Euobserver.com

On Monday EU ministers of finance prepared measures to safeguard the budget of 2019 in case of a no-deal Brexit on 31 October. The aim is to keep the subsidies running for British farmers, researchers, etc, even if the UK leaves the EU without a deal. However, these measures will only be implemented if the UK respects its financial obligations to the EU.

The Brussels-based American Jewish Committee (AJC) Transatlantic Institute announced on Tuesday in the European Parliament an inter-parliamentary Transatlantic Friends of Israel (TFI) group. The goal is to "strengthen the trilateral partnership between the US, Israel and Europe". The chairman of the group, Austrian MEP Lukas Mandl, said he considered "the transatlantic alliance with Israel one of the most important issues of our time".

The US is working on a coalition to safeguard oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, after US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said he hoped more than 20 countries would join. There would be patrols in the Strait of Hormuz and Bab Al Mandeb, the street between Yemen and the Horn of Africa, where nearly one-third of all oil transports pass. The US blames Iran for the current insecurity.

Finnish foreign minister Pekka Haavisto will visit Sudan to convey the EU's support for the transition agreement between the Transitional Military Council and the Forces for Freedom and Change. Last week several Sudanese stakeholders agreed on a joint sovereign council that would prepare for elections and civil rule within three years. Haavisto will also visit Ethiopia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, to ask them to play a constructive role.

An Austrian privacy campaigner vs Facebook over the future of data transfers to the US case opened at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg on Tuesday. The European Commission, meanwhile, says the Privacy Shield pact is working fine.

The UK opposition Labour party will now campaign for a 'Remain' vote if there is any referendum on the ruling Conservative party's proposed Brexit deal. However, it was not immediately clear what Labour's policy on Brexit would be in case of a snap general election. The change came in an announcement from Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has been under pressure from the party's largely pro-Remain MPs and members.

After a inconclusive meeting with Ursula von der Leyen at the European Parliament on Monday, all Green MEPs will now get to meet her on Wednesday - ahead of the key vote on her nomination as EU Commission president.

The EU has told Russia that sanctions will stay in place until it stops waging war in east Ukraine.

The EU's foreign affairs chief, Federica Mogherini, called Turkish oil drilling plans northeast of Cyprus illegal, unacceptable and a violation of Cyprus' sovereignty. Two months after Turkey started drilling west of Cyprus, Mogherini called "on the Turkish authorities, once again, to refrain from such actions, act in a spirit of good neighbourliness and respect the sovereignty and sovereign rights of the Republic of Cyprus in accordance with international law".

The Russian government has approved the plans to construct a toll-highway between Kazakhstan and Belarus, connecting China and Europe. It is the missing part of the so-called 'Meridian highway'. It would make transportation between China and Europe faster than three current rail corridors. Gazprom estimated the 2,000km highway project would cost around €10bn and would take between 12 to 14 years of construction.

For the second time in a week, French president Emmanuel Macron and US president Donald Trump talked about Iran. Macron is sending his top diplomatic advisor back to Iran, which has announced a break in the nuclear deal, amid tensions in the Persian Gulf. The two leaders "discussed ongoing efforts to ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon and to end Iran's destabilising behaviour in the Middle East".

Leo Varadkar, the taoiseach of Ireland, said on Monday that EU leaders feel "a great deal of reluctance" about another Brexit extension, AP reports. Varadkar added that several EU countries are "very frustrated" about the Brexit process and that they would give the UK a new delay only for "a very good reason", such as a general election. The current deadline is 31 October 2019.

On Monday European finance ministers discussed the succession of Christine Lagarde as head of the International Monetary Fund, traditionally a post held by a European. Last week EU leaders chose Lagarde as next president of the European Central Bank. During the meeting several names were mentioned: former Dutch president of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, former prime minister of Finland, Alexander Stubb and current CEO of the World Bank, Kristalina Georgieva.

Former president of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy warns future president - and fellow Belgian - Charles Michel of a trade war with the United States.

A Russian group laundered €4m in Belgium by breaking it up into smaller amounts to buy luxury goods and an apartment, as EU banks, police, and regulators struggle to keep up.

Greece has ended its four-year romance with the far left in a victory for the centre-right New Democracy party in Sunday's elections.

French president Emmanuel Macron and his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rohani, agreed on Saturday "to explore by 15 July the conditions for the resumption of dialogue between all parties" to salvage an Iran nuclear arms control treaty left in tatters after the US walked out and reimposed sanctions. Iran on Sunday threatened to enrich uranium in breach of the deal unless EU countries lifted all sanctions and resumed oil purchases.

The EU should consider holding "an intergovernmental conference on the subject of its democratic instruments", the new president of the European Parliament (EP), David Sassoli has told Italian daily Corriere della Sera. "We really believed in the lead candidates ... but it didn't happen," he said, after EU leaders recently ignored EP groups' choices for top posts, prompting his own elevation to the parliament post in a political fudge.

Italian charity Mediterranea has disembarked 41 migrants at the Italian port of Lampedusa defying the far-right interior minister, Matteo Salvini's, ban. It did so due to "intolerable hygienic conditions" on board, with people "at risk of fainting" the charity said. Italian authorities have seized the vessel, called Alex, and arrested its captain under new laws. "No, no, no," Salvini had earlier said on whether the migrants could come on shore.

German chancellor Angela Merkel urged Albania and North Macedonia not to give up on EU accession despite recent French warnings Europe should not take in more members until it reformed its internal decision-making structures. "I share [French] president [Emmanuel] Macron's view the EU's working mechanisms must be improved ... [but] I don't see that as an abandonment of the accession talks," she said at a mini-summit in Poland on Friday.