Euobserver.com

Helena Dall's biggest challenge as equality commissioner will be securing EU accession to the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, while Dubravka Suica as demography commissioner must reassure on abortion and contraceptives.

In a rare statement, all 118 bishops and archbishops called the language prime minister Boris Johnson used in the parliament "not worthy of our country". "In the last few days, the use of language, both in debates and outside parliament, has been unacceptable. We should speak to others with respect," the statement said. Earlier, several MPs reacted with shock to the PM's language in Wednesday's parliament debate.

Spain's High Court is investigating the director of the company UC Global S. L., which was allegedly hired to eavesdrop on the Ecuadorian embassy in London during the stay of the founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange. According to El País, the owner of the company supposedly delivered to the CIA audios and videos of the meetings Assange had with his lawyers and collaborators.

Two pro-independence members of the Catalan Committee to Defend the Republic (CDR), who were arrested on Monday for allegedly planning violent attacks with violence, confessed that they were making explosives and testing them, according to El País. Officers found acid, paraffin, aluminium powder, industrial paint, and gasoline, as well as documents that explain how to make industrial explosives. The two detainees are among nine CDR members arrested on Monday.

The EU warned Iran privately it might withdraw from the nuclear deal in November if Iran takes new steps away from the deal, the Guardian reports. Iran has already taken three steps away from the deal and is threatening to take a fourth in November, if the US does not soften its sanctions on the country. Despite the US withdrawal, the EU tried to keep the deal alive.

European Parliament president David Sassoli "will seek clarifications" from the legal affairs committee on its decision to block hearings of two EU commission nominees, from Hungary and Romania, on grounds of conflict of interest, a European parliament spokesman said. But for Manon Aubry, a French left-wing MEP on the committee, its decision was "crystal clear" and there would be a "big fight" if Sassoli tried to overturn its call.

The US ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland, went to Kiev on 26 July to help Ukraine "navigate" White House "demands" and explain the "differing messages" they were getting on US foreign policy from American diplomats and from US president Donald Trump's team, according to a whistleblower complaint published Thursday. Sondland trip came one day after Trump had asked his Ukrainian counterpart to dig up dirt on an election rival.

Latest opinion polls suggest that Spain's Socialist Party (PSOE) will reach 34 percent of the vote in the next election on 10 November - five points higher than April. PSOE would receive twice as much support as the opposition Popular Party (PP), which received 17 percent in the poll. Spain's public research data also indicates that almost half of Spaniards consider politics and politicians among the country's biggest problems.

Saudi Arabia will offer on Friday tourist visas to 49 countries for the first time. Tourism minister Ahmad al-Khateeb described it as a "historic moment", according to the BBC. The initiative aims to increase the contribution of tourism from three to ten percent of GDP by 2030. The news came in a tense moment after Saudi Arabia accused Iran of being behind the oil attack that took place this month.

Croatian prime minister Andrej Plenkovic accused on Thursday the NGO GONG of campaigning against the country's candidate for the EU Commission, Dubravka Suica. "Suica got through the hearing before the Croatian parliament's committee on European affairs where members of the [opposition] Social Democratic Party (SDP) raised these topics which are now being recycled by GONG," Plenkovic told reporters in Brussels.

If successful in Sunday's poll, Sebastian Kurz will face three difficult options - a renewed alliance with the disgraced hard-right Freedom Party, a return to a 'Grand Coalition' with the socialists, or a risky three-way split with Greens and liberals.

A lawsuit from the green group ClientEarth has demanded operators of Poland's Belchatów coal plant stop burning lignite or implement measures to eliminate its CO2 emissions by 2035 at the latest. This power plant is the biggest in Europe with annual CO2 emissions approximately equivalent to those produced by the whole of New Zealand, according to The Guardian. About 80 percent of energy in Poland is from coal.

A total of 37 migrants attempting to reach the Canary Islands in a canoe were rescued on Thursday by the Spanish coastguard, six miles off the island of Gran Canaria. According to the Spanish interior ministry, migrant arrivals by boat in Spain as a whole have decreased 46 percent in 2019 compared to the same period last year, while the Canary Islands have seen a rise of 24 percent.

In an unprecedented move, MEPs in the legal affairs committee said there were conflicts of interests for two commissioner-designates. Commission president-elect Ursula von der Leyen will now have to decide what to do with them.

Rovana Plumb, the Romanian nominee, and Laszlo Troscanyi, the Hungarian nominee, to become European commissioners, will not now go forward to hearings at the European Parliament. The legal affairs committee of the parliament decided, after a vote, that there is not enough clarity on their financial situations. It is now down to president Ursula von der Leyen if she want both countries to nominate a new candidate.

Jacques Chirac, president of France from 1995-2007, has died at the age of 86, his family told AFP. Chirac was also mayor of Paris and twice prime minister of France. On the European level, he played a crucial role in the Treaty of Nice (2001) that facilitated the enlargement of the European Union towards central Europe. Chirac also blocked the involvement of Nato in the second Iraq war in 2003.

Sabine Lautenschlaeger has resigned as board member of the European Central Bank (ECB). According to German Conservative MEP Markus Ferber, a coordinator in the economic and monetary affairs committee, she is "already the fourth prominent German central banker stepping down after the ECB started its path towards ultra-loose monetary policy". Ferber added that "the ECB president consistently decides against the interests and principles of the largest national central bank [Germany's]."

Ukraine's new president gleefully joined US leader Donald Trump in denigrating the EU back in July, a White House transcript of their phonecall has shown.

British prime minister Boris Johnson called on the opposition to either stop trying to prevent the government going for a no-deal Brexit, or call for an election. He also declared the Supreme Court's ruling was wrong.

Israel's president Reuven Rivlin has given Benjamin Netanyahu a mandate of four weeks to form a new government. According to Haaretz, the president first proposed Netanyahu and his rival Benny Gantz to form a unity government with a dual premiership, but Gantz turned down the idea. Currently Netanyahu lacks the support of a majority, but if he succeeds, it will be his sixth term as prime minister of Israel.