Euobserver.com

French leader Emmanuel Macron is to renew his 2017 appeal for deeper EU integration in a speech to French ambassadors in Paris Monday. He is to call for a single eurozone budget, an EU defence force, and a new migration policy despite the rise of anti-EU populist powers in Austria, Italy, Hungary, Poland and further afield. Macron will also visit Denmark and Finland this week on a mini EU tour.

Britain has set aside €111m to research its own satellite positioning system after Brexit the Sunday Telegraph, a British newspaper, reported. The move comes amid concern it will be locked out of the EU's €10bn Galileo satellite project after the UK leaves the EU. Galileo, which rivals US systems, is to be operational in 2020. A UK-only system could cost up to €3.3bn, one expert said.

The EU commission has endorsed the idea of a Kosovo-Serbia border change, going against Germany and breaking a former taboo.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, a leading MP in the hard-Brexit camp in Britain's ruling Conservative party, has caused controversy after endorsing post-Brexit border checks in Ireland. "There would be our ability, as we had during the Troubles, to have people inspected," he said in a video of a public meeting from earlier this year which surfaced on Saturday. The Troubles, or Northern Ireland conflict, claimed some 3,500 lives.

"The European Union ... operates on the basis of rules, not threats," the commission said, after Italy warned it would not pay into the EU budget if other states did not take migrants.

Italy's interior minister Matteo Salvini allowed minors to leave a migrant rescue ship in Sicily after a week on the boat, but 150 other people remain on board. Salvini demanded that other EU countries host the migrants. According to Italian media, the Sicilian prosecutor was investigating an unknown person for illegal imprisonment of migrants. Salvini responded on Twitter, saying the unknown person was him and they should investigate him.

Both the EU and Turkey are on the receiving end of Trump tariffs, which placed them in the same camp against the US.

From cigarette packaging to pensions access – Brexit will change a lot for British people, even if, as new preparatory notes show, the UK aims to stay close to the EU on many issues.

Rosengard, a migrant district in Malmo, Sweden, has a reputation for gang warfare and social deprivation, but some young people there are pushing for change.

EU diplomats from a dozen member states will meet Friday (24 August) to discuss the bloc's asylum policy as Italy refuses to let migrants on a coast guard ship disembark, while the European Commission is scrambling to find member states willing to host them. "We are stepping up our work to find a long-term solution," a commission spokesperson said, adding that the meeting is informal and no decisions are expected.

German chancellor Angela Merkel has dropped her support for Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann to become governor of the European Central Bank (EBC) and instead wants a German, possibly economy minister Peter Altmaier, to head the next European Commission, German daily Handelsblatt reported Thursday. Current ECB president Mario Draghi's term ends in autumn 2019, while the new commission will need to be set up after the European elections next May.

More than 100 African migrants managed to force their way into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from Morocco on Wednesday, when hundreds tried to storm the highly fortified border fence. Less than a month ago, another 602 people made the crossing, El Pais reported. Several migrants and police officers were injured. Over 3,800 migrants have crossed the Moroccan border into Spain so far this year, according to the UN.

Austria is firmly rooted in the EU and fully shares its stance on Russia, chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Wednesday in a bid to reassure critics after Russian president Vladimir Putin attended the Austrian foreign minister's wedding. The EU imposed sanctions on Russia after it annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Kurz told reporters that he hopes to improve EU ties with Russia through more intensive dialogue, Reuters said.

The presence of the Russian president at the wedding of the Austrian foreign minister risks to undermine Austria's efforts to act as bridge builder between East and West.

"I think it is an enormous achievement by Europe and by ESA that we built this," said meteorologist Ad Stoffelen at the launch in French Guiana of a European climate research and weather forecasting satellite.

Law suits, death threats, and a smear campaign will not stop David Casa, an opposition MEP, from going after corrupt politicians in Malta, he writes.

The European Commission said it will assess EU funds allegedly spent by Italy for escorting the Aquarius boat carrying migrants to Valencia once the "reporting period" for the use of such funds ends at the end of this year, a spokesperson said following EUobserver's report. "We cannot confirm this information ... we have standard procedures through which we assess eligibility at the end of the reporting period," she said.

The Hungarian authorities have, since early August, stopped food distribution to some rejected asylum seekers held in transit zones on the Hungarian-Serbian border pending their appeal, international pressure group Human Rights Watch has said. The rights group says it was a cynical move by Hungary to force asylum seekers back to Serbia. It said Hungary was breaching human rights laws, including its obligations as an EU member.

Europe must create its own international bank transfer systems independent of the US to save the nuclear deal with Iran, German foreign minister Heiko Maas wrote in the Handelsblatt daily. EU powers have been scrambling to ensure Iran gets enough economic benefits to abide by the arms control deal after the US pulled out of the accord, but European firms remain wary of US financial penalties.

US tech giants Facebook and Twitter have removed hundreds of accounts believed to be tied to Russia and Iran. The accounts have been linked to spreading misinformation and meddling in elections. Some of them belonged to proxies of Russia's military intelligence services, others originated in Iran. Social media companies are under pressure to curb the disruption and misinformation spread by disingenuous sites ahead of the upcoming US midterm elections.