Leaders reached an agreement on the EU's trio of top jobs with Ursula von der Leyen as the next EU Commission president, ex-Portuguese prime minister António Costa as Council president, and Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas as the EU's new foreign affairs chief.

Viktor Orban's newly-announced central European "Patriots for Europe" group, with Austria's FPÖ and the Czech Republic's ANO, may further fragment the radical right in the European Parliament. However, with an eye on expected national election results and likely prospective members, in the future this group – rather than the ECR or ID – could be the real pool of nationalist, sovereignt-ist parties in government.

EU citizen's freedom of movement is hampered by the inadequate recognition of professional qualifications, according to a new report by the European Court of Auditors. Issues highlighted include widely-divergent application of EU law, and the lack of uptake of alert mechanisms.

As the largest member state in the 27-nation bloc, the distribution of its 96 seats is important in shaping the future of EU decision-making. Here's what to expect from the European elections in Germany.

EU officials are raising the alarm at the increasing sophistication of disinformation campaigns — as tens of millions of European citizens head to the voting booths over the next few days.

'Today it's less risky to criticise the Pope, even very harshly, than the CEO of a company,' one Italian journalist told EUobserver. Italy's freedom of the press — never recovered from the era of Silvio Berlusconi, has got worse under Georgia Meloni, with a harsh new defamation law and corporate buyouts of independent news agencies.