Euobserver.com

EU crisis management becomes difficult when all member states are hit at the same time, commissioner Janez Lenarcic admitted. To avoid that, the commission wants powers to itself buy strategic reserves for member states.

Malta's prime minister's office is under scrutiny after allegations it gave instructions for a private vessel to push back a boat of migrants from waters within its zone of responsibility, and back to Libya. At least 12 people died.

Danish police say they have arrested a suspect in Copenhagen in connection with a terrorist threat inspired by Islamic militancy, Bloomberg writes. Officials said the suspect had attempted to acquire a weapon and ammunition. The suspect was charged with intent to commit terror, police said without providing further details.

The eurozone economy contracted by 3.8 percent in the first quarter of 2020, compared to the last three months of 2019. The EU gross national product decreased by 3.5 percent, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the EU's statistical office said. These were the sharpest declines since Eurostat started this series of records in 1995. In March, the eurozone unemployment rate was 7.4 percent, up from 7.3 percent in February.

A helicopter participating in Nato's Standing Maritime Group Two (SNMG2) was reported missing in the sea west of the Greek island of Kefalonia, according to Greek state TV on Wednesday evening. The aircraft was flying in Italian airspace when it disappeared from the radar. Greek TV said an Italian and a Turkish frigate that were part of the operation were searching for the helicopter and the missing crew members.

South Korea on Thursday reported no new domestic cases of coronavirus for the first time since its February peak, Deutsche Welle writes. Health authorities also said no local transmission took place during a local parliamentary election earlier this month with increased safety measures, including requiring voters to wear gloves and masks. Four imported cases were recorded, taking the total tally of infections to 10,765, and a death toll of 247.

Germany has extended a warning against international travel until 14 June and warned people not to expect normal holidays this year. "People won't be able to spend a holiday as they usually know it, on full beaches or in full mountain huts," foreign minister Heiko Maas said. "We will experience the worst recession in the history of the federal republic," he added.

Twelve EU countries have asked the commission to temporarily suspend rules that require travel operators to provide cash refunds for cancelled trips. The commission argues consumers have to be protected - and that vouchers should be made more attractive.

Coronavirus lockdowns have triggered a spike in domestic, sexual and gender-based violence across Europe. However, experts stressed that the end of lockdowns will bring additional challenges, such as economic uncertainty or job losses, which can lead to more abuse.

The European Commission has opened a fourth legal case in its bid to stop Poland from crashing out of the EU's legal order.

Denmark, France and Poland are refusing to provide bailouts to companies that are registered in tax havens like Panama. But campaigners point out that the EU's Luxembourg and Netherlands are also home to firms avoiding paying billions into national coffers.

Two concerns loom large: a large part of the stimulus the Orbán government is offering is directed towards particular industries where oligarchs are particularly influential; and the response does not address the needs of large swathes of the population.

NGOs sent on Wednesday a letter the European Commission urging the adoption of the Biodiversity and Farm to Fork Strategy to guide the EU's coronaviurs recovery plan. Both strategies were delayed due to the pandemic. "Without resilient and rich biodiversity, coupled with a fair, sustainable and regenerative food system and supply chains, an economic recovery, in the face of the COVID-19 crisis, will still be precarious," reads the text.

A group 12 MEPs - from the Greens, EPP, S&D, Renew, GUE, and 5 Star - urged the European Commission to include in the Farm to Fork strategy reductions in meat and dairy production and consumption. "To show political leadership and ambition we call on the commission to recognise this explicitly, and not only to hide behind terms such as 'more-sustainable diets'," reads the letter to the commission.

Hungary's recently-adopted emergency measures giving the government indefinite rule-by-decree powers do not warrant EU scrutiny yet, EU commission vice-president Vera Jourova said Wednesday. She added, however, that the context of persistent concerns over Hungary's democratic backsliding "is increasing the concerns when we look at the emergency law". "We are following how the Hungarian government is using the very wide discretionary powers," Jourova added.

The United States on Tuesday surpassed one million known coronavirus cases, showing how an outbreak that began with a small trickle of infections in January has exploded into a national crisis, the New York Times writes. The death toll stands at 58,000, which is more than the number of people who died in the Vietnam war. New data suggests the virus death toll is probably even higher than reported.

UK-EU talks on post-Brexit trade are at an "impasse", diplomats told Reuters, as the clock ticks to the end of a transition period on 31 December. The pandemic halted the process, which restarted one week ago. "But on the fundamental goals each side is trying to achieve - the differences are enormous. Things cannot move without a political push. And it's missing," an EU diplomatic source said.

Rock-bottom fossil fuel prices caused by the pandemic should not be allowed to undermine the EU's ambition to move to CO2-free energy, France has said. "The cost of fossil energies should be proportionate to their true environmental impact," France said in a letter to EU energy ministers, meeting in Brussels Tuesday, Reuters reports. Fuel taxes and higher prices for carbon-emission credits in an EU trading system could help, France said.

Yair Netanyahu, the son of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, went on an anti-EU social media rant Tuesday after European diplomats attended a Palestinian memorial day. "EU is an enemy of Israel, and an enemy to all European Christian countries," he said. "Schengen zone is dead and soon your evil globalist organisation will be too," he added, referring to the EU's passport-free travel area, closed off due to the pandemic.

Spain is hoping to move from full lockdown to "normality" between 4 May and the end of June, its prime minister Pedro Sanchez said Tuesday. Shops and other businesses would reopen phase by phase, depending on the severity of the outbreak in a given region. "By the end of June, we as a country will have entered into the new normality if the epidemic remains under control," Sanchez said.