European Union

Eight months after the elections a second government under billionaire Andrej Babiš has been sworn in in Prague. The cabinet comprising members from the liberal Ano and the Social Democratic Party relies on the backing of the Communist Party. Commentators feel reminded of the past.

In an expedited procedure Poland has watered down a controversial law that made the claim that the Polish state or Polish citizens were perpetrators in the Holocaust a punishable offence. Prison sentences will no longer apply. Israel was particularly vocal in its condemnation of the law. Commentators are at odds over whether it's a good idea to punish certain interpretations of history.

The western Balkan states have waited a long time for for accession negotiations with the EU. Now two more have been given a green light: Albania and Macedonia will be invited for talks starting 2019. But their path to EU membership will be long and stony, commentators predict.

"Migration could become a existential issue for the EU," German chancellor Angela Merkel warned on Thursday, ahead of a EU summit on the issue. She told German MPs that "either we manage it, so in Africa and elsewhere it is believed that we are guided by values and believe in multilateralism, not unilateralism, or nobody will believe any longer in our system of values, which made us so strong."

It is for an Irish court to decide if Poland's judiciary can guarantee a fair trial to a Polish citizens arrested in Ireland and wanted in Poland under the European arrest warrant, an advisor to the EU's top court said Thursday. Concerns over the Polish judiciary's independence triggered the Irish High Court to ask the European Court of Justice for guidance. The advocate general's opinion is not always followed.

On 12 September 2018, the European Defence Agency (EDA) will organise the first ever Air-to-Air Refuelling (AAR) Conference in Europe. 

The conference will bring together key decision-makers from the EU and NATO as well as the wider transatlantic and international AAR community, including industry, to discuss current and future challenges and coordinate efforts in this important domain. The global dimension of the solutions at hand to resolve remaining shortfalls and the role of industry will also be debated.

Scheduled speakers include, among many others, the Defence Minister of Belgium, Steven Vandeput, the Chairman of the Aerial Refuelling Systems Advisory Group (ARSAG), General John Sams, a representative from NATO's Defence Investment Divison and the Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency (EDA), Jorge Domecq.  

The conference is an INVITE ONLY event. Invitees are being contacted by EDA and asked to register on a specific conference portal. 

 
More information

• EDA to organize 1st AAR Conference in Europe (EDA events page)
• AAR EDA project page
• AAR EDA factsheet

Minister for Justice and Equality
Area of Freedom, Security and Justice
According to Advocate General Tanchev, the execution of a European arrest warrant must be postponed where the competent judicial authority finds not only that there is a real risk of flagrant denial of justice on account of deficiencies in the system of justice of the issuing Member State but also that the person who is the subject of the warrant is exposed to such a risk

EU banks are to face stricter oversight on money-laundering following scandals in Latvia and Malta, Mario Centeno, the head of the eurozone finance ministers' club, the Eurogroup, has said. "There is agreement on the importance of enhancing the current monitoring of the implementation of anti-money laundering measures," he told EU Council chief Donald Tusk in a letter seen by the Reuters news agency, promising "further measures by end 2018".

Greek PM Alexis Tsipras has told the Financial Times newspaper he would help Germany to stop migrants drifting across its border in a bilateral accord with Berlin amid EU disagreements on migration. ""We have to find a way ... to not have this unfair position for the frontline countries but also for Germany. Because it's not fair all these people to go to Germany," he said.

Turkey has attacked the EU's appraisal by foreign ministers this week that it was "moving further away" from Europe as president Recep Tayyip Erdogan consolidated his one-man rule over the country in recent elections there. Its EU minister said this could spell the end of a deal to keep migrants in Turkey. The EU was being "unjust and dishonest" as well as "hypocritical and inconsistent", Turkey's foreign ministry said.

European Commission vice-president Jyrki Katainen has said he will leave the political stage next year in order to help his wife run for a seat in the Finnish parliament. His announcement ended speculation that he would run as a candidate for the centre-right European People's Party to lead the next commission in the 2019 EU elections as a so-called 'spitzenkandidat'.

Disagreement on migration will dominate Thursday's summit, but leaders do see eye-to-eye on other issues, ranging from defence to trade and single market reform.

The main objective of Thursday's summit in Brussels will be to agree on new measures to reduce illegal migration, in order to help Angela Merkel at home and fight populists and extremists across the bloc.