Euobserver.com

UK prime minister Theresa May said that she and EU commission president Jean-Claude Juncker had a "robust discussion" on Friday. "I think that's the sort of discussion you are able to have when you've developed a working relationship and you work well together," she said. May told journalists Juncker explained he used the phrase "nebulous" referring to "the general level of debate", not to May personally. The May-Juncker exchange

UK prime minister Theresa May said Friday that talks with the EU will continue on Brexit. "My discussions with colleagues today have shown that further clarification and discussions ... is in fact possible," she said. "There is work still to do. We will be holding talks in coming days about how to obtain the further assurances that the UK parliament needs in order to be able to approve the deal."

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has granted a €20m loan to Hungarian company AImotive, the European Commission announced Friday. The money will be spent on research and development of artificial intelligence software for self-driving vehicles. The commission believes the EU should prepare for self-driving cars. "I'm glad we are doing this in Central Europe, where the automotive industry has a long history of success," said EIB vice-president Vazil Hudak.

Belgian prime minister Charles Michel said on Friday that he was "not optimistic" that the UK parliament would agree with the EU-UK Brexit deal. "A no-deal is a possibility, so we need to work hard to prepare," he said. Michel added British PM Theresa May was not able to give a "clear signal" to other EU leaders that UK MPs would support the deal. "There is enormous uncertainty," he said.

Romanian president Klaus Iohannis said Friday he did not expect the EU would have to organise a January summit on Brexit, as some EU diplomats mulled. "No, I do not expect it. We expect a positive vote from the British parliament, not a summit," said Iohannis at the start of the second summit day. He added the EU wanted "a very good, very special future relationship" with the UK.

Swedish social democrat leader Stefan Lofven was rejected from continuing as prime minister in a vote Friday when 200 MPs went against him, versus 116 in his favour. Talks are now likely to continue into the new year in order to form a government that does not depend on the support the anti-migrant Sweden Democrats. Lofven did not attend the vote as he was at an EU summit in Brussels.

Martin Selmayr, the European Commission's top civil servant, "must resign" due to irregularities in his appointment procedure MEPs said in a non-binding resolution adopted on Thursday. "Selmayr must resign as secretary-general" and the commission must choose his replacement "ensuring that the highest standards of transparency, ethics and the rule of law are upheld", they said, after the EU Ombudsman criticised the German lawyer's secretive and sudden elevation to his post.

The Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) decided on Thursday how to reinvest €2.5tn it has pumped into the economy since 2015 in the wake of the financial crisis in order to help interest and inflation rates go up again. The purchases, known as quantitative easing (QE), cease at the end of December 2018, but redemptions will continue to be reinvested in the public and corporate sectors.

French president Emmanuel Macron's government survived a no-confidence vote in parliament on Thursday without difficulties. The motion was put forward by the Socialist Party, the far-left Defiant France, and the Communist Party over the government's handling of the "yellow-vest" protests, which brought chaos and violence to the country for weeks. The motion was supported by just 70 MPs, far fewer than the 289 that it needed.

Around 3,000 demonstrators gathered at Hungary's parliament on Thursday after it passed new labour laws which allow employers to require up to 400 overtime hours per year and delay payment for it for three years. Protesters also expressed anger over a judicial bill, pushed through by prime minister Viktor Orban's MPs in Budapest on Wednesday and seen to blur boundaries between the executive and judicial power in Hungary.

As Europe heads into election year, EU leaders need to secure the vote from social media manipulation and foreign attacks.

Professor Richard Betts led an EU-funded research project into global warming. Although he sensed an increase in determination at UN climate talks in Poland, he condemned as an "insult" the refusal of several countries to welcome a new report.

British PM asked for a legally binding guarantee on the backstop and for it to end no matter what in 2021, but did not reveal a strategy on how to sell the Brexit deal to her parliament.

The French police on Thursday evening killed the alleged gunman who shot dead three people in Strasbourg on Tuesday, police sources told Reuters news agency. EU leaders meeting in Brussels on Thursday had commemorated the victims with a minute of silence. Speaking to the EU leaders earlier on Thursday, EU parliament president Antonio Tajani expressed "the European Parliament's solidarity with the French people and with president [Emmanuel] Macron".

EU leaders adopted a text at their summit in Brussels on Thursday calling on the next rotating presidency of the Council, Romania, to continue work on the next seven-year budget (2021-2027), "with a view to achieving an agreement in the European Council in autumn 2019". That timeline is less ambitious than the one preferred by the European Commission, which wants a budget deal before the EU parliament elections, May 2019.

New human rights sanctions ought to be named after a Russian dissident Sergei Magnitsky - but only informally, the Dutch prime minister has said, in what some see as a pattern of EU "appeasement" of Putin.

Leaders at the EU summit are unlikely to discuss migration, preferring instead to rubber-stamp pre-cooked conclusions. Recent proposals by the European Commission to get some of the reforms finalised are also unlikely to get broad support. The two-year deadlock continues.

Having just survived a leadership challenge 24 hours ago in London, Theresa May is back in Brussels for the EU summit in a hope of getting 'guarantees' from the EU on the Irish backstop. But could they be enough?

European Parliament president Antonio Tajani said on Thursday that the budget row between the European Commission and Italy was a "needless power game" which "wasted an awful lot of money", with investors fleeing Italy and losses at the stock market. "I don't know whether to laugh or cry," said Tajani, a centre-right Italian politician. He said the Italian coalition of two eurosceptic parties "should have been a bit more serious".

A broad majority in the European Parliament called on Thursday on the EU Commission to suspend all EU funding to Agrofert, a business empire linked to Czech prime minister Andrej Babis, until any conflict of interest is fully investigated and resolved. The resolution was backed by 434 votes to 64 ,with 47 abstentions. The MEPs also demanded the commission recover any funds paid out irregularly.