Euobserver.com

After British MPs once again rejected all alternative options, the EU's chief negotiator said it is "very likely" the UK will leave without a deal. And a long extension needs a "strong justification" from the UK.

The European Anti-Fraud Office (Olaf) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have refused to answer detailed questions about the demand from the European Ombudsman to publish an Olaf report on a €400m EIB loan Volkswagen Group (VW) received through deception.

Suicide rates per 10,000 inmates in 2017 in France stood at 12.6, higher than any other European country. The latest figures are part of a much bigger report out Tuesday by the Strasbourg-based human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe.

Sweden's financial authority, the EBM, has said it will not pursue criminal proceedings against Swedish lender Swedbank over €157m of Russian money allegedly laundered there because the alleged crime took place prior to tighter due diligence laws imposed in 2014 and after a five-year statute of limitations had expired. The case was brought by the former employer of a Russian whistleblower in the case, Sergei Magnitsky, who died in prison.

British MPs have rejected four further Brexit options - putting the spotlight on a last round of voting before the new EU exit date.

France and Germany are to share the rotating presidency of the UN security council (UNSC). Unlike France, Germany serves as a non-permanent member of the UNSC. German foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Monday the country planned on using its role to "strengthen long-term conflict prevention." France previously rejected German appeals to convert its permanent UNSC seat into an EU one.

Authorities in Belarus have detained four Russian nationals for smuggling migrants from South Asia into the European Union, reports RadioFreeEurope. The Russian nationals were reportedly trying to help 10 migrants cross into Lithuania.

The EU has been accused by Eritrean human rights activists of funding a road construction project in the country that engages forced labour. The Dutch-based Foundation Human Rights for Eritreans (FHRE) says conscripts are "trapped for an indefinite period within the service". It says Eritreans conscripted into national service are used as forced labour. FHRE says some €20m from the EU's Emergency Trust Fund for Africa is being used.

Spain pushed to describe Gibraltar as a "colony", in legislation needed for visa-free travel for British citizens to the EU after Brexit. Parliament disagreed. But when a British MEP represented the parliament's position, he was removed.

A British former EU Commission official reflects on the failure to tackle the early days of the British press' euro-myths, during the Boris Johnson and John Major-era of the 1990s.

Slovakia's election of Zuzana Caputova, a green activist, as its president this weekend showed that "decency in politics, rule of law, and tolerance" had triumphed over "power politics and the false promises of populism", EU Council president Donald Tusk said in a congratulatory letter on Monday. He spoke ahead of European Parliament elections in May, where populist-nationalist and anti-EU parties are polling to make unprecedented gains.

Ukrainian elections were free and fair, monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Nato, the Council of Europe, and the European Parliament said Monday in an initial assessment. "Elections were competitive. Voters had a broad choice and turned out in high numbers," the OSCE said, summing up the work of 2,300 international observers. The assessment came despite "disinformation" designed to "delegitimise" the winners, the EP said.

EUobserver should have been granted access to a fraud investigation into a €400m EU loan to Volkswagen Group (VW), and recommendations on how to avoid future misuse, the European Ombudsman has concluded.

EUobserver used as a tool in Russia's hybrid warfare against Ukraine, says Ukraine ambassador.

A Ukrainian comic won the first round of presidential elections in a country jaded by never-ending corruption allegations and five years of Russian warfare. He is now set to face incumbent Petro Poroshenko in a run-off in three weeks' time.

Germany is preparing last-minute legislation allowing 100,000 British citizens and their families to stay even if the UK leaves the EU without a deal, according to a five-page draft regulation sent to the federal states on 28 March and seen by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung. British nationals staying permanently would have to apply for a residence permit while able to enter the Schengen country without a visa for short-term stays.

One year after demonstrators filled the streets in Slovakian cities in protest over the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak, the country on Saturday elected Zuzana Caputova, a 45-year-old lawyer, anti-corruption and environmental activist as their new president. Caputova took 58 percent of the vote ahead of European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic (42 percent) in the second round of the elections. She will be Slovkia's first female president.

Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AKP party lost control of the capital Ankara for the first time in municipal elections on Sunday, with the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) candidate Mansur Yavas reportedly winning a clear victory. Results in Istanbul were too tight to call a winner without a recount. Nationally, Erdogan's AKP-led alliance, however, won more than 51 percent of the vote.

German chancellor Angela Merkel travels to Dublin on Thursday, while Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar will be in Paris on Tuesday to meet French president Emmanuel Macron. Both meetings are expected to focus on what the EU should do about the Irish border if the UK does not ratify the withdrawal treaty, or whether a further delay of Brexit could be accepted without holding European Parliament elections in the UK.

The European Parliament's two largest parties are set to lose, for the first time, their joint control of the assembly after May's elections, the European Parliament's latest poll predicted. The centre-right EPP alliance would remain the largest party, winning 188 seats, and the centre-left S&D group would remain second with 142 seats. That is however not enough support to control the 705-member parliament without involving a third party.