Euobserver.com

On Thursday Filip Dewinter, a leader of the far-right party Vlaams Belang party, unexpectedly became the new president of the Flemish parliament. As the first vice-president he succeeded Kris Van Dijck, who resigned over two scandals: earlier this week he was caught drink-driving, then it emerged he helped an escort girl to get unemployment benefits. The Flemish parliament will elect a new president soon.

Boris Johnson, the most-likely next British prime minister, came under fire on Thursday from fellow Conservative MPs over the resignation of the UK ambassador in Washington, Kim Darroch. Johnson refused six times to explicitly back Darroch during a TV leadership debate, following leaks of his criticisms of Donald Trump, prompting the ambassdor to resign on Wednesday. At least five fellow Conservative MPs slammed Johnson during a parliament debate.

The EU's border and coast agency, Frontex, said Thursday that the month of June registered some 8,500 irregular migrant border crossings into Europe, a six percent increase when compared to the previous month. When compared to last year, Frontex said the total for the first half of 2019 was nearly a third lower. The sea crossing from Turkey to Greece is the busiest of the main routes into Europe.

Eurozone banks, such as Deutsche Bank, might be much more vulnerable to a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis than EU "stress-tests" have said, according to a new audit.

The European Parliament's powerful civil liberties committee (Libe) has elected anti-separatist Spanish MEPs for its chair and vice-chair positions. The issue risks complicating efforts by pro-Catalan factions to have the debate on independence raised to the EU level.

The EU's high representative Federica Mogherini pledged €138m extra to the G5 Sahel Force in order to be better equipped to fight insurgency and terrorism in the Sahel region. Mogherini announced the pledge after a meeting with the foreign ministers of the Sahel G5 (Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Chad) in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou. Nigeria's president called earlier for help to fight insurgency in the region.

Three Iranian boats have tried to impede a British oil tanker in the Gulf of Hormuz. A frigate of the Royal Navy positioned itself between the boats and the ships and issued verbal warnings, while pointing its guns to the vessels. Iran denied the action, despite its warnings it would retaliate for the seizure of an Iranian ship by British forces near Gibraltar earlier this week.

Italy's prime minister Giuseppe Conte announced on Wednesday that the current family minister Lorenzo Fontana would become Italy's minister for European affairs. Fontana is a member of the far-right League and a committed eurosceptic. The position was held temporarily by Conte, as the former EU minister Paolo Savone became head of Italy's market watchdog.

EU commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis has asked the Romanian government to stop the planned shipping of 70,000 sheep to the Gulf. The sheep are expected to be loaded on a vessel of a Kuwaiti company and shipped to Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates for the "festival of sacrifice" which takes place in August. The request follows an outcry from animal rights organisations such as the Eurogroup for Animals.

The fourth largest group in the parliament does not back EU leaders' nominee for the commission top job, pushing Ursula von der Leyen's possible base further to the right.

Former communication chief of the Hungary's Fidesz party, Balazs Hidvegi, wants a senior spot on the European Parliament committee working on migration and law. His nomination was delayed following a surprise decision by the centre-right EPP group.

Some 60 of Romania's public hospitals are refusing to provide women with legal abortions - as a result of doctors invoking a "conscience clause".

While an end to detention is necessary, particularly for those intercepted at sea and returned to centres, this alone will not make Libya a safe country. No one should be returned to Libya until the rule of law is restored.

The German defence minister sought the votes of liberals, socialists and greens to be approved as the new commission president. MEPs were largely unimpressed.

EU diplomats have discussed which sanctions to slap on Turkey over gas drilling in Cypriot waters, amid Ankara's ongoing mockery of Europe.

The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg has delivered a blow to Denmark's strict family-reunification laws. The ruling will likely cause headaches for its new left-leaning government given its stance on immigration, and opens up 8,000 pending cases.

Kim Darroch, the British ambassador to the US, resigned on Wednesday, following the weekend leak of confidential cables back to London where he had described Donald Trump as "incompetent...inept...insecure". Trump had hit back, calling Darroch "pompous" and refusing to deal with him. Darroch's resignation letter said that "[the] situation is making it impossible for me to carry out my role as I would like."

Turkey's ruler railed against the EU and continued to escalate a gas-drilling dispute on Monday, amid dire predictions for the Turkish economy.

On Wednesday the liberals of Renew Europe will vote against candidates from the Hungarian Fidesz party and the Polish PiS party for the functions of chair or vice-chair of parliamentary committees. According to the leader of Renew Europe, Dacian Ciolos, these are "governing parties from countries subject to an article 7 procedure". Last week Renew voted for a Fidesz candidate for the vice-presidency of the parliament.

On Tuesday, Italy's interior minister Matteo Salvini closed down the Mineo migrant centre in Sicily, calling it a centre of "drugs, prostitution and violence". It is the largest migrant reception centre in Europe, hosting up to 4,100 migrants in 2014. After having declared war on NGOs that rescue migrants in the Mediterranean, Salvini announced military ships and air patrols to keep migrants from coming to Italy.