Euobserver.com

Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras has apologised not taking sides with Italy in its budget conflict with the EU. Speaking to Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Tsipras advised the Italians to "better do today what they'll do tomorrow." "If instead you have another idea", he added, perhaps alluding to the euro exit option that he refused on behalf of Greece, "well, then 'good luck'," he said.

The list of EU member states withdrawing support for the United Nations global pact on migration is growing, with so far Hungary, Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland, Italy and lastly Slovakia having announced they will not sign the pact. The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration is set to be formally adopted in Morocco in December. One out of every 30 people worldwide is a migrant.

French president Emmanuel Macron is set to address the nation on Tuesday on 'ecological transition' in an attempt to rally support for unpopular environment-friendly tax increases on fuel. Police and thousands of demonstrators known as the "gilets jaunes" [yellow vests] clashed on Sunday in Paris, where barricades were set on fire, shop windows smashed, and traffic lights uprooted. Some 30 people were injured and 101 arrested, police said.

Swiss voters have rejected a proposal to give domestic law precedence over international law and treaties. Some 66 percent of voters and all of the country's 26 cantons voted on Sunday against the "Swiss law, not foreign judges" measure, which critics said could affect the country's global standing and hurt its economy. The result is seen as a blow to the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP), which put it forward.

Health authorities across the globe have failed to protect millions of patients from poorly-tested implants, the first-ever global examination of the medical device industry reveals. The year-long investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists found Europe has some of the lightest regulations in the developed world, with EU rules influencing safety regimes in Canada, Japan and Australia. US industry lobbyists also pressed regulators to adopt ideas from Europe.

With parliament and member states both demanding action, a rare alliance has formed. If ever there was a popular, immediately effective and easy piece of regulation, it is this. So who at the Berlaymont is blocking a legal proposal?

EU foreign ministers meets on Monday to discuss the most contentious part - private finance tools - of aid in the 2021-2027 budget. We believe private companies have a role - but with strict conditions.

British PM Theresa May faces the fight of her life to push the Brexit deal through parliament, endorsed in just 30 minutes on Sunday in Brussels, amid warnings of no alternative.

Brexit talks are set to climax at a special summit in Brussels on Sunday, while George Soros, the US philanthropist demonised by populists, will meet EU officials on Monday.

After the fleeing of ex-PM Nikola Gruevski to Hungary, what Macedonia needs is an independent judiciary so that wrongdoers from all parties are brought behind bars, and a reconciliation between Albanians and Macedonians, based on full equality between communities.

The changes in Uzbekistan have shown that political will can improve human rights, that citizens welcome those changes, and that they benefit the country's international reputation. This should be a lesson for how the EU deals with others in region.

A draft accord on future UK-EU ties envisaged "ambitious, broad, [and] deep" trade relations, but lacked detail, including on Gibraltar and fisheries - 48 hours before Sunday's emergency summit.

The European parliament's lead negotiator on the Morocco trade deal, French liberal MEP Patricia Lalonde, is also on the EuroMedA Foundation board along with former Moroccan state ministers and a top ranking official in Morocco's ministry of agriculture.

Europe must curb immigration, or face an ever-stronger right-wing populist movement, former US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton has said in an interview to the Guardian. "I think Europe needs to get a handle on migration because that is what lit the flame," she said and described Brexit as the biggest act of national economic self-harm in modern history which "was largely about immigration", she said.

Building on the Green parties' surges in recent elections in Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium, the European Greens will pick two Spitzenkandidaten for May's European elections at a party gathering in Berlin over the weekend 23-25 November. There are three candidates in the race for the two posts: Belgian Petra De Sutter, Dutch Bas Eickhout and German Ska Keller, who was also the Green party's Spitzenkandidat in the 2014 European elections.

Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis and Croat philosopher Srecko Horvat are set to run in the European Parliament elections in Germany as candidates on the DiEM25 party's list. The final decision on a total 20 candidates of Demokratie in Europa will be taken during an assembly meeting this weekend in Berlin. Varoufakis, will be campaigning across Europe for DiEM25 as a potential 'Spitzenkandidat' for the DiEM25 party.

France on Thursday imposed a travel ban on 18 Saudi citizens linked to the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, binding all countries in the EU's passport-free Schengen zone. Earlier Thursday, France, Denmark and Finland joined Germany in blocking future arms exports to Saudi Arabia. The US accounts for 61 percent of Saudi arms sales, the UK is second while 23 percent while France is third with four percent.

The leader of Sweden's Centre Party, Annie Loof, on Thursday gave up on forming a new government after a week of cross-party talks. The deadlock in Swedish politics has lasted over two months since the September election, and could end with a new election, as the number of prime ministerial votes that can be held before a snap election is automatically called is capped at four.

The draft 26-page declaration on the future of the EU-UK relationship after Brexit, set to be agreed this weekend alongside the highly-disputed 585-page withdrawal agreement, leaked on Thursday, with The Guardian among other outlets publishing it in full. EU Council president Donald Tusk tweeted that he had sent it to the EU-27 for their endorsement ahead of the summit planned for this Sunday.

German chancellor Angela Merkel and EU commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis have said an EU Brexit summit Sunday could be cancelled unless Britain and the EU pre-agree on a declaration on future relations. "We'll need to have agreed beforehand ... and we are not there yet," Dombrovskis said. British PM Theresa May, who met EU commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels Wednesday, said she would come for a second pre-summit meeting Saturday.