Euobserver.com

Due to democratic backsliding in Turkey, a large majority in the European Parliament recommended on Wednesday in a non-binding resolution, adopted by 370 votes in favour, 109 against with 143 abstentions, that the European Union formally suspends the current accession negotiations with Turkey. Rapporteur Kati Piri, a Hungarian-born Dutch Social Democrat MEP said that repeated calls on Turkey to respect fundamental rights had "fallen on deaf ears in Ankara".

Greece is expected to move to the upper tier of the eurozone growth table in 2019, with growth expected to accelerate to 2.4 percent this year (up from an estimated 2.1 percent in 2018), the IMF concludes in its latest assessment on the state of the Greek economy. "Unemployment is coming down, though is still unacceptably high, especially for young people," said Peter Dohlman, IMF mission chief for Greece.

Now that the UK is leaving, Italy can, and should, step up. It is the third largest country and economy in the EU. Spain and Poland follow, but they are significantly smaller economically and population-wise.

In response to the now worldwide movement of concerned school children, the EU parliament held a debate about climate change. But those pupils attending were not allowed to speak, only to listen.

British prime minister Theresa May still has a 55 percent chance of ratifying her Brexit deal by 29 March in a third vote, after MPs' latest rejection of it Tuesday, leading investment bank Goldman Sachs said Wednesday. The odds of cancelling Brexit were 35 percent and those of a no-deal Brexit 10 percent, it added. Germany had "not given up" on "an orderly [British] exit," German chancellor Angela Merkel said.

Italy's far-right deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, ought to get Rome to veto a delay of the 29 March Brexit date, a well-known figure in the UK's hard-Brexit campaign group, Leave.EU, Andy Wigmore, urged publicly Wednesday. "Italy can be heroes", he tweeted. Leave.EU bankroller, British businessman Aaron Banks recently visited Italy, but he mocked allegations of a Salvini deal to force a no-deal Brexit as "conspiracy theories".

Far-right politicking in Estonia has threatened a rift in the centrist Alde group in the European Parliament, with group leader Belgian MEP Guy Verhoftstadt "firmly asking" Estonian prime minister Juri Ratas, a fellow liberal, not to form a national government with "fascist" MPs amid coalition talks in Tallinn. The Conservative People's Party of Estonia, which Ratas had approached, was "reminiscent of fascist regimes in Europe," Verhoftstadt said.

The EU has branded as "tax-havens" the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba, Barbados, Belize, the British overseas territory of Bermuda, Fiji, the Marshall Islands, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu, and Dominica in a decision by finance ministers in Brussels Wednesday, the Reuters news agency reported. The 10 jurisdictions joined Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, and US territories American Samoa, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands, which had been blacklisted earlier.

The US spy service, the CIA, was linked to two of the attackers in a raid on North Korea's embassy in Madrid on 22 February, Spanish newspaper El Pais has said, citing police and intelligence sources in an ongoing investigation. The US denied it "but not in a very convincing manner", the paper added. Attackers gagged staff and stole computers amid US-North Korea talks on nuclear arms control, it said.

France, Germany, and Italy are in Russia's cross-hairs for EU election meddling, amid mounting military threats to Nato, Estonia's intelligence service has warned.

"The risk of no deal has never been higher," EU negotiator Michel Barnier said Wednesday, commenting on the House of Commons' rejection of UK prime minister Theresa May's Brexit deal. Speaking to MEPs in Strasbourg, Barnier repeated no different deal was possible. Pro-Brexit MEP Nigel Farage urged EU leaders, were the UK to ask for an extension of the negotiation period beyond 29 March, to veto such a request.

The likelihood the UK will leave the EU on 29 March has faded after Tuesday's failed vote, but no one can say how much longer and on what terms it will stay in.

A new 10-point strategic plan sharpens Europe's profile in relations with China, and signals impatience with Beijing.

EU officials have voiced scepticism on proposed new human rights sanctions, amid a "nasty" debate to what extent Russia ought to be named and shamed in the title of the new measures.

It is disappointing that so many MEPs in the Socialist and Green group caved in to Russian interests, in fear of challenging a plutocratic regime, by saying 'no' to naming the Magnitsky legislation by its rightful name: Magnitsky.

It is disappointing that so many MEPs in the Socialist and Green group caved in to Russian interests, in fear of challenging a plutocratic regime, by saying 'no' to naming the Magnitsky legislation by its rightful name: Magnitsky.

British prime minister Theresa May lost the vote to approve her Brexit withdrawal deal by 149 votes on Tuesday night. Although a reduction in the unprecedented 230-vote defeat in January, May immediately granted a free vote on Wednesday allowing MPs to rule out leaving the EU on March 29 without a deal. If MPs vote against a no-deal, on Thursday there will be a vote on extending Article 50.

The European Commission unveiled on Tuesday (12 March) a 10-point plan for better relations with China, including trade, climate, WTO-reforms, Iran cooperation and a common EU approach to the security of 5G networks and screening of foreign direct investment. The plan is set to be discussed and endorsed by EU leaders at a summit in Brussels on 21-22 March. The next EU-China summit is scheduled for early April.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Theresa May's allies in the UK parliament, dealt a probable death blow to her hopes of passing her revised Brexit deal on Tuesday night, saying they rejected the agreement brokered by the British prime minister and EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker on Monday. The hardline unionist 10-MP bloc said it would vote against the deal, blaming the EU for being "intransigent".

EU lawmakers and member states have struck a political deal on the first-ever EU-wide directive on whistleblower protection - following years of big tax-evasion revelations and the laundering of dirty money in European banks.