Government of Germany

Ursula von der Leyen will have to wait a bit longer before she takes over as the next European Commission president after the European Parliament delayed a vote on the appointment of her team on Wednesday.

Britain will have to nominate a Commissioner-designate if it stays in the EU after 1 November. This was confirmed today by a European Commission spokesman.

Germany warned on Tuesday of a repeat of the chaotic influx of migrants that caught the European Union unprepared in 2015, with Greece and Cyprus sounding alarms over a fresh surge of arrivals from neighboring Turkey.

Denmark and 10 other EU countries have called for the creation of a European strategy for the gradual decommissioning of diesel and petrol cars, including allowing the ban of sales at member state-level by 2030 to combat climate change, Reuters reported. .

Denmark made the proposal on Friday at an European meeting of environment ministers held in Luxembourg, BTA reported.

Liberal and socialist lawmakers at the European Parliament called on Thursday for a new title of European Commission Vice President for Protecting our European Way of Life to be scrapped because of its "toxic" far-right connotations.

European Commissioner designate for Protecting our European Way of Life Margaritis Schinas attends his hearing at the European Parliament in Brussels, Thursday. Schinas defended the title assigned to him by Ursula von der Leyen, the incoming president of the EU's executive, underlining that "populists should feel threatened by our values." [Yves Herman/Reuters]

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will meet with outgoing European Central Bank President Mario Draghi on Wednesday at Maximos Mansion, according to government spokesman Stelios Petsas who briefed journalists on Tuesday.

On Thursday (October 3), the prime minister will attend a part of the annual "Parmenion" military exercise in Alexandroupolis.

Hungary on Monday nominated Oliver Varhelyi, its ambassador to the EU, as its new candidate for a European Commissioner's post, after European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen accepted a decision by the European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs to block Budapest's previous proposal, Laszlo Trocsanyi.

EU Commissioner Mariya Gabriel, nominated by Bulgaria for a new term, will be heard today in two committees of the European Parliament.

Mariya Gabriel will answer MPs' questions within three hours, between 6:30 pm and 9:30 pm local time. She will appear before the committees on culture and education and on industry, research and energy.

Consider the borderline authoritarianism that has ensconced itself in EU member states like Poland and Hungary; or the alarming gains made by the far right in such "established" European democracies as Austria, Germany, and Italy; or the brutal border regime that the EU maintains along its Mediterranean frontier - a border regime, we should recall, that at the current rate will likely result in