Euobserver.com

EU leaders at the summit in Brussels want partnerships with north African states that go beyond migration. But internal EU reforms on asylum, especially sharing of migrants and refugees between member states, remain stuck.

Some EU leaders warned that Italy's plan to boost its budget spending despite the second largest debt in the eurozone, could hamper efforts to reform the single currency's framework.

At the EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, government leaders did not change the language in the summit conclusions' text on climate change. They acknowledged that a new UN report showed importance of further climate action, but did not propose that the EU should do more. "This was not the moment for that," Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte told EUobserver at a press conference.

In 2015, internet activist Lyudmila Savchuk went under cover to expose a troll factory in St Petersburg. As the EU summit endorses anti-disinformation action, she told EUobserver the Russian government is bankrolling many more.

EU diplomats on Wednesday supported on behalf of the member states the political deal struck with the European Parliament about the relocation of the European Banking Authority and the European Medicines Agency, from London to respectively Paris and Amsterdam. The location of Paris and Amsterdam were already agreed by member states in November 2017, but parliament's legal approval is needed. MEPs will vote on the EMA seat on Thursday.

Greek foreign minister Nikos Kotzias resigned on Wednesday after a clash with defence minister Panos Kammenos over the controversial Macedonia name deal, which Kammenos opposed. According to the Kathimerini newspaper, Kammenos accused Kotzias of mismanaging funds. Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras has now taken over the foreign affairs portfolio.

Poland's attack on the EU court has nothing to do with questioning its EU membership, the head of the country's ruling party has said.

European Parliament president Antonio Tajani told reporters that the assembly will not vote in favour of any agreement that does not include a "backstop" to avoid a hard border with Northern Ireland. He listed three priorities: rights of EU citizens in the UK, finances, and the Irish backstop. "Without the third point [backstop] it is impossible for us to vote in favour of the agreement," he said.

EU leaders will sign off on text that accepts the conclusions of an important climate report at their summit in Brussels – but are not expected to take any new measures.

On Thursday and Friday, heads of state of 51 Asian and European countries will be in Brussels for a summit with the EU. As MEPs, we denounce the fact that many countries around the table are major human rights violators.

The sense of a migration "crisis" remains unabated, fuelled by populists and pseudo-strongmen manipulating the fear among voters for their own short-term political ends.

British prime minister Theresa May addressed the EU-27 leaders after the apparent breakdown of Brexit talks and told them the UK is open to considering a longer transition period. But even a November 'emergency' summit is not yet certain.

The EU is open to extending a proposed Brexit transition period for another year, as Theresa May arrives in Brussels to brief EU leaders on how she sees the way forward to in highly-precarious Brexit negotiations.

Poland's prosecutor general, Zbigniew Ziobro, has asked the Polish constitutional court whether article 267 of the EU treaty was compatible with the Polish charter, news agency onet.pl reports. The article gives the EU court in Luxembourg judicial supremacy over national tribunals on interpretation of EU laws. If the Polish tribunal was to reject the EU provision, it could call the country's EU membership into question, Polish judicial experts said.

Nordea bank, the Nordic region's largest lender, handled suspicious Russian money linked to the death of anti-corruption activist Sergei Magnitsky, according to a new complaint.

Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev will meet with German chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker on the sidelines of the Asia-Europe meeting (ASEM) in Brussels on Thursday to Friday, Tass reported. The 12th ASEM summit will be held at the headquarters of the Council of the European Union in Brussels with 30 European and 21 Asian countries, as well as Australia and New Zealand represented.

Only 44 percent of Italians would vote to remain in the EU if a referendum was held tomorrow, an unpublished Eurobarometer poll, circulated to media on Wednesday, found. Italy and the Czech Republic (47 percent) were the only two countries not having a majority for remaining in the EU. A majority of 53 percent in the UK would now vote to remain in the EU, the survey also found.

Up to three million Europeans were affected by a September Facebook security breach in which users' personal information was stolen, the Irish Data Protection Commission said on Tuesday, CNBC reported. This security breach is expected to be the first major test of Europe's new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) under which breaches must be reported to authorities within 72 hours - which Facebook failed to do.

On the eve of the EU summit in Brussels, EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier told foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Tuesday that he is ready to propose fresh ideas to reach a Brexit deal by next month and is open to extending Britain's Brexit transition period by another year. According to the Financial Times, Barnier's vision is for a "two tier" backstop to ensure an open border in Ireland.

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker suggested on Tuesday that approving the Italian 2019 draft budget, which foresees the country's deficit rising to 2.4 percent of GDP, would spark a fierce "counter-reaction" from other eurozone governments. European leaders meet Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte in Brussels for a summit on Thursday, but formally it is the commission's task to assess the Italian budget and react within the coming two weeks. .