Euobserver.com

The EU parliament's civil liberties committee in a draft report calls on member states to deal with Hungary's backsliding on EU rules. Lawmakers from the centre-right European People's Party were split over the critical report.

EU countries agreed on Monday to publish the mandates given to the European Commission to negotiate trade deals with Australia and with New Zealand. The EU Council said that motor equipment, machinery, chemicals, processed foods and services would be the sectors "likely to benefit the most" from deals, while the EU committed to "protect vulnerable sectors such as agriculture." Talks officialy started on 18 and 21 June.

Make no mistake – Rutte, sometimes considered as a potential candidate to succeed Donald Tusk, is one of the toughest of the EU's current heads of state.

The EU is seeking to reach agreements on separating asylum seekers from economic migrants - but questions remain on where and how. The UN refugee agency is eager to get involved.

The European Parliament's civil liberties committee adopted on Monday a report, 37 votes to 19, calling for member states to trigger the Article 7 sanctions procedure against Hungary, to determine if PM Viktor Orban's government is in a "clear risk of a serious breach" of fundamental EU values. The EP's plenary will vote in September. A similar probe was launched against Poland by the EU Commission last December.

A report on Monday by Dutch former justice minister Winnie Sorgdrager into last year's fipronil egg scare criticised Dutch authorities - but also the leniency EU states have in determining how to enforce food safety rules. "The differences in the policies of the member states caused confusion and lack of clarity in the public debate about the actual dangers and the need for measures to control them," it said.

French defence minister Florence Parly told Le Figaro in an interview ahead of a joint EU defence and foreign minister in Luxembourg on Monday that nine countries - France, Germany, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Estonia, Spain and Portugal - would sign a 'letter of intent' supporting the European Intervention Initiative, championed by French President Emmanuel Macron, creating a European military intervention force and including the UK after Brexit.

Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan secured on Sunday a new five-year term after winning the majority (53 percent) of votes in the first round of a presidential elections, ahead of his closest rival Muharrem Ince on 31 percent. Erdogan was prime minister for 11 years before becoming president in 2014. Under Turkey's new constitution, adopted in a tight referendum last year, Erdogan could run again and potentially hold power until 2028.

Support for French president Emmanuel Macron dropped one percentage point in June to 40 percent, according to an Ifop-JDD poll published over the weekend. Macron suffered a remarkable eight-point fall in one month to 38 percent among elderly French over 65 years of age, highlighting pensioners' frustration over the higher tax bills they have been paying since the start of the year.

EP president Antonio Tajani has called for bigger investment in Africa to avoid that "hundreds of thousands of immigrants will turn into millions, with devastating consequences for Europe". In an article published by several European media on Sunday he said investment of at least €6bn to shut down the Mediterranean routes was needed and urged closer cooperation with transit countries Mauritania, Mali, Chad, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Libya.

Two years after the Brexit referendum, pro-EU demonstrators called on Saturday in London for a new vote to have the final say on the country's departure deal with the European Union. A petition to have a 'People's Vote on the Brexit Deal' was signed by more than 100,000 people within 48 hours.

We see the new CAP as spelling the death of rural communities, the acceleration of the rural exodus, the consolidation of big agribusinesses, jeopardising public health standards and turning binding climate change targets into optional goals for member states.

Claude Turmes was a green MEP for almost 18 years. On Monday he will attend the Environment Council representing Luxembourg as state secretary.

Select EU leaders met amid rising tension over migration, with Italy's PM, who had threatened to boycott the summit, putting forward a new plans to stop boats from leaving Libya.

The Venice Commission, a body of constitutional law experts, on Friday said Hungary should repeal its so-called 'Stop Soros' legislation on illegal migration which threatens jail for people and organisations helping migrants. The law, adopted on Wednesday, seriously impairs legitimate NGO work, unfairly criminalises activities not directly related to illegal migration, and constitutes illegitimate interference with freedom of expression, the experts said in their report for the Council of Europe.

US president Donald Trump on Friday threatened to put a 20 percent tariff on imported cars from the EU. Trump said in a tweet that unless the EU removes "tariffs and trade barriers" he will introduce the new levy. The warning comes as the EU's retaliatory measures to counter new US steel and aluminium tariffs kick in on Friday with 25 percent duties on some €2.8bn-worth of US imports.

EU leaders will try to tackle key migration issues and help save Merkel from a full-blown government crisis at one and half EU summits this week.

The possibility of the German chancellor's fall or lasting weakening is 'the elephant in the room' in all current EU discussions.

There is not a single European company among the world's top 10 computer hardware companies. Within the EU, Germany and Sweden rank among world leaders, but Bulgaria and Slovakia among the worst-performing developed nations.

EU finance ministers decided on Friday to close the excessive deficit procedure opened against France in 2009. France's deficit went below the required 3 percent of GDP in 2017, at 2.6 percent of GDP and it is expected to remain under the threshold in 2018 and 2019, at respectively 2.3 percent and 2.8 percent.