Euobserver.com

A French court on Monday sentenced French former prime minister Francois Fillon to five years in jail, three of them suspended, for embezzling public funds in a scandal that ruined his 2017 run for president, Reuters reported. The court found Fillon's wife, Penelope, guilty for her role in the scam that saw her receive about €1m for minimal work as her husband's parliamentary assistant. She received a suspended three-year sentence.

France's Green party, and its left-wing allies, made large gains in the second-round of local elections on Sunday. Lyon, Strasbourg, Bordeaux and Besancon all voted for the Greens or candidates supported by the Greens. President Emmanuel Macron's centrist LREM party failed to win in any major city. A record low, of just 40 percent, of the electorate took part in the poll, during which voters had to wear masks.

EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan on Monday said in a statement he would not seek position of the World Trade Organization (WTO) director general. He had previously said he was looking into the possibility of running for the post, that will become vacant in September. Running would have meant Hogan would had to suspend his activities during the process as a trade commissioner in a crucial time for global trade.

UK chief negotiator David Frost on Monday returned to Brussels for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak for negotiations with EU's deputy chief negotiator, Clara Martinez Alberola. The face-to-face Brexit talks will need to break the impasse if the two sides are to reach an agreement in the next weeks. Negotiations have so far produced little result, with only six months to go before the UK transition period ends.

Globally, more than 500,000 people have died of Covid-19 and the number of infections worldwide has surpassed 10 million, according to several news reports. However the true death toll and number of cases is believed to be higher, due to different testing rates and cause-of-death definitions, delays in reporting, and suspected underreporting. The WHO warned last week that cases are now rising by about a million a week.

Poland heading for at least three more years of full control by the increasingly un-European Law and Justice party after Sunday's elections.

Majority of member states are off-track to deliver on air pollution reduction commitments for 2020 and 2030, EU estimates, as emissions from new cars and vans increased again.

Many people hoped that after corona we would wake up in a friendlier world. Unfortunately, the opposite seems to be the case. A cocktail of several fears is fuelling the already existing trend of polarisation, worldwide.

Germany will take over the EU's rotating presidency for the next difficult six months, making two of the three EU institutions led by German politicians and officials. Poland will digest the results of the first round of its presidential election.

Disappointing and frustrating: these two words describe best the way Brussels has been dealing with the conflict in Syria so far.

EU states will decide Monday or Tuesday which overseas travellers they "recommend" can come back in, diplomats said after talks on corona-travel dragged out. The white-list will be reviewed every two weeks. Meanwhile, individual EU states can still ban white-list countries if they deem them unsafe, but not to make unilateral additions. A draft white-list of 15 states included Australia, Canada, China, Japan, and South Korea, but not the US.

The EU and US should "freeze the assets" of Wagner, a Russian mercenary firm, Libya's UN ambassador Taher el-Sonni said Saturday. He spoke after the Kremlin-linked fighters forcefully entered an oil field belonging to the EU and UN-backed government in Tripoli Friday. The US also condemned the move. France and Italy are the only EU states with troops in Libya, but they are embedded with opposing factions in the war.

A 59-year old opposition party leader, Micheál Martin, has taken over from Leo Varadkar as Ireland's taoiseach after a special parliament vote Saturday. Martin, who pledged to focus on coronavirus, is to lead a three-pronged coalition of the Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and Green parties - the first time ex-civil war rivals Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have governed together. Varadkar will take back the top post in December 2022.

Germany was ready to make an "extraordinary act of solidarity", including to take on "more debt", and to contribute to EU grants, instead, of loans, for pandemic-struck economies, German chancellor Angela Merkel told European media Friday. Meanwhile, the UK would have to "live with the consequences" of fewer EU perks in future, she added, hardening the tone on Brexit talks, as Germany takes over the EU presidency on 1 July.

Recent charges against him for murder and other war crimes by an EU-backed tribunal in The Hague were an attempt to "rewrite the history of Kosovo", Kosovo president Hashim Thaçi said on Facebook on Friday, in his first reaction to the accusations, which were made public in an unusual move last week. He also announced he would give a speech in Pristina on Sunday, but later postponed it until Monday.

Russian spies have been paying Taliban fighters in Afghanistan to kill British and US soldiers, The New York Times has reported, citing leaked US intelligence. A White House aide and Western Balkans envoy, Richard Grenell, who was, until recently, acting-intelligence director, was suspected to have known, but not told the US president. The same Russian spy unit was previously implicated in anti-Western operations in Bulgaria, Montenegro, Moldova, and the UK.

The European Commission launches on Monday the Just Transition Platform to provide technical and advisory support for public and private stakeholders in fossil-fuel intensive regions. The website will also help member states to draw up their national Just Transition Plans and to access funding from the related €150bn mechanism. This mechanism, part of the Green Deal, aims to help fossil-fuel dependent regions to green their economies.

A majority of the Eastern Partnership countries are plagued by the security deficit and overall political stability in the region is not a given. Wars are a reality, borders are contested and poverty and underdevelopment are facts on the ground.

German air carrier Lufthansa has won EU regulators' approval for Germany's €6bn recapitalisation, the EU Commission said Thursday. It stated that Berlin's plan to take a 20-percent stake in Europe's largest airline is in line with state aid rules, after the airline committed to make available slots at its Frankfurt and Munich hubs to open the market for competitors. Irish rival Ryanair said it will sue to overturn the decision.

Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen has apologised to her fiancé after an extraordinary EU summit, due on 17 and 18 July in Brussels, fell on their wedding day, forcing them to cancel plans for a third time amid the pandemic. "I am really looking forward to marrying this fantastic man ... but I have to do my work and take care of Denmark's interests," she said on Facebook Thursday.