Euobserver.com

An outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes in five EU countries - Finland, United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark and Austria - has cost ten people their lives, with the latest victim, a Danish patient, on Thursday confirmed to have died from the bacteria, according to the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration. Frozen corn and vegetables from Hungary are the likely source of the outbreak, according to the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA).

German interior minister says European solution is "a matter for the heads of government" - throwing the gauntlet back to his boss, Angela Merkel.

At this critical time, with climate change increasingly urgent and with reactionary, anti-science forces threatening processes of cooperation, the EU climate mission can reassert the common values and aspirations which Europeans share.

German chancellor Angela Merkel warned her British counterpart, prime minister Theresa May, that "time is growing short" to find a Brexit deal, as the pair met in Berlin on Thursday. "The negotiations are reaching a decisive phase," Merkel said as she welcomed May to her office. "The political framework has to be declared already in October, so the British government's decisions over the next few days will be important."

The European Parliament decided to take more time studying proposed changes to the EU's copyright regime, amidst fears of 'upload filters' - and accusations of scaremongering.

The European Parliament on Thursday voted against starting negotiations on a controversial new copyright directive. At their Strasbourg plenary, 278 MEPs voted in favour of giving centre-right German MEP Axel Voss a mandate to start negotiations with national governments and the European Commission on the issue, 318 voted against. This opens up the text for additional amendments. Opponents feared it could lead to restrictions of internet freedom.

Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz said Thursday that he "would be in favour of pursuing negotiations rather than having a hard Brexit" if no agreement is found in time to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland. Austria took over last Sunday the six-month presidency of the EU Council. Kurz told journalists in Vienna that the EU should "speak with one voice but should not penalise the UK."

The UK Brexit minister David Davis has branded prime minister Theresa May's latest plan for a 'facilitated customs arrangement' with the EU "unworkable", the Daily Telegraph reported, just 24 hours ahead of a key away day cabinet meeting to thrash out the British position. May and her ministers meet on Friday at her country retreat, Chequers, while on Thursday May is in Berlin meeting German chancellor Angela Merkel.

Denmark's top bank laundered €7bn of dirty money in an "astronomical" case that could spur new Russia sanctions.

More than 100,000 18-year-olds took part in the #DiscoverEU lottery for 15,000 free Interrail tickets, reported the BBC. Applicants had to complete an online quiz about EU cultural heritage, youth and the European parliament elections, to participate in the lottery. The UK ticket quota was 1,900, and 3,786 applied. In Spain more than 11,000 applied for 1,364 tickets. The European Commission plans to expand the scheme in future.

German interior minister Horst Seehofer is in Vienna on Thursday - as his plan to reject some asylum seekers was met by an Austrian threat to close its borders too.

Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney, among others, has written to MEPs urging them vote in favour of changes in a new copyright law ahead of a key vote in the European parliament on Thursday. The law would put greater responsibility on individual websites to check for copyright infringements. If MEPs approve the negotiation mandate proposed by the legal affairs committee, talks between the European Parliament and the Council can begin.

Romania's parliament on Wednesday passed a controversial law weakening the country's corruption laws. It comes after the Supreme Court on 20 June sentenced governing Social Democrat party leader Liviu Dragnea to three and a half years in jail for abuse of office. Anti-corruption investigators in Romania said over 200 corruption cases could now be binned under the new reforms.

Two months before Swedish national elections on 9 September, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in the European Parliament has adopted the far-right Sweden Democrats as a new member. The party, riding high in the polls on an anti-migration ticket, previously sat in the EFFD group, with Ukip and Germany's AfD. The ECR group includes UK Conservatives, Poland's Law and Justice Party, the Finns Party and Danish People's Party.

Poland's judicial purge was meant to punish former communists, its PM has said, in an angry EU debate that saw him ultimately promise to respect EU court rulings.

The EU parliament spends €40m a year on a lump sum for MEPs' expenses with barely any scrutiny. A majority of parliamentarians called for more transparency - but a handful of powerful MEPs mostly dismissed that request.

MEPs at their plenary session in Strasbourg have approved the first modernisation of voting rules for European Parliament elections since 1976. The update will allow for postal and electronic voting, and member state citizens living outside the EU to vote. Countries will have the option to also display European political groupings on the ballot papers. The adopted provisions must now be approved by all member states.

The Islamic State in 2014 tried to exterminate the Yazidi, an ethnic group in northern Iraq. But EU money aimed to help is not reaching the area, says an NGO.

Austria has said it will follow Germany in turning back asylum seekers, in widening ripples from Europe's political migration crisis.

Far more money was sent through Danske Bank's Estonian branch than previously known, according to a new bank data leak, revealed by Danish daily Berlingske Tidende. The total amount can now be calculated at €7bn, twice as much as previously estimated. The money-laundering case has become one of the biggest known in Europe. "We take the issue very seriously," Danske Bank's chairman, Ole Andersen, earlier commented.