EU votes on future leaders This WEEK

The high-stakes vote comes amid a surge in popularity by far-right parties fuelled by five years' worth of anti-EU propaganda by Russia, as well as US far-right, and native European fake news.

Italian far-right leader and deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini promised on Friday to put forward "shock" proposals on the future of the EU at an international congress of eurosceptic parties in Milan on Saturday.

A strong win for his League party could spell the demise of the Italian ruling coalition with the more EU-friendly 5 Star Movement party.

Strong results by the far-right National Rally in France and the AfD party in Germany could hamper the French president's ambitions for deeper eurozone integration and could hasten the German chancellor's departure from politics.

Nationalist-populist ruling parties are expected to entrench their position in Hungary and Poland, while a surge in popularity for the anti-EU Brexit Party in the UK could lead to even nastier negotiations on Britain's EU exit in the months to come.

But further afield, Danish, Irish, Portuguese, and Spanish voters are polling to return more pro-EU and left-wing MEPs than in the past, pointing to the limits of the populist surge.

The campaigns will decide not just who makes EU law in the EP over the next five years, but also who gets to propose laws and sign off on spending in the European Commission and who sets the agenda of member states' meetings in the EU Council.

The elections come amid Russian and other malign ads and tricks on social media, the European Commission warned on Friday.

"More needs to be done to strengthen the integrity of their services, including advertising services," EU justice commissioner Vera Jourova and security commissioner Julian King, referring to self-policing by social media firms Facebook, Google, and Twitter.

In the only event of note in the EU capital next week, EU affairs ministers will meet on Tuesday to discuss spending on foreign relations in the next budget, from 2021 to 2027.

They will also debate a commission proposal on how to beef-up rule-of-law monitoring in unruly member states in future, amid concern on backsliding in Hungary, Malta, Poland, and Romania.

Culture ministers will, on Wednesday discuss how to boost teaching of foreign languages to young in Europe and how to better promote the European film industry.

For her part, EU foreign relations chief Federica Mogherini will spend most of the week touring the war-torn Horn of Africa region.

Environment ministers will also hold informal talks in Bucharest on Monday under the auspices of the Romanian EU presidency, as member states contemplate how to reduce CO2 emissions by 2030 without losing their competitive edge.