Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Sweden have taken no steps towards reducing the use of imprisonment and others, like Greece, appear to be waiting for Covid-19 to spread through prisons before acting.

EU told a black-and-white tale of 20 sinful states who posed a money-laundering threat to Europe's law-abiding single market, but the real story is more complex.

An internal document drafted from the EU presidency highlights a rise in attacks by right-wing terrorists. The paper says the algorithms behind social media giants not only fuels violent radicalisation but also spreads right-wing violent extremist ideology.

Polish ruling party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński is trying to turn the country into a Roman Catholic dictatorship, Poland's former foreign minister has said.

The European Commission is floating plans to beef up the fight against money-laundering, including possibly giving a supervisor role to the European Banking Authority. Yet the authority's board refused to act on a €200bn money-laundering scandal involving Danske Bank.

Romania violated the rights of its former anti-corruption chief Laura Codruta Kovesi when they fired hire. The judgement issued by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg follows a long catalogue of high-level corruption in Romania.

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

No surprise thus that the global pandemic serves as inspiration and influences the modus operandi of terrorists, both in terms of tactics and target selection.

Political extremists are using the pandemic to incite violence and foreign spies are trying to hack sensitive video-talks, Belgium's security service has warned.

Poland must urgently halt the work of a new judicial disciplinary board to prevent "irreparable harm" to rule of law in Europe, an EU court has said.

Belgium has the most overcrowded prisons in the EU, according to a report by the Strasbourg-based human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe. Prisons in Austria, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, and Romania are also severely overcrowded.

Some lobbyists are "burning the phones" to EU officials as industry reacts to the pandemic - creating concern on public scrutiny.

The EU Commission called on member states not to trample on democratic rules in the fightback against coronavirus - without mentioning Hungary by name. It will monitor all EU countries and discuss emergency measures on Wednesday.

A lone judge will read out 16 verdicts in an almost empty chamber in the EU court on Thursday, as Europe tries to uphold rule of law in the pandemic.