Euobserver.com

Malta is to join the European Public Prosecutor Office (EPPO), an office established in 2017 to investigate EU fund and VAT fraud. In a letter to the European Commission, Maltese justice minister Owen Bonnici said Thursday that EPPO was "a major development for safeguarding the economic interests" of the EU. The commission will now launch the procedure to have Malta join the other 20 states taking part in EPPO.

The European Central Bank (ECB) will end its bond-buying programme, also known as quantitative easing (QE), at the end of the year, president Mario Draghi announced on Thursday. The ECB will continue to buy €30bn of bonds each month until September, then will reduce the amount to €15bn until the end of December. The programme started in March 2015 to inject cash into the eurozone economy.

In 2030, 32% of the EU's energy should be from renewable sources, the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the Council agreed on Thursday. Negotiators reached a compromise in behind-closed-doors discussions. The 32% goal is higher than the "at least 27%" target agreed by EU leaders in 2014. The parliament had wanted 35%. EU climate commissioner Miguel Arias Canete said it will help the EU meet its Paris agreement promises.

Italy's EU minister has said the euro was "indispensable", reassuring markets amid uncertainty over populist rule in Rome.

Norwegian MPs to vote on providing €29.5m in funding for a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project.

Next month Supreme Court judges could be removed in Poland - due to a controversial reform seen as a judicial purge by a government that wants to control the courts. The European Commission wants Warsaw to act now.

Four steps towards making globalisation work better, and improving cooperation between China and the EU.

The EU commission on Wednesday presented plans to spend more money on defence and security in the next long-term EU budget 2021-2027. A €13bn European Defence Fund will be invested in areas such as encrypted software and drone technology. A new €10.5bn European Peace Facility, will be set aside to improve the EU's ability to prevent conflicts, build peace and guarantee international security.

Winner of 'World's Best Mayor', Mechelen's Bart Somers has invited Hungary's PM to visit. "You know, in the whole of Hungary with 10million inhabitants, they have less Muslims than we have in a small city of 90,000," he told EUobserver.

The prosecutor's office in Braunschweig, Germany, has fined car giant Volkswagen €1bn for selling 10.7 million cars between 2007 and 2015 that had emissions-test-cheating software installed. The car firm admitted responsibility for the diesel scandal and said it did not plan to appeal against the fine, but expected it to end criminal proceedings in Europe. The fine does not exclude civil claims or claims by vehicle owners.

A large majority in the European parliament agreed on Wednesday to cut the number of members from currently 751 to 705 after Brexit. Of the 73 current UK seats, 27 will be redistributed among 14 countries currently under-represented, while 46 seats are held in reserve for new member states to join the bloc. EU leaders are expected to greenlight the plan at their summit in Brussels on 28-29 June.

Following Italy's rejection of migrant rescue ship Aquarius, a US navy ship that rescued 41 migrants off the coast of Libya on Tuesday is waiting to been assigned a port of safety. German aid organisation Sea-Watch pledged "for the sake of the people" that "the nearest port of safety can be entered". A US navy spokesman said that negotiations with the "international partners" on how to proceed are underway.

The hardline interior ministers of Austria, Germany, and Italy formed an "axis of the willing" to combat illegal migration, Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz said Wednesday, after he met with German interior minister Horst Seehofer. Seehofer is at loggerheads with chancellor Angela Merkel over Germany's migration policy. Seehofer said he and his far-right Austrian and Italian counterparts formed their alliance this week, saying they would also deal with security and terrorism.

It was Mark Rutte's Dutch premier's turn to share his vision on the future of Europe with MEPs. An emerging EU leader in the post-Brexit bloc called for a more united, but less centralised Europe.

Some 35 Scottish Nationalist MPs stage a walkout in the House of Commons in front of prime minister Theresa May on Wednesday, in protest at what they saw as the UK government's lack of debate over powers for Scotland after Brexit. The group had demanded more time to debate the issue, which they say will see more powers returned from Brussels to London, than to the parliament in Edinburgh.

Polish president keen to ask big questions in November, but ruling party could turn the project into a damp squib.

The departure of Merkel by 2021 will offer the opportunity for a credible reorientation of German conservative politics. This must not be squandered by pandering to a regressive right-wing.

South Korean businesses including Hyundai and Samsung are already scoping investment opportunities. Will North Korea become a 'new Vietnam' opportunity - or more like Myanmar, where slow Brussels policy-making meant EU exporters lost out.

Breakthrough likely to see EU leaders open accession talks with Macedonia at summit in June and Nato invite Macedonia to join in July.

France has butted heads with Italy's populists on migration, as the EU commission watches from the sidelines.