Euobserver.com

Spanish police briefly arrested British human rights activist Bill Browder on Wednesday, on Russian charges of "fraud" filed via Interpol, the international police agency. The attack was the sixth time Russia had used Interpol against Browder, who campaigns for Russia sanctions. Interpol dismissed the other ones on grounds they were politically motivated. "Worrying that autocratic Russia can get democratic Spain to go after someone," liberal MEP Guy Verhofstadt said.

The EU is facing "another major financial crisis" and "existential" threats, but Brexit, one of its biggest problems, could be overturned.

Rival Libyan factions agreed on Tuesday in Paris to create a political framework paving the way for UN-backed parliamentary and presidential elections in a secure environment by 10 December 2018. The deal aims to end the country's seven-year-old conflict. Libyan instability has aggravated the EU migration crisis by creating a haven for human smugglers. It has also threatened European security by creating a haven for Islamist extremist group Isis.

The right to freely choose where to live and work, considered a cornerstone of EU rights, is being questioned by Austria's vice chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, calling for a reform of the European rule. "We must discuss openly, that it is not all good for European development, that all intellectual, well-educated east European potential is drawn to western Europe," the the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) leader said in Vienna.

Collapse of government talks in Rome triggered instability on eurozone markets and controversy over an EU commissioner's comments on Italian democracy.

Karl-Heinz Lambertz, president of the Committee of Regions, remains unconvinced that 'Brussels' should give back any powers to the member states.

Reasons for the cut not political, EU executive said, but based on growth in regions in Hungary, Poland, and further afield.

The European Parliament approved Tuesday the final agreement on reform of the posted workers directive. Under the revised rules, EU workers will be able to work up to 12 months in another country - with possibility of a six-month extension in some cases - with the same salary as local workers for the same job. Lorry drivers are excluded from the rules, with specific rules to be adopted later.

Pro-American EU states are saying US ties are more important than Iran amid disagreement on the nuclear deal.

Almost one in five working age Romanians (19.7%) lived in another EU country in 2017, new Eurostat figures show. Second largest shares were recorded in Lithuania (15.0%), Croatia (14.0%), Portugal (13.9%), Latvia (12.9%) and Bulgaria (12.5%). Germans were the least mobile Europeans, with only 1 percent living abroad followed by the UK (1.1%), Sweden and France (both on 1.3%).

On Tuesday in Strasbourg, the inaugural prize for journalists and whistleblowers in honour of Daphne Caruana Galizia will be awarded. Caruana Galizia was murdered in a car bomb attack in 2017, after exposing corruption in Malta.

Libyan leaders meet in Paris on Tuesday for a summit, hosted by French president Emmanuel Macron, in order to unify rivals in the former Italian colony which descended into chaos after the death of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011. Representatives from around 20 countries involved in the Libya crisis have been invited to discuss a political roadmap committing all parties to hold parliamentary and presidential elections this year.

Croatia ranks lowest in terms of perceived judicial independence among it citizens, with just over 20 percent seeing independence of courts and judges as being good or fairly good, according to the 2018 EU Justice Scoreboard published Monday. Among southeast European EU countries, Romanians showed the highest confidence in the independence of their judiciary, while Denmark topped the ranking with close to 90 percent trusting their courts and judges.

The far-right political group, Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF), was Monday evening asked by the European Parliament's bureau, headed by president, Antonio Tajani, to file comments on allegations made by the budgetary control committee that they misspent more than € 427,000. The group on charge includes French National Front, Italy's League, co-governing Austrian conservative FPO and the Dutch Freedom Party (PVV) of Geert Wilders.

Following Ireland's abortion referendum last Friday, pressure is growing for Northern Irish women to gain the same right. Northern Ireland has blocked all efforts from London to liberalise its abortion law. More than 160 UK MPs, including some Conservatives, have written to prime minister Theresa May demanding a referendum on relaxing the abortion laws in Northern Ireland, but her Northern Irish DUP party allies are opposed.

Austria's conservative led government announced on Monday plans to cap minimum welfare payments for non-German speaking immigrants, including refugees, at €563 a month, but with the perspective of reaching the Austrian normal level of €863, provided they passed a German test. The test itself costs €1,000. The move brings Austria into conflict with European Union rules requiring EU citizens to be treated equally.

The EU commission wants to ban plastic straws and cutlery. Most of these are not made in the EU, making the proposal more likely to succeed.

Prolonged internal border checks are "unlawful", MEPs are preparing to say on Tuesday, in the EU parliament's first bid to protect free movement in Europe.

The British government is abusing EU travel security systems, making and using illegal copies of outdated information, and putting innocent people at risk of being red-flagged.

Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy faces a vote of confidence on Friday (1 June). A motion presented by the opposition Socialist Party (PSOE) will be debated on Thursday and Friday. The radical left Podemos said it would support the PSOE, but the liberal Ciudadanos has not said yeat what it will do. The vote follows the sentencing, last week, of several members of Rajoy's centre-right Popular Party for corruption.