Sunday
23rd Jul 2017
By EUOBSERVER
Spanish socialist leader Pedro Sanchez has said he will oppose Mariano Rajoy's bid to be installed as prime minister in a parliamentary vote on Wednesday. Caretaker PM Rajoy said he would risk the vote even though his centre-right People's Party and its allies are six deputies short of a majority, with 170. Some commentators had urged the socialists, with 85 deputies, to abstain to break eight months of deadlock.
Friday will mark 128 days since elections in the Netherlands. Four parties are negotiating to form a government coalition.
Lawmakers in Poland adopted a controversial reform of the Supreme Court, despite warnings from the EU that the move could trigger a sanction procedure over the rule of law.
EU and UK negotiators presented their Brexit positions to identify common grounds this week, but that was made difficult by the scarcity of UK position papers.
EU law professor Ellen Vos says the commission's proposed mini-reform on comitology, an obscure but often-used method of EU lawmaking, should go much further.
Candidates from all political families should be presenting their vision on where the Union should be headed. European socialists want to keep the Spitzenkandidat procedure for future elections.
Huge amounts of money from criminal activities are funnelled into the legitimate European economy. But little is being done about it at EU or national level.
