Euobserver.com

The 81-year-old Paolo Savona appeared on Thursday as the leading candidate to become Italy's new finance and economy minister, despite describing Italy's entry in the eurozone a "historic error". Leader of the far-right League, Matteo Salvini, said he had "no doubts" that Savona, a former banker and industry minister was the right man for the job. Savona believes Italy is being 'colonised' by Germany.

Two Russian internet provocateurs, Alexei Stolyarov and Vladimir Kuznetsov, managed to trick UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson into believing he was on the phone with Armenian leader Nikol Pashinyan in a talk that lasted over 18 minutes. The duo posted the audio recording of the call online. "This shouldn't have happened," said a spokeswoman for British prime minister Theresa May, announcing an investigation to determine the circumstances.

Spain's ruling PP party has suffered a major blow after the High Court in Madrid on Thursday convicted Luis Barcenas, the party's former treasurer and once a close ally of the prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, to jail for 33 years. In total, 29 officials and businessmen were convicted in one of the country's biggest corruption scandals centred on bribing party officials in return for contracts to carry out public works.

Irish voters go the polls on Friday to decide whether to remove the a constitutional ban on abortion, and pave the way for laws legalising abortion up to 12 weeks into a pregnancy. More than 3.2 million people are eligible to vote. Two polls published this week showed small increases in the yes vote, with one putting it at 56 percent and another at 52 percent, but with turnout unpredictable.

By the time the tournament kicks off on 14 June, all twelve stadiums will all have undergone a standards certification process for sustainable buildings.

Central European countries say they have "nothing to hide" on rule of law issues - while justice commissioner Vera Jourova said they should agree to the Commission's controversial budget plans on rule of law conditionality.

The 'right to be forgotten' will become enshrined in EU law on Friday, but it is not yet clear to what extent it will apply. Will the EU's law determine how the internet looks globally?

Russian energy giant Gazprom on Thursday accepted four new conditions from the EU Commission governing its supply of gas to central and eastern European member states, rather than face a potential fine of up to 10 percent of global revenues. The measures will see Gazprom allow greater competition from other suppliers, more price transparency and an obligation to supply isolated markets such as the Baltics and Bulgaria.

Facebook does not create profiles about internet users without a Facebook account, the US company told MEPs. "However we may take the opportunity to show an ad encouraging the non-user to sign up for Facebook," the company said in a five-page document published Thursday. The company answered in writing some of the questions MEPs did not get an answer to during Tuesday's meeting with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Giovanni Buttarelli, the European data protection supervisor, says the EU-US data sharing pact known as Privacy Shield will play an increasingly minor role given the general data protection regulation.

Italian populists have picked an unknown academic to lead them into conflict on EU finance and asylum rules.

Negotiators from the European Parliament give up attempting to bar 'lethal autonomous weapons' from new €500m European Defence Industrial Development Programme.

The European Commission has said it will make more money available for rights groups in the EU. But will proposed changes be deep enough to make a difference?

The European Commission proposed Wednesday to end the procedure for an excessive deficit opened against France in 2009. "The trajectory for the reduction of deficit is strong and clear," said finance commissioner Pierre Moscovici, after the deficit went under three percent of GDP last year for the first time in 10 years. The formal decision will be taken by finance ministers. Spain remains the only country in the procedure.

Facebook CEO gets away with ignoring difficult questions, as MEPs' lengthy speeches eat up time for follow-up queries.

Households in the UK have lost around €1,025 in real income each as a result of Brexit, said Bank of England governor Mark Carney. "Real household incomes are about £900 [€1,025] per household lower than we forecast in May of 2016, which is a lot of money," he told UK Treasury Committee on Tuesday. He said Brexit has knocked off some €45bn from the British economy.

The Wall Street Journal reported the US may reduce European steel and aluminium imports by 10 percent. The move is part of a wider threat from the US in March to impose tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminium. The EU is demanding exemptions and waivers to the US tariffs and warned it would reciprocate the trade threats with its own measures against US businesses.

Australia will be seeking expanded access to the EU agricultural market as part of its free trade talks with the European Union. Australia's PM Malcolm Turnbull told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday that Australia's farmers have little access to Europe given the broader resistance from countries like France. His trade minister Steve Ciobo said the trade deal would open up opportunities for Australian farmers.

Giuseppe Conte, the law professor slated by Italy's two largest populist parties to become the next prime minister, is facing scrutiny over allegations he embellished his CV. His resume says that he had 'perfected his legal studies' at New York University but a spokesperson told the BBC there was no record of him ever having studied there.

The success of the new general data protection regulation (GDPR) will depend on whether data protection authorities enforce the new rules - which, in turn, will be at least partly determined by how many people they employ.