Euobserver.com

Rivals to replace Theresa May as UK conservative leader and prime minister united in anger against Boris Johnson, the leading candidate for the post, after he did not show up for a major TV debate of candidates on Sunday evening. Foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt said Johnson could not be relied on to negotiate on Brexit with Brussels if he was not even prepared to face cross-examination on TV.

Slovakia's first female president, Zuzana Caputova, a pro-environment and anti-graft lawyer, began her five-year term on Saturday. "Under the constitution, people are free and equal in dignity and in rights, meaning nobody is that irrelevant to have their rights compromised, nor is anyone that powerful to stand above the law," she said in her inauguration speech. Caputova wan presidential elections in March against ruling party Smer-SDs candidate, Maros Sefcovic.

Irish immigration officers flew business class flights when returning from deporting illegal immigrants, a Freedom of Information query has revealed, the Irish Times reported. There were 860 "repatriation" flights booked last year, most of them on economy class, while the bill totalled €164,865 for business class flights. The Irish state can recoup 75 percent of the cost of the flights from the EU Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund.

The deputy premier of Catalonia, Oriol Junqueras, will not be present at Monday's ceremony where Spanish members of the European Parliament are sworn in, due to a decision by the Spanish Supreme Court. Junqueras, in custody for his role in the Catalan independence attempt, won a seat in the European Parliament in May elections. The court decision prevents Junqueras from serving as an MEP.

Scientists say there is no acceptable dose to avoid brain damage. Its use is banned in several European countries. Yet its residues are found in fruit baskets, on dinner plates, and in human urine samples from all over Europe.

The efforts to sway the mood - and the votes - of EU citizens was more targeted and nuanced, and not only restricted to Russian sources. The EU wants online platforms to do more.

A summit in Belgian capital this week will host heads of government and state to discuss top EU institutional posts. But before they meet, the jockeying for the Commission presidency will have already started among the European political groups.

Political bosses of the European Parliament's groups, hoping to assemble a majority coalition, are eyeing putting forward an political agenda - and possibly a name for the commission top job - before EU leaders gather in Brussels.

Ana Gomes, a socialist MEP from Portugal, has accused national authorities of erring on the side of corruption by detaining a whistleblower who helped expose tax evasion by some of Europe's biggest football stars.

Carles Puigdemont and Toni Comin currently live outside Spain. They were prosecuted for the serious crimes, and they have fled justice. It is not possible to judge in absentia in Spain, where the justice system protects the rights of defendants.

Juan Branco is a lawyer and co-author of a legal document submitted to the International Criminal Court (ICC) accusing EU officials and member states of crimes against humanity for their migration policies. "Some people should have to go to prison."

Draft documents seen by Reuters news agency suggest plans are in place to make it easier to restructure eurozone sovereign bonds by 2022, if approved. Such plans could drive up yields of high-debt states and restrict the power to block bond-restructuring, or haircuts, of holders of debt issued by one of the 19 eurozone countries.

Oil supplies to Europe and further afield are at risk of serious disruption, the world's oil tanker association has warned, following more attacks on shipping in the Persian Gulf.

The EU has agreed to increase US beef imports according to unnamed sources cited by Reuters news agency. The deal is set to allow a 45,000 tonne EU quota for hormone-free beef, as part of a 2009 settlement over an EU ban on hormone beef.

The United Kingdom ranks as one of least family-friendly places in Europe, according to a report by the UN's child rights organisation Unicef. When ranked with 31 other wealthy countries, the UK came near the bottom in terms of length of maternity and paternity leave and the proportions of pre-school children above and below the age of three in childcare.

Germany will agree to open EU accession talks with North Macedonia in September, Skopje has said, but Albania's prospects look less bright.

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.

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.

European shops should label Israeli settler exports so consumers can boycott them for "ethical" reasons the same way they did South African ones under apartheid, a senior EU jurist has said.

Czech premier Andrej Babis said the Visegrad 4 countries do not have a joint candidate for Commission president, nor for European Council president, after a meeting of the V4 ahead of next week's EU summit. "The point is for us all to choose the best candidate for everybody," Reuters quoted Babis. Hungarian premier Viktor Orban's spokesman said the group would "represent a shared point of view" on personnel and policy.