Czech Republic’s foreign minister Tomas Petricek was fired in a government reshuffle on Monday, less than half a year before the parliamentary election, after failed party leadership bid, news wires reported. Last week Interior Minister Jan Hamacek was reelected as the leader of the Social Democrats at the party congress.

The Commission launched an invitation to all more than 1,000 members of the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance to submit projects for renewable and low-carbon hydrogen technologies and solutions. 

The EU executive suggested on Monday to exempt from value added tax (VAT) goods and services related to natural disasters and public health emergencies, made available by the Commission, EU bodies and agencies to EU countries during the pandemic. 

Leading members of Germany's Christian Democrats (CDU) are giving their support to party boss Armin Laschet to be the country's next chancellor after elections in September, dpa reported. The autumn polls will see Chancellor Angela Merkel leave the post after over 15 years at the helm.

Greece's high schools reopened on Monday after a five-month closure to curb coronavirus infections with precautions including virus tests for students and teachers twice per week, the education minister said.

EU banks managed to decrease the level of non-performing loans in their portfolios, Reuters reported. The level of bad loans was reduced to a record low of 2.63%, ECB figures showed. The latest slump in bad credits was registered in the last quarter of 2020. This is the lowest level of bad credits since the start of supervision in 2015, despite a deep and scarring Covid-19 related recession that will likely weigh down on the EU economy for the next several years.

France launched yet another initiative, aimed at curbing carbon emissions. Under new amendments in legislation all domestic flights that could be substituted by train travel for under two and a half hour routes will be permanently suspended, Reuters reported. The move is the last in a series of actions targeted to lower green house gases. For the transport companies it comes on top of pandemic driven reduction of business and profits.

New rules and better supply of new vaccine doses will boost Italy’s vaccination campaign, allowing the government to lift restrictions on businesses and citizens starting from May, the health minister said in an interview published on Monday.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return to Brussels this week for discussions on Russian military build-up at the Ukraine border as well as on Iran and Afghanistan, news wires reported. He will join Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. The date of the additional trip was not released.

Both Bavaria's state premier Markus Soeder and the Christian Democrats' (CDU) leader Armin Laschet are willing to replace Chancellor Angela Merkel and lead the party into September elections, the two declared at party talks on Sunday, dpa reported.