Euobserver.com

The European Commission admitted on Thursday that the EU is "off track" to reach the aim of halving the number of road deaths by next year. In 2018, some 25,100 people died on EU roads, a decrease of less than 1 percent compared to 2017, when 25,300 people died. In 2010 there were 31,500 fatalities. The goal is to have no more than 15,750 road deaths in 2020.

Turkey and Germany have defended their arms and energy deals with Russia following strident criticism by the US at a Nato event in Washington.

The EU will immediately introduce customs checks and collect import duties in the event of Britain leaving the bloc without a withdrawal agreement on 12 April.

British MPs approved on Wednesday night a bill forcing prime minister Theresa May to ask for an extension to the Article 50 process beyond 12 April. The bill was tabled by Labour's Yvette Cooper and passed by a majority of just one vote, 313 votes to 312. To become binding law it must also be approved by the Lords, while the EU would decide whether to eventually grant an extension.

UK prime minister Theresa May will continue talks with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on Thursday as options to find a negotiated agreement on Brexit are running out. Corbyn reportedly told May that Labour want a customs union with the EU and access to its single market. Meanwhile, Labour MPs urged Corbyn to not accept any Brexit deal without submitting it to a second referendum.

The French government's social media campaign #Ouijevote urging people to register and vote in May's European Parliament elections has been blocked on Twitter under a new French law to combat anonymous political messages and clarify funding. While some thought it was an April Fool's joke, interior minister Christophe Castanter said Twitter's priority ought not be to fight "campaigns to register on the electoral lists of a democratic republic".

Lithuania's prime minister, Saulius Skvernelis, on Wednesday appointed Kestutis Mazeika as the new environment minister, making his cabinet the only all-male EU government. "This is scandalous," liberal opposition leader Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen told AFP. Skvernelis will run for president in a two-round election in May, to replace Lithuania's current president Dalia Grybauskaite, one of the few female leaders in Europe. After two terms Grybauskaite cannot stand again.

Romania's supreme court on Wednesday lifted a ban preventing its former anti-corruption chief, Laura Codruta Kovesi, leaving the country or speaking to press. Kovesi is the leading candidate to become the first head of the European Prosecutor's Office, despite Romania's social democrat-led government opposing her candidacy. As head of Romania's National Anti-Corruption Directorate she had the social democrat leader Liviu Dragnea convicted of vote rigging in 2015 and corruption.

Kosovo's foreign minister reflects on two decades since his country was saved by Nato, in the first "war for values", and the task ahead to achieve lasting peace with Serbia, and with it, EU membership.

With the British prime minister asking for more time to bring opposition MPs onboard and shape a new deal at the very last minute, Jean-Claude Juncker warns London that 12 April is the last deadline.

EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker told MEPs on Wednesday, in a warning to the UK, that if the Brexit withdrawal agreement is not adopted by 12 April by the House of Commons, no short extension will be possible as requested by British prime minister Theresa May on Tuesday. Juncker again said the EU is ready to discuss a closer relationship with the UK, if London changes its negotiating red lines.

As EU concerns over rule of law in some member states grow, the commission opens a debate on tools to discipline unruly member states. The EU executive has launched a new probe against Poland, and put Romania on the spot.

EU commissioners are touring Europe to reach out to citizens ahead of the May elections - but some are also running for office. Frans Timmermans visited Leiden in his native Netherlands, but managed to not mention his own party once.

British prime minister Theresa May has gambled on talks with opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn to avoid a no-deal Brexit - but risked a party rebellion to do so.

The president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, on Tuesday in Rome urged its coalition government to do more to boost Italy's ailing economy. "I hope that the Italian authorities will make additional efforts to keep economic growth alive," he said. Rome is set to present its economic forecasts on 10 April, after an earlier clash with the EU commission over proposed budget deficit spending.

Facebook's chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday told Irish national broadcaster RTE that the company cannot guarantee a European election in May without any outside interference. "I don't think anyone can guarantee in a world where you have nation states that are trying to interfere in elections, there's no single thing we can do and say okay we've now solved the issue," he said.

France is set to overshoot the EU's deficit limit this year following a €10bn stimulus package announced in December by president Emmanuel Macron to help quell the 'yellow vest' protests. France's finance ministry on Wednesday now forecasts the country's deficit will rise to 3.2 percent of gross domestic product, above the EU's 3.0 percent limit.

Germany's government said greenhouse emissions in 2018 dropped by 4.2 percent, the largest drop since 2009. Warmer weather and more expensive fossil fuels were behind the fall, it said. NGOs such as Greenpeace criticised the lack of German government policy behind the emissions drop. "A warm winter cannot substitute successful climate policy. Germans simply used their heating less," said Greenpeace.

Mainstream political groups, such as the EPP and S&D, are going to have to kick out their illiberal members.

The EU will not be held hostage to a UK political crisis, French president Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday after meeting Irish PM Leo Varadkar. Macron warned London that a long extension should not be taken for granted and that "should the UK be unable to propose a solution backed by a majority, they will de facto have chosen for themselves to leave without a deal".