Новости за 28.08.2017

EU and British negotiators started the third round of Brexit talks amid growing disagreement on how the process is going.

The outgoing Dutch coalition of centre-right Liberals and centre-left Labour will have to present the annual budget in mid-September, even though it will not carry it out. The coalition received a beating in March elections, and now the Liberals are attempting to form a government with three other parties. Negotiator Gerrit Zalm said Monday that he did not expect the lengthy coalition talks to be over by 20 September.

A spokeswoman for the European Commission, Lucia Caudet, did not want to "make any value or technical judgement" on whether Volkswagen (VW) could fulfil its promise of fixing all 8.5 million diesel cars that have defeat devices by autumn. VW still has 3.3 million cars to fix in under four weeks. There is no sanction if VW misses the deadline, but "consumer trust is at stake here", Caudet said.

France is hosting a mini-summit on Monday in Paris with leaders from Germany, Italy, Spain, Chad, Niger and Libya. The talks will likely cover broad discussions on migration, security and development.

Merkel has “lost touch” with ordinary people, does not know how to handle Dieselgate, and is too soft on Turkey, her main election rival has said.

Brexit secretary Davis expects this round of talks to be about 'technical discussions', while the EU says 'the technical cannot outpace the political'.

French president Emmanuel Macron asked his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for "the quick liberation and return to France" of journalist Loup Bureau. Bureau, 27, was arrested in July and charged for supporting terrorist groups after he went to report on Kurdish militia at the Syrian border. It is the second time Macron has spoken to Erdogan about the case since Bureau's release was denied.

Russian president Vladimir Putin will travel to Hungary on Monday to attend the opening of the judo world championship as honorary president of the International Judo Federation. He will also meet Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban and be awarded a doctor honoris causa title for his role in modernising the nuclear plant in Paks, a Hungarian-Russian project in central Hungary. It is Putin's second visit to Hungary this year.

Small businesses play a huge role in the EU economy, especially in life sciences, and this is oft-repeated in political speeches. But do the policies reflect the rhetoric?