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The eurozone is not facing the same kind of sovereign debt crisis it did 10 years ago despite current market volatility, Pascal Donohoe, the Irish finance minister who chairs meetings of euro-using countries, said Monday, the FT reports. The current volatility's "completely different from the kind of crisis environment we were in", he said. The eurozone now had a "stronger architecture" and "deeper foundations for our common currency", he added.

This World Refugee Day, EU policymakers must build on their current efforts towards protecting and welcoming people fleeing Ukraine.

Ukraine should brace itself for more intense Russian attacks this week, as EU leaders meet to discuss Ukraine's candidacy status, Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelensky has said. "We should expect greater hostile activity from Russia," he said in his nightly address Sunday. "And not only against Ukraine, but also against other European countries," he added. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday Russia has "nothing against" Ukraine's EU integration.

Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte has apologised to veterans from its Dutchblatt III peacekeeping force which failed to stop the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia in 1995. "Your mandate, your equipment and the military support you received during your mission were all inadequate" for a mission "that ultimately proved impossible to carry out", he said. A report last year said many Dutchblatt servicemen suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Lithuanian bishops have attacked a new bill legalising same-sex civil partnerships, while quoting Pope Francis. "The draft law on civil unions essentially proposes what Pope Francis urges us not to do — to equate de facto unions and same-sex unions with marriage. We cannot support this bill, which distorts and devalues the concepts of marriage and the family," the bishops wrote in an open letter, Reuters reports.

French president Emmanuel Macron has lost his parliamentary majority in the second round of elections, amid gains by the far left and far right.

UK plans to scrap parts of the post-Brexit trade deal would be "economic vandalism" against Northern Ireland, Irish PM, Micheál Martin, told the BBC's Sunday Morning programme. To reduce paperwork London wants to introduce green lanes for goods set to remain in Northern Ireland and red lanes for other goods. Northern Irish unionist parties maintain the Brexit protocol undermines relations to the UK , while Brussels has announced legal action.

A German far-right AfD party conference ended abruptly on Sunday without agreement on a resolution about the party's foreign policy, according to German media. The resolution, "Rethinking Europe", called for improved ties with Moscow and only referred to Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a "conflict", without using the term "war". In particular Western German delegates wanted a stronger term like Russia's "war of aggression".

The Kremlin's "next step is going to be the air blockade of Lithuania", Russia's once-richest man, now one of its most prominent dissidents, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, told the FT in an interview. "It will allow Russian aviation to fly right through between Russia and Kaliningrad. Then Nato will face a question of what to do", he said.

EU leaders will gather in Brussels and discuss Ukraine's candidacy status, and the impact of Russia's invasion of the country on energy and defence. European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde will give a briefing to MEPs on inflation to MEPs.

A Russian military corvette violated Danish territorial waters north of the Baltic Sea island of Bornholm twice on Friday (17 June), according to a press release from The Danish Armed Forces. Following a call on civilian VHF radio from the Danish navy's maritime task force, the Russian ship immediately left Danish territorial waters. Up to 100,000 people, lawmakers and business people attend a democracy festival on Bornholm this weekend.

The World Trade Organization reached a deal on patents for Covid-19 vaccines, after a deadlock of nearly two years — since India and South Africa submitted a joint proposal to waive intellectual property rights of vaccines worldwide.

Ukraine and Moldova should immediately join the EU enlargement queue as candidates, but Georgia isn't ready yet, the EU Commission said.

Hungary is opposing a global agreement on a minimum corporate tax rate, forcing EU finance ministers to possibly delay a vote planned for Friday on transposing it into EU law. A deal had been expected on Friday after Poland dropped its opposition, Reuters reported, but Hungary has emerged against the plans. Hungary's recovery plan has not been approved by the EU Commission over rule-of-law concerns, while Poland's has.

Pilots and cabin crew of Belgium's largest airline, Brussels Airlines, are planning a strike that coincides with next week's EU summit on 23 June. Trade unions say working conditions are too harsh, with some staff doing 18 flights in a five-day period. "If you're too tired, there's a problem of safety," Paul Buekenhout of the ACV Puls trade union told Reuters. Brussels Airlines is a subsidiary of German carrier Lufthansa.

A letter from European parliament's civil liberty committee chair, Juan Fernando López Aguilar, is demanding the European Commission condemn and possibly take legal action against Greece for reported pushbacks of migrants along the Evros river. The river, which straddles the Greek and Turkish land border, has seen numerous people left stranded and then forced back into Turkey amid rulings by the European human rights court against Athens.

Almost half a million Ukrainian children are registered in schools throughout the EU, said European Commission official Nacira Boulehouat Thursday. "According to the data that we are trying to refine, we have 479,000 children registered in 14 member states in national school system," she said. Boulehouat said many families don't know where they will be in September, posing possible logistical difficulties when children go back to school.

The Dutch intelligence service said on Thursday it had prevented a Russian spy from accessing the International Criminal Court in the Hague as an intern, AFP reported. The man, who tried to use a Brazilian identity to gain access, was identified as a member of Russia's GRU military intelligence in April. The AIVD (General Intelligence and Security Service) said in a statement he was considered a "threat to national security".

The Dutch have urged the EU Commission to take a "rigorous" approach in deciding if Ukraine merits being put on the enlargement train.

Ukraine's EU application is a chance to recalibrate not only the enlargement process, but the entire European project. EU leaders ought to embrace it.