Euobserver.com

Belgium has the the EU's second-highest infection rate over a 14-day period, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. The Sweden-based agency on Monday said Belgium's cumulative number of Covid-19 cases per 100,000 is 402.5 but also"advised to use all data with caution", given limitations. The Czech Republic has the highest at 493.1, followed by Belgium, and the Netherlands (364.2). Neighbouring Germany has 45.2.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said there is a need to speed up renovation of existing buildings throughout the European Union. "Our buildings are responsible for 40 percent of our energy consumption," she noted, adding at current pace it will take more than a century to bring emissions from buildings to zero. The Associated Press reported the European Commission is set to announce a building-renovation project on Wednesday.

EU countries are set to adopt a 'traffic-light' colour-coding system for coronavirus-affected areas. But member states will have the possibility to set their own strategies, on negative Covid-19 tests or different quarantine periods, for orange and red zones.

Bigots and far-right extremists are using online violence to try to silence feminists and LGBT people. It's a cowardly tactic since perpetrators don't even have to meet their targets. We hear stories from two Europeans on the receiving end

This latest resumption in the conflict, as it is somewhat euphemistically called, is rather a self-declared offensive by Azerbaijan, aimed at achieving its desired outcome to the conflict by force rather than by negotiation.

EU states have agreed to blacklist Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko and several other Belarusian figures, in addition to the 40 names they designated earlier this month. Lukashenko had shown "complete lack of will" to talk to the opposition, amid ongoing violence against pro-democracy protesters, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said on Monday. Cyprus had delayed previous attempts with its veto, but, this time, Borrell was "confident" of quick implementation.

EU foreign ministers have agreed to blacklist four individuals and one entity over Russia's alleged poisoning of opposition figure Alexei Navalny, diplomatic sources said. The political accord, spearheaded by France and Germany, is to be legally implemented "as soon as possible", and, in any case, before the upcoming EU summit, one diplomat said. Poland had pushed, but failed, for Germany to also stop building the Nord Stream Russia gas pipeline.

Britain might float nets in the English Channel to disable the boats of migrants trying to cross from France, its Home Office "channel threat commander", Dan O'Mahoney, told the Daily Telegraph newspaper this weekend. The nets would "clog propellers and bring boats to a standstill", enabling the coastguard to take people on board and return them to the French coast, he said, despite fears that they could cause dangerous accidents.

EU states, late Friday, agreed new measures to harmonise travel rules. A Swedish-based EU agency will designate European regions as green, amber, red, or grey (insufficient data) based on weekly updates. All states are to allow green-zone visitors and impose the same testing or quarantine rules for red zones. Some Bulgarian, Cypriot, Greek, German, Italian, Nordic and Baltic regions were the only ones that would qualify as green, for now.

Belgian phone networks Orange and Proximus have selected Finnish supplier Nokia instead of Chinese firm Huawei to install 5G data networks amid security fears over Chinese espionage, Reuters reports. "Belgium has been 100-percent reliant on Chinese vendors for its radio networks - and people working at Nato and the EU were making mobile phone calls on these networks," Danish telecoms consultant John Strand said, echoing US concerns on China.

High-level meetings at the European Commission are to exclude assistants, while top officials will face Covid-19 tests prior to attendance and be obliged to wear masks during talks, the commission said Sunday. The move comes after a 90-percent jump in infections in Belgium, the home of the EU institutions, last week, with 113 people a day being hospitalised, rising to 160 on Saturday. Some EU commissioners have also tested positive.

Turkey has said three vessels - the Oruc Reis, Ataman, and Cengiz Han - are to spend 10 days drilling for oil and gas in waters claimed by Greece and Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean in a move likely to redouble calls for EU sanctions. Early results in elections in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus also showed hawkish challenger Ersin Tata neck-and-neck with the more moderate incumbent in a potential new flashpoint.

Police in Belarus used water cannon and stun grenades to break up pro-democracy protests Sunday - the eighth weekend in a row of violence in Minsk after rigged elections in August. They sprayed coloured water on crowds to mark out people for arrest. The EU has said it would increase sanctions, currently covering 40 Belarusian officials, if the regime did not back down and start a dialogue with the opposition.

Lithuania's centre-right opposition party, the Homeland Union, came first in Sunday's elections with some 23 percent, early results showed. They beat into second place the Farmers and Greens party (LVZS), on 18 percent, which had led the previous ruling coalition, in a show of discontent at government handling of the pandemic, as well as economic inequalities. Voters were urged to bring their own pens to ballot boxes, as infections spiked.

The EU is to train Mozambique's armed forces and give humanitarian aid to help stop an Islamist insurgency there, the EU ambassador in Maputo, Antonio Sánchez-Benedito Gaspar, said Saturday, following Mozambique's request for help last week. Rebels linked to jihadist group Islamic State have been fighting in northern Mozambique since 2017, but the country's army has also been accused of human rights violations in the combat zone.

A Russia-brokered ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan has broken down shortly after it was agreed on Saturday.

EU regions were unevenly hit by the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new report. The most economically hard-hit regions were those under strict lockdown measures for the longest - not necessarily those with the highest death-rates or most cases detected.

Talks between the UK and the EU have progressed painfully slowly, but a deal on future relations needs to be agreed by the end of October. MEPs and diplomats will have another go at settling the next EU budget.

With the support of EU institutions, the fossil industry is investing in natural gas infrastructure all across the continent, from Tallinn to Athens and from the Baltic to the Aegean. But does Europe truly need all this natural gas?

The EU Commission wants to reduce cancer rates in Europe. So it's imperative this week's chemicals strategy properly regulates substances that can cause cancer - despite the efforts of the chemicals lobby, which has spent years successfully preventing tough action.