Euobserver.com

Thousands of migrants arriving on Greek islands are "creating unsustainable conditions" in an asylum system that was "already under great strain", the EU has warned.

Hungary is to propose its EU ambassador, Oliver Varhelyi, as its EU commissioner after the European Parliament blocked the first candidate chosen by Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban, an EU official said. Varhelyi would replace Hungary's former justice minister Laszlo Trocsanyi who was rejected earlier on Monday by MEPs on the legal affairs committee because of conflicts of interest. Trocsanyi had been nominated to be commissioner for enlargement.

Hours before the European Parliament hearings of would-be commissioners begin, two nominees are rejected in a second vote by MEPs on the legal affairs committee. It is an early blow to president-elect Ursula von der Leyen.

Europe is planning to announce accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia at an EU affairs ministers' meeting in Luxembourg on 15 October, according to draft conclusions seen by the Bloomberg news agency. "In light of the progress achieved on reforms," the EU ministers will agree "to open accession negotiations", the draft communique, which was circulated on Friday, said. France and the Netherlands had previously opposed the move.

Hungary has no plans to leave the EU, but western and eastern Europe are "different", Hungary's prime minister Viktor Orban told a party congress on Sunday, Reuters reports. "We are a member of the Union and will remain a member," he said. But "the western and eastern halves of the Union clearly follow different paths ... and respect different values," he added, amid EU clashes on judicial independence and refugees.

The Flemish nationalist party N-VA, the liberals Open VLD and the Christian Democrats CD&V reached a government agreement on Monday morning after a marathon meeting in Brussels that lasted 21 hours. However, the division of powers is not yet complete. "We have an agreement. Strong package of measures for a strong Flanders," said the future prime minister of Flanders Jan Jambon (N-VA). Belgium is divided into French and Flemish-speaking parts.

Two EU commission nominees - Didier Reynders and Janusz Wojciechowski - got an all-clear from fraud investigators on Friday, as MEPs start hearings on Monday.

Finnish premier Antti Rinne said on Sunday that no European Union member, including Hungary and Poland, appear directly opposed to linking the EU's future budget to performance on the rule of law. "At the moment it seems all member states are ready to accept it", he told Finland's public broadcaster YLE ahead of meetings with Czech leader, Andrej Babis in Prague and Hungarian leader Viktor Orban in Budapest on Monday.

Leader of the conservative People's Party (ÖVP) Sebastian Kurz won Sunday's snap parliamentary election in Austria with 38.4 percent of the vote, after he lost a confidence vote in May due to the 'Ibiza scandal'.

More than 400,000 German car owners have signed up to a collective lawsuit against car manufacturer Volkswagen over emissions-test cheating, with the initial oral hearing of the case starting on Monday at a court in Brunswick. It will be Germany's first "Musterfeststellungsklage", similar to US class actions. Volkswagen has already admitted to manipulating 11 million vehicles worldwide to trick emissions tests.

UK prime minister Boris Johnson' expected plan to offer a compromise Brexit deal to Brussels this week suffered a setback on Sunday, when Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader, Arlene Foster, told the Conservative Party conference in Manchester that she could not accept any kind of internal customs border within the UK. Foster said her party would however be open to discussing a time-limited backstop.

The Greek coast guard has sent a second request within three weeks for additional assistance from EU's border agency Frontex to tackle a recent surge in migrant flows to the eastern Aegean islands, reported Greek daily Kathimerini. The Turkish coast guard stops five to seven boats with refugees daily in its waters, while the Greek guard responds to some 30 incidents daily, the paper reported.

Some EU member states' law-enforcement agencies are incapable of mounting even basic financial crime enquiries - especially Malta, where allegations of personal and political corruption continue to propagate, and an investigative journalist has been assassinated.

Before Josep Borrell is confirmed as the next the EU high-representative and vice-president of the commission, he is likely to face questions during his grilling about corruption allegations and other controversial comments.

The independence of Frontex's monitoring system to make sure people are treated humanely when they are forcibly returned is in question. Efforts by some national authorities are underway to create a more credible parallel system based on transparency and scrutiny.

MEPs on the legal affairs committee have been tasked to say if Hungary and Romania's European Commission candidates should stay or go.

MEPs will grill the commissioner-designates for the next two weeks, while the fate of the Romanian and Hungarian candidates remain uncertain. And the Brexit chaos continues with the Conservative party conference.

In several cities in Egypt protests erupted on Friday against president Abdel Fattah Sisi. Protestors demand Sisi leave office and the Egyptian regime go. Police closed the central Tahrir Square in Cairo and have arrested more then 2,000 people since the first protests erupted a week earlier on Friday. These protest started when a former contractor revealed Sisi was building luxurious villas for him and his family.

Hungary's prime minister Viktor Orban talked to EU commission president-elect Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday after his country's commissioner candidate, Laszlo Trocsanyi, was blocked by the legal affairs committee in the European parliament, Orban said Friday. Orban said he has "second, third and fourth solutions". The committee found a conflict of interest with regards to Trocsanyi, while Orban claimed he was rejected because he was defending Hungary against migration.

The Russian-owned company behind the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline has attacked EU energy law in new arbitration proceedings that turn history on its head.