A US ex-marine, a French former intelligence officer, and a Swiss ex-colonel are to join enablers of Russia's 'shadow fleet' on EU blacklists next week.

With the European Commission unveiling its first ever European housing package on Tuesday, the stakes could not be higher. This housing crisis is not a force of nature, it is a political failure, which means it is within our power to fix, writes MEP Brigitte van den Berg.

EU leaders will meet this week in Brussels to discuss Russian frozen assets, the next EU budget plus the Middle East. Also this week the first-ever housing plan will be presented by the EU Commission and discussed in the plenary session in Strasbourg.

EU states are struggling with upcoming border rules that critics say could led to detention-like centres. Under the new regime authorities will have only seven days to screen a prospective asylum seeker.

A French banker inside Euroclear, who flew to Russia 155 times for "private" reasons, allegedly tried to connect the company's CEO, Valérie Urbain, with Russian spies and threatened her when she declined, according to an investigation by EUobserver, Humo, De Morgen, and Dossier Center.

Today, we kick off an anniversary campaign to convince new supporting members to join EUobserver's mission of providing the information citizens need to safeguard EU democracy.