Euobserver.com

Extreme heat and forest fires seem to have helped Sweden's Green Party, growing its support from four percent in June to 5.6 percent, according to the latest poll from SIFO institute, published by Svenska Dagbladet. The threshold in Sweden is four percent. With focus moving away from migration issues over the summer, the far-right Sweden Democrats lost support slightly, falling from 18.5 percent in June to 16.8 percent.

Monsanto's Roundup weedkiller was a substantial factor in causing cancer, a San Francisco jury has found, and ruled the company liable for a terminally ill man's cancer and awarding him €254m in damages. In Europe, more than 1.3 million people signed a 'Stop Glyphosate' petition, but authorisation for the world's best-selling herbicide was nevertheless extended for five years last November.

The Turkish lira dropped almost nine percent in early trading on Monday and the euro hit a one-year low as investors feared Turkey's financial crisis could spread into European markets. The lira has lost more than 40 percent of its value this year on worries over president Recep Tayyip Erdogan's economic management. Erdogan accused foreign countries of waging war on Turkey and said he would respond with trade measures.

From 2019 products with unrecycled plastic packaging will cost up to 10 percent more in France, secretary of state for ecological transition, Brune Poirson, has told Journal du Dimanche newspaper. Plastic products such as straws, cups and plates will be banned by 2020 and recycling bins standardised across the country. Just 25 percent of plastic in France is currently recycled.

French transport minister, Elisabeth Borne, has officially protested against an EU plan connecting Ireland to Europe via Zeebrugge, Antwerp and Rotterdam after Brexit. In a letter to the EU commission dated 10 August the French minister said the proposal was "not accepteble" to France adding that French ports has the necessary resources to handle the likely increase in trade flows and preventing exports from being delayed by UK custom.

Around 40,000 Romanians flooded the capital Bucharest on Saturday for a second night of anti-government protests, following violent clashes injuring more than 400 people on Friday. Romania's president Klaus Iohannis condemned Friday's "brutal intervention of the gendarmerie" while the crowds were blowing horns and shouting "resignation", Reuters reported. Protesters are angry over widespread corruption, low wages and attempts by the governing Social Democrats (PSD) to weaken the judiciary.

More than 100 Westminster parliamentary seats that voted for Brexit in the 2016 referendum have now switched their support to Remain, according to a study commissioned by Hope Not Hate and pro-EU group Best for Britain. Constituencies in Wales and the North have seen the largest swing. The constituencies of Brexiteers Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Jacob Rees-Mogg are among the 112 areas where opinion has changed.

It seems as if the EU and some member states are trying to 'sell' European external action in Italy, Austria, Poland and Hungary as a key to solving internal issues – and thus pulling these missions into today's populist debates.

EUobserver has asked for any minutes relating to 14 meetings with lobbyists held by commissioners Guenther Oettinger and Miguel Arias Canete. None exist.

Germany's development minister has called for the EU to create a 'Africa commissioner', to coordinate EU policy towards the continent. Gerd Mueller, from chancellor Angela Merkel's CSU sister party, called on the EU to open its markets to African goods, in an interview with Die Welt. Mueller also suggested a new 'EU-Africa Council'. Currently, all imports to the EU from the 'Least Developed Countries' are duty-free and quota-free.

Most UK voters in a YouGov survey said they would remain part of the European Union should a second referendum be held now. The poll follows reports the EU is willing to make a concession on British exit demands.

Canada is discretely appealing for support from allies, including Germany and Sweden, in its row with Saudi Arabia, government sources confirmed Thursday to AFP. Riyadh expelled Canada's ambassador on Monday and froze all new trade and investments because Ottawa denounced a crackdown on rights activists. Similar criticism of treatment of women and the public flogging of imprisoned blogger Raif Badawi lead to a diplomatic crisis with Sweden in 2015.

Germany has seen a sharp rise - 10 percent since the end of 2017 - in the number of children outside the country receiving benefit payments. "In June 2018, child benefits were paid for 268,336 children living outside of Germany," a finance ministry spokesman told DPA agency. In particular more Polish, Czech and Romanian children, whose parents work in Germany, have benefitted.

Plans to forge a new treaty for EU and Switzerland relations ahead of Brexit appear to be stranded, after pro-EU Social Democrats joined the rightwing Swiss People's Party (SVP) in resisting a deal which the Swiss SGB labour union federation said might undermine wages and working conditions. Relations between the EU and Switzerland are governed by some 100 bilateral agreements which Brussels want to replace with one single treaty.

European Central Bank concerns are growing over EU banks' exposure to the slide of the Turkish lira, reports the Financial Times. The lira has lost more than 30 percent against the dollar in 2018, and hit a new all-time low with a four percent fall on Thursday. The Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) for the European banking system has begun monitoring, in particular Spain's BBVA, Italy's UniCredit and France's BNP Paribas.

National governments secured a one-year extension for publishing plans to make radio frequencies available for mobile communications - but some were nevertheless unable to meet the deadline.

Drought is causing severe problems for farmers in the Nordic region and the Baltic countries. This is the third year in a row that the region has experienced extreme weather conditions, pushing farmers' financial situation to a breaking point.

French-Algerian businessman and activist, Rachid Nekkaz, has pledged to pay fines issued in Denmark for breaches of a new law against face-masking garments, known as the 'burqa ban', after a 29-year-old woman became the first to be penalised under the law, which came into effect last week. Nekkaz told Berlingske he already paid hundreds of thousands of euros for women fined in Belgium, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands and Germany.

Greek defence minister Panos Kammenos threatened on Wednesday to pull his nationalist Independent Greeks (ANEL) party from the government if a name deal with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) is put to a vote in the parliament, rather than a referendum. "I will not allow this deal to go through," he told the Greek internet radio. Greek MPs are set to vote on the deal in September.

With 60 percent of babies born outside marriage, France leads a trend in Europe of more births occurring in non-marital relationships, cohabiting couples and to lone parents. In contrast, 80 percent of live births in Greece, Croatia and Cyprus were registered within marriage, 2016 figures from Eurostat showed. Overall, 43 percent of births in the EU were outside marriage, up 15 percent since 2000.