Slovenia takes the EU steering wheel This WEEK

The presidency will also oversee the Conference on the Future of Europe, which should produce tangible results early next year.

Slovenia will give special attention to its neighbourhood, and Western Balkan integration into the EU. In October, the country will host the EU–Western Balkans summit.

The country's prime minister Janez Janša, a major ally of Hungary's prime minister Viktor Orbán, has been criticised for smearing journalists, and has been entangled in several Twitter spats with top EU politicians.

While Janša will not have an impact on the day-to-day operations on the presidency, the platform it gives to the increasingly bellicose PM - who has refused to appoint his nationally-allocated prosecutors to the new EU chief prosecutors office - has been a cause for concern.

In the European Parliament on Tuesday (29 June), the civil liberties and home affairs committee will vote to set up the asylum and migration fund, and the instrument for financial support for border management and visas.

On Monday, MEPs on the health and environment committee will quiz commission vice-president Margaritis Schinas on what lessons the EU executive has learned from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The same day MEPs on the home affairs committee will discuss with commissioner Ylva Johansson the situation of migrant arrivals at the EU's closest borders with Africa, and in particular in Ceuta.

On Thursday, the parliament's economic committee will hear from Christian Lagarde, the governor of the European Central bank.