Euobserver.com

The EU is getting closer to setting up a new anti-money laundering (AML) authority following the scandals with Russian money and Danske Bank, according to the Financial Times. France and the Netherlands are pushing for a European enforcement body in order to avoid fresh crises. Europe has been hit by several scandals, of which the Russian laundering of €30bn was the biggest uncovered.

The United States has repeated its plea to Belgium and other European countries to repatriate their Isis fighters and families from northern Syria, US ambassador to Belgium, Ronald Gidwitz, said in an interview, adding the US would help logistically and legally to make this happen. He added the US had already interrogated 50 Belgian fighters. "If Belgium gets serious about repatriation, we'll be happy to share this evidence," he said.

"We've made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe a political message reach should be earned, not bought," the CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey tweeted on Wednesday (29 October). He added that "paying to increase the reach of political speech has significant ramifications that today's democratic infrastructure may not be prepared to handle." The ban would come into force on 22 November.

The Commission's proposal to revise the rules on which social security system covers workers when they cross borders, originally a technical clarification, has opened the floodgates for national interests to be put above workers' rights.

Hungary's opposition liberal Momentum party said tax authorities raided its offices on Wednesday, in a fraud probe into campaign expenses. It is the latest investigation by state authorities targeting opposition groups. Momentum denied wrongdoing and said it would cooperate. Earlier this month opposition candidates, including Momentum, handed down the worst electoral blow to prime minster Viktor Orban and his party in a decade.

Chilean president Sebastian Pinera announced Wednesday that his country will not host the upcoming UN climate change conference (COP 25) in December, due to the violent protests that have been taking place in the country for weeks. "This has been a very difficult decision, a decision that causes a lot of pain because we fully understand the importance of the COP25 for Chile and the world," said Pinera.

The president has publicly scolded the prime minister over picking a new name for Romania's EU commissioner candidate - a week ahead of the formation of a new government in Bucharest. Premier Viorica Dancila has hit back on Facebook.

Chief EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier warned Wednesday that the risk of Britain's departure from the EU without a divorce agreement still existed. It could either happen at the end of January, or if the British parliament fails to ratify the divorce deal, and London would not be granted another extension to the Brexit deadline, Barnier said, adding: "We still need to prepare."

EU budget commissioner Guenther Oettinger said Wednesday that EU countries will not reach an agreement on the bloc's long-term budget by the year's end, despite EU leaders in June aiming for a deal in late autumn. "There will be progress up to December, but no agreement," the German commissioner admitted. Incoming budget commissioner Johannes Hahn said earlier that he expects a deal by the end of the winter.

Denmark's energy agency on Wednesday said it approved the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project in Danish waters, removing the last major hurdle for the Russian-led gas pipeline project connecting Russia and Germany. The pipeline has divided the EU and has come under fire from the US. The agency said that it had granted a permit to construct a 147km section of the pipeline southeast of the Danish island Bornholm.

Foreign ministers in the Nordic countries agreed on Wednesday in Stockholm to update a 10-year old security strategy, originally overseen by Norway's former foreign minister Thorvald Stoltenberg in 2009. The new Stoltenberg II report would include issues such as cyber security, arctic security and climate risks. Defence and security policy was a taboo subject in Nordic cooperation during the Cold War but has become a core issue today.

Facebook agreed on Wednesday to pay €579,835 imposed by the UK's data protection authorities over its role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, The Guardian reported. The social media giant said it "wished it had done more to investigate Cambridge Analytica" earlier. In early 2018, Cambridge Analytica harvested personal data of millions of peoples' Facebook profiles without their consent and used it for political advertising purposes.

The Nordic Council's prestigious annual awards ceremony this year turned into a youth revolt, with climate activist Greta Thunberg declining the environment prize and another winner criticising the Danish prime minister for racism.

The Nordic Council's prestigious annual awards ceremony this year turned into a youth revolt, with climate activist Greta Thunberg declining the environment prize and another winner criticising the Danish prime minister for racism.

Thomas Haldenwang, the president of Germany's BfV domestic intelligence agency, on Tuesday warned lawmakers the lines between militant right-wingers and conservatives in Germany is becoming more difficult to detect. He said more people are becoming open to the far-right camp. "The proverbial 'right wing corner' which allows for a clear distinction between extremists and the conservative camp, no longer exists," he said.

Rescue ships Alan Kurdi and Ocean Viking were allowed to dock at the Italian port of Pozzallo in Sicily on Tuesday. The latest move follows an 11-day standoff preventing the Ocean Viking from disembarking 104 rescued migrants. The ship was only allowed to harbour after France, Germany and Italy reached an agreement on relocation. The Alan Kurdi carried around 90 people onboard who had been rescued over the weekend.

French and German fiance ministers announced a collective effort seeking to rival the dominance of US cloud firms like Amazon and Microsoft. "We want to establish a safe and sovereign European data infrastructure, including data warehouses, data pooling and develop data interoperability," French finance minister Bruno Le Maire said on Tuesday. Along with the Germany, the two aim to launch proposals early next year on creating a "European data infrastructure".

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier warned the United Kingdom risks trade barriers if its future government drops EU regulatory standards on workers' rights and environmental protection. "Access to our markets will be proportional to the commitments taken to the common rules," he told a handful of journalists. Fears are mounting the UK may seek to lower those standards, following a leaked report in the Financial Times newspaper.

Iraq's minister of foreign affairs, Ali Alhakim, said in an interview with NRC Handelsblad, that his country will only take back from Syria Iraqi Isis fighters. France, the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Norway have been working on having their Isis fighters being tried in Iraq, so that they did not have to let them back into Europe. According to Alhakim, "Iraqi justice does not allow this".

Turkey has more journalists behind bars than any other country in the world. The authorities seem to equate journalism with terrorism: everyone has the right to express themselves, but, in their eyes, legitimate journalism is a threat to security.