Euobserver.com

A majority in Czechia, Hungary, and Poland are open to their countries hosting Ukrainian refugees, according to a survey by Globsec, the Bratislava-based think tank, published last week.

Russia and Serbia are preparing to stir up trouble in the Western Balkans to divert attention from Russia's losses in Ukraine, Kosovo's prime minister has warned.

Former EU home affairs commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos held meetings with EU commission vice-presidents at a time when he was being paid by Fight Impunity, an NGO linked to the Qatari corruption allegations.

EU member states on Tuesday voiced support for an ambitious nature restoration law which will set legally binding targets for nature restoration for 20 percent of Europe's land and sea area's by 2030.

Take 'Qatargate'. European Parliament president Roberta Metsola has artfully shifted the blame for the EU's epic bribery scandal on nasty "autocratic third countries" which (surprise, surprise) hate democracy. Unscrupulous foreigners corrupting innocent European lawmakers is a reassuringly comforting Orientalist trope.

The parallels between the two leaders can be seen in the campaign to denigrate and delegitimise political opposition and ethnic minorities, attempts to muzzle the independent judiciary, exploitation of religion to promote nationalism, and efforts to co-opt extreme rightwing parties.

"Erdoğan got the answer to his blackmail," exiled Turkish journalist Bülent Keneş has said after Sweden snubbed Turkey's extradition demand.

More than half of registered trafficking victims are EU nationals, with most sold off for sex, said the European Commission. Most are registered in Romania, followed by Germany and the Netherlands.

Energy ministers on Monday met for a final push to agree on a gas price-cap before the end of the year.

In a nutshell, we have more than 100 million young Europeans who are using an app that snoops on personal data, relays information to Beijing and has direct control over what users see in their feeds.

On Monday, we will also find out of there is a deal among European Parliament and EU government negotiators on the agreement to reform the bloc's Emissions Trading System (ETS) and on the Social Climate Fund.

All the articles you should not have missed this week.

On Monday the European Council is about to softly kill the main legislative part of the Farm to Fork and biodiversity strategy — all in the name of food security.

The dumpster fire at the European Parliament may be largely of the EU's own making.

One of the most striking features of this scandal is the fact that it was the Belgian police — working on this case for months — who spotted what was arguably hiding in plain sight, writes EU Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly.

Belgian MEP Frederique Ries, vice-chair of the Renew Europe political group, sat on a board of a foundation fronting for Morocco — at a time when Rabat was lobbying MEPs to secure an EU trade deal.

To those of us who have been working for years to cast a light on EU corruption, this latest scandal is not a shock, or even a surprise — it's just the tip of the iceberg.

Six Russian fertiliser and chemicals barons will partly slip off the hook on EU sanctions, in the first significant loosening of EU measures since Russia invaded in February.

The ECB announced another rate hike on Thursday, but economists warn that increasing capital costs will hurt the EU's shift to renewable energy and energy efficiency.

The tax deal was part of a package, including joint aid to Ukraine, and which Hungary had blocked until Monday in the hopes of reducing financial sanctions over rule of law issues.