The French police on Thursday evening killed the alleged gunman who shot dead three people in Strasbourg , police sources told Reuters news agency. EU leaders meeting in Brussels on Thursday had commemorated the victims with a minute of silence. Speaking to the EU leaders earlier on Thursday, EU parliament president Antonio Tajani expressed "the European Parliament's solidarity with the French people and with president [Emmanuel] Macron".

European Parliament president Antonio Tajani said on Thursday that the budget row between the European Commission and Italy was a "needless power game" which "wasted an awful lot of money", with investors fleeing Italy and losses at the stock market. "I don't know whether to laugh or cry," said Tajani, a centre-right Italian politician. He said the Italian coalition of two eurosceptic parties "should have been a bit more serious".

A broad majority in the European Parliament called on Thursday on the EU Commission to suspend all EU funding to Agrofert, a business empire linked to Czech prime minister Andrej Babis, until any . The was backed by 434 votes to 64 ,with 47 abstentions. The MEPs also demanded the commission recover any funds paid out irregularly.

The European Parliament and the Council agreed on Wednesday to revise the European Citizens' Initiative, which allows European citizens to ask the Commission to submit a legislative proposal, if they muster one million signatures. The reformed initiative will be more user-friendly, making it easier to participate in the democratic process, the commission has . Introduced in 2012, an estimated nine million Europeans have supported a European Citizens' Initiative.

The European Parliament on Theresa May's Brexit and leadership problems on Wednesday afternoon, explicitly stating there could be no renegotiation of either the withdrawal agreement or the political declaration, and that without an Irish 'backstop', there would be no deal. However, "all efforts to make clear [the backstop was a last resort] were welcomed", the statement from Conference of Presidents added.

The European Parliament is scheduled to vote on the 2019 EU budget on Wednesday, after the Council on Tuesday agreed to spending of €165.8bn next year, 3.2 percent more than the 2018 budget. The Horizon 2020 program will get €12.3bn to support research and innovation, up 9.8 percent. The is based on the premise that the UK will continue to contribute until the end of 2020.

At least four people were killed and eight people wounded Tuesday evening in a shooting near a Christmas market in Strasbourg, France, according to the Associated Press, which cited police union officials. The 29-year-old French suspect was on a list of people suspected of radicalization, they said. The city center was locked down as authorities tried to locate the assailant, whose gunfire produced panic in the eastern French city that hosts the country’s largest Christmas market. The European Parliament — which was holding meetings at the time of the shooting — also went into immediate lockdown. The Paris prosecutor’s office, which oversees terrorism investigations for all of France,...

FRANCE’S “yellow vest” activists would win more than 10 per cent of the French vote in the May 2019 European Parliament elections if they formed an anti-establishment coalition in an effort to challenge the status quo, a poll published by the weekly Le Journal du dimanche on Sunday showed.

Europe's social democrat parties on Saturday chose Dutch politician and current vice-president of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, as their 'Spitzenkandidat' in May's European Parliament elections to possibly succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as head of the commission. Addressing delegates, Timmermans said his party would strive to "write a new social contract with Europe's citizens". Over 1,000 participants and guests from 56 different countries took part in the congress in Lisbon.

The European Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, has yet to be heard on the forced eviction of the Central European University from Budapest to Vienna. Just months before crucial European parliament elections, EU leaders should not shy away from this debate.