Euobserver.com

Millions of students, workers, and adults participated on Friday in climate protests all across Europe to demand urgent climate action - as part of the largest ever global climate strike taking place from 20 to 27 September. The massive worldwide demonstrations were organised ahead of the UN climate summit in New York, which will bring together world leaders on 23 September to discuss climate transition measures and strategies.

Nine EU commissioner candidates have been taken to task for incomplete or "downright shocking" financial declarations by the European Parliament's legal affairs committee.

Matteo Salvini's recent gambit may have failed, but, in his own words: "From today you will find me even more pissed off and determined. I will go from town to town and we will take this country back."

The UK's Brexit minister Stephen Barclay is to hold talks on Friday with the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier in Brussels. The meetings come as the UK has submitted some written proposals on how to replace the backstop, a controversial arrangement in the withdrawal agreement. The EU has said it needs to study the documents. However, they seem to be insufficient to unlock the talks.

Trilateral talks about gas from Russia being transported to Europe through Ukraine were "constructive" and have progressed, the EU's energy commissioner Maros Sefcovic said Thursday. "There was convergence of the position on most of the issues we discussed," he said after a third round of talks. The current long-term agreement expires in January. Sides still disagreed on the duration of the contract, transit volumes and tariffs.

Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz criticised Ireland on Thursday over taxation of multinational companies. "In the area of taxes, Ireland has not behaved well, either globally or for their own citizens, or as an EU citizen," he said, arguing that Ireland kept revenue that would have gone to other EU countries, and did unfair tax deals for "pittance". An EU court case is ongoing over Ireland's tax deal with Apple.

France has persuaded Germany to examine a European carbon border tax, protecting companies investing in green technology from emission-intensive competition from abroad, Reuters reported. The German and French finance and economy ministers backed the idea on Thursday in a joint statement. Germany has so far been reluctant, fearing escalating trade tensions with the US. France aims to protect companies that support carbon-reduction efforts against unfair competition with big polluters.

Malta's premier has offered to end a libel case against a murdered journalist only if her relatives said he was innocent, in what the family called "blackmail".

Romania's anti-graft crusader Laura Kovesi will take on corruption at an EU level as the bloc's first prosecutor - despite opposition from her country's government.

Brussels' current vision for cooperation on defence, where third countries can contribute but have no say in decision-making and in the guidance of operations, is unlikely to be attractive to the UK.

National governments have a "crucial role" to prioritise low-carbon cities to tackle climate challenges and secure economic prosperity since high-carbon systems are expected to become unprofitable or inoperable in the near future.

Austria's main political parties have instructed the government to veto an EU free-trade deal with the Mercosur bloc of four South American states. They passed the decision in a sub-committee of the Austrian parliament Thursday saying it would harm consumer rights and the environment, amid forest fires in Brazil, a Mercosur member. France and Ireland have also threatened vetoes over the blazes. The EU adopts trade treaties by consensus.

Speaking at an event in Madrid, Britain's Brexit minister Stephen Barclay asked on Thursday to the EU to show flexibility and creativity in order to secure a deal "which will pass both the UK parliament and the European parliament". "I doubt that Spanish SMEs are prepared for a hard Brexit", Barclay said, adding that Britain is ready to continue negotiations about its territory of Gibraltar adjoining southern Spain, reported Reuters.

Romania's former anti-corruption prosecutor Laura Kovesi was supported by a "sufficient majority" of member states at an ambassadorial meeting on Thursday to become the EU's first public prosecutor, a Finnish presidency spokesman told EUobserver. The secret ballot was an indicative vote, which will be followed by a formal vote once negotiations with the European parliament, which also supported Kovesi, are finished. Member states have previously supported a French candidate.

French president Emmanuel Macron is pressing for an automated distribution of rescued migrants at sea - but also stands accused of tightening asylum rules in his own country as a response to the far-right.

France and Finland, the EU presidency, have given the UK 12 days to give written details on an alternative Brexit deal. "If no proposals are received by the end of September, then it's over," Finnish leader Antti Rinne said in Paris Wednesday after meeting the French president. German industry lobby BDI said the Brexit date should only be extended if the UK had a "clear roadmap" for a new deal.

Russian troops must leave Russia-occupied east Ukraine, among other conditions, before Kiev agrees to give the self-proclaimed "republics" there greater autonomy, Ukrainian negotiators said in Minsk on Wednesday at a meeting of a Contact Group on the conflict. The group, which includes Russia, is trying to pave the way for an EU-backed peace summit in the coming weeks. But both Ukraine and Russia are refusing to change previous positions.

Poland's nationalist-populist rulers, the Law and Justice (PiS) party, will win upcoming elections with 45.6 percent of votes, according to the Badania.pro pollster for the Onet.pl news website. The opposition Civic Coalition would get 28 percent of votes, it said. The PiS side will get 43 percent and the opposition 30 percent, a Kantar poll for the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper also estimated. The election is due on 13 October.

US tech giant Apple was not treated more favourably than any other firm and it was "absurd" to say Ireland would have knowingly foregone €13bn in lost taxes, lawyers for the Irish government and the US firm said in an EU court hearing in Luxembourg Wednesday. A European Commission lawyer said Dublin "blindingly accepted" Apple's proposal to minimise taxes, in what EU anti-trust chiefs said amounted to illegal state aid.

EU laws should force smartphone producers to make them last longer for the sake of the environment, the European Environmental Bureau, an NGO group, said in a report Wednesday. Phones usually last just three years and cannot be repaired, with the replacement cycle emitting 14m tonnes of CO2 a year, it said. The phones ought to last 200 years each if they were to compensate their carbon footprint, it added.