Euobserver.com

Over 30,000 Belgian children skipped school on Thursday to join protests demanding tougher action against climate change in a fourth "Youth for Climate" march organised by students. The strikes are inspired by 16-year old Swedish climate-change protester, Greta Thunberg's, speech at the COP24 in Poland.

The nationalist Sweden Democrats' party leader, Jimmie Akesson, has suggested an adjustment of the party's election manifesto from wanting to leave the European Union to reform it instead from within. The party would still be opposed to free movement of people within the Union and reserves the option to hold a referendum on changing Sweden's EU membership terms. The Sweden Democrats sit in the European Parliament's ECR group.

The world's biggest free-trade area becomes a reality on Friday, when the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the EU and Japan enters into force. "We are opening a new marketplace home to 635 million people and almost a third of the world's GDP," EU Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker said. European companies will save €1bn in duties annually and could increase exports to Japan by 13 percent.

Only time will tell, but in the very different context of the 21st century, Angela Merkel may have unwittingly revitalised what Bismarck had achieved and Hitler destroyed: a self-restrained but conscious and confident German national state.

Plans to weed out "fake" political groups in the European Parliament failed to muster enough votes on Thursday as MEPs rejected the proposal floated by German MEP Jo Leinen. Opposition to the measure, which would require parties to demonstrate "political affinity" with each other, also came from the Greens. The plan needed a 376 majority to pass. It got 354 in favour, 267 against and 27 abstentions.

In total, 139,300 refugees and migrants arrived in Europe in 2018, the lowest number in five years, but six people each day on average lost their lives when trying to cross into Europe via the Mediterranean Sea during the year, the UN Refugee Agency said on Thursday. On routes from Libya to Europe, one person died at sea for every 14 who arrived in Europe.

MEPs voted in favour of transparency - despite a German-led effort in the centre-right EPP group to block the reforms via a rare secret ballot.

The European Parliament on Thursday voted to recognise opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela's acting president. The motion called him "the only legitimate interim president of the country", pending new and transparent elections to "restore democracy." That goes further than EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini, who in a statement last week called for a "political process" leading to new elections. The resolution is non-binding.

MEPs on Thursday backed measures to require committee chairs, and others who draft reports, to publish any meetings they hold with lobbyists. The vote was a secret ballot largely pushed by German centre-right deputies, who opposed the pro-transparency amendment in a report by a British socialist MEP.

Europe has stepped up pressure on Russia to free Ukrainian sailors, amid concern of a potential flare-up in Russian violence, ahead of elections in March.

Daniel Caspary, a German centre-right MEP, says the EPP's demand for a secret ballot on transparency is needed to defend the rights of EU lawmakers.

MEPs who launched a procedure examining the democratic situation in Hungary last year now want member states to step up efforts. The government in Budapest meanwhile accuses MEPs of attacking Hungary over migration.

Germany's government on Wednesday downgraded the country's economic forecast for 2019 to 1.0 percent growth, the weakest since 2013 and much less than the 1.8 percent growth it had predicted in the autumn. Economy minister Peter Altmaier cited Brexit and trade conflicts as reasons for the slowdown in growth. The unemployment rate in Germany is predicted however to drop further, to below five percent in 2019.

The Helsinki-based European Chemical Agency recommended on Wednesday EU-wide restrictions to reduce the amount of microplastics released into the environment by about 400,000 tonnes over 20 years as part of the EU plastics strategy. Once released, microplastics can be extremely persistent in the environment, lasting thousands of years, and practically impossible to remove. Several EU countries has already banned microplastics in certain products, such as wash-off cosmetic products.

European Commission officials are due in Dublin next week to discuss preparations for a no-deal Brexit, reports the Irish Times. The option of softening Ireland's stance on the backstop would inevitably be discussed, it reported. "There will be no pressure from us," said one EU diplomat. "But the situation will bring pressure".

Irish central bank governor since 2015, Philip Lane, is the sole candidate to replace Peter Praet as the European Central Bank's next chief economist from 1 June, the president of the Eurogroup, Mario Centeno, said in a statement on Wednesday. Finance ministers from the 19 euro countries will discuss his candidacy, before an EU summit in March can formally appoint him after the European Parliament has been consulted.

Harmonising tax rates would probably not mean harmonising all tax systems to low rates – such as those in Ireland, for instance, but much rather an increase of taxes across the continent.

EU officials and member states reject renegotiating the agreed Brexit deal, despite the British PM's effort to change the Irish backstop. The EU also demands the UK keep paying to the EU budget even in case of a no-deal Brexit.

The hidden costs - or negative externalities - of transport in the EU, like accidents, congestion, and pollution, are estimated at €1 trillion per year, according to preliminary results of a study ordered by the European Commission. This is almost seven percent of the EU's GDP, the commission said in a reflection paper on sustainability, published Wednesday. The final results are expected by mid-2019.

"The EU has agreed that by 2020, three percent of EU member states' GDP should be invested in research, development and innovation, yet we are still far from reaching this target," the European Commission said in a reflection paper published Wednesday. According to Eurostat, in 2017 only Sweden, Austria, Denmark, and Germany spent more than three percent of their GDP on R&D. The EU average was 2.07 percent.