Euobserver.com

Liberal MEP Guy Verhofstadt's support for an amendment which called on European Central Bank president Mario Draghi to leave the controversial Group of Thirty, was accidental, a spokesman told EUobserver, after it reported on the official voting data. "He pushed the wrong button by mistake," said the spokesman. The record will be corrected. It will not affect the outcome: the amendment was defeated. Including Verhofstadt, 440 MEPs rejected it.

The UK parliament will debate and vote on a 'Plan B' Brexit plan from Theresa May's government on 29 January, it was announced on Thursday. May suffered one of the biggest defeats in British political history earlier this week, when her withdrawal agreement - negotiated for two years with the EU - was defeated by 230 votes. There is no detail yet on where a 'Plan B' deal would differ.

Guy Verhofstadt was only one of two Liberal MEPs to support an amendment that called on European Central Bank president Mario Draghi to leave the secretive Group of 30, voting data published Thursday showed. All but five MEPs from the European People's Party and all but 20 Social Democrats rejected the amendment, which was supported by all Green and GUE/NGL MEPs and most eurosceptic MEPs.

EU countries have signalled they might accept a delay to Brexit as British prime minister Theresa May began cross-party talks on how to avoid a no-deal outcome.

Russian president Vladimir Putin warned western nations not to destabilise the Balkans, ahead of a visit on Thursday to Serbia, a country seeking to join the European Union. Putin is set to meet Serbia's president Aleksandar Vucic and give him an award, the Order of Alexander Nevsky, which has also been handed out to close Russian allies in Belarus, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.

Germany's government is mulling excluding China's Huawei Technologies from an auction on setting up fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks, reported Handelsblatt. The paper cites unnamed government officials amid broader fears that the firm does not meet the required security standards. The US has accused Huawei of acting on the behalf of the Chinese state, increasing the risk of industrial and cyber espionage.

Sweden is poised for a new government on Friday, following four months of deadlock. The parliament is set to back Sweden's Social Democratic leader Stefan Lofven and support his centrist government following a deal with the Left Party. Sweden has been without a formal government since an inconclusive election last September.

Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras on Wednesday night narrowly won a motion to remain in government, following a bid to unseat him after the dispute over the controversial name deal with Macedonia. Tsipras obtained 151 votes in favour, and 148 against.

British leader Theresa May narrowly survived a no confidence vote in parliament in London on Wednesday by 325 votes to 306. The vote had been called by the opposition Labour Party after May suffered a crushing defeat, one day earlier, on the Brexit withdrawal deal she had negotiated with the EU. "We must find solutions that are negotiable and command sufficient support in this House," she said Wednesday.

A large majority rejected an amendment which would have called on the ECB to "put an end to the president's membership of the G30".

A trade deal with Morocco was endorsed by the European Parliament but is likely to end up challenged at the European Court of Justice in Strasbourg.

In an apparent effort to help the British PM build some form of coalition with opposition MPs for a Brexit deal, EU negotiator Michel Barnier said the bloc was ready to talk about the future relations part of the deal.

Spain's centre-left prime minister Pedro Sanchez proposed to MEPs on Wednesday that the EU should have a "binding European gender equality strategy, to fight the gender gap, the higher unemployment rate amongst women, and the higher level of precarious working conditions suffered by women predominantly". Sanchez's cabinet consists of a majority of women, a rarity in Europe. On Tuesday, MEPs repeated a previous request for such a strategy.

UKIP MEP and Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage said on Wednesday in Strasbourg that the EU would be in for a big surprise if it forced the UK to hold a second referendum. The EU has "a great tradition, seen with Ireland and Denmark. You make people vote again", he said, adding it would lead to another Leave victory. "We would win it - with a bigger majority".

Germany's domestic spy agency, the BfV, is to start monitoring the far-right AfD party in a move endorsed by the government, but decried as a witch-hunt by the party's leaders.

French president Emmanuel Macron kicked off a two-month national debate tour on Tuesday, meeting some 600 mayors from across Normandy in the northern town of Grand Bourgtheroulde. The town hall-style discussions, announced in a six-page letter on Sunday, are meant to address issues raised by the 'yellow vest' protests and will be broadcast live. Police used tear gas to disperse protesters gathered outside the venue and arrested several.

The EU's Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, told MEPs in Strasbourg on Wednesday that "it is now up to the British authorities to agree how to take things forward towards an orderly withdrawal". Barnier pledged EU readiness to discuss sectoral co-operation, mentioning "research, fisheries, aviation, transport, police, judicial cooperation" and security, if the UK chooses to "go beyond a simple free trade agreement".

"Today, we can say that the euro area has emerged from a crisis so severe as to threaten at times its existence," European Central Bank president Mario Draghi concluded when presenting the ECB's 2017 annual report to MEPs on Tuesday. He added that "monetary policy stimulus is still needed". The hearing was Draghi's last as ECB president, before he leaves in October.

If the European parliament votes in favour of the new Morocco agreement without knowing that it complies with the European Court of Justice judgement, how can it demand that other countries respect international law and their own courts?

British MPs vote down Theresa May's hard-fought Brexit withdrawal agreement by 432 to 202 votes. The opposition immediately called for a vote on no-confidence in the government on Wednesday.