Women, such as Adaura, who escape traffickers and return to Nigeria face fresh trauma and abuses, but the EU does too little to help.

Conservative US billionaires, some with links to Trump, are paying anti-abortion lobbyists in Europe tens of millions of dollars to shape policy and law.

Didier Reynders, Belgium's EU commissioner hopeful and foreign minister backed bill that could sentence whistle-blowers to five years in prison and fine journalists up to €5,000.

Poland's deputy minister of justice personally organised a hate campaign against selected judges, Polish media have revealed, amid EU concern on rule of law.

The executive director of Privacy International has warned that plans to expand EU rules on passenger data collection to Europe's railway and sea passengers "does not end well."

Documents reveal that EU states are considering broadening requirements on keeping passenger records, currently only applicable to air carriers, to providers of other modes of transport.

According to a classified report, the UK made illegal copies of EU security data, and its disregard for EU rules on handling such data was a "serious and immediate risk". The Commission now says "practical steps" have since been taken.

While the battle with the European Commission over the rule of law rages on, PiS is discreetly trying to tweak electoral law in their favour.

The Dutch rule of law top man said the new commission would be just as tough on the issue as the current one, but would not say whether he wants to hold onto the portfolio in the next executive.

EU states ought to undergo a yearly "Rule of Law Review Cycle" to help stop countries such as Hungary, Poland, and Romania from backsliding on EU norms, the European Commission has said.

The European Commission is to propose annual rule-of-law reviews on all EU states, but Poland is "optimistic" that Ursula von er Leyen will let it off the hook.

Malta is about to put on trial three men it says killed journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017, but only a public enquiry might show who ordered the murder, her son has warned.

The European Parliament's powerful civil liberties committee (Libe) has elected anti-separatist Spanish MEPs for its chair and vice-chair positions. The issue risks complicating efforts by pro-Catalan factions to have the debate on independence raised to the EU level.

Former communication chief of the Hungary's Fidesz party, Balazs Hidvegi, wants a senior spot on the European Parliament committee working on migration and law. His nomination was delayed following a surprise decision by the centre-right EPP group.