Euobserver.com

The EU commission has contacted member states in a bid to distribute over 130 migrants stranded on an Italian coastguard vessel docked in a Sicilian port. Italian authorities have refused to let migrants disembark until a deal is struck. A commission spokesman Monday said that the executive will "support and coordinate among those member states that are willing to participate in solidarity efforts", and "contacts are ongoing".

The new British premier and his Brexit team move ahead with no-deal preparations to leave the EU without a deal in October.

Tax haven-based companies win roughly five percent of value of public tenders throughout EU member states, according to a study

Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny was hospitalised on Sunday with symptoms his doctor described as "the result of harmful effects of undefined chemical substances". He was taken to hospital from jail, where he is serving a 30-day sentence for calling on people to attend an anti-government protest. On Saturday, police detained more than 1,300 demonstrators who protested against the Moscow electoral committee for failing to register independent candidates.

More than 1,000 people took to the streets on Saturday in Warsaw in support of LGBT rights, a week after violent attacks on the first Pride march in the city of Bialystok. Prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki condemned those attacks - but his ruling Law and Justice party has made LGBT rights a campaign issue ahead of parliamentary elections in October, stating that Pride is an unnecessary public display of sexuality.

Italy allowed a coast guard vessel carrying 130 rescued migrants to dock in Sicily, but did not let them disembark, before EU countries agree on their distribution. Italian deputy PM and interior minister Matteo Salvini insisted on Friday that EU countries had to commit to distribution. Several of his political allies, including Hungary's Viktor Orban, refuse to take any migrants.

Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orban, said on Saturday he was key in preventing "ideological guerrillas" from getting the EU Commission presidency - referring to Manfred Weber and Frans Timmermans. In his annual speech at a Transylvanian summer camp, Orban said the essence of his "illiberal" democracy was the protection of "Christian liberty". He said instead of migration, the EU should give financial assistance to European families to have more children.

The EU will not be bullied into compromising on its principles, Norbert Roettgen, an ally of chancellor Angela Merkel and chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the Bundestag has warned British prime minister Boris Johnson. "Neither boastful speeches nor bullying will succeed in making us give up EU principles and unity," he tweeted Thursday, after Johnson threatened a no-deal Brexit if the EU does not renegotiate the divorce deal.

The European Parliament questions whether the ombudsman had the right to criticise the institution's "margin of discretion" in deciding on publication of confidential papers about the controversial monthly €4,513 expenses lump sum for MEPs.

Spain's outgoing prime minister Pedro Sanchez failed to become prime minister in a second vote this week, three months after the Spanish elections. He received support from 124 Spanish MPs, but received 155 'No' votes. The vote came after talks for a coalition between Sanchez's centre-left Socialists (PSOE) and the left-wing Podemos party collapsed on whether to hold an independence referendum in Catalonia, which Podemos supports but PSOE opposes.

At least 150 people drowned in the Mediterranean on Thursday, when their boat to Europe sank off the coast of Libya, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). "If current trends continue, we are likely to see more than a thousand people lose their life on the Mediterranean for the sixth year in a row, which is a bleak milestone for us to be reaching," said UNHCR spokesman Charlie Yaxley.

The heatwave affecting western Europe continued breaking records Thursday. Paris recorded a temperature of 42.6C, breaking a 1947 record. Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands also were hit by never-before seen temperatures. A heatwave as such is not directly caused by global warming, but climate change is making such extreme events more likely. "It's not a problem that's going to go away," said the World Meteorological Organization's Clare Nullis.

What priority will new EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel give to furthering the bloc's limited relationship with the Arab world?

The UK will not nominate a new EU commissioner, the new British PM said in his first address to parliament, and insisted that the Irish backstop can be renegotiated - without giving any specifics on alternative solutions.

Spain was supposed to have limited nitrogen dioxide levels some nine years ago - but continues to fail to do so. It is one of 20 EU member states breaking EU air quality rules.

At least 25 people stuck in Hungary's transit zones along the Serb border have been denied food, with one case lasting eight days. On Thursday, the European Commission threatened the risks of sanctions against Hungary over the issue.

The European Commission on Thursday announced it will be taking Greece and Spain to the European Court of Justice for failing to transpose the EU's data protection law enforcement directive into national law. Greece could face a €1.31m fine plus a daily penalty payment of €22,169.70 until compliance. Spain faces a €5.29m fine plus a daily penalty payment of €89,548.20. The deadline for transposition was 6 May, 2018.

According to a classified report, the UK made illegal copies of EU security data, and its disregard for EU rules on handling such data was a "serious and immediate risk". The Commission now says "practical steps" have since been taken.

The European Commission estimates 5,500 foreign terrorist fighters left European countries to travel to the conflict zones in Iraq and Syria. Of those two-thirds were men, and a quarter women. "We think at least 1,400 were killed, died," said Julian King, the European Commission for security. He said around 1,600 have since returned. "That leaves 2,500 unaccounted for, we don't know where they are," he said on Wednesday.

Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands have this week registered record temperatures during a heatwave, amid the wider debate on climate change. In Belgium, temperatures hit 38.9C on Wednesday, beating previous record of 38.8C set in June 1947. The Dutch high record set August 1944 was also surpassed with a 39.2C. Germany believes its 40.5C - yet to be confirmed - may also be new all-time record.