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French President Emmanuel Macron defended a huge trade deal agreed by the European Union and four South American countries and warned against "neo-protectionism", as farmers and environmentalists step up their resistance to the accord.

A lawyer by training, Christine Lagarde has been nominated to succeed Mario Draghi as president of the European Central Banck (ECB). The IMF director has an atypical profile, due to her lack of banking experience and question marks over her past. EURACTIV France reports.

The European Council finally agreed on a pick for the Commission presidency and rallied behind Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday (2 July). But it sets up a potentially ugly encounter with the European Parliament, which might not sanction her appointment.

German defence minister Ursula von der Leyen, a compromise name for the next  European Commission President, is a non-divisive political figure on EU stage and quiet tactician hardly known outside Germany. But her career at home has often been marked by scandals.

Although it has not been committed to paper, EU leaders suggested that Bulgaria’s Sergei Stanishev, president of the Party of European Socialists, would be the president of the new European Parliament for the next 2.5 years, as part of a package agreed at the EU summit on Tuesday (2 July).

The EPP’s lead candidate for the European Commission Manfred Weber was forced to step down from his candidacy for the post on Tuesday (2 July), as it became clear he could not obtain sufficient support from EU member states.

The election of the European Parliament's president was scheduled to take place during the inaugural session in Strasbourg. But the deadlock between EU leaders over the European Commission presidency has put that on hold. EURACTIV France reports.

As exactly the time when Europe actually could prove its credibility and make it visible for the whole world, EU institutions have buried themselves in a trench war over the election of their new leadership.

The free play of forces in Austria’s parliament is now leading to a string of different alliances between Austrian parties, who are attempting to come up with the perfect programme to appease voters. An analysis by Herbert Vytiska for EURACTIV Germany.

The newly-created European Labour Authority (ELA) will take its first steps in October, and there are fears that the ELA will be trapped between the expectations of some member states to step up controls against abuse in cross-border mobility and others who want to focus on providing information and support to fair mobility, argues Marcin Kiełbasa.

The EU must join the US and include corruption in its own sanctions regime on human rights, argue Sarah Gardiner and Rachel Owens.

The EU is currently finalising a “taxonomy” aimed at shifting financial flows towards sustainable assets. However, Germany is leading a group of countries trying to muddy the waters by removing the disclosure requirement, writes Sébastien Godinot.

There is general agreement that smoking is one of the worst things one can do for one's health. But when it comes to alternatives like electronic cigarettes, the debate continues to divide stakeholders and policymakers.

Community and belonging - what do these terms mean in an increasingly diverse and identity-focused world? At the Young Europeans' Forum 2019 that took place in Berlin in June, young people discussed what makes a good society and how social cohesion can be promoted at an individual level. EURACTIV Germany reports.

This is your weekly EURACTIV Transport Brief, the one port of call for all the news from the world of mobility and much more! 

Financing climate change targets is currently a hot topic on the EU’s agenda, especially in the context of reaching climate neutrality by 2050. How do the EU's financing options compare to to the needs of the energy transition in Poland?

"Solving the climate crisis could be Europe's next heroic act,“ Finland's Antti Rinne wrote in a blog post marking the start of his country's EU presidency, suggesting a deal on the bloc's 2050 climate objective could be reached in the coming six months.

The vast expanse of sea ice around Antarctica has suffered a “precipitous” fall since 2014, satellite data shows, and fell at a faster rate than seen in the Arctic, EURACTIV's media partner, The Guardian, reports.

The trade deal recently reached between the EU and Mercosur countries is devastating for European farmers and exposes the bloc’s double standards, Pekka Pesonen, Secretary-General of the EU farmers and cooperatives’ association (Copa-Cogeca), told EURACTIV.com in an interview.

A new industry association was launched in Brussels last week with the aim of bringing together all the players in the supply chain of rare earth metals, which are vital to renewable and low-carbon technologies.