Euobserver.com

Spain wants to discuss the current energy price spike at the next EU summit in October, and called on the European Commission to provide member states with guidance on how to react to current record gas and electricity prices.

New polling found Dutch voters have rapidly started losing trust in all levels of government. 15 percent of those surveyed have "lost all confidence" in the government. The loss of trust does not extend to prime minister Mark Rutte.

There is one female leader in European history whom Merkel resembles much more than the fiery, authoritarian Catherine the Great, who once staged a coup with her lover against her husband. Instead, it is the Habsburg empress Maria-Theresia.

More than 55 agreements between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain are currently underway. These lay the foundation for practical cooperation in almost all fields including: finance, communications, economy, culture, tourism, taxation, investment protection, freedom of movement, water, agriculture and energy.

Fully vaccinated travellers from the EU and the UK will be let back into the US from "early November" onward, the White House said on Monday, ending an 18-month ban and prompting airline firms' shares to climb. "This new international travel system follows the science to keep Americans ... safe," a US spokesman said. The EU recently recommended increased restrictions on US visitors, amid anger at lack of US reciprocity.

European Parliament president David Sassoli was recently hospitalised due to pneumonia but was not in danger, the parliament said Monday. "The president ... was taken to the Hôpital Civil in Strasbourg on Wednesday 15 September," it said, after the EU assembly began holding its plenary sessions in France once again despite the pandemic. "He is in a good condition," Sassoli's spokesman, Roberto Cuillo, added.

Justin Trudeau has won a third term as Canada's prime minister, with his Liberal party set to remain the biggest group in parliament, after Erin O'Toole, the leader of the main opposition Conservative party, conceded defeat, The Guardian reports. However, with election results slowly coming in, Trudeau appeared set for another minority government, forcing him to co-operate with smaller left-of-centre parties

French president Emmanuel Macron will host an international conference on Libya on 12 November, a month ahead of Libyan elections that aim to put an end to a decade of civil war, but which look increasingly uncertain, AFP reports. "In view of the December elections, France will organise, around the president of the republic, an international conference on Libya on 12 November," said French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

Poland has said it will not close a polluting coal mine on the Czech border or pay a €500,000-a-day fine for keeping it open, which was awarded by the EU court on Monday. "The fine is disproportionate ... and is not justified by facts," a Polish government spokesman said. "It's judicial robbery and theft in broad daylight. You won't get a cent," Marcin Romanowski, a Polish justice minister, also said.

The EU has urged "both sides" to reduce tensions in an escalating dispute between Kosovo and Serbia on car number-plates. Hundreds of Kosovar Serbs massed at the Serbian border this weekend in protest at Kosovo's decision to stop cars with Serb plates and replace them with special, temporary ones in revenge for Serbia's long-standing non-recognition of Kosovar car-registrations. Kosovo special police with riot vans were sent to the area.

Japan's defence minister, Nobuo Kishi, has appealed to Europe to speak out on mounting Chinese aggression in an interview with The Guardian newspaper Monday. China was "attempting to use its power to unilaterally change the status quo in the East and South China Seas", he said, in what posed a threat "to the safety and security of not only our own country and the region but for the global community".

Poland has confirmed the first fatalities among people trying to enter the EU via Belarus, as the onset of cold weather heightens risk.

The European Court of Justice has ordered Poland to pay a daily fine of €500,000 "because it has not ceased lignite extraction activities at Turow mine." The mine is located close to the German and Czech border. The commission says Poland breached EU law after adopting a six-year extension for the mine without carrying out an environmental impact assessment. The case against Poland was brought by the Czech Republic.

Phil Hogan, the former European commissioner for trade, was this month hired by US-law firm DLA Piper, where he will work out of the Brussels office. Critics say the hire poses questions on weak EU ethics oversight rules on lobbying.

There were a total of 1,056 fraudulent irregularities in 2020, with a combined financial impact of €371m. Currently, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain do not have domestic anti-fraud plans.

EU foreign ministers were expected to discuss the implication of a security deal between the US, UK, and Australia on the margins of the UN general assembly. The deal has cast a shadow on the bloc's trade talks with Australia.

The European Court of Auditors called for more consistent EU action on sustainable finance. The European Commission, by its own estimation, will need to invest €1 trillion a year to transition to a zero-carbon economy by 2050.

To estimate the economic footprint, the research takes into account both the costs associated with education, €2.46bn, as well as the potential loss in GDP growth due the loss of the countries' youth.

East Germany's Angela Merkel, understanding the history and complexity of the region, stuck to her 'open door' policy. Nobody expects her successors to be as accommodating.

Gabriel Escobar, the US' newly-appointed acting deputy secretary of state for South Central Europe, has urged Europe to speed up Western Balkans enlargement. "To return 20 years later and see that there hasn't been much progress on that front was a little disappointing," he told the RFE/RL news agency Friday, referring to his last post in Europe in 2001. "We would like to see a more rapid integration," he said.