Euobserver.com

Six EU leaders representing the three most-successful political blocs in the EU elections last month are meeting in Brussels on Friday to start talks on Europe's top jobs.

"Slowdown in shifting towards renewable electricity implies that we might not meet the EU 2020 target," George Pufan, in charge of a new report by the EU Court of Auditors, warned on Thursday. Although wind and solar power recorded strong growth since 2005, there has been a slowdown since 2014, with half of EU member states now facing a significant challenge in meeting their 2020 renewables target.

Russia's top cellphone operator MTS has signed an agreement with China's Huawei to develop 5G technology, with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian president Vladimir Putin at the signing ceremony in Moscow. US president Donald Trump banned US companies from selling high-tech equipment to Huawei in May over suspicions it is used for spying by Beijing, while more than ten EU countries are preparing to auction 5G licences this year.

UK prime minister Theresa May will officially step down as Conservative leader on Friday, remaining prime minister only until the party has chosen a new leader to succeed her. Eleven MPs have declared their interest in the post, with a deadline of Monday for nominations. Conservative MPs select, in secret ballots from 13-20 June, two finalists for party members to pick the winner in the week of 22 July.

In Dublin on Wednesday, US president Donald Trump assured Brexit would "work out very well, and also for you with your wall, your border." Irish PM Leo Varadkar quickly replied a wall is the "one thing we [the Irish] want to avoid". Meanwhile, a British official in charge of Brexit border preparations, Karen Wheeler, has left her job, prompting speculation of UK preparedness for a no-deal Brexit on 31 October.

Estonia's government has moved quickly on naming the country's next commissioner, with a proposal from prime minister Juri Ratas to submit Centre Party minister, Kadri Simson, as a candidate approved on Thursday. The next commission will not take office before 1 November 2019, but the Estonian seat could become vacant before, as the current Estonian commissioner Andrus Ansip was elected a member of the European parliament in May.

Current challenges to the rule of law, an independent civil society, and the equal treatment of minorities are just as much in need of tackling as are the challenges of globalisation, migration, and digitalisation.

John Dalli was ousted as European Commissioner for health in 2012 over a tobacco-lobbying scandal. On Thursday, the general court of the European Union dismissed his case against the European Commission.

Spanish socialist MEP Iratxe Garcia has officially launched a bid for the Socialists and Democrats group leadership in the European Parliament. The current group leader is German MEP Udo Bullman. The group will choose its new leader on 18 June. The Spanish Socialist party, PSOE, has the largest delegation in the group with 20 MEPs, while Germany's delegation shrank to 16 seats in the new parliament.

Denmark has elected a young, female, centre-left leader, completing a socialist sweep in the EU's nordic states - but only after adopting right-wing anti-migrant policies.

The infringement procedure against Italy for excessive debt recommended by the European Commission on Wednesday was foreseeable, if not inevitable.

The left-wing government under prime minister Alexis Tsipras has drafted a bill seeking to weaken the definition of rape. The bill is set to be voted on Thursday and defines rape in terms of physical threat and not of the victim's consent. Amnesty International has described the measure as "unacceptable", noting that the bill will make it more difficult for victims of rape to seek justice.

France exported some €9.1bn worth of weapons in 2018, a 30 percent increase when compared to 2017, reported Defence News on Wednesday. Its biggest client last year was Qatar with $2.7bn, followed by Belgium ($1.27), Saudi Arabia ($1bn) and Spain ($658).

Russia hacked and stole information from the EU's embassy in Moscow, according to documents seen by media outlet BuzzFeed News. It says the EU's foreign policy branch (EEAS) had tried to keep the attack, which took place in 2017, a secret. The hack had only been detected in April this year.

Some 680,000 signatures in Hungary have been collected to pressure Viktor Orban's nationalist government into joining the EU's new public prosecutor office (EPPO), set to launch next year. Hungary is one of six EU states that have so far refused to join the body, which will have powers to investigate and launch criminal charges in cross-border cases. Olaf, the EU's anti-fraud office, says Hungary needs to repay misspent EU funds.

We hear a lot about the threats of social media and misinformation to our democracies. What we don't hear about is another anti-democratic disease that has already claimed multiple victims across the continent - 'media capture'.

Denmark's social-liberal party, formerly led by EU commissioner Margrethe Vestager, doubled support in Wednesday's national elections (8.6 percent), and pledged to back social democrat leader, Mette Frederiksen (25,9 percent), to form a new government, replacing liberal leader Lars Lokke Rasmussen (23,4 percent) as prime minister. The anti-migrant, eurosceptic Danish Peoples Party came third (8.7 percent), losing half of its seats, while a new hard-right party entered parliament.

The EPP has backed Weber as their leader in the new EU parliament - but talks on a coalition and parliament's top candidate for the commission presidency are moving slowly.

Gazprom's argument - that the application of the directive is discriminatory and retroactive - looks more like a desperate grasping at legal straws.

Home affairs ministers are set to endorse reforms for tougher EU return laws to send unwanted migrants home. But an absent lead MEP on the file and a wary EU parliament means their agreement may not amount to much.