European Union

Maros Sefcovic, an EU commissioner from Slovakia who is in charge of energy security, plans to formally announce in Brussels on Monday that he will be the centre-left's bloc 'lead candidate' (Spitzenkandidat) to lead the next European Commission. The move comes after German conservative MEP Manfred Weber was tipped for the post by the centre-right EPP bloc ahead of the European Parliament elections next May.

The Aquarius, a rescue ship operated by French charities SOS Mediterranee and Medicins sans Frontieres, sailed back to international waters off Libya this weekend to resume work despite an EU dispute with Italy and Malta on who should take in the people it picks up at sea. No charity ships have worked in the region since late August, when Italy refused to let people on board the Aquarius to disembark.

German chancellor Angela Merkel and Austrian leader Sebastian Kurz agreed Sunday to back the creation of a 10,000-man EU border force and cooperate with African states to stem migration flows. "There can be no open borders within Europe without proper protection of external EU borders," Kurz said. Morocco, which stopped 65,000 people from coming to the EU last year, is to get €236m in EU aid to stop others.

European Central Bank (ECB) chief Mario Draghi has said the eurozone was not looking to create a digital currency. "The ECB and the eurosystem currently have no plans to issue a central bank digital currency," he said in a letter to an MEP on Friday, Reuters reports. Such technologies "require substantial further development" and there was no "concrete need" for a digital euro, he added.

French leader Emmanuel Macron has come under fire for telling a young job-seeker in Paris he could find employment if only he "crossed the road" to look for it. The former investment banker has been dubbed by critics the "president of the rich". He also attracted criticism for the Elysee palace's sales of promotional Macron mugs and T-shirts with his face on for high prices of €24.90 and €55, respectively.

Italian president Sergio Mattarella has rebuked Italy's populist deputy PM, Luigi Di Maio, for threatening to cut funds to public media who criticised the government. "Freedom of the press is fundamental to democracy," Mattarella said in La Repubblica, a daily. He also criticised Italy's talk of withholding EU budget payments in a dispute on migrants. The benefits of EU integration were "never ... convertible into cash," Mattarella said in Latvia.

The EU is preparing to accept Britain's plan to use high-tech gadgets to control a "frictionless" Irish border in future, British newspaper The Times reports, citing sources. One pro-Leave MP, Michael Gove, told the BBC on Sunday that "a future [British] prime minister could always choose to alter the relationship between Britain and the EU", but added that British PM Theresa May's plan was "the right one for now".

"In a few months' time we'll be governing Europe together with [Hungary's right-wing leader] Viktor Orban", Italy's far-right interior minister Matteo Salvini said Friday after Austria's far-right vice chancellor. "Our ideas are now in government in Hungary, Austria, Poland, and Italy," French far-right chief Marine Le Pen said, separately, in a speech in France ahead of European Parliament elections next year.

The peaceful border correction with Serbia is an opportunity for mutual recognition between Kosovo and Serbia that should not be missed, writes Hashim Thaçi.

The discussion about food policies in Europe is often heated up and quite frequently politicised. The right balance between science, politics and policy-making has always been difficult to achieve. The industry calls on EU decision-makers to focus on science when...

Luigi Di Maio, a key figure in Italy's populist government, has taken aim at the country's newspapers, accusing them of "polluting the debate" and threatening to pull advertising by state-owned companies.

Luxembourgish Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn drew the ire of Italy's Matteo Salvini Sunday (16 Septembre) after accusing the far-right interior minister of using "fascist" methods, in a worsening spat over immigration between the two men.

In a departure from his party leader, Labour's London mayor Sadiq Khan has called for another vote on Britain's European Union membership, saying the prime minister's handling of Brexit negotiations had become "mired in confusion and deadlock."

France's far-right leader Marine Le Pen urged Europe's populist parties to unite against a liberal establishment in next year's European elections, as she made a combative return to the spotlight after her bruising election defeat last year.

Hundreds of Romanian magistrates held a silent protest in support of an independent judiciary in capital Bucharest on Sunday (16 September) after a slew of legal changes by the ruling Social Democrats in one of the European Union's most corrupt states.

Czech MEP Jan Zahradil has recently announced his intention to become the ECR's lead candidate for the 2019 European Elections. He is a supporter of a multi-speed Union, with freedom for member states to pursue a foreign policy that best suits their own interests.

Several thousand Macedonians gathered in the capital Skopje on Sunday (16 September) to express their support for NATO and European Union membership bids and for a change in the country's name.

Moscow stopped paying its €20m annual bill to the Council of Europe after criticisms of its human rights record. Now it appears to be waiting for the Strasbourg-based body to crumple.

The mayors of Brussels and Paris have called for an annual car-free day for all of Europe, citing initiatives in their cities that have driven down pollution. But a recent damning report by the EU Court of Auditors revealed there is plenty of work left to do.

Venta Maersk's voyage in the North East Passage is a message to Asian competitors, experts say, as climate change melts ice and eases sea traffic north of Russia.