Euobserver.com

The EU should use its trade muscle to keep out hostile investors, the MEP behind a new screening mechanism aimed at China has said.

Carlo Cottarelli, a former International Monetary Fund economist, was mandated Monday by Italy's president Sergio Mattarella to try to form a government. Mattarella chose Cottarelli a day after rejecting the finance minister proposed to him by the coalition between the anti-system Five-Star Movement and the far-right League, triggering a new political crisis. If Cottarelli succeeds in forming a government, he would govern until elections by the end of the year.

The European Commission proposed on Monday to ban the use of plastic in the production of cotton buds, cutlery, plates, straws, drink stirrers and sticks for balloons. "These products won't disappear, they will just be made with different materials," said commission first vice-president Frans Timmermans. The proposed ban aims to tackle single-use plastics, often found on beaches. "We are at risk of choking our oceans in plastic," said Timmermans.

The EU is funding "NGOs with ties to terror", Israel has claimed as foreign ministers meet, in a stunt resembling Russia's tactics.

Italy is in a political crisis because president Sergio Mattarella has rejected Paolo Savona as a cabinet member, for his views on the EU.

"I survived!" European council president Donald Tusk tweeted after finishing a 20-km run in central Brussels on Sunday. "And at the end, it felt much easier than running some of the #EUCO [EU] summits", he noted, after passing the finishing line and carrying a medal in a Belgian yellow-black-red coloured band. Environmental organisations criticised that 300,000 plastic bottles were used at pit-stops to refresh the 38,000 participants.

An estimated 5,000 supporters of Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party demonstrated in Berlin on Sunday "for the future of Germany" in the party's largest gathering since it became Germany's top opposition party. AfD supporters shouting "Merkel must go" were largely outnumbered by rival demonstrations, gathering about 20,000 people, according to police estimates, however.

Several US news sites including The Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune have temporary been taken offline in Europe in response to European Union GDPR data rules, which came into effect on Friday. "Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in most European countries," reads a message greeting visitors to the sites. Other US media like the New York Times have not restricted access for Europeans amid GDPR.

Abortion could be legal in Ireland by October following a landslide referendum on Friday (25 May) ,where a two-thirds majority (66.4%) voted yes to allow abortion on a high turn-out of 64 percent. The Irish government will move quickly to implement the decision, health minister Simon Harris has promised, but the full text of the legislation will not be tabled until the autumn. Meanwhile, abortion remains illegal.

The EU commission will reveal on Monday plans to limit the use of plastics and raise tax-revenues for the Union's budget. Germany has already signalled approval of the plans, with environment minister Svenja Schulze telling German TV ARD that single-use plastics "should be regulated at a European level". Without action there will be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation has warned.

MEPs will have their first chance to discuss the EU Commission's plans for the next long-term EU budget in Strasbourg. At the same time, a court case in Luxembourg may shake up the 'rule of law' debate.

An agreement on measures to reduce risks in the banking sector will help start discussions on risk-sharing and on Franco-German plans.

European Commission has taken six EU countries to court over failing to achieve EU air quality standards. But what about the other countries where air quality is equally bad - or worse?

The European Parliament accused the EU Commission of not providing clear figures for a comparison of the proposed and the current EU budgets. We take a look at the main differences.

The new EU privacy rules are touted as a global 'gold standard' - but Mexico's former data commissioner warns some nations are far from ready.

After the latest round of Brexit talks, a senior EU official sounded the alarm bell: progress on the key Irish border issue remains elusive, while the London government is chasing pipe dreams.

Russian firm Gazprom is a reformed character, the European Commission has said, improving the climate for more pipelines to Europe.

The European Data Protection Board is a new EU body tasked with enforcing the EU's privacy laws with powers to impose massive fines. Its head Andrea Jelinek told reporters complaints against companies are expected to be immediate.

While the Greek government has committed to fulfill the last creditors' requirements in the coming month, Europeans and the International Monetary Fund are still far from an agreement on measures to reduce the country's debt in the future.

Virulent nationalism in Greece has been stirred up in the context of austerity and renewed negotiations with Macedonia. Recent attempts by the government to address the inequalities suffered by LGBT persons have also been met with a reactionary backlash.