Euobserver.com

France's gender equality minister, Marlene Schiappa, has called into an investigation into the potential sex trafficking activities of Jeffrey Epstein, the late US billionaire, in France. "The American investigation has highlighted ties with France. It therefore seems fundamental to us, and for the victims, that an investigation should be opened in France so that all the light is shed on this matter," she said in a statement on Monday.

The US wants to help the UK cushion the blow of Brexit with a bilateral trade deal, the White House has said, as knives come out for Johnson in London.

Two months and a half after the elections, the leading party in Flanders, the nationalist NVA, invited the Flemish Liberal party (Open Vld) and the Flemish Christian Democrats (CD&V) to start formal coalition talks. The negotiations will be lead by Jan Jambon (NVA), former deputy prime minister and interior minister of Belgium. NVA had first negotiated two months with the far-right Vlaams Belang, but together they had no majority.

Former prime ministers Matteo Renzi and Enrico Letta propose to form a new "technical government" without Salvini's League.

Dominic Cummings, special advisor to British prime minister Boris Johnson and a zealous advocate of Brexit, benefitted from EU agriculture subsidies via a farm that he co-owned with his relatives, British newspaper The Observer reported on Sunday. The farm in Durham, northern England, received about €250,000 of EU funds over 20 years, records showed. The news exposed Cummings' "sheer hypocrisy", a spokeswoman for the British opposition Liberal Party said.

About 800,000 British people have spent €4.3bn stockpiling food, drinks, and medicine in case a no-deal Brexit on 31 October causes supply problems, according to data from British financial firm Premium Credit. "The British would be the big losers," in a hard Brexit, outgoing European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker also said in Tiroler Tageszeitung, an Austrian newspaper, on Saturday. "We [the EU] are well prepared [for no-deal Brexit]," he added.

The EU border deal will not be up for discussion when Irish leader Leo Varadkar meets British prime minister Boris Johnson in Dublin in early September, the Irish government has said. "The withdrawal agreement and the backstop are not up for negotiation," it said on Sunday, referring to "backstop" plans, hated by Johnson, to keep Britain in the EU customs union in order to maintain an open border with Ireland.

The EU needs to properly classify which economic activities help the environment to help direct public funding and private investment toward climate-friendly sectors, EU financial services commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis has told the Financial Times newspaper. "In this way you avoid greenwashing, you provide clarity," he said. The European Commission proposed a new classification scheme last year, but capitals are wary of giving Brussels more power on dividing up joint funds.

The Finnish EU presidency has defended its deal with German car maker BMW to provide 100 vehicles free of charge to ferry VIPs back and forth from events in Helsinki. BMW got the job after "an EU-wide call for tenders" and BMW executives did "not have opportunities to meet" with politicians, Anja Laisi, a presidency spokeswoman, told the Yle news agency. BMW provided no fuel or drivers, she added.

Norwegian police are treating a mosque attack on Saturday as a potential act of far-right terrorism amid reports the attacker held anti-immigrant views and had published online praise of a massacre of Muslims in New Zealand, which took place earlier this year. Saturday's attempted murder was due to "long-lasting hate of Muslims that has been allowed to spread in Norway", the Islamic Council Norway, an NGO, said.

Downing Street has ordered government special advisors to cancel summer holidays, or breaks in the time running up to the Brexit date of 31 October, according to an email seen by The Guardian - prompting renewed speculation about prime minister Boris Johnson calling a snap general election in the autumn. The government's majority is currently one with support from the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland.

A European financial regulatory body set up after the financial crisis is at loggerheads with the European Commission over whether to carry out a transparency review of certain financial products. The reason: Brexit.

EU plans to trade with Iran despite US sanctions have suffered a blow with the resignation of Bernd Erbel, a German diplomat who was to run the EU's so-called Instex Iran trade entity, in an anti-semitism fiasco. Erbel bowed out on Thursday when German newspaper Bild noted he had twice appeared on radio with a Holocaust-denier. The US ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, and Israel, welcomed the resignation.

The EU ought to take care of 121 people, including 32 children, recently rescued at sea, European Parliament president David-Maria Sassoli has said to outgoing European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in a letter. If Europe did not help "it'll mean it has lost its soul", he said. Spanish charity Open Arms saved them one week ago but they are stuck on a ship because no EU state will take them.

EU states would be wrong to "warm up" Russia relations because it was still waging war in Ukraine, Poland's deputy foreign minister Marcin Przydacz told Reuters on Thursday. "There is no reason to invite Russian leaders to different parties or dances together," he said, alluding to an episode last year, when the then Austrian foreign minister Karin Kneissl invited Russian president Vladimir Putin to her wedding.

"Some people in the UK have convinced themselves that no-deal is a good thing" and Brexit could "go badly wrong" Ireland's financial services minister Michael D'Arcy told Reuters on Thursday. The British opposition Labour Party the same day accused prime minister Boris Johnson of an "unconstitutional and anti-democratic abuse of power" if he delayed potential elections until after the 31 October exit date, forcing the UK out.

League leader and deputy prime minister says he is candidate to be prime minister and that his party is ready to call elections. The latest opinion polls puts the League on 36 percent.

Christine Lagarde will succeed European Central Bank president Mario Draghi at a time of deepening polarisation among eurozone member states. It will take all of her skills as a leader and communicator to safeguard the institution's independence.

"We don't want to tell people what to eat," said UN climate panelist Hans-Otto Portner. But the impact of humans' carnivorous diet on the climate is substantial.

The executive director of Privacy International has warned that plans to expand EU rules on passenger data collection to Europe's railway and sea passengers "does not end well."