Euobserver.com

The EU Commission plans a vaccine stategy to make sure all citizens have access to it once it is ready, while it is also seeking to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies on securing the vaccine.

"Thou shalt not sleep around while on delegation" should be the "11th commandment" for EU diplomats, as spies continue to use Cold War-type "honey-traps" in modern times.

Russia's second-largest city, St Petersburg, issued 1,552 more death certificates in May 2020 than in May 2019 (a 30 percent hike), even though the city's official coronavirus death toll is just 172 so far, Reuters reports. The disparity casts fresh doubt on the credibility of Russia's pandemic figures, which make Russian president Vladimir Putin look as though he handled the crisis far better than the rest of the world.

"Let's face it: the Communist Party of China (CPC) is not our friend", writes the policy director of the European People's Party think tank, the Wilfried Martens Centre.

Hungary's government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs responds to this week's comment piece, "Anti-Roma hatred on streets of Budapest".

The European Central Bank (ECB) said on Thursday it would increase the size of its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme by €600bn to €1.35 trillion, the BBC reported. The ECB also extended bond-purchasing until the end of June 2021 and pledged to reinvest proceeds until at least the end of 2022. The ECB committed earlier this year to buy up to €1.1 trillion worth of bonds this year.

A group of French and German companies have established a legal entity to run a European cloud computing platform called Gaia-X, aiming to compete with US and Chinese tech giants. These include Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, and Atos - formerly headed by the commissioner for the internal market Thierry Breton. German economy minister Peter Altmaier described Gaia-X as a "moonshot" on Thursday. The launch for Gaia-X is expected in early 2021.

Berlin became the first German state to pass its own anti-discrimination law which explicitly bars public authorities — including police and public schools — from discriminating based on background, skin colour, gender, religion, physical or mental disability, worldview, age and sexual identity, Deutsche Welle writes. People can also not be discriminated against based on a lack of German language skills, a chronic illness, or on their income, education or occupation.

The Iranian government appeared to have brought the virus under control a month ago, but a second wave has steadily been gathering pace, and according to data released by the health ministry on Thursday there were 3,574 confirmed new infections in 24 hours – an increase of 440 on the previous day, the Guardian writes. The record number of daily cases during the first wave in March was 3,186.

Some 397,000 people lost their jobs in the EU in April, as the pandemic continues to wreak economic harm, the European Commission has noted. The losses pushed unemployment rates from 6.4% in March to 6.6%. They also pushed youth unemployment (under 25s) from 14.6% to 15.4%. Unemployment peaked in the EU in 2013, at the height of the sovereign debt crisis, reaching 11.5% overall and over 25% for young people.

Former UK prime minister Theresa May has launched a double attack on Boris Johnson's government, the Guardian reports. Speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday, she warned about the security implications of a final no-deal Brexit, leading to loss of intelligence and data cooperation with Europe. She also warned against his coronavirus quarantine plans, saying a 14-day quarantine period for incoming foreigners would harm British trade and jobs.

An EU-China summit to have taken place in Leipzig, Germany, on 14 September under Germany's EU presidency "can't take place at the envisaged time due to the overall pandemic situation", German chancellor Angela Merkel's office said Wednesday. Merkel had spoken to Chinese president Xi Jinping and European Council president Charles Michel by phone, her office added, but three sides had not yet fixed a new date.

German chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday she would spend an extra €130bn to stimulate the economy in 2020 and 2021 in the wake of the pandemic. Measures include lowering VAT and transferring local government debt to federal level. They also include an allocation of €300 per child per family and doubling subsidies for purchases of electric cars to add a green element to Germany's industrial rescue plans.

Restarting talks on Serbia relations will be the new Kosovo prime minister's top priority, he said, but will the EU or the US lead the process?

The European Commission classified on Wednesday the coronavirus as a "mid-level" threat to workers, drawing criticism from socialist lawmakers and trade unions because the decision allows businesses to apply less stringent safety measures in the workplace.

Hundreds of people who fled Libya have been stuck off the Maltese coast as the government in Valletta refuses to allow them to disembark. The European Commission is demanding EU states step in to help relocate them.

From 8 June Belgium reopens bars, restaurants, fitnessclubs and other activities, as long as people keep 1.5 meter of social distancing. Traveling will also be possible to other European countries if these agree.

European governments, despite their different policy sensibilities, are still united in their support for a two-state solution. This may be the last chance Europe has to defend this goal.

A new European Innovation Agency is in the pipeline as part of the European Commission's plans to drive the recovery of the European economy, whilst modernising and greening it. "This new agency will ensure optimal efficiency for the commission innovation programmes," said a spokesperson, in an email. The Brussels-based agency will specialise in grant-management within the framework set out in the Horizon Europe programme.

EU leaders will be discussing the next seven-year EU budget on 19 June, via videoconference, for the first time since the EU Commission presented its revised budget and recovery plan of €1.85 trillion. "This will be a thorough preparation for a next summit at a later date which should if possible be a physical meeting," a spokesperson for EU council president Charles Michel said.