Thursday
20th Jun 2019
The new far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) political group fails to muster enough support among other eurosceptics to become a heavyweight in the European Parliament. But with 73 MEPs, from nine EU states, it managed to secure the fifth spot.
The four most powerful EU institutions - Commission, Parliament, Council and Central Bank will all have new leaders in the coming ten months. Here is an overview.
While domestic political parties often use the European Parliament as a dumping ground for unwanted politicians - and a majority of citizens don't bother to vote - the parliament, over the years, has become a dominant force in the EU.
We did not ask what tax the parliamentarians pay or how they use their salary, or for information about their private lives. Rather we asked for documents to verify that this public money is spent in accordance with the rules.
Attacks on the rule of law by national governments have been spreading like a virus across Europe and the EU appears to be powerless to contain it.
I was an MEP for nearly 20 years and I was frequently lobbied. There were many good examples, but there were also bad examples.
Nathalie Loiseau, the French president's top choice to lead the new European Parliament liberal group known as Renew Europe, has returned to Paris after reportedly insulting the group's leading MEPs.
An EU-funded school programme aimed at promoting environmental awareness is sending students across Europe - by airplane.
John Dalli was ousted as European Commissioner for health in 2012 over a tobacco-lobbying scandal. On Thursday, the general court of the European Union dismissed his case against the European Commission.
Carles Puigdemont, Oriol Junqueras and Toni Comin, former members of the Catalan government who are currently in exile or in pre-trial detention, have been elected by 1,720,500 citizens of Spain and Catalonia to represent them in the European Parliament.
Two Catalonian separatists MEPs elected last week - including former leader Carles Puigdemont - have been barred from accrediting with the European Parliament until they sign a constitutional oath in Madrid. The pair fear arrest if they return to Spain.
European Court of Auditors report says the European Commission "underestimated difficulties involved in deploying an EU-wide eHealth infrastructure".
'Climate, border control - and Margrethe Vestager'. As Danes prepare to vote, the future role of their European commissioner for competition has been added to the domestic election debate.
Before the elections, Spanish MEP Esther Herranz Garcia had been in charge of steering an important agriculture file through parliament. But Herranz is not coming back.
The majority of political groups in the European Parliament - with the now exception of ALDE - are gearing up for a fight with EU premiers on who and how people will get the top posts of the EU institutions.
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.
With the European elections just three weeks away, the EU-27 will try to set the agenda for the next years for the EU institutions. But with persisting divisions on key issues, unity will be an achievement in itself.
A new study ranks EU countries according to the influence they try to exert through the size and expertise of their "permanent representations". Finland and Ireland come out on top.
The European Parliament should have granted access to documents on a decision about how transparent MEPs should be in future with their office expenses, says EU Ombudsman.
The EU just de facto ignored Hungary's veto on a statement on Israel, prompting questions on how it makes foreign policy decisions.
Five candidates discussed what they would do if they were the next president of the European Commission. But the big absentee of the evening was the candidate of the European People's Party.
Carles Puigdemont is set to take legal action to defend his rights as European Parliament candidate and for voters' right to cast a vote for him. He could go so far as to challenge the outcome of the May elections.
French far-right leader, Marine Le Pen, is campaigning to 'save' Europe by transforming it into what she calls a De Gaulle-inspired 'Alliance of Nations'. She also warns against pushing Russia into the arms of China.
Some member states continue to impede the European Commission's annual attempt to define the state of Europe's justice system, by not providing data on their national situations.
The European Commission heavily redacted a document which minuted talks at Davos between the EU commissioner Pierre Moscovici, Tony Blair, and George Soros, about a second Brexit referendum.
The time for genuine lobby regulation and a stop to the risk of corporate capture of EU policy-making is now. It is a question of survival and must be a priority for the next head of the European Commission.
EU institutions want Facebook to relax its rules, to allow pan-European political groups to carry out EU-wide campaigns. Facebook has yet to implement the demands - posing questions on the extent to which Europe relies on the US tech firm.
A political deal reached behind closed doors included MEPs giving up the right to veto how the subsidies from the European Defence Fund will be spent.
Yes, I was late filing an appeal to an access to documents request. But the commission is no shining example of replying on time either.
James Watson is now secretary general of Eurogas, after more than four years at the helm of SolarPower Europe. "I don't feel there is any inconsistency with what I've done before and what I'm doing now," he tells EUobserver.
Accountability and transparency are in short supply when it comes to how MEPs spend €40m every year on "office supplies". Efforts to pry open this secrecy have been met with strong resistance from many of the parliament's most powerful MEPs.
Efforts to set up a better transparency register for lobbyists have collapsed after two years of talks. The impasse revolves around the European Commission's insistence that the register also become mandatory for the European Parliament and Council.
As EU concerns over rule of law in some member states grow, the commission opens a debate on tools to discipline unruly member states. The EU executive has launched a new probe against Poland, and put Romania on the spot.
