Josep Borrell, the EU's foreign policy chief has called for Russia to end its blockade of Ukrainian ports. His comments come ahead of a meeting of the bloc's 27 foreign ministers.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine four months ago, the cost of living crisis has become a global issue. Prices have gone up around the world. In Europe, the countries that use the euro saw an average of 8.1 percent inflation in May. Pressure on prices, combined with stuttering economic growth, has sparked fears of a recession. These concerns could still come into play regarding the EU's response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In this programme, we're joined by two MEPs to discuss how the EU should balance sanctions against Russia with the risk of recession.

This week on Talking Europe we take a look at some of the other countries, aside from Ukraine, that are knocking on the EU's door to join the bloc. EU leaders held a summit on Thursday with the Western Balkan states to discuss their accession process. For Albania, that started back in 2008 and still hasn't advanced to the negotiations stage. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama spoke to FRANCE 24’s Luke Brown on the sidelines of the EU-Western Balkans leaders' meeting in Brussels.

Although EU candidacy for Ukraine and Moldova has been hailed as historic, frustrations among other candidates years into their own membership bids should serve as a reminder that the path ahead won't be easy.

The European Commission is set to present its strategy for a united effort to ensure gas supplies for the coming winter. Meanwhile, the European Council has adopted a plan to ensure gas storage capacity is filled.

Google uses unclear language and deceptive designs that trick users into agreeing to give up their data, EU watchdogs have said. The tech company has two other pending antitrust suits in the EU.

At the most recent EU leaders’ summit last week, much of the talk was focused on the future of the European Union, particularly its potential enlargement. Varying degrees of assurances on possible membership were given to Ukraine, Moldova and to a different degree, the Western Balkans states. EU leaders gave less attention to the future of the bloc as sketched out by citizens during a year-long process called the Conference on the Future of Europe.

Ursula von der Leyen said Ukraine was making progress toward its goal of EU membership and needed to foster business confidence by appointing top anti-corruption officials.

France is handing over the baton of the Presidency of the Council of the European Union to the Czech Republic. It’s a rotating role that every EU member state holds in turn for six months – meaning that with 27 member states, it only comes around once every 13 and a half years.

Protesters stormed Libya’s parliament in the eastern city of Tobruk on Friday and set parts of it ablaze, venting their anger at deteriorating living conditions and months of political deadlock.

Top German diplomat Annalena Baerbock said that the EU had to follow through with its promises to countries like Albania and North Macedonia, or else Russia and China would move to draw them away from the bloc.

The country's main opposition party has led protests against a proposal to integrate Bulgarian minority rights. Such a move would be necessary to continue EU accession talks.