The average age of MEPs when elected to the European Parliament is around 50. I sat down with the youngest and oldest female MEPs, who have a 53 year age gap between them to ask how and why age matters in European politics.

politico.eu/newsletter/eu-…

Interesting piece on how Schmit is barely attacking von der Leyen

It’s a bit strange that the EBU did not approve the showing of the EU flag at Eurovision, but it’s stringently applying the Spitzenkandidat idea as a condition for taking part in next week’s EU election debate. (Which means ECR and ID are excluded).

Vast swathes of Renew Europe are not happy about Rutte's VVD governing the Netherlands with Geert Wilders. But to say Renew Europe is finished is certainly premature. Read our story. politico.eu/article/dutch-…

Is it just me or does his voice sound like Winston Churchill's

Topics for the European Parliament/EBU debate next week (without ECR or ID)

Economy and Jobs
Defence and Security
Climate and Environment
Democracy and Leadership
Migration and Borders
Innovation and Technology

Leading D66 candidate puts out the exact same statement as Macron's lead candidate.

Worth reading to understand Fico’s background politico.eu/article/prime-…

Tomaž Vesel, a former chief auditor, is looking increasingly likely to be proposed as Slovenia’s next European commissioner succeeding ⁦Janez Lenarčič⁩ english.sta.si/3300545/coalit…

European Parliament hemicycle gearing up for election night

Timely comment by top EU diplomat after a prime minister just got shot.

Why do they look like video game characters?

Slovak PM Robert Fico has been shot bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

🚨 I'm looking to speak to an expert on the EU's public tender system. Can any of my supremely knowledgeable followers recommend someone to answer some technical questions?

The organizer of the Eurovision Song Contest is facing another controversy after excluding the far right from a debate in the European Parliament next week, over of a disagreement around how the EU should nominate the European Commission president. politico.eu/article/far-ri…

🚨💥 scoop: European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, who is seeking a second term in office after June's elections, allocated a €5.2m campaign contract to Cosmonauts & Kings, a 🇩🇪 comms agency which lacks sufficient capacity to manage the campaign just a month before the elections

EU institutions suing each other

Massive scoop by Elisa Braün: EU prosecutors are threatening legal action against the European Commission over a planned €5 million budget cut.

This is happening while they're investigating Ursula von der Leyen over #Pfizergate (which was another Elisa scoop)

politico.eu/article/eppo-t…

Looking forward to being on this panel with Dutch MEP Sophie in 't Veld and former European Parliament Sec-Gen Klaus Welle next week ceps.eu/ceps-events/th… via CEPS ThinkTank

Pro-EU Georgians are protesting against the so-called ‘Russian law’ in Tbilisi, despite a major crackdown by riot police.

POLITICO reports from on the ground 👉 politi.co/44ErTDX