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Germany's justice minister, Katarina Barley, is set to run as lead candidate for the Social Democrats (SPD) in May's European parliament elections, reports Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Barley served as general secretary for the SPD and holds both German and British citizenship. The SPD won 27.3 percent of the votes in the 2014 European elections when lead by Martin Schulz, who was also the Spitzenkandidat of the European social democrats.

The power of the parliament to 'appoint' the president of the EU Commission is new, highly-contested - and not universally understood. In fact, even some of the lead candidates to replace Jean-Claude Juncker are against it.

Hungary was added to the agenda of EU affairs ministers next to Poland, as the two countries face disciplinary procedures over rule of law concerns.

EU Council president Donald Tusk said on Tuesday he will ask British prime minister Theresa May at the EU summit on Wednesday if "she has concrete proposals to break the impasse" in Brexit negotiations. He said "goodwill" will not be enough to secure a Brexit deal. Tusk added that the EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier's report, and May's Monday speech in parliament, gave him "no grounds for optimism".

The commission heavily redacted documents released to EUobserver because they were reportedly 'out of scope'. Transparency campaigner Helen Darbishire says however the information was "clearly directly relevant to the request".

EU foreign ministers have tasked the bloc's foreign service with giving "strategic advice" to the interior security forces of the Central African Republic (CAR). The new "civilian engagement" is to come on top of an earlier EU military training mission in the post-conflict country. The move comes amid EU concern that Russia is expanding its influence in the region after Russia and CAR signed a major arms deal in August.

Poland and the Czech Republic reject EU plans to create a 10,000-man border force under the control of EU agency Frontex, Polish prime minister Mateusz Moraiwecki said with Czech leader Andrej Babis on Monday. "We worry that more [EU] money for Frontex will mean less money for structural funds, less money for road or railway development," Morawiecki said. EU leaders aim to approve the plan at this week's summit.

As negotiations halt ahead of the EU summit later this week, British prime minister Theresa May told her parliament the Irish border issue should not derail a Brexit deal.

Italy aims to propose, at this week's EU summit, that the European Investment Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development should resume lending to smaller Russian businesses, the RFE/RFL news agency reports. Lithuanian foreign minister Linas Linkevicius called the idea "bad timing" on Monday, but Hungarian minister Peter Szijjarto said there ought to be "normal cooperation between Europe and Russia". The bank sanctions were imposed after Russia annexed Crimea.

As anti-globalisation and protectionist sentiments threaten to come back, it is more important than ever for ASEM members to come together, think in the long term, and take coordinated actions to resist unilateralism and uphold multilateralism.

The Italian government on Monday approved a new budget raising welfare spending in the teeth of EU complaints. The extra funds for pensions, tax breaks, and a basic income is to push the Italian deficit-to-GDP ratio to 2.4 percent. That is below the EU's three percent limit, but EU officials believe the real costs will be higher, as the European Commission prepares to assess the plan.

EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Monday adopted a new sanctions regime for people deemed guilty of chemical weapons violations. Visa bans and asset freezes will target individuals no matter which country they come from, in a move inspired by Russia's chemical attack in the UK in March. EU discussions on similar sanctions against people guilty of cyber attacks and human rights violations are also under way.

EUobserver followed Karl-Heinz Lambertz, the president of the Committee of Regions over nine months - and six interviews - as he worked on one of Jean-Claude Juncker's pet projects: one of the five so-called 'future of Europe' scenarios.

In response to EUobserver's investigation, Cyprus: Russia's EU weak link?, the director general of the Association of Cyprus Banks writes to say what his sector has done to clean up its act.

The historic decision in Constantinople to grant Ukraine autocephaly (independence) from the Russian Orthodox church has geopolitical ramifications for Vladimir Putin - and for Europe.

If my region in the Sahara were excluded, it would strongly undermine our development, with a risk of opening the door to radicalisation and undermining the stability of the whole Mediterranean region, especially with respect to security and migration.

Voters in Germany's largest state hived off to the left and right of the ruling conservatives in Sunday's elections - posing questions for Merkel's authority.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has signalled her interest in cooperating with former US president Donald Trump's strategist Steve Bannon ahead of European Parliament election in May 2019. Following a meeting on Friday in Paris between the two, the vice-president of Le Pen's National Rally party, Louis Aliot, told French BFM TV station with regard to getting help from Bannon: "We're not going to say no".

Luxembourg's liberal prime minster Xavier Bettel's three-party coalition government won just enough seats (31 out of 60) to stay in power following Sunday's general elections. The Christian Social People's Party (CSV), led for 19 years by EU commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, remained the biggest party with 28 percent support but lost two seats in parliament. The Greens won three extra seats and the Pirates entered parliament with two mandates.

EU ambassadors called on Sunday for a pause on talks about a Brexit deal until after this week's EU summit. The move follows differing media reports that a deal was close - but last-minute talks between UK Brexit secretary Dominic Raab and EU negotiator Michel Barnier on Sunday over the so-called Irish "backstop", which could see the UK remaining in the customs union, remained inconclusive.