Euobserver.com

Chances EU states would agree to open accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia in October were "more positive" after EU and Western Balkans foreign ministers met in Helsinki on Friday, Finland's foreign minister Pekka Haavisto said. The Western Balkans "is probably the only region today where the accession process towards the European Union has a deep value of peace-building," EU top diplomat Federica Mogherini said.

Reports of a build-up by Chinese security forces and arrests of leading activists in Hong Kong were "extremely worrying", EU top diplomat Federica Mogherini said in Helsinki Friday. The EU and member states would closely monitor "the impact" of events "on EU citizens and on EU economic interests in Hong Kong," she added, after meeting the 28 EU foreign ministers. People had a "right ... to demonstrate peacefully," Mogherini said.

The ECB's possible next chief will appear before the EU parliament, as political life resumes in Brussels. In London, MPs could mount a no-confidence vote against Johnson.

In the digital age, to update and improve the credit system is a common task for all countries.

The European gas lobby and its EU consultancy have been trying to gain access to MEPs by promising to donate to charity, in breach of EU transparency rules.

British leader's parliament shutdown recalls illiberal shifts in Hungary and Poland, in what academics call "democratic degradation" and "autocratic legalism".

Around 250 people tried to jump over the fence at Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta early on Friday 30 August. Only 153 managed to cross, reported the Spanish authorities. Earlier this year, Spain and Morocco reached an agreement that allows Spanish rescue services to take migrants back to Morocco. In 2018, nearly half of the non-EU citizens who were refused entry into the EU were recorded in Spain.

Germany's chancellor says she is contact with Turkey over an EU deal to stop refugees from landing on Greek islands. But the arrival of over 500 in one day, amid grim conditions, piles on pressure.

New Brexit talks will take place twice a week to avoid a no-deal "nightmare", as the British government takes flak over its parliament shutdown.

Same-sex marriage was legalised in the Faroe Islands in 2017, but could be banned again if national conservatives return to power in Saturday's general elections. The Centre Party (Midflokkurin) has announced that it wold repeal the same-sex law. Fisheries reforms carried by the current center-left government could also be changed back. The North Atlantic Faroe Islands are a self-governing part of Denmark, but not a member of the EU.

According to a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit, 12 European cities are amongst the 30 safest ones in the world. In the ranking of 60 cities worldwide, Amsterdam was in 4th place, after Tokyo, Singapore, and Osaka. Other ranking European cities were Copenhagen (8th), Stockholm (12th), London (14th), Frankfurt (16th), Zurich (18th), Paris (23d), Brussels (24th), Madrid (25th), Barcelona (26th), Milan (29th), and Rome (30th).

The EU has extended import tariffs of up to 48.5 percent on Chinese bicycles to prevent a flood of imports, according to Reuters. Earlier this year the EU also imposed import duties on Chinese electronic bicycles, which China condemned strongly. EU citizens buy circa 18mn bicycles per year. Four percent come from China. Similar tariffs apply to bicycles coming from Indonesia, Malaysia, Tunisia, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Pakistan, and The Philippines.

"Pushing Russia from Europe is a profound strategic error," president Emmanuel Macron told French diplomats on Tuesday following the G7 summit, The Moscow Times reports. Macron also said that "the European continent will never be stable, will never be secure, if we don't pacify and clarify our relations with Russia." However, he added that it is not "in our interest to be weak vis-a-vis Russia, to forget our disagreements."

Failure to reform the EU's asylum system and to manage the crisis will likely push increasingly numbers of voters towards far-right and populist parties.

EU defence ministers have discussed how navies can better cooperate by sharing information and analysis when deployed to the same area but not as part of a single operation. A pilot project will take place targeting piracy in the Gulf of Guinea area in Africa, EU foreign relations chief Federica Mogherini said after the talks in Helsinki Thursday. The same methods could be applied in the Persian Gulf in future.

Resigning deputy prime minister and far-right League party leader Matteo Salvini has called for a "big demonstration filling the squares" of Rome on 19 October in order to protest the new government. He and his party were responsible for the fall of the former government, in the hope new elections would be organised. Instead, prime minister Giuseppe Conte was appointed to form a new government without Salvini.

UK opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn said he will try to stop Boris Johnson's suspension of the parliament by rapid legislation. In an interview with Sky news he said: "We will be back in parliament on Tuesday to challenge Boris Johnson on what I think is a smash-and-grab raid against our democracy." "He's trying to suspend parliament in order to prevent a serious debate to prevent a no-deal Brexit," he added.

Five of the 28 employees at the Russian embassy in the capital of Lithuania are working for the Russian intelligence services, an investigation by the Lithuanian news site LRT found out. In 2018, Lithuania expelled five Russian embassy workers linked to Russian intelligence, in solidarity with the UK after the poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter. Now these spies appear to have been replaced by five others.

The republic of Georgia will implement as much European legislation as possible, the country's president Salome Zurabishvili said in a speech in Vilnius, according to Il Foglio. She added that the EU has interrupted its enlargement process and that it is focussing on internal problems. That is why, she argued, Georgia should not hope for EU membership now, but be creative in finding other ways to become more European.

Ukraine's new parliament is holding its first session on Thursday 29 August. The parliament, dominated by the party of ex-comedian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, is expected to endorse the new government with Oleksiy Honcharuk, a 35-year old lawyer, as its PM. Also on the agenda is the vote on about 100 laws. Priority will be given to the abolition of parliamentary immunity, according to the Kyiv Post.