Euobserver.com

French consumer group UFC Que Choisir on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in a Paris court against Google over allegations it has breached the EU's general data protection regulation (GDPR). The consumer group accuses Google over failing to meet GDPR rules when it comes to tracking user location. It also says Google needs to make it easier for users to block its services.

A study by the consulting firm AlixPartners published Wednesday suggests Volkswagen and FiatChrysler could both face large fines should they fail to meet the European Union's emissions targets set for 2021. Volkswagen stands to lose some €1.83bn and FiatChrysler €746m. Carmakers, under EU rules, are required to cut average fleet emissions for passenger cars to 95 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer by 2021.

EU anti-trust regulators have launched a probe into US chipmaker Broadcom on whether its exclusivity restrictions breach EU rules. Margrethe Vestager, commissioner for competition policy, said in a statement that they also intend "to order Broadcom to halt its behaviour while our investigation proceeds to avoid any risk of serious and irreparable harm to competition." The California-based company risks fines up to 10 percent of its global revenues.

Carola Rackete, the captain of the migrant rescue boat Sea-Watch 3, on Wednesday said the ship was heading to Italy's Lampedusa island despite an entry ban imposed by Italy's deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini. "I know this is risky, but the 42 shipwrecked on board are exhausted. I will bring them to safety," she said. Sea-Watch 3 rescued the people two weeks ago off the Libyan coast.

The EU has warned Turkey it is "closely monitoring" the fate of 16 activists from the 2013 Gezi Park protests in Istanbul, as trials got underway this week. A spokesman for the EU foreign service welcomed the release from pre-trial detention of one civil society representative, demanded the release of another, and warned Ankara the indictment themselves plus the bid to seek life sentences was a "source of concern."

The EU Commission will now spend €3.4m next year to rent cars for emissions testing - after EUobserver revealed that models loaned by the manufacturer were then subject to commercial confidentiality clauses.

Some 17 European universities will receive €85m over the next three years from the European Commission to help create a "European Education Area", it said on Wednesday. The universities will "become inter-university campuses", with students and teachers to move "seamlessly" from one location to another and with "joint curricula" that cover "sustainable economic development". The scheme is part of the EU's so-called Erasmus programme, first launched in 1987.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday against an appeal from the captain of the migrant rescue ship Sea-Watch 3 to have an emergency decree allowing 42 migrants stranded on the ship to disembark in Italy. Italy's interior minister Matteo Salvini welcomed the decision, tweeting that "Italy does not let the rules be dictated by an NGO paid by who-knows-who".

Danish Social Democrat leader, Mette Frederiksen, will form new one-party minority government based on support from centre-left and leftist parties in parliament. The group of four parties agreed on Tuesday evening to an 18-page document entitled 'Fairness for Denmark' following parliamentary elections on 5 June. The new government will have only social democrat ministers. Denmark is the third Nordic country this year to get a social democrat-led government.

Frontrunner in the UK Conservative leadership race, Boris Johnson, pledged in interviews to British media on Tuesday to take Britain out of the EU on 31 October, with or without a deal - "do or die". Johnson also called on Brussels to drop its insistence on an Irish backstop and said that he would not sign off the full divorce bill until a future trade deal has been agreed.

EPP group leader Manfred Weber on Wednesday launched an indirect attack on French president Emmanuel Macron for not backing the 'Spitzenkandidat' process, which would automatically make Weber the next EU Commission president. Wiping out the top candidate would make the result of the European parliament elections "irrelevant" and frustrate voters, Weber wrote in Die Welt. "The EU is well on its way back to decision-making in the backroom".

The EU parliament might allow an extra 24 hours for EU heads of government to first come up with the new EU leadership names. Meanwhile, EPP lead candidate Manfred Weber is meeting Angela Merkel and AKK in Berlin for backing.

The EU will sign an accord with Vietnam this Sunday to remove virtually all customs duties on trade, the EU commission said Tuesday. The agreement was negotiated in December 2015, but EU member states only gave their approval on Tuesday at a ministerial meeting. EU-Vietnam trade represents €50bn in goods and €4bn in services, according to the commission. The EU parliament will is expected to ratify the deal later.

EU funding of air traffic management modernisation was "largely unnecessary", the European Court of Auditors concluded in a report on Tuesday. For the majority of projects audited - worth €159m of EU money - investment decisions "were not driven nor triggered by EU funding". Of 17 audited projects, 13 "were decided prior to the decision that awarded the co-funding". The European Commission countered the projects "demonstrated added value".

The Council of Europe, a human rights watchdog, has lifted its sanctions on Russia in a moral victory for the Kremlin.

Switzerland's government said on Monday it would ban EU stock exchanges from trading Swiss shares in retaliation for Brussels freezing its bourses out from the EU market. "Activating the protective measure with regard to trading venues in the EU serves solely to protect the functioning of the Swiss stock exchange infrastructure", it said. The move relates to renewal disputes over the treaty governing Swiss-EU relations.

Behind the smiles and handshakes, the signature of the EU-Vietnam trade and investment deals agreed on Tuesday and to be signed this week have dire consequences for human well-being and our ability to prevent climate and ecological breakdown.

Cooperation would be needed in the event of a no-deal Brexit, Boris Johnson, candidate to become UK premier has told the BBC. "There's ... a very important element, of mutuality and cooperation in this", he said adding that the current EU withdrawal agreement is "dead". "I think on both sides of the Channel there's a really different understanding of what is needed," he said.

France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium could all see national records for June broken in the coming days, with temperatures expected to be well over 30C all week. The city of Paris has activated the third level of its extreme heat plan - the maximum level four has never been used. The heatwave is unprecedented because it's hitting early in June and night-time temperatures are unlikely to fall below 20C.

Two leading members of Spain's liberal party, Ciudadanos, resigned on Monday - making it more difficult for the party to back socialist prime minister Pedro Sanchez in forming a stable new national government following April elections. The split is linked to Ciudadanos' alliances in Madrid and Murcia with the far-right Vox movement as well as Sanchez's acceptance of support from Catalan separatist parties to form the previous government.