Euobserver.com

The Putin regime has dissolved democracy and rule of law in Russia - we need to realise that we are operating in a long-term non-military conflict.

Pressure from German chancellor Angela Merkel's CSU sister party over migration policies is growing and spreading into her own CDU party. At the centre of the dispute are interior minister Horst Seehofer's plans to turn away asylum-seekers registered in another EU country at the German border. A planned press conference by Seehofer was cancelled as it emerged Merkel had blocked his plans.

Accounting methods for international trade are outdated and need to be revised, German chancellor Angela Merkel told the Christian Democratic Union's Economic Council Conference in Berlin on Tuesday. "If services are included in the trade balance, then the US runs a big surplus with Europe," she said.

Poland's president Andrzej Duda on Tuesday included two EU-related questions in a list of issues that citizens should be consulted on in a constitutional referendum this year. One question would be if Poland's EU membership should be guaranteed in the constitution and a second whether the Polish constitution should rank over international and EU law. Duda suggested the referendum take place on 10 and 11 November.

UK prime minister Theresa May avoided defeat on a Brexit bill on Tuesday, when it was backed by a majority of 324 votes to 298 in the House of Commons. The majority was secured after she agreed to address ongoing concerns about the parliament's role in the final Brexit negotiations. The votes continue on Wednesday.

Bulgaria wants to join the EU's banking union and the forerunner for euro-area membership, the ERM, within the next year. "We'll insist for both to happen on the same day," finance minister Vladislav Goranov said in Sofia on Tuesday. Bulgaria currently meets the criteria to adopt the euro, with Goranov urging euro-area members to refrain from coming up with new demands for Bulgaria to become its 20th member.

EU Commission vice president Frans Timmermans will travel next Monday (18 June) to Warsaw to discuss the risks of political control over the judiciary with Polish premier Mateusz Morawiecki. The visit comes as the commission set the end of June meeting of EU ministers as a new deadline for Warsaw to back down on some of its judicial reform. Timmermans said earlier that "tangible and robust" solutions are needed.

The precarious situation the Aquarius and its passengers found themselves is a consequence of EU member states' failure to manage migration in a strategic and coordinated manner, where member states beyond those receiving new arrivals are part of the solution.

A minister in the British government of Theresa May quit Tuesday, in protest at the government's handling of Brexit, and ahead of 48 hours of key votes in the House of Commons on a future strategy. Phillip Lee, a former 'Remain' campaigner who was a minister within the justice department, said he "cannot, in all good conscience, support how our country's exit from the EU looks set to be delivered."

British MPs are voting on a Brexit bill that could keep the UK in the EU and destabilise the government, as the clock ticks to the exit date.

EU citizens who are 18 years old on 1 July may apply for the DiscoverEU travel programme as of noon Tuesday. Those selected will receive travel tickets worth on average €255, according to the rules. These also state that travel should be done by rail, but in exceptional cases by ferry, bus, or plane. Some 15,000 tickets will be awarded. Participants are "invited to report back on their travel experiences".

The Italian coast guard will send ships to take some of the 629 migrants on board during the voyage to Valencia, Doctors without Borders and journalists on the overloaded 'Aquarius' rescue vessel said on Tuesday. The migrants were refused access to Italy and Malta, causing a political and humanitarian crisis. Several Italian mayors criticised the decision of the new interior minister, the far-right Matteo Salvini.

France and Germany are "making progress toward reaching a Franco-German agreement on the roadmap for eurozone's future", said French finance minister Bruno Le Maire on Monday, according to Reuters. "We are on the right path. It's long and difficult, it takes a lot of time and determination," he said at a Parisian conference. The two biggest EU countries reportedly are trying finish the roadmap before the June EU summit.

A German PhD candidate has recently started conducting interviews about how the EU's behind-closed-doors 'trilogues' actually work. "Now the fun work starts," he says.

Greek foreign minister Nikos Kotzias said on Monday that his country and Macedonia have taken "the decisive step" needed to resolve the dispute over Macedonia's name, Greek newspaper Kathimerini reported, after prime ministers Alexis Tsipras and Zoran Zaev had a phone call "in a good atmosphere". Kotzias reportedly said that three new names were still on the table for the country officially called Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

The German government has ordered carmaker Daimler to recall 774,000 European diesel cars, because they contained illegal defeat devices that masked their real level of emissions during official certification tests, transport minister Andreas Scheuer said on Monday. The same day, German prosecutors revealed that Audi CEO Rupert Stadler is suspected of fraud for his role in the Volkswagen Group emissions fraud revealed in September 2015.

For Ukraine's new anti-corruption court to be successful, it requires Europe to step up and end its love of dirty money.

The Basque government have offered to host the refugees rescued by the Aquarius humanitarian ship. "We are willing to welcome the people onboard that ship, that is the commitment of the Basque country," said Inigo Ukrullu, Basque president.

Donald Trump's isolationism is Europe's "new next opportunity," said Helle Thorning-Schmidt - while calling on EU leaders to find solutions to citizens concerns on migration.

Valencia in Spain will open its port to the boat with more than 600 people on board that neither Italy nor Malta want to accept. "It's our duty to help and avoid a humanitarian disaster", Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez said in a statement on Monday. Earlier in the day, the European Commission has said that taking care of the people on board was a "humanitarian imperative".