Europe open: Stocks edge higher despite political headwinds

Merkel's choice for caucus leader, Volker Kauder, was defeated by Ralph Brinkhaus, a well-known fiscal hawk.

Meanwhile, overnight French finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, said a generous withdrawal deal for Britain would be suicidal for the European Union.

Commenting on the potential implications for markets of Wednesday's US central bank policy decision, Michael Hewson at CMC Markets said: "If the FOMC is particularly aggressive in terms of its rate outlook, and in terms of its assessment of the health of the US economy, then we could well see further US dollar strength in emerging market currencies.

"Recent comments from Fed governor Lael Brainard, normally a fairly dovish voice on the FOMC, would appear to suggest the Fed is more worried about inflation and the economy running too hot than the risks of a trade war. A more hawkish turn could be the added push 10-year yields need to push above the 3.12% peaks we saw earlier this year, in turn heaping further pressure on emerging market debt costs."

As of 1030 BST, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was up by 0.04% or 0.15 points to 384.03, alongside a 0.26% or 14.28 point advance for the French Cac-40 to 5,493.70, while Germany's Dax was trading lower by 0.11% or 13.43 points to 12,361.73.

Auto&Parts were especially weak, with the corresponding Stoxx 600 sector gauge retreating by 1.16% to 532.94 in the wake of German carmaker BMW's profit warning the day before.

Shares of Santander were edging higher by 0.26% after UBS's head of investment banking, Andrea Orcel, was selected as the Spanish lender's new chief, stoking talk of possible new acquisitions or a move into investment banking and wealth management.

INSEE's French consumer confidence gauge for the month of September came in at 94.0, which was down from 96.0 for the previous month.