The European external border surveillance system, Eurosur, aims to reduce the number of undetected illegal migrants to the EU, including those who arrive by boat, and seeks to prevent cross-border crime.

The EU Commission plans to launch the new state-of-the-art surveillance system in December with a budget of 244 million euros ($332 million) between 2014 and 2020.

The program will gather information on boats believed to be carrying illegal migrants, fight trafficking networks and also help save refugees in distress.

Some 14,700 police officers will be watching out for speeding cars at more than 8,700 locations throughout the country during the so-called "Blitz-Marathon" - a term referring to the flashing light triggered by cars driving too fast past a speed camera.

The idea of a 24-hour operation was initiated in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). The decision to carry out a nationwide crackdown was made in May at a conference of Germany's interior ministers.

North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, has seen a larger-than-average fall in the number of people killed or injured on its roads since last year, when it implemented the speeding crackdown.

Bishop of Limburg Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst faced increased pressure to step down on Thursday after the head of the German Bishops' Conference, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, announced he was taking his concerns to Pope Francis.

The bishop's name has been plastered across German newspapers all week after his diocese announced revised costs of 31 million euros ($42 million) for his new residence and offices, next door to the celebrated Limburg Cathedral. The predicted figure stood at 5.5 million when construction began in 2010.

On paper, research and development in the Czech Republic today is exactly where it needs to be. The country's industrial contribution now exceeds that of government, meaning that private enterprise has embraced R&D and isn't waiting around for public handouts.

So why is Jiří Drahoš, the president of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, looking so gloomy?

"The problem is that industry spends almost all of its money on itself," Professor Drahoš tells DW. "They don't invest in joint research with universities, or in government research, or research with the Academy of Sciences."

It's an ad hoc approach to R&D which may suit companies in the short-term - particularly when it delivers the outcomes the industry needs.

BRUSSELS - MEPs on Thursday (10 October) gave the green light to a new European Border Surveillance system, Eurosur, due to go live early in December.

The system is meant to co-ordinate border surveillance among member states through so-called national co-ordination centres.

Each contact point would feed near-live data streams directly to the EU border agency, Frontex.

Frontex in turn would then issue alerts when necessary.

BRUSSELS - As Anne-Mari Leppinen tells it, her British colleague simply could not believe that cables allowing high speed access to the internet had been laid in the middle of a forest in remote western Finland.

Brussels - MEPs in a debate on Wednesday (9 October) condemned Russia's recent trade ban on Lithuanian dairy imports, the latest in a series of bans seen as attempts to torpedo the EU's Eastern Partnership policy.

BRUSSELS - French senators have congratulated Azerbaijan's President on a sweeping election victory, but they could have done it one day before the vote.

The French politicians, Nathalie Goulet, Mohamed Soilihi and Jean-Claude Peroni - three of dozens of international monitors in the country - were quoted by Azerbaijan state press on Thursday (10 October) as saying Wednesday's poll was free and fair.

"I did not see any difference in the election processes of our countries," France's Soilihi noted.

Gay and lesbian people seeking asylum in the UK from persecution abroad are being ordered to "prove" their sexuality, MPs have said.

In extreme cases claimants had handed over photographic and video evidence of "highly personal sexual activity" in an effort to persuade officials, the Home Affairs Committee found.

The gay rights group Stonewall called the testing system "distressing".

The CEOs of 10 utilities companies, which together own half of Europe's electricity generating capacity, are calling for an end to subsidies for wind and solar energy, which they say add too much power to a market already struggling with overcapacity.

The CEOs in the so-called Magritte Group also call for a Europe-wide capacity mechanism that would pay utilities for keeping electric power generating capacity on standby and want the EU to boost its carbon emissions scheme, whose low prices have failed to boost low-carbon fuels like natural gas and nuclear energy.

First gathered this spring in the Brussels museum of Belgian surrealist artist Rene Magritte, the informal group has lobbied the European Commission and national governments to change EU energy policy, which they say has failed to achieve its triple goal of lowering prices, reducing carbon emissions and securing energy supply.

The group - which includes top utilities such as France's GDF Suez, Germany's E.ON, Spain's Iberdrola and Italy's Enel - has made an impact, as several countries, including Spain, Germany and France, have reviewed or are reviewing support schemes for renewable energy.

With an unprecedented joint press conference of 10 CEOs in Brussels on Friday, the Magritte group hopes to put pressure on EU policy makers ahead of an energy summit early next year, and wants to press its case for considering wind and solar as a mature industry that no longer requires subsidies.

They are right about the need for a Europe-wide capacity mechanism.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}