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As the European elections draw ever closer, EU leaders are quietly manoeuvring into position the candidates they want to install in the next European Commission. Here are some of the latest developments.

The Austrian government's refusal to sign the UN global compact for migration while holding the EU's rotating presidency has damaged the EU institution, progressive forces in the European Parliament said during a debate with Chancellor Sebastian Kurz on Tuesday (15 January).

EU nations that missed an end-of-2018 deadline to submit their draft energy and climate plans to the European Commission have started to offer up their excuses for their lateness.

Serbian citizens are set to rally on the streets almost daily in the coming week, both those unhappy with the state of affairs in the Balkan country and those who want to show support for visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The European Union could hold new talks with London if the UK parliament rejects the Brexit agreement tonight, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Tuesday (15 January) but reiterated there was little hope of fundamentally changing the agreement.

The way agricultural aid is distributed in France is unequal and produces negative effects, the French court of auditors said in a summary judgement. The chamber is calling for changes to how aid is allocated under the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), though this is currently not on the agenda. EURACTIV France reports.

Britain’s latest clean air strategy sets significantly tighter air pollution limits than the EU’s, but could lack the regulatory teeth to enforce them after Brexit. EURACTIV's media partner Climate Home News reports.

The Russian foreign ministry published on Tuesday (14 January) a statement voicing concern about “instability” in Greece following the ratification of the recent change of the constitution in Macedonia. Greece retorted with a warning to Russia not to interfere in its internal affairs.

MEPs in the European Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy backed plans on Monday evening (14 January) for a comprehensive policy framework on artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, weeks after ethical concerns in the field were highlighted in a EU report.

Talks between Brussels and Berne have been running since 2014 in a bid to formalise the 120 separate accords that have been negotiated between the EU and Switzerland since a 1992 referendum in the Alpine state rejected joining the European Economic Area. But the draft agreement, which was made public in early December, now seems unlikely to become reality.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is meeting Tuesday (15 January) the premiers of Germany’s four lignite mining states as well as the heads of the country’s so-called coal exit commission. The move, however, cannot hide the fact that Berlin strongly lacked the political willingness to bring the energy transition forward over the past years, Hans Josef Fell, the initiator of the world-renowned German renewable energy feed-in legislation 2000, told EURACTIV in an interview.

Now a governing party in Italy, the Five Star Movement gets back to their anti-system roots complaining the "waste of money” of having another Parliament’ seat in Strasbourg, asking for getting rid of it.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and US counterpart Donald Trump mooted Monday  (14 January) the creation of a "security zone" in northern Syria as tensions rose over the fate of Kurdish fighters in the war-torn country.

Standing outside the snow-covered White House on Monday (14 January), Donald Trump made an astonishing declaration for a US president: no, he has never been an agent of Russia.

Norway’s Supreme Court will on Tuesday (15 January) hear arguments on whether EU ships can fish for snow crab off Arctic islands north of Norway without permission from Oslo, a case that could decide who has the right to explore for oil in the region.

Madrid is struggling to convince the European Commission about the Spanish ownership of Iberia, as it tries to preserve the air carrier's license to operate intra-EU flights after Brexit without altering the company's structure. 

In a bid to draw in citizens from across the continent, the EU is set to roll out a major new initiative that aims to inform people on the achievements of the European project, future goals, and the European Parliament’s hand in making these objectives a reality.

The European Union’s food safety system is respected across the globe but it’s now “overstretched”, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) said in a report published on Tuesday (15 January), urging policymakers to bolster implementation capacity.

While there is a growing recognition of the need for climate action, last year taught us that for a sustainable long-term energy transition to be effective, the roadmap to get there needs to be inclusive and citizen-driven, writes Imke Lübbeke.

At a party congress, the leaders of the far-right AfD (‘Alternative for Germany’) adopted a manifesto calling for changes in the EU, ranging from the abolition of the European Parliament to Germany leaving the eurozone and the common EU security and foreign policy. EURACTIV Germany reports.