Thursday
17th Oct 2019
The new commission president-elect Ursula von der Leyen will meet for the first time with EU leaders who nominated her for the job. She will be asked to lay out her plans for getting her commission through parliament.
Gordon Sondland, Donald Trump's ambassador to the EU, is due to appear before the House impeachment inquiry in Washington on Thursday. His predecessor as ambassador, Anthony Gardner, talks about the role, and his predecessor, on our EU Scream podcast.
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.
Thursday's EU summit could see French and German leaders butt heads on enlargement after France blocked new Western Balkans talks.
Support for democracy was particularly low in Poland with only 19 percent consistently supporting democracy - only Hungary and Bulgaria scored lower.
No amnesties and no pardons, Spain insists, on the jailed Catalan leaders, whilst figures from the Spanish region in Brussels called on the EU to intervene in the escalating crisis.
France wants to pause EU enlargement pending major reforms, in what some fear could "destabilise" the Western Balkans.
The site contains Europe's second largest natural pasture and hundreds of local families depend on it, but part of it has been slated to become a military training ground.
EU states have agreed to stop arms sales to Turkey over its invasion of Syria, marking a nadir in relations with their Nato ally. In response, Ankara mocked the decision as a "joke".
Spain's Supreme Court sentenced nine Catalan leaders to between nine and 13 years in prison for sedition and misuse of public funds over their role in Catalonia's 2017 bid for independence. The possible legal immunity of some MEPs remains unanswered.
Poland's conservative ruling party has won four more years in office, with attacks on courts and LGBTI values auguring badly for EU relations
EU foreign ministers are meeting to find a common position on the Turkish invasion in Syria. However, events are evolving quickly, as Kurdish forces asked the Syrian army to protect them.
Budapest joins Istanbul and Warsaw by having an opposition mayor to a strongman illiberal leader, after a united opposition serves a shock blow across several towns in local elections in Hungary.
A controversial counterterrorism bill could end up criminalising aid workers in the Netherlands if they enter conflict hotspots when assisting the world's most vulnerable people.
EU diplomats stood alone against the US and Russia on Syria at the UN on Thursday, painting a bleak picture of transatlantic relations.
As Poland's combative Law and Justice party faces elections this Sunday, the commission once again sends a case on its domestic judiciary reforms to the European Court of Justice for breaking EU rules.
The European Commission is one step away from taking Hungary to court if it does not offer a credible explanation for why it denied detained migrants food in its transit zones along the Serbian border.
While our politics is dominated by old and bullying alpha males and the negativity they have injected into our times, there is at least one day of hope - and it is through unleashing the power of young girls.
France's nominee for EU commissioner lost the vote on her candidacy, with 82 MEPs against and 29 in favour, after hard questions in a second hearing.
A new report from Oxfam reveals that many of the people producing the food on sale in European supermarkets are victims of poverty pay, harsh working conditions, gender discrimination, and human rights abuses.
The EU has told Turkey to stop its attack on Syria, but Trump seems to be less worried about the 12,000 Isis fighters walking free, saying "they will be escaping to Europe".
Jewish leaders have raised alarm on the climate of hate in Europe after an antisemitic killing in Germany on Wednesday.
Brexit puts the reunification of Ireland centre stage.
Fossil fuel subsidies should end and there is "no future in coal", the EU's would-be green commissioner, Frans Timmermans, has said in his pledge to make the EU carob neutral.
Only seven out of 28 EU states have so far supported a draft plan to disembark and relocate migrants rescued in the central Mediterranean, following a meeting in Luxembourg.
Rule-violating digital firms should only be broken up as a last resort and fines were a better way to keep them in line, the EU's "tax lady", Margrethe Vestager, told MEPs.
The US announcement to give free reign to a Turkish offensive into Northern Syria has consequences for migration to Europe as well.
Anti-torture witnesses told Germany but not the EU about abuse on a forced return flight to Afghanistan last year, posing questions on Europe's human rights safeguards.
Poland's pick for EU agriculture commissioner, Janusz Wojciechowski, won MEPs' approval after a second mini-hearing in Brussels on Tuesday.
The EU should continue to expand in the Western Balkans and maintain sanctions on Russia, its next foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has said.
The current Czech commissioner for justice, Vera Jourova, was approved for the next commission, as she promised to defend democracy from online threats, and to present ideas about reforming future European elections by 2020.
In these commissioner hearings politics and the law are very close to one another. The temptation to use legal rules and procedures for political ends is real and present.
Environmental activists of the group 'Extinction Rebellion' and NGOs on Monday demanded government action in support of the climate emergency, and a commitment to reducing the impact of climate change.
