Euobserver.com

The Norwegian-flagged Ocean Viking search-and-rescue vessel saved 369 people on a boat in the middle of the night, some 80 nautical miles off Libya. EUobserver was onboard and witnessed the rescue first hand, in this exclusive by Nikolaj Nielsen.

Thousands of Europeans were keen to buy fake electronic certificates about their vaccination status and fake vaccines, according to Italian police, who broke up a cyber-crime marketplace over the weekend. Prices ranged from €110 to €130 for an "all inclusive" package of fake pass and fake vial of vaccine. "Anyone found with these fake certificates, including buyers, risks ... offences punishable by up to six years," Italian police said.

Four people were found dead on Sunday as a huge fire raged for a second day in Cyprus, razing tracts of forest and gutting dozens of homes in a blaze one official called the worst on record, Reuters reports. "Its one of the most destructive [fires] we have experienced, unfortunately, with victims," Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades told reporters from the area. The state would support all those affected, he said.

The EU is planning to tax high-polluting aviation fuels in a new package of climate-change measures due out on 14 July, Reuters writes. An aviation-fuel exemption "is not coherent with the present climate challenges and policies", the draft paper said. The minimum EU-wide tax for aircraft fuels used on trips inside Europe was to be phased in over 10 years, it added, without giving a figure for the final amount.

French health minister Olivier Veran warned Sunday that the 'Delta variant' of coronavirus was sweeping through his country. "For five days, [the infection rate] hasn't come down - it's rising again. Because of the Delta variant, which is very contagious. The British example shows that a fourth wave is possible from the end of July," he said. "We must move even faster [on vaccination]," he added.

Former Polish prime minister and EU Council president Donald Tusk has made a comeback into national politics, by taking his over his former political party, the centre-right Civic Platform opposition party. "The evil that PiS is performing is evident, shameless and permanent. It's happening every day, in almost every matter," he said in a speech in. Warsaw Saturday, referring to the ruling and nationalist-populist Law and Justice (PiS) party.

The EU will have to hit harder at Belarus' top company, Belaruskali, to influence the regime, its own workers have said.

Slovenia will give special attention to the discussion on the Western Balkan integration into the EU during the six months that it will hold the presidency of the EU Council, its prime minister Janez Janša said.

The European Parliament will debate in Strasbourg the breaches of EU law and of the rights of LGBTIQ people in Hungary, and adopt resolutions on the issues.

The EU has submitted to the World Trade Organization a plan aimed at expanding the production of Covid-19 vaccines - seen by Brussels as a quicker and more targeted solution than the intellectual property right-waiver proposal backed by the US.

"Hungary again blocked an EU statement on Hong Kong. Three weeks ago, it was on Middle East. Common foreign and security policy cannot work on the basis of a blocking policy," Miguel Berger, a state secretary in the German foreign ministry, Tweeted Friday, adding: "We need a serious debate on ... qualified majority voting". Budapest also recently vetoed an EU trade and aid deal with African, Pacific, and Caribbean countries.

Belarusian airline Belavia will be banned from all EU countries' airspace from midnight Friday, after EU ambassadors in Brussels agreed the move in reaction to a recent state hijacking, Reuters reports. Over half had already done so ahead of the EU-level step. Belavia flew to some 20 airports in Europe including Amsterdam, Berlin, Helsinki, Milan, Paris, Rome, Vienna, and Warsaw. EU airlines have also been advised to avoid Belarus airspace.

"Today ... the pipe-laying work of the first Nord Stream 2 line was successfully finished. Work on the second line is ongoing," Russian president Vladimir Putin said at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum Friday, Reuters reports. "Gazprom is ready to start filling Nord Stream 2 with gas," he added. The pipeline, to Germany, will be fully completed by 2022, despite Polish and US complaints on its strategic threat.

"For the first time, the offenses against the financial interest of the EU will be investigated in an integrated strategic manner by a prosecutorial body with supranational jurisdiction," EU chief prosecutor Laura Kövesi said.

Investigative journalism in Europe needed "legal" protection from the growing problem of malicious law suits, the European Commission and MEPs have said.

Greece has drawn criticism and scrutiny for alleged widespread pushbacks of migrants in the Aegean Sea, along with the reported complicity of the EU's border agency Frontex. Critics say the agency should pull out of Greece.

Greek authorities have begun rolling out vaccinations to asylum seekers in migrant camps, Ekathimerini writes. The government, which began vaccinating the general public in January, had been criticised by rights groups for being slow to include asylum-seekers, at risk in overcrowded camps where sanitary conditions are poor and social-distancing impossible. Of the 12,100 asylum-seekers on the Greek islands, about 9,400 live in official camps, according to the UNHCR.

Germany persistently violated EU limits on air pollution, the European Court of Justice said, in a ruling that could see the country face financial penalties if it fails to improve air quality in several big cities, Reuters reports. Air pollution in Europe has eased in the last decade, but remains the continent's biggest environmental health risk. Prolonged exposure to dirty air can cause diabetes, lung disease and cancer.

A study from the European Commission on Thursday revealed an increase of antisemitic online content during the pandemic. Comparing the first two months of 2020 and 2021, the study show a seven-fold increase in antisemitic content on Twitter, Facebook and Telegram in French, and over a thirteen-fold increase in German. On Twitter, for example, one such content in French received over three million retweets and likes.

An Irish subsidiary of Microsoft made a profit of €260bn last year but paid no corporation tax, as it is "resident" for tax purposes in Bermuda, The Guardian reports. The company, Microsoft Round Island One, posted profits last year equal to nearly 75 percent of Ireland's entire GDP – despite having no employees.