Euobserver.com

The UK's opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn met with Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier on Thursday in Brussels but insisted he was "not negotiating" on any future possible Brexit deal. "We are obviously not negotiating, we are not in government" he told reporters, stressing Labour would vote in parliament against any deal with Brussels obtained by prime minister Theresa May if it did not meet Labour's 'six tests'.

Poland is abusing EU visa systems to punish government critics, an activist has said, in a case that highlights Europe's loss of trust in Warsaw.

Brussels is to name a square near the Grand Place after murdered British Labour MP Jo Cox, with family members to be present at the official naming ceremony on Thursday. Cox lived in Brussels for two years while working for Labour MEPs in the European Parliament. She was killed by a right-wing extremist in June 2016 shortly before the UK Brexit referendum.

Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan started a three-day state visit to Germany on Thursday, aimed at easing tensions with his "German friends". In an opinion piece in the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Erdogan called for Germany and Turkey to "turn over a new page" in their relations. "The rise of right-wing radicalism and institutional racism are today the greatest dangers to the liberal-democratic order of the EU", he wrote.

Economy minister Giovanni Tria announced on Wednesday that Italy's 2019 budget would include a basic income and a lower retirement age. The move aims to secure support for the budget from the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, having pledged a basic income of up to €780 in election campaigns. The budget could rise eyebrows in Brussels, with Italy's public debt already the highest in the eurozone after Greece's.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) chairman, Andrea Enria, has backed a recommendation by the Maltese financial regulator to withdraw the Pilatus Bank's banking licence due to "the current circumstances of the bank's ultimate beneficial owner," reported Reuters. The owner, Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad, was indicted in the United States in March for bank fraud, money laundering and the evasion of sanctions against Iran.

The leader of French president Emmanuel Macron's La Republique En Marche party, Christophe Castaner, set the tone for the upcoming European Parliament 2019 election campaign, calling Italy's Matteo Salvini and Hungary's Viktor Orban the "pyromaniacs of Europe". "We are talking about people whose only program is to say 'no'", he said in Paris on Wednesday, while encouraging people to sign up online before 15 November to be candidates.

The Paris Court of Appeal ruled on Wednesday that judges investigating Marine Le Pen's party, formerly known as the National Front, had been within their rights to seize public subsidies as part of an EU funding probe - but the judges halved the amount from €2m to €1m. When the money was frozen on 28 June Le Pen called it a "death sentence" for her party.

There are some coordinated efforts to create a pro-European political front that can cope with far-right forces ahead of the EU elections in May 2019.

The European Commission published additional information on its proposal for new regulations on cars' CO2 levels - a week before the European Parliament was due to vote on it. Lead MEP Miriam Dalli is not amused.

People who abuse chemical weapons are to face EU visa bans and asset freezes via new hair-trigger sanctions. Human rights abusers could be next.

Britain's opposition Labour party have demanded a fresh general election if the UK parliament votes against any Brexit plan agreed between prime minister Theresa May and the EU. Leader Jeremy Corbyn told his party conference in Liverpool that the Conservatives were planning to use Brexit as an "opportunity to impose a free market shock doctrine in Britain." Corbyn will meet EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier in Brussels on Thursday.

The European Commission and EU member states will produce a coordinated European plan on artificial intelligence by December this year, a commission source told journalists Wednesday on condition of anonymity. The official noted that several member states were still working on their own national strategies. "To some extent, this whole process will be a living process, [it] will have to be updated as more national strategies come online," he admitted.

The UN general assembly in New York, the world's largest diplomatic event, turned into a show of EU solidarity with Russia and China against the US on Tuesday.

UK prime minister Theresa May has ruled out calls for holding a general election before Brexit day. Speaking to reporters on her way to New York for the UN General Assembly she said elections "would not be in the national interest". She also maintained that Britain would reach a Brexit deal despite the current stalemate in talks with Brussels, and ruled out a second Brexit referendum.

Former French prime minister Manuel Valls on Tuesday announced his candidacy as the Spanish centre-right anti-independence party Ciudadanos' candidate to become mayor of Barcelona. Valls was prime minister between 2014 and 2016 for socialist president Francois Hollande. He was born in Barcelona and has French and Spanish citizenship.The election will be held on 26 May 2019.

German chancellor Angela Merkel's close ally for the past 13 years, Volker Kauder, was Tuesday ousted as head of her CDU party's parliamentary group in an internal party ballot. The surprise victory of his deputy, Ralph Brinkhaus, was interpreted by German media as a sign Merkel's rule might be coming to an end.

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Oban sent thank-you letters to MEPs who opposed triggering the so-called article 7 against Hungary in a vote in the European parliament on 12 September. "I appreciate the support you've shown towards national sovereignty and solidarity during the vote," said the letter. A large majority voted 448-197 to invoke article 7 against Hungary for serious breaches of EU values.

The secretary-general of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, warned in New York on Tuesday that the world was suffering "a bad case of 'trust deficit disorder'". In his annual address to the UN, Guterres said "polarisation is on the rise and populism is on the march" and pointed to Europe, adding "without strong multilateral frameworks for European-wide cooperation and problem-solving, the result was a grievous world war."

Sweden's acting prime minister Stefan Lofven lost a confidence vote in parliament on Tuesday, 204 votes to 142, in the wake of September's election. The opposition centre-right alliance, led by Ulf Kristersson, is now expected to try to form a new government, but would depend on the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD), something Kristersson has ruled out. "We will not allow SD .... to control the political orientation," he told STV.