Euobserver.com

Private passenger jets were exempted from the EU's new Passenger Name Record directive, aimed at combating terrorism, crime and smuggling - despite the concerns of police and MEPs.

The European Commission, as guardian of the treaties, declines to sanction Italy's treatment of the Roma following a forced eviction on Thursday of some 300 from a camp in the outskirts of the Italian capital.

Poland's political masters have extended their control over the supreme court, while continuing to denigrate EU concerns.

French president Emmanuel Macron said he was "not in favour" of a "large trade agreement" between the EU and US, after European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and US president Donald Trump agreed to open talks. "We have some questions that we will want to clarify in the coming days with our European partners," he said on Thursday, insisting on reciprocity and the respect of EU sanitary and environmental standards.

The fires in Greece that have killed some 83 people around Athens were likely deliberately started, according to Greek citizen protection minister Nikos Toskas. Toskas said there were "serious indications" it was arson. Some 60 people are still in the hospital following the blaze, which broke out on Monday.

Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel's meeting earlier this week with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and the head of Russia's military general staff, Valery Gerasimov, has sparked a political row with opposition parties, given the lack of details on the talks. Gerasimov is barred from entering the EU, following 2014 sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine - but Berlin allowed him in anyway after issuing a waiver.

Augusto Santos Silva, Portugal's foreign minister, on Thursday said the UK should allow in EU "construction workers and waiters" after Brexit. The UK has said it wants to prioritise high-skilled migrants. "The brightest EU migrants are also the construction workers and the waiters," he said.

One of the biggest systemic risks across Europe, illustrated by Hungary and Poland, is the dominance of the executive power over the judiciary and informal channels of political dependency.

The EU commission chief agreed to trade talks even if the US president did not lift tariffs on steel and aluminium. But he avoided tariffs on cars and obtained a commitment to refrain from new unilateral moves.

EU and UK negotiators agreed to resume Brexit talks in mid-August in an attempt to agree the withdrawal deal by October, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said after he met Thursday with UK Brexit secretary Dominic Raab. Barnier said the UK would present new customs proposals to break the impasse on the Irish border. Barnier, however, rejected the UK plan to collect tariffs on behalf of the EU after Brexit.

Eurozone interest rates were likely to go up in autumn next year in line with market expectations, European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi said in Frankfurt on Thursday. The measure, designed to counter a recent slow down in growth, was not needed yet, he said, despite concern that an EU-US trade war could destabilise the situation. "Clearly a trade war ... would create an entirely different climate," Draghi said.

The anti-EU EFDD (from 45 MEPs to 59) and END (35 to 63) groups are set to grow after European Parliament elections next year, according to a new overview of recent polls by the Reuters news agency. The centre-right EPP group could shrink from 219 to 180 seats, Reuters said. The centre-left S&D could also shrink, from 189 to 154, but Liberals were polling to grow from 68 to 104.

China significantly lowered import tariff rates and non-tariff barriers, liberalised the right to trade, boosted the services sector and reduced restrictions on foreign investment.

The US will not impose tariffs on EU cars and might take back ones on steel and aluminium, according to a magical Trump-Juncker deal.

Israel's NGO Monitor replies to accusations by an NGO network that it pressured a Brussels media to "silence Palestine in EU circles".

European Commission warnings on rule of law, such as those on Poland, can be a factor in halting extraditions, the EU's top court has said.

EU state ambassadors met in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss the European Commission concept papers on setting up controlled centres in EU states and disembarkation platforms in north Africa. Without fully endorsing the plans, they said it was still a basis for further work. None volunteered to host them. It will now be discussed at a UNHCR and IOM meeting on 30 July, along with some EU states.

The EU Court of Justice said Wednesday Ireland could freeze a Polish extradition demand under the European Arrest Warrant if Irish authorities assessed the suspect risked "inhuman or degrading treatment", and that the Polish judicial system had "systemic deficiencies". It declined to say if Poland met those criteria, but said a recent European Commission complaint on Polish judicial independence was "particularly relevant for the purposes of that assessment".

The European Commission on Wednesday approved an education programme for Syrian refugees in Turkey worth some €400m. The money is earmarked from the second €3bn tranche as part of an agreement between the EU and Turkey in 2015 to stem refugee flows towards the Greek islands. The Commission says the first €3bn tranche has been spent.

The European Court of Justice ruled Wednesday that organisms obtained by new mutagenesis techniques should be considered as genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and fall under EU laws on GMOs. Judges said that although the GMO directive does not apply to some techniques, "those which have conventionally been used in a number of applications and have a long safety record," can be covered by the directive.