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The EU, on Friday, removed Agila Saleh, the speaker of the Tobruk-based House of Representatives in Libya, from its sanctions list due to "his recent constructive engagement in support of a negotiated political solution". The EU and UN formally back Saleh's rival Tripoli-based government. But individual EU states have backed opposing sides in the conflict, muddling Europe's foreign policy.

EU leaders underlined their non-recognition of Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine on Friday by blacklisting two persons and four entities involved in building a bridge from Russia to the peninsula. "The European Union does not recognise the illegal annexation of Crimea," the EU Council said. EU leaders also "condemned" Russia's recent attempted murder of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, but stopped short of threatening sanctions against those involved.

China must do more to let EU firms compete with Chinese ones, EU leaders said after their summit in Brussels on Friday. "If the Chinese side gives no market access in certain areas, that will naturally mean that access to the European market will also be more restricted," German chancellor Angela Merkel added. Leaders also voiced "serious concern" about Chinese human rights abuses against Uighur minorities and Hong Kong protestors.

EU states have imposed asset-freezes and visa-bans on Belarus' interior minister and 39 other officials, after Cyprus dropped its veto in return for tough talk on Turkey.

The European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen warned Friday "the epidemiological situation [in Europe] is worrying," saying progress on vaccines was key for a long-term solution for the crisis. The commission has sealed two vaccine agreements while five more are under negotiations. Von der Leyen also urged EU leaders to agree on common standards for the previously proposed Covid-19 colour map, to ensure better coordination.

British prime minister Boris Johnson and EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will speak on Saturday, for the first time since June, in a last push to find common ground on a post-Brexit trade deal. The UK and the EU will continue talks next week and until the next EU summit on 15-16 October in an effort to clinch a deal before the end of the year.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced on Friday a €720m deal to connect the Baltic states' energy grid with Poland, reducing energy dependence on Russia. The upcoming offshore energy strategy is expected to bring electricity from renewables to all countries around the Baltic Sea. Poland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia this week signed a declaration to accelerate the offshore wind capacities in the Baltic Sea.

On Friday morning, American president Donald Trump announced on Twitter he and the first lady had tested positive on Covid-19 and will go into quarantine. "Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!," he tweeted. Trump is a candidate to serve again as president in elections in November.

EU leaders have agreed to impose sanctions on 40 or so Belarusians, but not president Alexander Lukashenko, for violence and election-rigging using a fast-track written procedure on Friday. They also warned Turkey it would face sanctions in future unless it stopped "provocations" against Cyprus and Greece by sending gas-drilling ships into their waters. Cyprus had previously vetoed the Belarus move unless it got a tough line on Turkey.

The EU seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate rose for five consecutive months, reaching 7.4 percent in August, according to statistics on Thursday by Eurostat. It is estimated that 15.6 million people in the EU were unemployed at the end of the summer. The EU's youth unemployment rate was higher than the overall population, reaching 17.6 percent in August. While the rate for women increased slightly more than for men.

The German Federal Statistical Office revealed on Thursday that immigration decreased in the first half of the year, due to the coronavirus pandemic. In the first six months of 2020, 529,000 people moved to Germany - representing a drop of 29 percent year-on-year. From March to May, when Germany was under lockdown, the number of immigrants dropped by 42 percent. Meanwhile, emigration from Germany also decreased during the same period.

The Spanish government ordered on Thursday a partial lockdown in the capital Madrid and other affected areas by the coronavirus, the BBC reported. Restrictions apply to areas with more than 100,000 residents that meet the following criteria: 500 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, 35 percent patient occupancy in intensive care units, and a 10-percent positivity test rate. The order gives local authorities 48 hours to put restrictive measures in place.

France has accused Turkey's ally, Azerbaijan, of starting recent warfare with Armenia and importing "jihadist" fighters, as EU-Turkish relations continue to deteriorate.

The parliament's majorty dismisses the German EU presidency's proposal on the rule of law conditionality, which has emerged as the main political obstacle to agree on the next long-term EU budget.

MEPs have refused to sign off the accounts of the European Economic and Social Committee, in yet another blow to the reputation of the EU's smallest institution. The massive vote against was linked to ongoing psychological harassment cases.

The European Parliament's legal affairs committee on Thursday adopted three reports on artificial intelligence, covering ethical, civil liability, and intellectual property aspects. The report on intellectual property rights calls for a sector-specific and customs-based regulation, which could facilitate the creation of the so-called "Single European Data Space" to promote innovation. The three reports will be submitted to the second plenary session vote in October.

MEPs warned on Thursday that they will once again object any proposal from the European Commission that lowers the bar for bees and other pollinators protection - since the process to renew EU bee guidance is still ongoing.

In his inauguration speech Belgium's new prime minister Alexander de Croo promised his government would work together and show unity - something Belgium has been missing for the past two years.

The ongoing escalation of Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh is a most serious and significant one - just not surprising at all.

"We have precise information that indicates that the Syrian militants have abandoned the battlefield in Gaziantep [southern Turkey] in order to join the fighting in Karabakh [an Armenia-controlled region of Azerbaijan]," French president Emmanuel Macron said Thursday after arriving for a summit in Brussels. "This is very serious ... We will discuss it here at the summit," he said, amid allegations Turkey sent Syrian mercenaries to help its Azeri ally.