A cross-partisan group of MEPs assembled to criticise the potential sabotage of the EU’s committee charged with examining the bloc’s COVID response, with Italian MEP Francesca Donato accusing Green groups of bowing down to corporate power.

Ministers were canny, says journalist Toby Young, but it is the media that is at fault for failing to hold the government to account.

With anti-regime protests in Iran ongoing, hope for the opposition may come from the exiled son of Iran’s last king and his efforts to rally support.

It appears as though no amount of Western well-wishing will speed up any such accession process.

There is much joy around the striking of an agreement, but how long will this last?

The French president explained that Volodymyr Zelensky had been “a great war leader” up to that point, but that he now had to complete his transformation into a true statesman, even at the cost of “difficult decisions.”

Even if the youth would like to see Fidesz go, they still want a conservative Hungary.

N-VA MP Sander Loones notes that rulings on migration and climate in particular are affected, “where sometimes judges rather than politicians determine policy.”

Germany recorded the highest excess mortality rate of 37%, with Romanian MEP Cristian Terhes saying that officials must be open-minded to the causes of the spike.

Freedom of information requests reveal that senior EU transport official Henrik Hololei enjoyed trips to Qatar while he and his office were negotiating a controversial open skies agreement with the Gulf state.

The greener member states do not want to foot the bill for others’ fossil dependence as energy ministers met for “intense” debate organized by the Council’s Swedish presidency.

The agreement between the EU and UK governments will entail reduced border checks on British goods entering Northern Ireland.