Euobserver.com

The EU commission is expected to refer Poland to the EU's top court over firing supreme court judges, but Warsaw refused to commit on Tuesday that it will implement future EU court rulings.

The informal Salzburg summit will be an opportunity for Austria to breath some life into the bridge building catchphrase, and to act as honest broker to find common ground.

EU council president Donald Tusk wants to discuss deepening relations with authoritarian Egypt, as a model of migrant reduction, with EU heads of state and government at a meeting in Salzburg, Austria on Wednesday.

The European Commission has opened an investigation into possible collusion by BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen Group. The commission is concerned the companies may have limited the development of emissions control systems. "If proven, this collusion may have denied consumers the opportunity to buy less-polluting cars, despite the technology being available to the manufacturers," EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Tuesday - exactly three years after the 'Dieselgate' emissions scandal started.

Serbia will never recognise Kosovo, Serbia's foreign minister has said, as the Western Balkans heads into a new period of turbulence.

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez has pushed for a specific chapter on Gibraltar in the Brexit agreement during talks with EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier in Madrid on Monday. Spain, however, will not bring up the matter of UK sovereignty over the rock, reported El Pais, adding that the final Brexit agreement will contain three separate protocols for Northern Ireland, Gibraltar and the British bases in Cyprus.

Italian foreign minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi has cancelled a meeting with his Austrian counterpart over Vienna's plans to grant dual citizenship to German-speaking residents in the northern Italian province of South Tyrol, also known by its Italian name Alto Adige. About 70 percent of locals said they were German speakers in the last census carried out in 2011. Italy called the plan "inappropriate" with potentially "disturbing consequences".

The British parliament will not accept a Brexit deal that includes a customs border in the Irish Sea, Brexit secretary Dominic Raab has repeated in an interview with The Irish Times. "The constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom needs to be respected," Raab said. Meanwhile Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney will brief his government on Tuesday on preparations for Brexit, including construction of inspection bays for trucks at Dublin port.

War is the likely outcome of current geopolitical trends - the decline of democracy and rise of authoritarian nationalism - says Belgian writer Koert Debeuf in his new book 'Tribalisation', to be launched in New York this week.

Hungarian centre-right MEP Livia Jaroka sticks to earlier decision: documents related to the minor reform of the expenses system, requested by EUobserver, should remain secret.

The Slovak prosecutor has said a white man with a beard and dark hair who appeared to be in his late 20s to early 30s may have witnessed the assassination of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak there earlier this year. "This person may ... have information about the crime," he told press on Monday. MEPs are due in Slovakia this week to look into the case.

Finland's former leader Alexander Stubb has said he will soon decide whether to compete with German MEP Manfred Weber to be the centre-right EPP bloc's lead candidate to take over the European Commission after next year's EU elections. "Reflection in progress. Decision in coming 2-3 weeks," he said on Twitter on Monday.

Romania's constitutional court will decide this week whether to hold a referendum designating marriage as an act between a man and woman in the country's charter, in what would be a step backward for gay rights. Senators voted in favour of the referendum by 107 to 13 on Sunday. The project was launched in 2015 by a coalition of 23 NGOs which say they support "family values".

An eight-page legal opinion by European Commission lawyers from 14 May, leaked to German magazine Der Spiegel, says: "The legal service considers that most of ... claims put forward by Slovenia in order to establish a breach of EU law by Croatia are established," it said. The dispute, over a stretch of coastline, threatens an impasse in the Western Balkans, but the commission has declined to take sides.

While Viktor Orban is increasingly open about his ambitions to become a serious European politician, there are five reasons why it seems it will be way more difficult than he thinks.

People are still at risk of being sold financial products they can't understand or don't need. If anything, investment, pension, insurance or mortgage products are getting more complex, not less.

Europe must have a robust foreign policy and nurture high-tech industries, Slovak EU commissioner Maros Sefcovic has said in his bid to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as the next EU Commission president.

Maros Sefcovic, an EU commissioner from Slovakia who is in charge of energy security, plans to formally announce in Brussels on Monday that he will be the centre-left's bloc 'lead candidate' (Spitzenkandidat) to lead the next European Commission. The move comes after German conservative MEP Manfred Weber was tipped for the post by the centre-right EPP bloc ahead of the European Parliament elections next May.

The Aquarius, a rescue ship operated by French charities SOS Mediterranee and Medicins sans Frontieres, sailed back to international waters off Libya this weekend to resume work despite an EU dispute with Italy and Malta on who should take in the people it picks up at sea. No charity ships have worked in the region since late August, when Italy refused to let people on board the Aquarius to disembark.

German chancellor Angela Merkel and Austrian leader Sebastian Kurz agreed Sunday to back the creation of a 10,000-man EU border force and cooperate with African states to stem migration flows. "There can be no open borders within Europe without proper protection of external EU borders," Kurz said. Morocco, which stopped 65,000 people from coming to the EU last year, is to get €236m in EU aid to stop others.