
UK election plus EU summit in focus This WEEK
EU leaders will try to agree on the 2050 emission-free target - but they will deeply disagree on EU spending over the next seven years. Meanwhile the UK will elect its new political leadership.
Monday
9th Dec 2019
EU leaders will try to agree on the 2050 emission-free target - but they will deeply disagree on EU spending over the next seven years. Meanwhile the UK will elect its new political leadership.
EU leaders will try to agree on the 2050 emission-free target - but they will deeply disagree on EU spending over the next seven years. Meanwhile the UK will elect its new political leadership.
A trend has emerged over the past few months where desperate people are paying to get locked up in Libyan detention centres to escape the conflict and with the hope they stand a better chance of getting resettled to Europe.
Ursula von der Leyen and her new team of commissioners will have their first meeting on Wednesday. In the meantime, Malta descends into political turmoil over the death of an investigative journalist.
MEPs will decide on Wednesday whether to support the new EU commission as a whole during the plenary session. If approved, Ursula von der Leyen's team will finally take office on 1 December.
MEPs will decide on Monday if they want the Hungarian commissioner-designate to come back for a second hearing, as commission president-elect Ursula von der Leyen hopes to finally take office on 1 December.
Next week will see a new round of commissioner hearings for the latest candidates from France, Hungary and Romania in the European Parliament, while crucial elections take place in Romania and Spain.
Romania, and now the UK, still need to name their commissioner for the new EU executive to enter into office.
Without much ado the Nordic Council cooperation has formed the backbone of politics in the entire region for more than 60 years. It meets in Stockholm this week, to discuss sustainable Arctic tourism, and ending summertime, among other topics.
Westminster will vote on a possible election, while EU ambassadors will reconvene to decide on the length of a Brexit extension. The awkward Brexit tango continues.
The future of Brexit continues to hang in the balance this week, with a crunch vote in Westminster on Saturday.
British prime minister Boris Johnson will meet the 27 other EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday to try to clinch a last-minute Brexit deal.
EP hearings into EU nominees resume this week after bruisings in which two candidates were already knocked out and two put on the ropes.
MEPs will grill the commissioner-designates for the next two weeks, while the fate of the Romanian and Hungarian candidates remain uncertain. And the Brexit chaos continues with the Conservative party conference.
Iran and climate change likely to dominate as French president Emmanuel Macron speaks for Europe at the UN general assembly in New York this week.
Jean-Claude Juncker will meet Boris Johnson for the first time, but no breakthrough is expected in Brexit talks. MEPs are preparing to hear from the commission-designates, while Hungary will be grilled at the EU affairs' ministers meeting.
After weeks of consultations, Ursula von der Leyen will put forward her commission on Tuesday, as London's Brexit drama keeps rumbling on in the background in Brussels.
The ECB's possible next chief will appear before the EU parliament, as political life resumes in Brussels. In London, MPs could mount a no-confidence vote against Johnson.
Boris Johnson is almost certain to become the UK's next prime minister, and oversee Brexit until the 31 October deadline, as work in the EU bubble is winding down for the summer.
MEPs will vote to confirm - or not - on Tuesday the new commission president, Ursula von der Leyen - a candidate put forward at the last minute by the EU leaders, and grilled by lawmakers recently in Brussels.
The EU parliament committees will start their work, as MEPs reflect on approving Ursula von der Leyen as new commission chief. Meanwhile, Greek is about to take a conservative turn.
The 'top job' debate returns on Sunday with a special EU summit, followed by the first session of the new European Parliament. If leaders fail to solve the 'jobs puzzle', MEPs may feel force to choose their parliament president unilaterally.
Brussels will host yet another summit on Sunday (30 June) as leaders from across the 28 EU member states return, after Thursday's failed initial bid to nominate people to take on the presidencies of the major EU institutions.
A summit in Belgian capital this week will host heads of government and state to discuss top EU institutional posts. But before they meet, the jockeying for the Commission presidency will have already started among the European political groups.
Talks on EP groups and top jobs in the wake of the EU election last month continue. Finance ministers also discuss whether to fine Italy, while EU commissioners promote Western Balkans enlargement.
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 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
EU diplomacy in the former Soviet region and in west Africa will dominate events this week, as the European Parliament halts work ahead of the upcoming election.
Jean-Claude Juncker will hold a relatively rare press conference in Brussels ahead of the informal EU summit of leaders on the way forward in Sibiu, Romania.
Spanish voters are heading to the polls, while in other EU member states campaigning for the European elections is picking up after Easter. The EU's top court will issue important rulings on both the EU-Canada free trade agreement and Airbnb.