European Union

This summer an area of the Amazon region almost four times as large as in the previous years has been deforested, satellite images show. The rainforest produces a fifth of the planet's oxygen and is therefore considered the 'lungs of the world'. Sixty percent of the forest is in Brazil - where President Jair Bolsanaro is pushing deforestation. Europe's press issue urgent calls to action.

In Italy Lega leader Matteo Salvini has called for a snap election on the grounds that his party's coalition with the Five Star Movement has failed. The latter's vote against a railway project which Lega backs triggered the most recent crisis in the coalition government's turbulent relationship. Commentators are not surprised to see this government on the verge of collapse.

Last summer the newly elected Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez made headlines when he allowed the Aquarius to dock in Spain with hundreds of refugees on board. Now, with the rescue ship Open Arms trying in vain to find a safe port for 121 migrants, Sánchez is keeping very quiet. The press reaction in Spain is divided.

The allocation of university places in Denmark for the new semester testifies to a dwindling interest in the language of the country's southern neighbour: only 46 young people want to study German as their main subject this autumn. Danish commentators find this disinterest hard to understand.

The European Parliament is in recess over the summer holidays from 29 July 2019 to 1 September 2019.

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

The climate crisis is damaging the ability of the land to sustain humanity, with cascading risks becoming increasingly severe as global temperatures rise, according to a landmark UN report compiled by some of the world's top scientists. EURACTIV's media partner, The Guardian, reports.

EU plans to trade with Iran despite US sanctions have suffered a blow with the resignation of Bernd Erbel, a German diplomat who was to run the EU's so-called Instex Iran trade entity, in an anti-semitism fiasco. Erbel bowed out on Thursday when German newspaper Bild noted he had twice appeared on radio with a Holocaust-denier. The US ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, and Israel, welcomed the resignation.

The EU ought to take care of 121 people, including 32 children, recently rescued at sea, European Parliament president David-Maria Sassoli has said to outgoing European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in a letter. If Europe did not help "it'll mean it has lost its soul", he said. Spanish charity Open Arms saved them one week ago but they are stuck on a ship because no EU state will take them.

EU states would be wrong to "warm up" Russia relations because it was still waging war in Ukraine, Poland's deputy foreign minister Marcin Przydacz told Reuters on Thursday. "There is no reason to invite Russian leaders to different parties or dances together," he said, alluding to an episode last year, when the then Austrian foreign minister Karin Kneissl invited Russian president Vladimir Putin to her wedding.

Britain's foreign minister on Thursday (8 August) pressed the European Union to amend the terms of Britain's EU withdrawal agreement, saying Brussels would have to take responsibility for a no-deal Brexit if it does not compromise.