European Union

One in five Latvians receive their salary in an envelope. A new regulation came into effect at the start of September under which the employees of employers who do not pay contributions pay a "voluntary tax" and in exchange receive free health insurance. Moreover the tax authorities plan to write to around 400,000 people and encourage them to pay social insurance contributions. Latvia's press isn't all too convinced by the plans.

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker proposed on Wednesday measures "to better protect our democratic processes from manipulation by third countries or private interests." The EU executive proposes more cooperation between countries on online transparency, cybersecurity incidents and disinformation campaigns, as well as "greater transparency in online political advertisements and targeting". It also proposes to tighten the rules on European political party funding.

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday said the Commission wants qualified majority voting (QMV) when it comes to foreign policy. "It is not right that our union silenced itself at the United Nations human rights council, when it came to condemning human rights by China and this because one member state opposed it," he said.

Harms
Transport
In the event of cancellation of a flight, the airline company must also reimburse commissions collected by intermediaries when tickets are bought, as long as it was aware of them

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday described it as an "aberration" that European companies purchase European planes in US dollars and not in euros. He said the commission before the end of the year will present plans "to strengthen the international role of the euro." He said the "euro must become the active instrument of a new and more sovereign Europe."

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday proposed a new alliance with Africa, one anchored "in investments and sustainable jobs" to create up to 10 million jobs in Africa over the next five years. "We have to stop seeing the Africa-EU relationship through the sole prism of development," an approach he described as "humiliating" for Africa. Juncker says the "donor relationship is a thing of the past."

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday announced new security-driven measures to counter online terrorism in terms of getting internet firms to remove the offending content within an hour. The idea has already been previously reported on. But Juncker also demanded that the EU's plan for a European public prosecutor, an Europe-wide body in charge of tackling large-scale, cross-border crime, also takes on terrorism.

The video European Council president Donald Tusk released on Twitter last Friday was prepared in-house, the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union told EUobserver. The video, which had the feel of a trailer for an action film, showed Tusk looking serious and in the midst of diplomatic action. "We estimate that the approximate cost of this kind of video product is around 800 euros."

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in his annual State of the Union address on Wednesday in Strasbourg told MEPs that Europe "is a force to be reckoned with". The statement is part of a wider push by the EU to have Europe play a much greater role on the international stage. Juncker said Europe needs to "increasingly be a sovereign player" in international affairs.

If the Syrian regime attacks Idlib, the last rebel enclave in Syria, the result will be a humanitarian and geopolitical disaster, Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned in a Wall Street Journal article on Tuesday. Erdogan urged the international community to take action or face "security risks for Turkey, the rest of Europe and beyond". The UN has estimated 800,000 people could be displaced by an attack.

A failing economy, corruption, and intimidation of judges and media - after Poland and Hungary, Bulgaria seems like Europe's next rule of law crisis.

Romania's senate on Tuesday backed a citizens' initiative signed by over three million people to hold a referendum on changing the constitution, in a bid that could make it impossible to legalise same-sex unions in the future. If approved the constitution would be amended to define marriage as a union between "a man and a woman". The referendum could be held as early as 7 October.

The European Court of Justice has struck a second blow against churches' rights to hire and fire people based on their beliefs.

EU leaders are preparing to hold a special summit on Brexit in mid-November in order to sign the divorce deal with Britain, as it is no longer expected a deal can be agreed before their regular summit on 18-19 October. The biggest obstacle remains how to avoid police and customs checks at the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, once the UK leaves the EU in March 2019.

Around one million people marched in the streets of Barcelona on Tuesday to mark Catalonia's national day, the Diada, and to show continued support for regional independence. The turnout was roughly the same as last year, reported the BBC. Catalonia last October held a referendum on independence despite Spain's Constitutional Court ruling that it breached the Spanish constitution.

Every year, air pollution causes about 400,000 premature deaths in the EU and hundreds of billions of euros in health-related external costs, a report from the European Court of Auditors has found, adding that people in urban areas are particularly exposed ."Air pollution is the biggest environmental risk to health in the European Union," said Janusz Wojciechowski, member of the European Court of Auditors and responsible for the report.

Poland's former leader and the current EU Council president, Donald Tusk, has more trust (42.7%) among Polish people than either Polish president Andrzej Duda (40.8%) or prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki (40%), according to a new poll by Ibris for the Onet.pl news website. The survey comes ahead of Polish elections next year, where Tusk may try to stage a comeback against Duda and Morawiecki's nationalist-populist Law and Justice party.