Euobserver.com

EU leaders arriving at the Brussels summit criticised the budget proposal of EU Council president Charles Michel, as richer member states insisted holding onto their rebates, while poorer countries wanted to avoid deep cuts to their subsidies.

French president Emmanuel Macron in Brussels on Thursday ahead of an EU summit said he will press all 26 other heads of state and government to condemn the surge in attacks against civilians in Syria's besieged city of Idlib. "I hope that as 27 we can take a strong position on the issue and that we can launch a new initiative at the United Nations-level," he said.

The European Commission is set present its new pact on migration at the end of March. Margaritis Schinas, the commissioner in charge, says its 2016 Dublin-reform proposal will be "taken off and be repackaged, redrafted."

As much as one sixth of foreign development aid vanishes into offshore banking havens such as Switzerland according to a new study by the World Bank, called Elite Capture of Foreign Aid, out this week, which traced what happened to 22 separate payments to poor nations. "The effectiveness of foreign aid remains controversial," the study noted. The EU is the world's largest donor of poverty relief.

A German national with a gun licence shot dead nine people, most of them of Kurdish origin, at two shisha bars in Hanau in central Germany on Wednesday, German media say. The bodies of the attacker and one other person were later found at the attacker's home, police said. The attacks come after a shooting at a Turkish comedy centre in Berlin four days ago, which left one person dead.

Intensity of shelling in east Ukraine on Tuesday gave lie to Russia's claim it has no forces in region, Ukrainian diplomats have said.

These are the main battle lines along which EU leaders are expected to clash as they gather in Brussels to discuss the first post-Brexit EU budget.

The European Commission came under fire on Wednesday for ruling out a moratorium on facial recognition. Instead, it proposed a public debate with stakeholders to determine when this technology might be used.

When the EU speaks, Silicon Valley listens. The tech titans know that the EU matters. Which is why it's so crucial that following the lobbying from Zuckerberg, on disinformation, the EU gets regulation right.

Germany on Wednesday passed a bill that will require social media giants like Facebook and YouTube to report certain forms of hate speech to the police and to provide users' IP addresses. "In the future, those who make threats or spread hate online will be prosecuted more toughly and more effectively," justice minister Christine Lambrecht said on her ministry's website.

The European Commission is set to publish in October a report on the state of the rule of law in all member states, and will also include a chapter on anti-corruption. "We have never done such a comprehensive assessment," European commissioner for values and transparency, Vera Jourova, told MEPs in the civil liberties committee on Wednesday. The report will be annual.

Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday spoke out against the EU's new plan to launch a naval mission in March to enforce the UN's arm embargo with Libya. "I want to specifically mention that the EU does not have the right to make any decision concerning Libya," said Erdogan, accusing the EU of "interfering" in Libya. Turkey has sent hundreds of soldiers and militia to Libya.

The European Commission unveiled on Wednesday the EU's vision for digital policies, focusing on data and artificial intelligence governance. The commission wants to establish new binding requirements for the development and use of "high-risk" AI applications - which might pose risks for citizens or be related to specific sectors such as healthcare, policing or transport. Additionally, the commission wants to create a common single market for data.

Russia ought to pay back €46bn to former shareholders of the Yukos energy firm which it bankrupted in 2007 when its boss, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, tried to enter politics, a Dutch court of appeal ruled Tuesday. Dutch arbitration proceedings initially ruled against Russia in 2014, but the first verdict was overturned in 2016, before being reinstated Tuesday. The latest ruling saw Yukos' ex-owners try to seize Russian assets in EU states.

Unskilled workers and people who do not speak English will not be able to emigrate to the UK under a new points-based system to be unveiled by the British government Wednesday, British media report. Self-employed people, such as Polish or Romanian labourers, will also be barred after they came over en masse in the past 15 years. The new restrictions were dubbed "disastrous" for the British economy by opposition parties.

Britain could come under EU pressure to return the Elgin Marbles, a set of famous classical sculptures, to Greece if it wants a future trade deal, according to a new negotiating mandate agreed by the EU-27 and seen by The Times. "The parties should address issues relating to the return or restitution of unlawfully removed cultural objects to their country of origin," the draft, agreed Tuesday, says.

One major issue dividing member states in the ongoing budget negotiations is inserting a direct link between EU subsidies and the rule of law. While the biggest battle will be over figures, the rule of law conditionality also creates tension.

North Macedonia is heading for its "dirtiest ever" election, its prime minister has warned, as Europhiles prepare to take on nationalists.

The continent that gave the world the Enlightenment has collectively reverted to believing in fairy tales and the soothing power of cozy narrowness. Moscow and Beijing like what they see, and are doing everything to strengthen the trend.

Europe is on the verge of allowing centralisation and concentration of farming data at an unprecedented scale, with the absence of any regulation, NGO Friends of the Earth have warned.