Euobserver.com

The EU will do Bosnia and Herzegovina no favours by moving them forward on a candidacy track that they are not prepared for — and itself no favours by abandoning its own values.

Rule of law questions are mounting against the EU's police agency Europol, following a recent expansion of powers amid data abuse scandals. Those powers include the processing and analysis of data of innocent people with no links to any crime.

As the principal author of the OECD's new 2023 draft regulation on lobbying, I'd like to see many meaningful comments and suggestions from all kinds of stakeholders.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine put it on an "irreversible" path toward a clash with the "collective West", France has warned.

The new rules, seemingly inspired by the Covid-19 recovery fund's structure, would have governments negotiate a four-year debt reduction path with the commission — and then have EU ministers give their green light on it.

The German government on Wednesday blocked the sale of a chip factory to a Swedish subsidiary of a Chinese company, AP news reported. The mooted deal raised concerns over putting German IT production capacity in Chinese hands. The decision follows a recent compromise over a Chinese shipping firm's investment in a German container terminal, and a visit to Beijing last week by chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Athens and Thessaloniki on Wednesday, and Belgian workers were holding a nationwide general strike, over the cost-of-living increases, AP news reported. The main trade unions in Belgium and Greece called for wage rises, and measures to tackle inflation. Russia's war in Ukraine has driven up energy and food prices, as governments struggle to buffer the price hikes.

The European Commission wants to raise some €18bn for Ukraine. But the proposal is already being challenged by Hungary, which remains unhappy it has yet to receive Covid-pandemic recovery funds from Brussels.

Through a mechanism to be discussed on Wednesday, member states would permanently be able to derogate at will from their obligations under EU asylum law — de fact creating a cherry-picking system between EU member states.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has turned the thumbscrews on Sweden by personally naming who he wants Swedish judges to hand over in return for Nato membership.

On Wednesday, the EU commission is expected to lay out detailed plans on the new €18bn assitance package for Ukraine for next year, while disagreements over financing remain.

The liberal Renew Europe group in the European Parliament on Tuesday in a letter asked parliament president Roberta Metsola to invite the new owner of Twitter, Elon Musk, to a parliamentary hearing. Liberal MEPs warned that the standards applied by Twitter may be weakened, ahead of the European elections and amid the fight against disinformation. "Twitter cannot become a dystopian hellscape," MEP Dita Charanzová said, citing Musk.

Mastodon is much more than a company registered in Berlin with one employee — founder, chief executive and only shareholder, the young programmer Eugen Rochko. He designed Mastodon as open software that allows people and groups to build a network.

Democracy in Europe is being undermined by alleged government-led spyware on citizens, journalists and politicians, says Dutch liberal MEP Sophie In't Veld, who is lead report writer for a European Parliament probe into the abuse.

If Musk's trajectory is towards multiplying political dog-fights and opening the gates to far-out opinions, the promise is not a better Twitter. The promise is MySpace — which fizzled out when users started to share obscene, nasty, and outrageous content.

By focusing on achieving arbitrarily set low-debt objectives rather than responsible investment, the EU's economic policy has damaged public services, living standards and our efforts to tackle the climate crisis. It's time for change.

A Bulgarian police officer was shot dead at the border with Turkey, the interior minister said Tuesday. The incident occurred on Monday evening when an unidentified person shot at a border police officer on patrol, AP reported. The shooter was not captured and believed to be on Turkish territory. Bulgaria deployed 350 troops and 40 army vehicles along its border with Turkey to help with a growing migrant influx.

A German humanitarian group said its ship docked in southern Italy early Tuesday and disembarked 89 people rescued at sea, AP reported. Mission Lifeline posted videos on social media of the 25-meter Rise Above freighter docking in Reggio Calabria and added that all 89 were allowed to disembark. The group had waited for days for Italy to assign it a port after it etered Italian waters because of rough waters.

Hundreds more Kosovar-Serb police have resigned in northern Kosovo in a rolling protest that risks looking like de facto secession.

The stand-off with Italy's far-right government continues — as four charity vessel ships seek to disembark those had rescued at sea. The stalemate comes as another 500 people need rescuing.