional vaccines is a breach of EU collective purchase agreements - which forbid member states from negotiating separate deals.

Data released on Friday by the EU's earth observation programme, the Copernicus Climate Change Service, showed 2020 as the warmest year ever recorded - at the end of the warmest decade on record. Last year, Europe saw an increase of 0.4 degrees Celsius in comparison with 2019, the previous warmest year. "[This] is yet another reminder of the urgency of ambitious emissions reductions," Carlo Buontempo, Copernicus service director, said.

The European Commission secured an additional 200 million doses of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine, with the option of an extra 100 million. In total, 600 million doses of this vaccine will be available for member states. The additional doses will be delivered in the second quarter of 2021.  BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are the only jabs authorised in the EU. The EU sealed deals for up to 2.3 billion vaccine doses.

Over the course of a few days in late December, the State Duma passed new laws introducing sweeping new restrictions on political protests, legalising censorship of social media and cementing broad new guidelines under which the government can designate individuals as "foreign agents," The Moscow Times reports. The new laws have already been signed into life by president Vladimir Putin.

Turkey and France were working to normalise ties and talks were going well, Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Thursday, adding Ankara was ready to improve ties with its Nato ally if Paris showed the same willingness, Ekathimerini writes. Turkey and France have disagreed over conflicts in Syria, Libya, the eastern Mediterranean and Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan, as well as over the publication of cartoons of the prophet Mohammed in France.

Leave.EU, a pro-Brexit campaign group, has shifted its registration from the UK to EU member state Ireland, in an ironic move designed to let it keep its domain name, The Guardian reports. It is now registered in the name of Sean Power, the CEO of Irish professional services firm BSG, records show. But when The Guardian contacted Power, he voiced surprise and said he had no links to the group.

The Portuguese EU presidency has said it was confident the European Commission would approve its state-rescue of national airline TAP by the end of March, Reuters reports. "The main concern of the plan is to make the firm sustainable," Portuguese finance minister Joao Leao said. The airline needed €2bn in extra funds to survive. It also needed 2,000 job cuts and pay-cuts of 25 percent, Portugal earlier said.

"I never dreamt I would see these things ... and chilling, chilling," Anthony Gardner, the former US ambassador to the EU, said of the pro-Trump mob which stormed the Capitol earlier this week.

China, Iran, and Russia have gloated about the attack on the US Capitol, but for Lithuania's foreign minister, the American republic will bounce back.

European leaders hope Joe Biden will travel to Brussels in the first half of the year - although the timing of any such visit is not yet clear.

European far-right leaders who back outgoing US president Donald Trump condemned the violent mob who stormed the Capitol in Washington - but fell short of pinning blame on the man who incited the rioters.

The head of the European branch of the World Health Organization, Hans Kluge, said on Thursday that the variant of Covid-19, first detected in the UK and already registered in 22 European countries, has triggered "an alarming situation" that requires authorities to strengthen public health measures. In Europe, coronavirus cases have surpassed 25 million, according to a Reuters tally - with several countries reintroducing or extending lockdowns.

Customers in Europe buying products from UK companies are receiving unexpected bills for VAT and customs declarations or finding household names have stopped shipping to the continent, as post-Brexit trading rules bite, the Guardian writes. Since the end of the Brexit transition period, continental customers must both complete a customs declaration for goods imported from the UK and pay national VAT.