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Internal document shows diplomats questioned whether the secretariat of the Council of the EU was legally allowed to write guidelines on the financing of the six-month rotating EU presidency activities.

Internal document shows diplomats questioned whether the secretariat of the Council of the EU was legally allowed to write guidelines on the financing of the six-month rotating EU presidency activities.

While Covid-19 brings China one step closer to technology-perfected authoritarianism through improvised health apps and real-time surveillance, Europe is busy looking inward.

The EU Council on Thursday extended restrictive measures against the Syrian regime. "The EU remains committed to using every tool at its disposal to push for a political solution to the conflict that would benefit all Syrians and put an end to the ongoing repression," said the EU's foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell. Sanctions against Syria were introduced in 2011. However, exceptions are foreseen for humanitarian purposes.

Cyprus expects to receive some 600,000 passengers in August, transport minister Yiannis Karousos said Thursday, noting that this estimate includes people flying in on commercial and private planes, Ekathimerini writes. "There is a gradual lifting of measures," Karousos said, noting that "we are kicking off on June 9, and by June 20 passengers from a number of countries won't need to present a certificate [for coronavirus]."

A report on Thursday by the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) urges EU governments to respect fundamental rights when using contact-tracing apps to curb the spread of the coronavirus. It also calls for open-source solutions to enhance transparency and confidence in the tools. "Respect for fundamental rights forms part of our public health strategies. This includes maintaining privacy and data protection legal safeguards," said FRA director Michael O'Flaherty.

The number of Americans who lost their jobs in the past 10 weeks soared to more than 40 million, with unemployment claims continuing to rise, the Guardian writes. Earlier this month, department of labor reported that more than 20 million Americans lost their jobs in April, bringing the unemployment rate to 14.7 percent, up from 4.4 percent in March - the highest numbers since the Great Depression.

South Korea has reported its biggest daily increase in coronavirus cases in 53 days, triggering warnings it may have to revert to stricter social distancing measures after appearing to have brought the outbreak under control, The Guardian reports. There were 79 new infections on Thursday, with 67 of them from the Seoul metropolitan area. The new spike in infections has underlined the risks that come with relaxing social distancing rules.

Shares in European banks soared by 4 percent after the EU unveiled its multi-billion pandemic bailout plan on Wednesday, amid broader market gains. Shares in some travel firms, such as Tui, also rebounded, as EU states slowly reopened to tourism. But the value of the British pound fell by 1% against the euro, as EU and UK negotiators appeared no closer to serious progress on future trade talks.

Antisemitic crimes in Germany rose by 13 percent to 2,032 last year, with 93 percent of them committed by far-right extremists, the country's interior minister, Horst Seehofer, said on Wednesday. "We must do everything humanly possible to ensure the protection of our people," he said. "Antisemitism has become commonplace for Jews in Germany. Especially on the internet," Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, added.

Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has defended his caution on phasing out lockdown measures, as Ireland lags behind Europe in plans to reopen restaurants (late June), hotels (July), and bars (August). It would be "premature" to move faster without "proper data", he told MPs Wednesday, while urging Irish people to "hold firm". Shirtless photos of Varadkar himself flouting lockdown measures at a picnic in the park went viral last weekend.

Suspected human smugglers face up to 15 years in prison after Belgium and France announced 26 arrests Wednesday in a case linked to the deaths of 39 Vietnamese people in a lorry in the UK last year. There were 16 raids in Brussels, arresting 11 Vietnamese and two Moroccan nationals. The joint operation by Belgian, British, French, and Irish police was coordinated by EU judicial agency Eurojust in The Hague.

Russian gas tanker, the Christophe de Margerie, was, on 27 May, approaching the Russian island of Wrangel in the Arctic Ocean en route to the Chinese port of Jingtang, the Barents Observer news website has reported. The trip is the earliest-ever on the northern route without using an ice-breaker ship, although one is accompanying the tanker, amid record-high temperatures in the Arctic region in recent years due to climate change.

The European Commission on Wednesday proposed borrowing €7.7bn on the financial markets to increase spending on vaccines, drugs and healthcare over the next four years, reports Reuters. Although it still needs approval, the plan aims to reduce Europe's reliance on imports when it comes to medical products and pharmaceuticals.

China's effort to undo Hong Kong autonomy despite a 1997 treaty to preserve the former UK colony's freedoms "affects not only our direct interests in Hong Kong, but also the maintenance of the rules-based international order where legal and political commitments are to be respected," EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said in a letter to EU states on 26 May, Bloomberg reports. EU states needed "robust messaging", he added.

With an eye-watering over a trillion euro revised budget and a €750bn recovery package, the EU Commission hopes to restart Europe's economy. Here are some of the key aspects of the proposals.

'The current standard for vaccines is to be kept at two to eight degrees and that is really tough in many developing countries when it can be up to 50 degrees outside,' warn experts on the challenges facing low-income countries.

Hungary's government deserves an apology for the way its use of emergency powers under the coronavirus pandemic have been portrayed, writes justice minister Judit Varga.

The European Commission's €1.85 trillion recovery plan from the coronavirus crisis did not convince environmental NGOs, such as Greenpeace, which believes that the proposal fails to offer a truly 'green recovery' and alternatives to the existing economic model.

Italy and Spain, the worst-hit EU countries by the coronavirus pandemic, will get much of the new money under the European Commission's recovery plans - that mark a turning point for the bloc in moving towards joint debt.