EU won't budge on Turkey visa demands
Turkey must meet five more benchmarks before the EU will lift any visa restrictions. The demands have received short shrift from Ankara amid its post-coup crackdown.
Turkey must meet five more benchmarks before the EU will lift any visa restrictions. The demands have received short shrift from Ankara amid its post-coup crackdown.
The EU and US have launched their data transfer pact known as Privacy Shield. The agreement is supposed to protect the privacy of EU nationals when their personal details are transferred to the United States. The pact replaces the 15-year old Safe Harbour agreement, which was invalidated last October by the European Court of Justice.
Some 6,000 migrants have been rescued trying to make the journey across the Mediterranean since last Thursday, Italian authorities said on Sunday, according to AFP. Two people died in the attempt to cross from the north African coast. More than 3,000 have died since the start of the year.
Bosnia's rival leaders have agreed to key conditions set by the EU for membership, amid pressure to get a much needed IMF loan. "We solved today a set of issues which open the way for the acceptance of Bosnia's application ... but also open the way towards the IMF arrangement," leader of the Muslim Bosniak SDA party and chairman of the country's three-man inter-ethnic presidency, Bakir Izetbegovic, said on Sunday.
Ankara has once again threatened to back away from a migrant deal with the EU unless visa waivers for Turks are lifted. Over 1,000 have crossed from Turkey to the Greek islands since the military coup attempt on 15 July.
The European Banking Authority published late on Friday results of the 2016 EU-wide stress test of 51 banks covering around 70% of banking assets across the EU. The sector has "significantly shored up its capital base", it concluded. Shortly before the test results came out, Italian lender Banca Monte dei Paschi suffered losses exceeding its entire capital base and announced a €5bn rescue plan.
EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has said he will not resign despite political pressure from some member states. In an interview with the Belgian daily Le Soir on Sunday, he said he had no intention to step down. "I am a free man, if I want to stop, I'll do it without asking anyone," he said.
Austria's far-right Freedom Party candidate Norbert Hofer has widened his lead ahead of October's repeat election for the presidency, according to a Gallup poll published by the Oesterreich tabloid on Sunday. Some 52 percent support of 600 respondents said they would back Hofer, with his opponent Alexander Van der Bellen, a Green-backed independent, trailing on 48 percent.