Monday
27th May 2019
The EU political centre held together in the European elections - even if the high turnout has led to a more fragmented new parliament. Greens and liberals have made gains, while the centre-right suffered.
It's one of the biggest democratic exercises in the world with over 400 million eligible voters. National rules apply, and national parties run, but the stakes are at European level.
EUobserver's new magazine is meant to help readers prepare for the European Parliament elections, no matter their level of knowledge. You can download and read the entire magazine now.
A party like atmosphere has seized the Greens as a packed room of people discuss around food and drinks. Elsewhere, the centre-right EPP appear sombre, as they huddle around their computers behind closed doors.
With 427 million possible voters, across 28 EU countries, electing 751 MEPs, it's the second-biggest democratic vote in the world. The results will come thick and fast - follow them here, via the European Parliament's official results site.
Ireland's Green party scored high in EU elections on Friday, in the second pro-European exit poll in the 2019 vote.
Strong appeals from Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and former EU commissioner Connie Hedegaard to take climate to heart when voting in Sunday's European elections.
EU election turnout has jumped up in Slovakia, where liberals did well on Saturday. But nationalists also scored highly in Slovakia and Latvia, leaks indicate.
Belgians will be electing MPs to six parliaments, on top of the European Parliament, with Greens expected to fare well at both the federal and regional levels.
After EU citizens go to the polls over the weekend, the political haggling over key EU positions starts immediately next week. And the parliament and member states seem set to clash.
The victory of the Dutch EU commissioner is news across the EU, yet the Netherlands is not allowed to publish the official result until Sunday evening.
EU leaders praised Theresa May's commitment to deliver an orderly Brexit - while they now brace themselves for an even more eurosceptic British prime minister.
This is a political crisis unprecedented in Austria since the war: the resignation of the vice-chancellor, firing of the interior minister, the mass resignation of FPO ministers, a snap election, and a no-confidence vote in the Austrian parliament on Monday.
A planned high-speed railway connection through the Alps between Italy and France has been highly controversial for decades and is pitting governing Italian coalition parties against each other. But the European Commission insists it must go ahead.
Dutch socialist Frans Timmermans looks like the big winner in the first exit poll from the 2019 European Parliament election. British voters also cast their ballots amid predictions their prime minister is about to fall.
A mobile app aimed at informing citizens about the EU has so far been downloaded some 80,000 times. However, no data is kept on how often users opened the app after downloading it.
The debate about the choice of name should not boil down to a political muscle show against Hungary, which opposes the reference to Magnitsky because of its political relations with the Russian government.
Polling booths have opened in the UK for EU elections, with voters not knowing if Brexit will happen, if they have a prime minister, or caring that much who their MEPs will be.
Dutch voters are not interested in a 'Nexit', according to polls, but prime minister Mark Rutte warned against a Dutch EU exit on the night before the EU elections at a debate with a new anti-EU kid on the block.
An Austrian criminal intelligence service persuaded Italy's interior minister Matteo Salvini to set up a unit in Sicily against migrant smuggling, while in Senegal EU development money is financing an European-police led reform of Dakar's defence and interior ministries.
"If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again!", US president Donald Trump tweeted on Monday (20 May).
Voters in the world's second-biggest election, the European Parliament ballot, will know before midnight on Sunday to what extent a foretold far-right surge has come to be.
The Dutch government must "make every effort" that new EU sanctions on human-rights abusers will be named after Russian activist Sergei Magnitsky, Dutch MPs have said.
Shady Facebook users have been promoting far-right views ahead of the EU elections, sometimes using graphic images of sex and violence, an investigation has found.
European voter turnout is in deep crisis. Since the early 2000s, the share of voters in national elections has fallen to 66 percent on average, which means that the birthplace of democracy now ranks below average globally.
In Finland, only 10 percent of 18-24-year-olds voted at the previous EU elections in 2014. General satisfaction with the status quo of the EU membership could explain why youngsters do not feel like they need to vote.
Leading centre-right figures like Manfred Weber and Antonio Tajani are among the very few conservative candidates to have signed the pledge, set up by female staff at the European Parliament.
The EU should give up powers to national parliaments in future, Poland has said, amid a battle on EU values and sexual mores in the run-up to European elections.
Dutch historian and writer Luuk van Middelaar argues populists could be the new opposition in the next European Parliament and a better reflection of EU public opinion - thus actually reinforcing the body's status.
The opposition may not be able to defeat the rulling PiS without him, but if Donald Tusk wants to go home again, he will first have to remember where he came from.
Italy's far-right League called for a "historic" defeat of pro-EU forces at its event in Milan this weekend, but fiscal clashes, fascist symbols, and mafia links cast Salvini's party in a controversial light.
Europe's far-right is set to rise in the next European Parliament election. This vote will not yet allow the populists to build a majority. But it may become another milestone in their process of changing European politics.
The political spotlight switches from Brussels to national capitals and regions this week as Europe gears up for the start of European Parliament elections on Thursday
