Euobserver.com

Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar said on arrival at the EU summit in Brussels that he will recommend to other EU leaders that they endorse the Brexit deal agreed by UK and EU negotiators. "It's a good agreement," he said, adding: "The backstop has been replaced. It's been replaced with a new solution, a unique solution for Northern Ireland. That new solution does what we need it to do."

The prime minister of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel, said on Thursday that "starting a meeting knowing that we [member states] are able to agree on something is very important". Bettel told reporters that British premier Boris Johnson will not ask for a new extension since he wants to deliver Brexit. "It is better for everyone if we agree," he added.

The EU and the UK has agreed to a revised Brexit deal that drops the contentious backstop on the island of Ireland, and "sqaures the circle" of keeping the Irish border open. EU leaders are expected to endorse it Thursday.

Negotiators from the European Union and the UK agreed on Thursday to change the Brexit deal formerly accepted by prime minister Theresa May. The compromise text, reached ahead of an EU summit in Brussels, is part of the 64-page long Protocol on Ireland / Northern Ireland. The political declaration has been amended. The disputed Northern Irish "backstop" is changed.

Latvian prime minister Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš was optimistic about the "promising" Brexit deal reached between the UK and the European Union on Thursday. Krišjānis believes that the text will be approved by the council during the summit since "everyone in council wants a deal". "We will need a good relationship with the UK after Brexit," he said, adding a Brexit deal is in the "interest of everyone".

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said Thursday the UK and EU had reached a revised Brexit withdrawal agreement after marathon talks, hours before EU leaders gather for their summit in Brussels. "We have arrived to an agreement on an orderly withdrawal and also on the framework on the future relationship," he said. The deal will have to be politically signed off by EU leaders later, and ratified by parliaments.

The German EU presidency in second half of 2020 will hold an EU-China summit in Leipzig, chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday in a speech in the German parliament outlining the country's political position and priorities ahead of this week's EU summit. "The EU does not currently have a joint China policy which is not good for the EU", Merkel said.

EU citizens coming from China's Uighur Muslim minority living in Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, and France have faced phone threats by Chinese officials to their family's welfare in China if they did not stop advocating for international pressure on Beijing to stop persecution, British daily The Guardian reports. "You're living overseas, but you need to think of your family [in China]," one activist in Germany was told.

International charity Amnesty International has joined Polish opposition parties in an outcry on a Polish government-backed bill to criminalise some forms of sex education. "This recklessly retrogressive law would encourage fear and ignorance", it said Wednesday. "This bill, which equates homosexuality with paedophilia, exposes the disturbing homophobia that underpins this law," Amnesty added. The law could see teachers jailed for years for discussing issues such as gender fluidity with under-18s.

France's veto on North Macedonia enlargement will endanger the Serbia-Kosovo peace process, a senior EU official has warned, but diplomats do not expect Macron to change his mind.

The EU summit will be crucial for the future of the EU, but especially for the UK. The next EU summit will not be the same since the UK's withdrawal will have consequences for the power relations within the council.

German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Emmanuel Macron signed on Wednesday a binding deal on arm exports rules for jointly-developed programs at a joint cabinet meeting in Toulouse. Germany agreed to no longer block arms exports to third countries for equipment made with less than 20 percent German components. Germany blocked arms exports to Saudi Arabia in 2018 following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, France did not.

Brexit negotiators held marathon talks but the Northern Irish unionists appear to be axing UK prime minister Boris Johnson's revised deal, as EU leaders gathered in Brussels to discuss Brexit but also other divisive, long-term issues.

The European Parliament is retaining the data of everyone who uses their wi-fi network, including journalists and visitors, and providing access to national authorities in case of investigations.

Air pollution caused 412,000 premature deaths in 41 European countries in 2016, of which around 374,000 were in the EU-28, according to the European Environment Agency's (EEA) Air quality in Europe 2019 report published on Wednesday. Europe's air is getting cleaner but almost all Europeans living in cities are still exposed to air pollution levels that exceed the health-based air quality guidelines set by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Pro-independence demonstrators have set out from five cities across Catalonia to converge on Barcelona on Friday, in a major protest against the Spanish court ruling this week that gave nine Catalan leaders lengthy jail sentences over their role in the region's 2017 failed bid for independence. Protesters clashed with police in Catalonia on Wednesday for a third night, ignoring government's calls for calm.

EU and UK negotiators continued Brexit talks on Wednesday evening trying to clinch a deal before the EU summit kicks off on Thursday. Talks are focusing on a customs border in the Irish Sea and the Northern Ireland Assembly's veto over any such arrangement. If a deal is agreed, a technical extension to the Brexit deadline is likely, as ratifications and legal clarifications require more time.

The new commission president-elect Ursula von der Leyen will meet for the first time with EU leaders who nominated her for the job. She will be asked to lay out her plans for getting her commission through parliament.

Surging sales of SUV cars have become the second-largest source of CO2 emissions growth after energy production, Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, said in Paris on Wednesday. SUVs accounted for 18 percent of world car sales in 2010, but had grown to 40 percent in 2018, he said. There were now 200m of the heavier, less aerodynamic models in circulation, compared to 35m back then.

Gordon Sondland, Donald Trump's ambassador to the EU, is due to appear before the House impeachment inquiry in Washington on Thursday. His predecessor as ambassador, Anthony Gardner, talks about the role, and his predecessor, on our EU Scream podcast.