Euobserver.com

EU and China relations kicked off 15 years ago after signing a strategic partnership. Trade has increased dramatically but human rights and other issues remain tricky as the two seek to defend international law and international trade.

The commission plans to address tax avoidance schemes in some EU states by shifting tax decisions away from unanimity to a majority system in what amounts to a long shot.

Time will be on the agenda of transport ministers as much of Brussels empties out for Halloween. Meanwhile, Merkel's CDU party is facing a hard test in local elections.

EU states should expel the 618,780 migrants said by the European Commission to be "illegally" present in Europe and spend money on helping African and Middle East states at home, Czech leader Andrei Babis has told British newspaper The Guardian. "They need to go home," he said. "They have their culture, we have our culture ... they have their values, but we want to keep [our] values," he said.

Poland must honour an EU court injunction on judicial reform as part of its EU membership, French president Emmanuel Macron has said. "Respect for EU court judgments is consubstantial with membership of the union," he told Polish and Slovak media while on a tour of the region. The court said Poland must reinstate Supreme Court judges sacked in July in what the European Commission has said was a political purge.

"The EU will have one less problem when the British aren't in because they always had mixed feelings", says the Franco-German political veteran.

What is at stake during the final stages of EU talks on the legislative revision of the European Citizens' Initiative.

When it comes to projects paid for by EU regional funds, most people think of roads in Romania or bridges in Bulgaria. But richer regions also receive money. EUobserver takes you on a tour of selected projects in Amsterdam.

Scotland's devolved government has drafted at least 13 briefing papers on plans to hold a second independence referendum, according to a freedom of information request. The Scottish Conservative party called the secret deliberations "irresponsible government", but Scottish leaders have said the situation changed after the first referendum, in 2014, because the UK is now dragging Scotland, which voted to remain in the EU, out of Europe against its will.

European Central Bank (ECB) chief Mario Draghi said Thursday he would not buy Italian bonds or rescue its banks unless it applied for a bailout, but said he was "confident" the EU and Italy would reach a deal on Rome's debt limit-busting budget. "Financing deficits is not in our mandate," Draghi said. Paolo Savona, Italy's EU affairs minister, said the ECB ought to "intervene" in case of a bank crisis.

The European Commission has set up a 'High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence'- meanwhile, the European External Action Service has initiated a 'Global Tech Panel'.

Austria, holding the EU presidency, has urged a Europe-wide arms embargo on Saudi Arabia after it murdered a journalist. "The halt in arms deliveries proposed by chancellor Merkel would be a correct signal," Austrian foreign minister Karin Kneissl told German newspaper Die Welt, referring to German leader Angela Merkel. Kneissl said the ban could also help stop the Saudi-waged "terrible war in Yemen", where millions are at risk of famine.

The use of human-type antibiotics will be banned in veterinary medicine and use of unprescribed animal ones banned in farming from 2022 under a new EU law approved by MEPs Thursday. Imported meat will also need to match new EU standards. The move is to reduce the spread of antibiotic-resistant microbes and improve animal welfare, with antibiotics used in farming to enable animals to be stuffed together in small pens.

Russia has objected to EU and UK plans to split their import quotas at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva as part of Brexit. It vetoed the move on grounds that WTO members had not yet completed ratification of new overall EU quotas after Croatia joined in 2013, news agency m-lex reported, citing sources. The quotas govern which goods and how much can be imported with or without tariffs.

From a purely economic point of view, it can be difficult to measure the effectiveness of cohesion policy. But - politically - it underpins a deal made during the 2004 accession of eastern member states.

The Central European University, established by billionaire George Soros, will begin preparations to move to Vienna from Budapest after Hungary's government led by Viktor Orban targeted it for closure, and has refused to sign a document letting CEU stay. No university has been pushed out of an EU county before. CEU's fate has been a red line for the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) in its dealings with Orban's party.

Turkey's state of emergency following a failed military coup has resulted in a government-led purge of some 130,000 people. Its "State of Emergency Inquiry Commission" to review decisions has only overturned seven percent of the cases.

German MEP Hans-Olaf Henkel does not normally take sides with the eurosceptic British deputy Nigel Farage, but defended him in a letter sent Thursday to European Parliament president Antonio Tajani. "I do not usually defend Mr. Farage's positions, but in this case, it is different", Henkel wrote. Farage, Henkel and other MEPs had laughed when Tajani said the Soviet bloc and Nazi regime "vanished thanks to the European Union".

The European Investment Bank gave a €400m loan to German carmaker Volkswagen in 2009 to help clear air pollution. Volkswagen was later caught cheating on emissions and deceiving regulators.

European Parliament leaders awarded the 2018 Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought to Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, nominated by the centre-right European People's Party (EPP). Sentsov is from Crimea and in 2015 was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a Russian court for "plotting acts of terrorism". He launched a 145 day hunger strike in May. Human rights watchdog Amnesty International called the sentence a "cynical show trial".