Euobserver.com

The UK government appeared deeply split over the weekend on whether to move towards a softer, delayed Brexit, or leaving the EU without a deal on 12 April - a position supported by 11 ministers who threatened to otherwise resign. Mass resignations could potentially force an election, after Tuesday's cabinet meeting. Meanwhile on Monday MPs hold another set of votes on Brexit options in order to agree a way forward.

Hungary's government dismantled rule of law institutions and democratic guarantees in broad daylight. This could have been perfectly addressed by Weber's European People's Party years ago - but it dithered.

The post of president of the European Parliament can be (almost) whatever the person elected makes out of it. Some stick to their ceremonial duties - while others have used the presidency for more Machiavellian power games.

No-deal Brexit has become more likely than ever before, and EU leaders will start preparations for it as the drama continues in London. Negotiations also continue over the candidates for the EU's new top prosecutor.

Slovakia goes to the polls on Saturday (30 March) to elect a new president. A chance encounter between a Roma woman and a supporter of the ultra-right Our Slovakia party offers a case study in how bridges can be built.

Donald Tusk, the EU Council president, has called for an emergency Brexit summit on April 10, in the wake of the British parliament rejecting prime minister Theresa May's withdrawal agreement for the third time on Friday. Tusk tweeted his decision within minutes of the result. The summit will be 48 hours before the UK is now technically due to leave the EU.

British MPs voted to reject Theresa May's Brexit deal for the third time on Friday. It was defeated by 344 votes to 286 - a majority of 58. That is the third time the bill has been defeated in the House of Commons. May called the implications of the vote "grave". The UK is now technically due to leave the EU on 12 April without a deal.

The EU commission has set out conditions for the UK's future trade talks in the event Britain crashes out of the bloc with no deal - including solving the Irish border issue. An emergency summit on 10 April is possible.

The Provincial Electoral Board of Barcelona on Thursday banned the TV3 and Catalunya Radio news programs from using expressions such as "political prisoners", "exile" and "trial of repression", stating these are part of the electoral language of some parties participating in the upcoming elections. Spanish general elections are to be held on 28 April.

A ministerial vote will determine the seat of the new European Labour Authority - leaving MEPs excluded from the selection process. Infamously, the new HQs for the European Medicines Agency and European Banking Authority were only decided by drawing lots.

EU asylum claims from Turkey are on the rise as people such as Emrah Buyuktas, a former Turkish policeman, risk everything to live free in Europe.

The EU court ruled on Thursday that Germany acted legally when exempting heavy industries, such as chemical giant BASF and steelmaker ThyssenKrupp, from a green energy surcharge in 2012. The court overruled its own General Court, which had earlier found that the funds generated by the surcharge constituted state ressources. It also lifted an order for the state to recoup some of the money saved by the companies.

Political ads in the EU are to be labelled as having been "paid for by" and restricted to their home countries, US tech giant Facebook has said ahead of elections in May.

American Christian-right fundamentalist groups have poured at least $50m [€45m] into Europe over the last decade, boosting the far-right, a report from UK-based openDemocracy revealed. A number of the groups were connected to the World Congress of Families, holding a summit in Verona, Italy, this weekend. Over 40 MEPs have urged EU leaders to look into the influence of US fundamentalists ahead of May's EU elections.

The UK parliament will vote on Friday (29 March), the original scheduled Brexit day, on Theresa May's deal to leave the Union for a third time. The vote will however only be on the terms of the UK's departure from the EU, the withdrawal agreement, while the 'political declaration' part outlining future UK-EU relations is excluded. Approval is unlikely as Labour and the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party remain opposed.

Ukrainian voters are so fed up with their incumbent president, Petro Poroshenko, that they might pick a comedian, Volodymyr Zelensky - who played a president on TV - as their new president in elections on Sunday. Poroshenko, and Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister, are running neck-and-neck for second place. If no candidate gets a majority on Sunday, the two front-runners will face off on 21 April.

Romanian authorities on Thursday indicted the leading candidate to become the first head of the European Prosecutor's Office, Laura Codruta Kovesi. After seven hours of questioning, she was also banned from leaving the country and speaking to the press. Romania's social democrat-led government has long opposed 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.

Petro Poroshenko is unlikely to win Sunday's presidential election without voting fraud - it is not even clear if he will get into the run-off in a fair vote.

As the possibility of no-deal Brexit rises, Dublin will be tasked to police the EU's new frontier. But leaders there insist there are no preparations for a hard border - because it also needs to protect the 1998 peace deal.

The UK government aims to hold a third vote on its Brexit deal on Friday, ministers said. It is unclear what exactly lawmakers will be voting on following the House of Commons Speaker's demand that a substantially different motion is put forward, after the deal was twice rejected. Britain needs to approve the deal by 29 March to be able to leave the EU on 22 May.