Euobserver.com

'To fix new goals again and again, doesn't make sense,' said the president of the European Commission. However, repeatedly ratcheting-up climate ambition is a key part of what was agreed in Paris.

Boris Johnson has topped the first round of voting to replace Theresa May as Conservative leader and UK prime minister. After voting by Conservative MPs, Johnson received 114 votes, Jeremy Hunt 43, Michael Gove 37, Dominic Raab 27, Sajid Javid 23, Matt Hancock 20, and Rory Stewart 19. Three candidates - Andrea Leadsom, Mark Harper and Esther McVey - were eliminated. Tory MPs will vote the shortlist down to two.

The new European Labour Authority will have its headquarters in Bratislava, Slovakia, EU employment ministers decided in Luxembourg on Thursday. Slovakia received 15 out of 28 votes in the first round of voting. Other contenders were Bulgaria (Sofia), Cyprus (Nicosia), and Lithuania (Riga). Central and eastern EU members have long complained about the geographical distribution of EU agencies, many of which are headquartered in western Europe.

Donald Trump has pledged to move troops from Germany to Poland, while praising Poland's nationalist rulers and attacking Germany on energy and defence.

EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has warned against ramping up climate goals. Nine of the bloc's 28 nations have called for the EU to set a target to go carbon neutral by 2050, which means steeper emissions cuts for industry by 2030 than under the 2015 Paris climate accord. "To fix new goals, again and again, doesn't make sense. Let's focus on delivering what we already agreed," he said.

Counterfeit medicine is a "growing threat" in Europe, causing serious illness or death and costing the pharmaceutical industry more than €10bn every year, a study published Wednesday by Europol and its intellectual property office found. Professional gangs are producing pharmaceuticals in unhygienic clandestine laboratories by unqualified workers, which can be toxic. Gangs are also repackaging illegal medicines, while there is a boost in online marketplaces, AFP reported.

Ethnic and racial minorities make up at least 10 percent of the EU's population but hold just five percent of seats in the new European Parliament, the European Network Against Racism has found. Representation of Europe's biggest minority, the six-million strong Roma, has dropped, Reuters reported. The total percentage of new minority lawmakers will also fall to four percent, when UK lawmakers leave the EU parliament after Brexit.

European governments should make a fresh push for deeper eurozone integration, especially on a bank deposit guarantee scheme where almost no progress has been made, the European commissioner for the euro, Valdis Dombrovkis said Wednesday. The call comes as EU finance ministers meet on Thursday and Friday to sort out outstanding deeper integration ideas such as the deposit guarantee scheme and a eurozone budget, Reuters reported.

China's ambassador to the UK warned London that excluding Huawei from Britain's 5G network "sends a very bad signal", and that Chinese investment in Britain could be affected. Liu Xiaoming said Chinese businesses may be put off dealing with the UK if Huawei's equipment is not used for the network, the BBC reported. The US is already boycotting the company, due to concerns over security.

Thousands took to the streets of Barcelona on Wednesday to show support for the Catalan "political prisoners" whose trial ended after four months in Madrid. The jailed leaders denied the charges, arguing that Catalonia's 2017 secession bid had been non-violent. The nine defendants charged with rebellion, including former Catalan vice president Oriol Junqueras, who was elected to the EU parliament last month, could face 25 years in jail if convicted.

In February - for the first time - the European parliament considered seized property in reviewing Bosnia's membership application to the European Union. But more work has to be done.

An EU-funded school programme aimed at promoting environmental awareness is sending students across Europe - by airplane.

The centre-right, the socialists, the liberals and the greens will start their discussion on policy in five areas - while EU leaders also gear up for a summit next week on who should lead the EU institutions.

In 2013, the European Commission declared ships that help migrants in distress would not face sanctions. Now - six years later - Italy's government endorses a decree to impose fines up to €50,000 for rescue boats docking in Italian ports.

Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson formally launched his bid to become the next Conservative party leader and UK prime minister on Wednesday. Johnson is the bookies' favourite, with more then double the number of Tory MPs publicly backing him compared with nearest rivals Jeremy Hunt and Michael Gove. Some 10 MPs are running to replace Theresa May - a shortlist of two will be voted on by party members.

The liberal group in the European Parliament, formerly Alde, has been renamed "Renew Europe", after French president Emmanuel Macron's En Marche and other parties joined, following EU elections last month. "This should keep our new French partners content, but many of us will continue to refer to it as the Liberal Group," British MEP Chris Davies tweeted. They now have 108 seats after a boost in French and UK members.

German Green MEP Ska Keller and Belgian Green MEP Philippe Lamberts were both elected co-presidents of the European Parliament's political group composed of the Greens and European Free Alliance (EFA) on Wednesday. The Greens/EFA will have 75 MEPs in the next legislature, up from the current 52, making it the fourth-largest political group. On Tuesday, the EFA elected Scottish MEP Alyn Smith as president.

The far-right anti-EU group Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF) has announced the "creation of a new political group", scheduled for Thursday, listing MEPs from nine member parties. Those parties won 73 seats in total. It is unclear if the ENF name will change. The group now has for the first time Czech, Danish, Estonian, and Finnish MEPs. If all 73 MEPs join ENF, it will be the fifth-largest group.

French president Emmanuel Macron has told Swiss broadcaster RTS that he would endorse German chancellor Angela Merkel to be the next European Commission president if she wanted the post. The EU "needs someone strong" at the top, he said Tuesday. "If she were to want it, I would support her," he added. Merkel herself has said she does not want to come to Brussels and will quit politics in 2021.

Italian leaders have said they hoped for compromise with the EU on overspending, despite agreeing a new flat tax on Tuesday likely to propel its debt beyond EU fiscal limits. "I don't think they'll go all the way", Italian duty prime minister Luigi di Maio said, referring to the risk of EU fines. "We hope Europe will allow Italy to return to growth," Italy's other deputy PM, Matteo Salvini, said.