Euobserver.com

US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, is in Brussels for a two-day visit in order to "reset" Donald Trump's relationship with the EU, according to Politico. Pompeo is meeting with the future, not the current, leadership. He met with the new Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Monday. On Tuesday he'll meet with European Parliament's president David Sassoli, EU Council president-elect Charles Michel and future chief diplomat Josep Borrell.

Worldwide 63,159 people are still receiving a pension from Germany for being injured in World War Two, reports the Belgian newspaper De Morgen. German deputy minister for work, Kerstin Griese, made these figures public, confirming what some thought was a myth. 61,225 of these pensioners live in Germany, 1,934 live abroad, mainly Poland, the US and Canada. Most of them are widows and orphans, some are former Nazi soldiers.

Facebook's new digital currency, Libra, due to be launched next year, could "reduce the ECB's control over the euro ... [affect] the liquidity position of euro area banks, and undermine the single currency's international role," European Central Bank (ECB) board member Yves Mersch has warned. The fact Facebook stood accused of mishandling users' private data in recent US election meddling made its currency plan even more worrying, he added.

New tensions have flared between Russia and Georgia in the region of South Ossetia. Both sides are building up military forces along the border. Russia occupied South Ossetia and Abkhazia after the Russian-Georgian war in 2008. The EU ambassador to Georgia, Carl Hartzell, called the situation and the confrontational language "unacceptable". "We expect all sides to show maximum restraint and use their influence to ensure situation doesn't escalate," he added.

Russia's parliament, the State Duma, has placed a contract on the government's procurement website seeking expert analysis for "nuances" of assisted reproduction, the Moscow Times reports. The contract is to "study the possibilities of a ... new generation of technologies for the use of assisted reproductive technologies (genome editing, metabolism management during pregnancy, etc.) to create a new ... type of society," says a section of the order.

Greek authorities and UN helpers have moved 635 Afghan asylum seekers from an overcrowded camp on the island of Lesbos to the mainland. Another group of more than 500 people is to be moved on Tuesday. The island's camps, designed to hold 3,000 people, now host 11,000, amid a recent surge in crossings from Turkey to some 100 a day despite a Turkey-EU accord in 2015 to stop people coming.

Iceland has approved EU energy laws designed to open the single market to competition and break up giants who control both supply and distribution. MPs passed the bill by 46 to 13, Reuters reported, 10 years after the legislation was first passed in Europe. The decision allows Norway and Liechtenstein, which form part of the European Economic Area with Iceland, to adopt the EU energy rules as well.

Emily O'Reilly, the Irish former journalist who was the EU Ombudsman for the past five years, said on Monday she wants a second term in office. Her goal was to make the EU watchdog "more visible to citizens and to make a positive impact on the EU administration," she said, adding: "I wish to continue that work". The European Parliament elects the EU Ombudsman after hearings with candidates in December.

More than 50 French MPs have voiced their concerns about the situation in Catalonia. The acting Spanish minister for foreign affairs - and incoming EU foreign affairs chief - Josep Borrell has lamented "the ignorance about the reality of Spain".

Von der Leyen andr Borissov gagged media in Sofia last week, but that won't make the hard questions go away either for the EU or Bulgaria.

Including the competence for animal welfare explicitly in the job title of the relevant commissioner would respond the demands of the vast majority of EU citizens.

British prime minister Boris Johnson has summoned his cabinet ministers for an emergency meeting on Tuesday afternoon, before a drinks reception for all Conservative MPs at Downing Street - fuelling rumours of Johnson calling a snap election. The office of the PM also declared that it would regard a vote on a delay of Brexit, being prepared by the opposition, as "an expression of confidence" issue.

In the regional state elections in Saxony and Brandenburg both coalitions lose their majority as AfD wins respectively 27,8 and 23,5 percent of the votes.

Informal interviews with von der Leyen, hearings with parliamentary committees, and votes in the EU parliament and Council await the 26 candidates.

The unstable political situation in Spain has generated a limited legislative activity during the last years. Only 106 laws have been passed by the Spanish parliament during the last four years, a historically low amount since the executive institution was created in 1977. The political deadlock and lack of majorities make it difficult to comply with the demands of the EU on certain issues, exposing the country to fines.

Five million Syrian people are being bombed every day on the other side of the Turkish border - sooner or later they will flee to Europe like in 2015.

The EU cannot offer the UK any new concessions on Ireland and is "not optimistic" of a Brexit deal, its chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, has said. "The backstop is the maximum amount of flexibility that the EU can offer to a non-member state," Barnier said in British newspaper The Sunday Telegraph. The "backstop" is a plan for the UK to keep EU customs rules and an open border with Ireland.

Switzerland may need to seek alternative partners to the EU on scientific research and in other areas if Europe does not give ground in talks on a trade treaty, its economy minister, Guy Parmelin, has told the SonntagsZeitung newspaper. "We are then forced to seek alternatives, perhaps along with Britain, if the EU remains dogmatic," he said. The trade row has already seen both sides curtail access to financial traders.

German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier asked Poland's forgiveness for Nazi "tyranny", eight decades after the start of World War II. In a separate ceremony, Polish Premier Mateusz Morawiecki asked its neighbouring country to take "responsibility" for the economic costs of its invasion. "We have to remember the victims and we have to demand compensation," Morawiecki said. According to a Polish parliamentary group's study, German occupation cost more than €773bn.

Italy's 5-Star Movement (M5S) and the centre-left opposition Democratic Party (PD) agreed on a coalition last week to avoid early elections, which could favour Matteo Salvini's far-right League Party. However, the members of the movement still have to endorse this deal through M5S' online platform, Russeau, on Tuesday. Salvini called for a no-confidence vote in mid-August to force elections, but the Italian Senate rejected it.