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German transport minister Volker Wissing said he cannot rule out involvement of foreign countries in what he called an act of sabotage over the weekend when trains came to halt in the north of the country.

Austria has launched legal action against the European Commission for the inclusion of gas and nuclear in the EU sustainable investment rules. Vienna is now seeking support from other member states to join procedures against the so-called EU taxonomy.

The EU has extended by one year the special protection status for Ukrainian refugees, as Russia carries out country-wide rocket attacks.

Carlos Lesmes, the president of Spain's National Council for the Judiciary, said he would step down on Monday, carrying out his previous threats. His resignation comes after intense disputes over the renewal of the council, which has been exercising its functions on a temporary basis since December 2018. "Staying in the post from now on only makes me complicit in a situation I abhor and is unacceptable," Lesmes said.

The EU is calling for "dialogue" with Russia in a draft UN resolution on Ukraine, in a bid to stop creeping war-fatigue amid non-aligned states

The mood in London in ruling political, financial, and opinion-forming circles is that the steam is going out of the Brexit balloon. Brexit is now seen as a bore, replete with negatives for economic, scientific and civil society.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, a leader of the democratic forces in Belarus, is expected to address MEPs, while lawmakers will narrow down the finalists for this year's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

The roundup of articles you should not have missed this week.

Citizen panels can contribute to what the European Union has lacked for so long: a European public sphere. Democracy requires democratic debate.

Putin's energy war put European solidarity to the test at Friday's meeting of EU leaders in Prague, as some countries have been better able to shield households and businesses from energy inflation than others.

EU leaders are expected to come back to the issue of gas price caps at their usual summit in Brussels on 20 and 21 October — when an agreement could be reached by the 27 heads of state and government.

Frontex says it will not comment on the content of investigation carried out by the EU's anti-fraud office Olaf — but acknowledges that its new leadership has read the report. And it denies any wrongdoing of its operations in Greece.

US president Joe Biden on signed Friday an executive order to protect personal data transfers between the EU and the US — in response to the European court's concerns regarding surveillance. In 2020, the European Court of Justice ruled that the so-called Privacy Shield was invalid because it failed to protect Europeans' personal data. Its predecessor, the "Safe Harbour" agreement, was also turned down by the court in 2015.

This year's Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded on Friday to jailed human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski from Belarus, human rights organisation Memorial, which aimed to preserve the memory of the victims of Communist regime in Russia and the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine, documenting war crimes committed by Russian in Ukraine. Belarusian security police detianed Bialiatski last year, while Memorial was dissolved by Russian authorities last year.

Italy's outgoing government adopted a new plan for LGBTI rights before handing over the rule to a right-wing government which had promised to be socially conservative. The LGBTI strategy aims to fight discrimination at schools, hospitals, prisons, sports clubs and the workplace. It recommends LGBTI awareness courses for teachers, doctors, police officers and prison guards. Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni, expected to the next premier, said she will resist "LGBTI lobbies".

A UN human rights body passed a motion on Friday to appoint an independent expert on alleged human rights abuses in Russia. It is the first time that the Human Rights Council has set up a special rapporteur to examine a security council member. Almost 50 countries brought the motion including the US and all EU countries, barring Hungary. China, Venezuela, Cuba, Eritrea, Bolivia and Kazakhstan voted against the initiative.

Speaking at arrival in Prague, Estonian premier Kaja Kallas said countries should be "very cautious" admitting Russian draft dodgers. Although the 1951 UN Refugee Convention is supposed also to cover draft evaders, Kallas warned it could fuel Russian "imperialism." "If the minority grows large enough Russia could us it as an excuse to "liberate" them," Kallas said, who has previously restricted Russians from entering the country.

Sputnik and Russia Today can be accessed from any computer via a virtual private network. The problem is that the European Court of Justice is deciding what we — as European citizens — should have access to.

While Europe is weaning itself off Russian fossil fuels, its nuclear sector is still heavily dependent on Russia, importing over €200m of uranium annually. But when the EU adopts a new sanctions on Friday, nuclear energy will again be absent.

The elections in Bosnia are famously complicated, and last-minute changes to election laws made by the High Representative Christian Schmidt, did not make matters any simpler — and divided analysts, activists and the international community.