Euobserver.com

A one-month countdown began on Friday for Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez to form a new government or face elections.

The Ocean Viking rescue vessel, operated by charities Doctors Without Borders and SOS Mediterranee, will disembark 365 people, including 103 minors, in Malta after they were forced to spend 13 days on board. "None will remain in Malta," said its PM Joseph Muscat, adding that the migrants will be relocated to Germany, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, and Romania. The European Commission has welcomed the solution, after alerts lack of supplies.

The EU ought to consider banning Brazilian beef unless it takes action on forest fires, the Finnish EU presidency has said. A wider free trade deal is also at risk.

"The magnitude of the fires on the territory of the Amazon is frightening and threatening, not only for Brazil and the other countries concerned, but for the whole world," German chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert told press in Berlin on Friday. "The chancellor fully supports the French president," he added, after Emmanuel Macron said the issue ought to be discussed at this weekend's G7 summit in France.

Just 16 percent of British people believe the UK can leave the EU in an orderly way on 31 October, according to a poll by YouGov out Friday. Some 68 percent said it was "not very likely" or "not likely at all". The pessimism comes amid leaked government warnings of food, medicine, and fuel shortages if there is a crash-out with no deal in place.

The UK should tie its payment of €43bn of EU obligations to developments in post-Brexit EU trade and seek a "sunset clause" for the validity of EU court rulings, senior Tory MP David Davis told The Telegraph. "We'll be governed for years by the other 27 member states under the existing draft withdrawal agreement ... even with the backstop [Irish border plan] removed," another MP Bill Cash said.

French and Brazilian presidents have clashed on Twitter over the Amazon fires, as G7 and other states plan treaty to protect biodiversity.

Women, such as Adaura, who escape traffickers and return to Nigeria face fresh trauma and abuses, but the EU does too little to help.

Five EU states issued a statement condemning a World War 2-era German-Russian treaty which divided Europe, but Russia has defended the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

The German manufacturing industry has expressed concern of a looming economic recession in Germany, as demand is decreasing sharply, according to Bloomberg. Orders are at their lowest level in six years time. Some analysts say that the reason is the shrinking demand from China, rather than a German domestic decline. The German economy shrank in the second quarter of 2019, adding to fears of a global recession.

Belgian socialists have put forward former deputy prime minister Laurette Onkelinx as a candidate to be the country's next EU commissioner. The move follows a bid by Belgium's foreign and defence minister, Didier Reynders, from the liberal MR party, to take up the post. The MR has already secured a place for Charles Michel, its Belgian prime minister, to become the next EU Council president after Donald Tusk.

The number of EU citizens coming to the UK has fallen since the Brexit referendum in 2016, with 200,000 people coming in the year ending March, the lowest figure since 2013 (183,000). The trend is leading to skills shortages, employers' groups warn. The UK plans to end free movement on 31 October, even though it is not sure who has a right to stay based on when they first arrived.

Switzerland has adopted an EU legal framework on aviation and drone-flying designed to ensure smooth traffic after Brexit. The legal regime, which enters into force on 1 September, will make sure there are no extra security checks for British passengers transiting via Switzerland to other EU destinations and that large drones with cameras must be certified. It also covers supply of aircraft parts and use of security technology.

Italy's president Sergio Mattarella said on Thursday he gives the Five Star Movement (M5S) and the Democratic Party (PD) five days to form a government. If they do not succeed there will likely be elections in October or November. This week prime minister Giuseppe Conte resigned, after League leader Matteo Salvini pulled out of the government. The M5S - League government was the 65th government in Italy since 1945.

The European Commission is exploring stricter rules for facial recognition technology, but not all are convinced they are needed.

The focus at the G7 summit will most likely narrow down to the global economy and foreign affairs, but the EU is also set to make a number of pledges on transparency and fighting diseases.

The Irish border plan, or "backstop", in the old Brexit accord was an "indispensable guarantee to preserve the integrity of the single market," French president Emmanuel Macron told British PM Boris Johnson in Paris on Thursday. France backed Germany in giving Britain 30 days to find an alternative. The UK would exit "whole and entire" on 31 October with no border checks "of any kind" in Ireland, Johnson said.

The European Economic and Social Committee defends the system of "per diem" payment to its members for the work they do, as they recieve no attendance fees or salaries.

Real risks to peace and stability in the South China Sea come from power outside the region, writes Zhang Ming, head of mission of the People's Republic of China to the European Union.

Germany has said the EU could renegotiate the Brexit deal, but France is taking a harder line with Britain's new leader.