European Union

The EU and UK’s chief Brexit negotiators vowed on Tuesday (21 August) to step up talks in the coming weeks in a bid to avoid the UK crashing out of the bloc without agreement next March.

The expulsion from the Schengen zone of Lyudmyla Kozlovska, a Ukrainian human rights activist, was due to serious doubts regarding funding of her organisation, Poland's Internal Security Agency said on Monday (20 August).

The European Commission said Tuesday that "efforts are ongoing" with regards to Italy's request to find member states that would be willing to host the 177 migrants aboard an Italian coast guard vessel that rescued them last week. Italy's government on Monday allowed the ship to dock in Catania after a row with Malta. Italy said the migrants will be kept on the ship until the EU finds a solution.

The European Parliament is in recess over the summer holidays from 23 July 2018 to 26 August 2018

Source : © European Union, 2018 - EP

Czech filmmakers on Tuesday (21 August) said they were launching a rotating hunger strike in solidarity with Ukrainian colleague Oleg Sentsov.

On the night of 20 August 1968 the troops of the Warsaw Pact ended the attempts to democratise the communist system in Czechoslovakia, which went down in history as the Prague Spring. According to commentators the impact of the invasion is still visible today - and not just in Eastern Europe.

Greece officially concluded its ESM financial assistance programme on Monday. This means that it will have to finance itself on the markets for the first time in eight years. Although the country's economic data has improved of late, one in five Greeks is still unemployed and the national debt is still at 180 percent of GDP. Has Greece really been saved?

In der Nacht zum 21. August 1968 beendeten Truppen des Warschauer Paktes die Demokratisierungsversuche des kommunistischen Systems in der Tschechoslowakei, die als Prager Frühling in die Geschichte eingingen. Die Auswirkungen des Einmarsches sind nach Ansicht von Kommentatoren bis heute sichtbar - nicht nur in Osteuropa.