Euobserver.com

UK Brexit secretary Dominic Raab travels to Brussels this week to continue negotiations with the EU about Brexit. In the coming months he is going to publish around 70 technical notices to "clearly set out the steps that people, businesses and public services need to take in the unlikely event that we don't reach an agreement" he said, according to the BBC. The European Union already published 68 technical notices.

A long-standing cooperation between the EU and China on carbon capture and storage has fallen off the political agenda – with the European Commission not having any comment available when asked for an update.

"Greece's recovery is not an event, it is a process," EU commissioner Pierre Moscovici says. Statistics, and differences of views between the country's creditors, show that the process will not be easy.

The EU Commission has received several million responses from citizens, businesses, and organisations on whether to end the daylight summertime savings. Any tangible change would take ... time.

Germany has reached an agreement with Greece on Friday (17 August) to take back asylum seekers if they have already applied for asylum in the Mediterranean country but later ended up in Germany. The Berlin government secured a similar deal with Spain, paving the way for de-escalating an internal political spat over migration. A German interior ministry spokesperson added that talks with Italy on the issue are also "far advanced".

"The year 2015 should not be repeated and will not be repeated," German chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday after meeting her CDU party in Dresden. In 2015 she spoke the famous words "Wir schaffen das" ('We can manage this') about migrants and refugees coming to Germany in the hundred thousands for shelter and better opportunities. Anti-migrant AfD party and Pediga movement supporters demonstrated at her arrival in Dresden.

Swedes head to the polls in September in a national parliamentary election, while Bavarians vote in October in a state election. In both elections, voters' nativist sentiments may well help determine the outcome.

Simon Busuttil spent 10 years as an MEP before returning to Malta to lead the opposition. He now fears for his life amid probes into high-level corruption in Malta's government.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, has praised Malta for allowing disembarkation of 141 asylum-seekers and migrants rescued in the Mediterranean by the NGO boat, Aquarius, while calling for more "clarity and predictability" on where boats carrying rescued passengers can dock. "It is wrong, dangerous and immoral to keep rescue ships wandering the Mediterranean while governments compete on who can take the least responsibility," he said

Following general elections on 3 June, Slovenia's parliament is due to nominate on Friday 40-year old former actor and comedian Marjan Sarec as the new prime minister. Former prime minister Janez Jansa's anti-immigrant Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) is the biggest party with 25 seats but failed to find coalition partners to form a government. Sarec needs support from least 46 out of 90 parliamentary members to be elected.

Polish president Andrzej Duda said on Thursday that he would veto a law proposed by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, and approved in July by the Polish parliament, because it would benefit bigger parties. Under it, as much as 16.5 percent of the vote would be needed to win any seats in 2019's European elections. "This means that only two parties would have a real chance," Duda said.

Wegate.eu, which received €1.2m in EU money since its launch almost two years ago, has less than a thousand registered users - from a possible possible target audience of at least 10 million.

One year to the day since the terror attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils, the commissioner for home affairs spells out what action the EU is taking now to protect against further attacks.

The European Parliament's Brexit steering group has criticised the UK government's plan to register EU citizens wanting to stay in the UK post-Brexit in alphabetical order. "We believe such an approach would be complicated, arbitrary and could create unnecessary confusion and uncertainty for millions of EU citizens already living in limbo," they said Thursday. The UK will have to register some 3.6 million EU citizens.

The European Commission has rebuked Italy's deputy premier Matteo Salvini's comments on EU "constraints" related to the Genoa bridge disaster. The commission wanted "to make a few things clear", spokesman Christian Spahr said Thursday. "For the record, under the agreed fiscal rules, member states are free to set specific policy priorities, for instance the development and maintenance of infrastructure. In fact, the EU has encouraged investment in infrastructure in Italy."

Politicians are increasingly calling on businesses and citizens to prepare for a no-deal scenario.

The red-green alliance of Swedish social democrats, leftists and greens are set to win the upcoming election, with a combined 39 percent support, according to a new SVT/Novus poll published on Thursday. The conservative-led centre-right opposition alliance parties are backed by 36.6 percent, while the anti-migration Sweden Democrats are polled as second largest single party with 21.6 percent support. The general election is on 9 September.

Italy's prime minister Giuseppe Conte declared on Wednesday a 12-month state of emergency in the north-western Liguria region and released €5m from the national emergency fund for immediate needs, following the collapse of a motorway bridge in Genoa on Tuesday, killing at least 39 people. Some experts had warned it would be more economical to demolish the bridge and rebuild it.

An online public survey on whether EU states should keep changing their clocks between summer and wintertime closes on Thursday. People are asked about their overall experience with the scheme, whether they want to keep it, and for what reasons. The shift of clocks has existed at EU level since the 1980s and was mainly designed to save energy. Finland, among others, suggested scrapping the arrangement.

On his way to meet German chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Saturday, Russian president Vladimir Putin will attend the wedding of Austrian foreign minister Karin Kneissl, the Kremlin has confirmed. Kneissl was nominated by the far-right FPO party as an independent member for the post of foreign minister. She is marrying businessman Wolfgang Meilinger, under tight security.