Euobserver.com

At least seven national parties from Europe's biggest political alliance, the centre-right European People's Party, want the group's 'enfant terrible', Hungary's nationalist and authoritarian Fidesz kicked out - following Budapest's latest anti-EU campaign.

EUobserver received this letter from the ambassador of the Slovak republic to the EU to clarify the reasons why Slovakia decided to strengthen its presence in Israel and open a Slovak Cultural and Information Centre in Jerusalem.

Net migration from non-EU countries to the UK rose by 261,000 people last year - the highest level since 2004 - Britain's Office for National Statistics has said. Migration from EU states fell to a low since 2009. "Different patterns for EU and non-EU migration have emerged since mid-2016, when the EU referendum vote took place," the ONS said. Reducing immigration was a key promise of pro-Brexit politicians.

Cyprus has announced that exploratory drilling had found up to 8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in its maritime zone in what its energy minister Georgios Lakkotrypis called "one of the biggest [discoveries] worldwide in the last two years". The news threatens to escalate tension with Turkey, which is holding a naval drill in the area, amid competing claims for natural resources, including by the unrecognised Northern Cyprus republic.

EU states may block moves to put Saudi Arabia on an EU money-laundering blacklist, reports Reuters. The news agency says Saudi Arabia's King Salman had sent letters to all 28 EU leaders urging them to not inclde Riyadh on the register, noting it could affect trade with the EU. It also comes after the Saudis paid the College of Europe to set up private meetings with EU institutions.

The US trade department has said it will seek "comprehensive market access for US agricultural goods in the UK" in a post-Brexit trade deal with the UK, as well as the removal of "unwarranted barriers" related to "sanitary and physiosanitary" standards in the farm industry, the Financial Times reports. The 18-page negotiation mandate indicates Britain is unlikely to get preferential treatment, as it had expected, from its American ally.

Leaked memos from the EU's external policy branch, obtained and reported by Politico Europe, show that the EU's naval operation Sophia is unable to fully carry out its mandate. Politico Europe says the papers show that Sophia is understaffed, underequipped, and underfunded in its efforts to crack down on migrant smugglers emanating from Libya.

Public space in Hungary to carry out open debates on migration and refugees is increasingly restricted, as the Fidesz-led government smear campaign targets the European Commission.

Two centre-right Belgian parties and a Luxemburgish one (CD&V, CDH, and CSV) have written to Joseph Daul, the head of the centre-right EPP party in the European Parliament, calling for the "exclusion" of Hungarian leader Viktor Orban's Fidesz party from the group. The Portuguese CDS-People's Party, the Dutch Christian Democratic Appeal, Sweden's Moderate Party, and Finland's National Coalition Party have also indicated that they were likely to back the move.

The coming EU elections pose "a real risk" of a spike in xenophobic violence, Italy's security services have said, but Italy's prime minister ignored the warning.

The European Commission is about to address the issues raised by the US concerning Huawei and the development of Europe's new digital infrastructure.

Maros Sefcovic, commission vice-president in charge of Energy Union, is running to be president of Slovakia. Now two of his fellow EU commissioners have endorsed him - raising questions about their independence.

The Swedish Left Party have abandoned euroscepticism to campaign on climate change - whilst the hard-right Sweden Democrats spy possibilities of a link up with Matteo Salvini of Italy and France's Marine Le Pen.

The Dutch co-chair of the anti-EU Europe of Nations and Freedom group in the European Parliament, Marcel de Graaff, says the EU should not get involved in determining what is truth and what is disinformation.

The EU should strive to be a world leader in digital services, Finland and 16 other member states have said, following French and German proposals on industrial "champions".

The European Commission on Wednesday said Italy's excessive economic imbalances poses a risk to the countries inside the eurozone. "Italy is experiencing excessive imbalances. High government debt and protracted weak productivity dynamics imply risks with cross-border relevance, in a context of still high level of non-performing loans and high unemployment," said the EU executive.

EU lawmakers on Wednesday in a committee working on tax fraud demanded the European Commission come up with a proposal for a European financial police force with investigative powers. The committee proposed the idea as part of a report that summarised its year-long probe into financial crimes and tax havens following scandals like Luxleaks and Panama Papers.

The Guardian newspaper on Thursday reported the EU is increasingly exasperated by Facebook's failures to live up to its commitments to fight disinformation ahead of the EU elections. It says Facebook had only managed to set up fact-checkers in eight of the 28 EU member states. The European Commission is set to present a progress report, also on Thursday, on social media efforts to tackle the abuse.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has spoken out against the Dutch state's purchase of a 12.7 percent stake in Air France-KLM. Le Maire said the airline should be "managed without national public interference". The row follows internal wrangling over shared management. The Dutch purchase, worth some €680m, had caught the French by surprise.

A Russian national working for a high-tech company and suspected of spying was arrested earlier this week in Sweden. On Wednesday, Sweden's head of counter-intelligence Daniel Stenling said the "individual is suspected of having been recruited as an agent by a Russian intelligence officer who was working under diplomatic cover in Sweden."