Euobserver.com

MEPs are ready to veto the long-term EU budget if they are not included in drawing up and implementing economic recovery efforts to be shortly tabled by the commission.

The European Commission suspended future deliveries of masks for member states - after some countries reported that the masks did not meet EU's standards. Earlier this month, the commission started sending 1.5m masks to 17 EU countries and the UK.

The EU commission vice-president said that as member states relax lockdwon measures, it is time to roll back the state of emergencies that affect democracy and fundamental rights. Hungary said it might end extra powers in June.

The country has become a corona hotspot due to the clergy's stubborn refusal to impose social distancing and to close religious shrines, but also because US sanctions create severe shortages of a medical imports.

Romania, EU's largest exporter of live farm animals to third-countries, gets singled out in the latest European Commission report for bad practices - following the drowning of more than 14,000 sheep last November.

The EU Council decided on Thursday to extend for one more year (until 18 May 2021) the scheme of restrictive measures against cyberattacks. Thus, the council can impose restrictive measures on persons or entities involved in cyberattacks which threaten the EU or its member states, as well as third states or international organisations. Restrictive measures include a travel ban to the EU or freezing assets.

According to a study from the University of Antwerp, half of the people in Belgian remain voluntarily in their own social bubble, as imposed by the lockdown, and refuse to see other people, even though the government now allows them to do so, De Standaard reports. Since this week people can add to their own family circle four extra people to meet on a regular basis.

Russia has defended its integrity on coronavirus mortality numbers, saying: "We never manipulate official statistical data". Its counting methods were "exceptionally precise", Russia's top health official, Tatiana Golikova, also said Thursday. Russia had the world's second-highest infection figure, 252,245 cases, as of Thursday, according to the World Health Organisation, but has recorded just 2,305 deaths so far - a 0.9 percent mortality rate, well below Germany (4.5 percent), for instance.

Irish taoiseach Leo Varadkar said it will take "months" before normal intra-EU travel resumes, Reuters reports. "While it is our policy to resume normal travel for business, leisure, study and visits to friends and relatives [in the EU] as soon as it is safe to do so ... it will be months, not weeks," he said. Germany's interior minister Horst Seehofer said Wednesday his country was aiming for "mid-June" instead.

Offshore banking centre Luxembourg is to face European Commission legal action for not writing the latest EU anti-money laundering and anti-tax avoidance laws into its national legislation, officials said Thursday. The duchy's tax rules let multinationals hide behind shell firms and benefit from "unlimited deductibility of interest" from taxes, the commission said. Luxembourg has a history of going slow on EU laws in the sector until threatened by court action.

The European Court of Justice has ruled against Hungary in a case where people, including asylum seekers, were being detained in a transit zone along the shared border with Serbia. "The persons concerned cannot lawfully leave that zone of their own free-will in any direction whatsoever," noted the court. The court classified it as detention, noting Hungary must release them if there is no valid reason to hold them.

A group of 100 environmental NGOs are calling on the EU to establish a green investment plan post-coronavirus, financed by the bloc's long-term budget and recovery package - dedicating at least 50 percent to climate and the environment and excluding all fossil fuel subsidies. So far, 17 European countries have also called on the EU to prepare an economic recovery plan that would integrate the green transition.

A coal-fired power plant in Rotterdam intends to sue the Netherlands over their coal-exit strategy under the Energy Charter Treaty - a controversial international agreement that protects foreign investments in the energy sector, according to Investment Arbitration Reporter. The Dutch government said on Wednesday that it will respond to Uniper's position as the consultation period is still running. Uniper's power plant is expected to be closed before 2030.

Oxfam on Thursday called on governments and pharmaceutical companies to guarantee that vaccines, tests, and treatments will be patent-free and universally distributed to all nations and people, ahead of the World Health Assembly next week. "Providing a vaccine to 3.7 billion people could cost less than what the 10 biggest pharmaceutical companies make in four months," said Jose Maria Vera, Oxfam international interim executive director.

Chinese tech firm Huawei has been lobbying the now Danish prime minister for years, according to a cache of Huawei letters to the politician seen by Danish business daily Berlingske. At least one letter was "threatening" in tone. A letter in December said "a perfect storm has enveloped Huawei in the Danish kingdom", referring to Western security concerns on Huawei data networks and broader EU fears on Chinese economic espionage.

The Belgian National Security Council announced that on 18 May it will again be possible to get a haircut, visit museums and shop at markets. Beauty salons and sport clubs will reopen too. Reservations are mandatory for hair and beauty salons, while ticketing for museums can only be done online. Primary and secondary schools are also restarting, but only for some classes.

Terrorists, such as Islamic militant group Isis, could target medical staff and facilities in Europe during the pandemic, the EU's counter-terrorism coordinator, Gilles de Kerkhove, has warned. Such attacks "would generate a massive shock in society," he said in an internal briefing note dated 7 May and seen by the AP news agency. Isis had "incited its supporters in the West to take advantage of the current crisis," he added.

"The clear objective is that we want free travel in Europe again as of mid-June," German interior minister Horst Seehofer said on Wednesday, as Europe's largest country pledged to ease open border crossings with Austria, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, and Switzerland on Saturday, albeit still with "random checks". Travel by mid-June was feasible if the infection rates stayed "favourable" and if "public discipline [on hygiene] continues to be maintained", Seehofer added.

Italy is to spend €55bn on helping people get over the pandemic, prime minister Giuseppe Conte said Wednesday. Most of the money will be spent on unemployment benefits and on €40,000 booster payments for small firms. Larger companies will also get corporate tax holidays. The package comes despite Italy's sky-high public debt levels. But EU officials have signalled Italy can break EU fiscal discipline rules in the special circumstances.

The EU commission has proposed measures aimed at resuming travel in the EU "in a responsible and coordinated way" - with different advice on transport, hotels, and cross-border trips.