Euobserver.com

The EU needs teachers. 40 percent are over 50 years old, salaries are not attractive enough, classes are very large, and the work-life balance has become more problematic since the Covid-19 pandemic.

With Ukraine, the Balkans, Moldova and, with a longer timeframe, Georgia, the EU is looking to go from 27 member countries to 35-plus in a decade or less. How to get agreement about the way to do this?

Leaders from some 50 European countries will attend the third European Political Community (EPC) summit in Granada, followed by an informal meeting of EU leaders on Friday. What's on the agenda?

The UN has called on central banks to institute "more pragmatic policies to tackle inflation" as large parts of the world are "crushed" by debt, and wealthy countries risk another decade of austerity and recession.

House prices, mortgages and rents are strangling citizens across Europe, depriving 895,000 people of access to housing, as the cost of living crisis, the fallout from the war in Ukraine and the Covid-19 pandemic put ever-more pressure on people's pockets.

The European Parliament is lifting objections to press ahead on EU-wide asylum reforms with the council, representing member states.

The political appetite for EU sanctions on Serbia is growing, after Belgrade's response to a dramatic attack in Kosovo. Croatia has joined a bloc of some eight states calling for EU sanctions against Belgrade, according to diplomatic sources.

Factors such as the weather, and conditions in countries of departure, are much more key in explaining changing migration movements than talk of the 'pull' effect. But despite the many attempts to 'debunk' it, the pull theory is resilient.

The European Commission and MEPs have asked Polish authorities to shed light on allegations linked to the thousands of visas issued since 2021 in exchange for bribes.

The EU Commission published a list of 10 technologies with the potential to: undermine peace and security, violate human rights, or harm the EU's interests. The next step is to assess the risks, and then focus on mitigation measures.

The European Commission is largely silent on the latest snub from Tunisia's president Kais Saied over a stalled July agreement to curb migrant departures.

The world has changed, not least in northern Europe, which is rapidly becoming one of the new frontlines between Nato and Russia. It is sometimes said that even the largest avalanche is caused by something small. Watch Northern Europe

EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis popped a bottle of champagne in early June 2023. After the failed ratification of an Economic Partnership Agreement with the East African Community in 2016, he finally could declare success. However, there's little to celebrate.

Wopke Hoekstra, EU commissioner designate for climate action, vowed to phase out EU fossil fuel subsidies in a hearing with the climate committee in the EU Parliament in Strasbourg.

When the rescuers arrived, they found a sea of corpses. The pictures of the coffins — many white and tiny — lined up in Lampedusa airport shocked the world and shook Europe's conscience.

EU foreign ministers held an unprecedented meeting in Kyiv on Monday to debunk stories the West was tired of helping Ukraine, but Hungary's Péter Szijjártó was conspicuous by his absence.

MEPs on the environmental committee will have three hours to grill the designated climate commissioner, the Netherlands' Wopke Hoekstra, on Monday.

The EU's border force Frontex shared the personal data of NGO staff with police in at least six cases after collecting information during debriefing interviews with asylum seekers as part of an anti-smuggling operation.

This should be a wake-up call to ensure consultancy firms with a vested interest are permanently excluded from public tenders. The close relationship between the EU's competition authority and economic consultants poses a serious risk to its independence.

Fico has the potential to shift Slovakia from the West and jeopardise the EU unity in its stance against Russia's Ukraine war. His victory could also have a domino effect in central Europe and empower of other far-right, populist movements.