Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, strongly condemned the attack on members of the Kosovo police that left four dead in a clash in northern Kosovo. Katarina Barley, Vice-President of the European Parliament, has warned against anti-democratic developments in Europe. In support of the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding with the Tunisian authorities, the European Commission announced 60 million Euro in budget support for Tunisia.

The European Commission proposes that EU countries extend the licence for the herbicide ingredient glyphosate by ten years. Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, is named as a 2028 European Capital of Culture. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier calls for a European solution to migration problems.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited the Italian Island of Lampedusa and proposed an emergency plan to help Rome manage migratory flows. A list for Spain’s proposal to make Catalan, Basque and Galician official EU languages inadvertently omitted Croatian. Twenty young European ambassadors from the Western Balkans clean the beaches of Lake Prespa in North Macedonia as part of the EU-funded “EUBeachCleanup” initiative.

The German government has suspended an agreement with Italy to voluntarily take in refugees due to Italy’s refusal to respect the Dublin rules. In other news: Slovenia and Luxembourg pledge for equal treatment of all EU candidates and the preservation of Schengen. Slovak and Hungarian police are combating illegal migration together.

This week, attention will turn to the State of the Union speech that Ursula von der Leyen will give to the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, the last of her current term. In other news: Slovenia’s PM Golob calls for accession talks with Bosnia and Bulgaria’s PM sees the euro as a stability factor against inflation.

The 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly is drawing to a close. Tackling the effects of climate change and resolving military conflicts in Europe and beyond have emerged as bottlenecks. On a positive note, EU countries have shown that they’re making progress towards achieving the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

The temporary import ban on Ukrainian grain for the country’s five EU neighbours ended on September 15. Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland – parliamentary elections are due in the latter two in the upcoming weeks – unilaterally extended their bans to the dismay of the EU. Ukraine consequently filed a complaint with the World Trade Organisation.

The European Parliament gave the green light to start negotiations with the Council of the EU to reform the Union’s electricity market. However, the Council is currently deadlocked due to disagreements, mainly between Germany and France, over the financing of nuclear energy.

More investment and less debt in the name of climate: These demands on rich countries were being voiced at Africa’s first climate summit in Kenya. The continent is vulnerable to the growing impacts of climate change, though not a victim, stressed its leaders, but rather a long-ignored ally in the fight against global warming.

The European Union faces the highest arrival of migrants since 2015 with record numbers of people arriving in Italy and Greece, putting reception mechanisms under severe strain. This year, member states reached a historic deal on key asylum and migration laws as deals with transit countries are struck. The EU has launched a legal procedure against Hungary.