Euobserver.com

Russian president Vladimir Putin on Wednesday opened the first summit between Russia and Africa, telling 54 African leaders that Moscow sought to double trade with the continent in the next four to five years. "In Africa, there are very many potential partners with good prospects and huge growth potential," Putin said. The summit comes a day after Putin and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan reached an agreement over north-east Syria.

The EU parliament knocked back "weak" pesticide rules proposed by EU commission and member states over concerns to pollinator health and food security.

The European Commission Wednesday said the US continues to "ensure adequate level of protection" of personal data transferred from the EU to US companies for the third year running under a so-called 'privacy shield' agreement. The EU welcomed the appointment of a US ombudsman to redress complaints. The bloc's court will rule next year if EU citizens' data can be legally transferred to the US, putting the accord into doubt.

What if the EU can't guarantee European security? In times when US physical presence does not make up for its mental absence, the question got urgent.

French president expected to name Thierry Breton, a tech CEO, to be EU single market commissioner, but other options remain.

France and Italy's draft budgets for 2020 might breach EU fiscal rules and they must send clarifications by Wednesday, the European Commission has said. The EU executive body also issued budgetary concerns over Finland, Spain, Portugal, and Belgium. Countries sometimes present incomplete budgets due to elections. But the current budgetary measures of the caretaker governments could fall foul of EU fiscal rules.

EU member states and lawmakers will start negotiations on sustainable investment on Wednesday, reported Reuters. The talks may provoke disputes over whether oil, coal, and nuclear fuel can count as "green" investment. The European Parliament wants to make a clear distinction between what is sustainable and what is not. The list of "green" investments will be needed to push implement new EU climate laws.

Turkey and Russia agreed Tuesday that Russian military police and Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's border guards will enter a "safe area" outside Turkey's Syrian field of operation and move Kurdish militants back to 30 km from the border within 150 hours. US vice president Mike Pence supported the creation of the safe zone. Now the attention is focused on how the Kurds in northern Syria will react to the deal.

The European Commission criticised Romania for backsliding on judicial reforms and fighting corruption in its yearly Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) report, published on Tuesday. If Bucharest did not improve, punitive measures may have to be taken, it warned. The monitoring mechanism was launched when Bulgaria and Romania joined the European Union in 2007. Bulgaria had made sufficient progress, another report said, and may now leave the monitoring program.

UK lawmakers finally backed a bill to leave the EU, but put off ratification, in what could prompt a Brexit delay or new UK election.

Croatia is eligible to join the EU's free-travel area, the Schengen zone, the European Commission has said, but threats of national vetoes remain.

The EU is willing to delay Brexit beyond 31 October, it indicated, as Westminster gets ready for crunch votes on the Brexit withdrawal bill.

Centre-right and liberal MEPs have joined forces with far right ones to dilute EU commitments on helping desperate people in Mediterranean Sea rescues.

During the evaluation of the outgoing European Commission, its president, Jean-Claude Juncker, received tributes from the biggest parliament groups. However, conservative and left-wing MEPs criticised some elements of Juncker's record, including on shortage of ambitious climate policies and lack of tax harmonisation. The co-president of the conservatives, Polish MEP Ryszard Antoni Legutko, also blamed Juncker for losing one of the "most influential" EU member states due to Brexit.

The outgoing president of the European executive body, Jean-Claude Juncker, said on Tuesday that his commission tried the best it could to solve the Greek financial crisis. "We gave back Greece the dignity it deserves," he said, adding that "it was in the general interest of Europe to avoid the eurozone falling apart". Juncker's mandate, which normally ends on 1 November, will be extended after three commissioners-designate were recently rejected.

Croatian MEP Ivan Vilibor Sincic critisiced MEPs on Tuesday for accepting MEP Dubravka Šuica as the next commissioner for democracy and demography "without any check". "Croatia is one of the most corrupt countries in the EU and you [MEPs] have decided to trust this country", he said, adding that "Croatians are disenchanted with the EU" because people expected the EU to introduce higher standards after its accession in 2013.

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker told MEPs in Strasbourg on Tuesday that Brexit has been a waste of time and energy. "It has pained me to spend so much of this mandate dealing with Brexit when I have thought of nothing less of how this union would do better for its citizens. Waste of time and waste of energy," he said.

The EU parliament is awaiting the decision of British MPs on the Brexit deal before holding a vote by MEPs, as British PM Boris Johnson puts the Brexit deal to another vote on Tuesday.

Women in Northern Ireland gained the legal right to abortions from midnight on Monday. Same-sex marriage will also be legalised early next year under new legislation, introduced from Westminster. The legislation took effect automatically because a 21 October deadline was passed without Northern Ireland's devolved government being re-formed and able to take its own decision.

German defence minister and leader of the ruling conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, suggested on Monday that an internationally controlled security zone should be set up in Syria in cooperation with Turkey and Russia to stabilise the situation after American forces pulled out. She told Deutsche Welle that "Europe cannot simply be an onlooker. We also have to come up with our own recommendations and initiate discussions."