Euobserver.com

Teachers who give sex education classes said to "encourage students to become sexually active" or who give information about contraceptives in Polish schools could face up to five years in prison under a new bill designed to prevent "paedophilia", which has won the backing of the ruling Law and Justice party. "It [the law] is a sick idea," Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus, an opposition MP, told Polish daily Gazeta.pl.

Russia's EU ambassador has said US allies in Europe would end up being betrayed just as the Kurds were in Syria. "We had warned the Kurds that the Americans will abandon them. And ... I can personally warn the Greeks about it, that they will have the same fate as the Kurds," Vladimir Chizhov told Russian media Tass after Greece and the US signed a defence deal.

Thursday's EU summit could see French and German leaders butt heads on enlargement after France blocked new Western Balkans talks.

German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Emmanuel Macron are set to discuss aligning positions on issues ranging from Brexit to Syria ahead of the EU summit on Thursday and Friday. Merkel said they want to arrive in Brussels with "common positions in so far as possible." Ministries from both sides are set to meet in Toulouse, followed by a visit from commission-president designate Ursula von der Leyen.

A draft of new security requirements for German telecommunication networks says the country will not put an outright ban on Chinese firm Huawei from supplying next-generation 5G internet. The draft still needs to go through parliament for approval and comes amid heated US concerns that the firm is a backdoor entry for Chinese government snooping.

British prime minister Boris Johnson has reportedly made major concessions to EU demands over the Irish border amid news that a draft text of the agreement could be presented as early as Wednesday. The concession includes a possible customs border down the Irish Sea, a proposal that was previously rejected by Theresa May. It is unclear if Tory Brexiteers and the Democratic Unionist Party will accept such a proposal.

The Financial Times reported UK prime minister Boris Johnson has offered Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party a large cash settlement to secure their support for a Brexit deal to be hammered out in Brussels at an EU summit on Thursday and Friday. The newspaper cites an unnamed source describing the possible payout as "billions not millions".

Pieter Omtzigt, a special rapporteur for the Council of Europe, has told the Guardian newspaper that Maltese authorities turned a blind eye to evidence that could have led to those behind the killing of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. "I am concerned that the authorities may have turned down evidence that could lead to whoever ordered the murder," said Omtzigt, who was appointed to the monitor the case last year.

Ludovic Orban, head of Romania's National Liberal Party, has been appointed the country's next prime minister. President Klaus Iohannis named Orban after the previous centre-left government collapsed in a no-confidence vote. Orban now has 10 days to form a new cabinet, vowing to "respect the rule of law and judicial independence".

Support for democracy was particularly low in Poland with only 19 percent consistently supporting democracy - only Hungary and Bulgaria scored lower.

EU states were unable to agree to open accession talks with North Macedonia and Albania on Tuesday, as planned, after France raised objections. "Unfortunately, the [EU] Council was not able to reach a unanimous decision. I regret that," Finnish foreign minister Tytti Tuppurainen said after EU affairs ministers met in Luxembourg. Donald Tusk, the EU Council chief, would now table a debate on the issue at Thursday's summit, she added.

The value of the British pound rose by one percent against the dollar and the euro on Tuesday on news that a Brexit deal may be imminent, the Reuters news agency reports. British stocks gained 1.6 percent and the value of British bonds also increased. German and French stocks climbed by a similar amount in Berlin and Paris exchanges and German bonds reached a new two-and-a-half month high.

The EU ought to create a European-level regulator for digital firms such as Google, which could impose fines or other sanctions for non-compliance with EU law, a French official told press in Paris on Tuesday. "A big American company, Google namely, has announced it would not comply with an EU copyright directive ... we have to put an end to this illegal behaviour," he said, the Reuters news agency reported.

Scotland will hold a second referendum on independence next year, Nicola Sturgeon, the head of the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP), told a party congress in Aberdeen, Scotland, on Tuesday. "My call is that the referendum must happen next year. And we are getting ready. By the new year, we will have completed our legislative preparations," she said. The British government had "no right" to block the SNP's request, she added.

Climate change activists from the Extinction Rebellion's London group have defied a police order demanding they end their protest. Around 1,500 people have been arrested over the last eight days, according to Reuters. "While we share people's concerns about global warming, and respect the right to peaceful protest, it should not disrupt people's day-to-day lives," a government spokeswoman said.

EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has given UK prime minister Boris Johnson a deadline of midnight on Tuesday to table concessions on the Irish border - namely, that the UK accepts a customs border in the Irish Sea and Northern Ireland remains part of the internal market for goods. Without these concessions, there will be no deal, which will give Johnson the choice of a no-deal Brexit or another postponement.

The former president of the government of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, is banned from entering any of the buildings of the European Parliament, after the Spanish justice issued a new European arrest warrant (EAW) for him on Monday. According to Spanish media EFE, this is part of the "cooperation between member states and European institutions". The parliament did the same in October 2017 - when the first EAW was issued.

No amnesties and no pardons, Spain insists, on the jailed Catalan leaders, whilst figures from the Spanish region in Brussels called on the EU to intervene in the escalating crisis.

The European Investment Bank (EIB), the world's biggest multi-lateral lender, on Tuesday failed to agree a new energy lending policy that would end financing fossil fuel projects from next year. Despite the requests of NGOs, governments and the public, some EU member states - Germany, Italy, Poland, Latvia and Spain - wanted the EIB to continue to finance certain gas projects, according to Reuters.

Polish elections last Sunday were fee and fair but marred by "media bias" and "nationalist" as well as "homophobic" rhetoric, international observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said Monday. "Lack of impartiality in the media, especially the public broadcaster" undermined voters' free choice, the OSCE said. The hate speech created a "sense of threat" and was a "serious concern in a democratic society", it added.