On Thursday, MEPs must press for a ban on all live exports outside the EU, and call for overall journey times within the EU to be limited to four hours for poultry and rabbits, and eight hours for other animals.

Competition is fierce and getting African leaders' attention is no easy task. US president Joe Biden has his own Africa summit, and Turkey, Japan, Russia and - most importantly - China, also have Africa forums up and running.

Metsola's win was actually secured on Monday - after a deal was struck by the largest three political parties, the centre-right European People's Party, the Socialist and Democrats and the liberal Renew Europe.

An EU mission using Danish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish warships is to patrol West African waters in coming years to stymie piracy.

Text messages between European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and the CEO of giant pharmaceutical company Pfizer Albert Bourla should be made public, MEPs and NGOs demanded.

Russia already has "hundreds" of mercenaries in Mali, but there was no sign they were using EU-trained Malian soldiers, an EU spokesperson has said.