Euobserver.com

British prime minister Theresa May's Brexit deal was defeated in parliament on Tuesday night by 230 votes - one of the biggest defeats for a government in recent political history. MPs voted 432 against the government's EU withdrawal agreement, with 202 for. The PM said the result "tells us nothing about what [parliament] does support". Opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn immediately tabled a no-confidence motion in the government.

The European Commission hopes to push member states to accept that globalisation and recent tax scandals make majority voting on tax issues unavoidable.

The EU parliament's internal chiefs have so far refused to introduce mandatory training on dealing with sexual harassment. MEPs have now asked for it again.

Though we would never admit it, the only difference between Trump and the EU is we don't need a wall - because we're 'fortunate' enough to have the Mediterranean.

A number of centre-right MEPs are pushing for a secret ballot on a plenary vote that would make EU lawmakers more transparent and accountable to the public - in a move described as "absurd" by Transparency International.

The German economy cooled significantly in 2018 due to global economic turbulence, the Munich-based Ifo Institute for Economic Research said on Tuesday. Economic output rose by 1.5 percent in price-adjusted terms in 2018, after a rise of 2.2 percent in the boom year of 2017. The reintroduction of tariffs, Brexit negotiations and Italian budget plans "have left deep scars on Germany's key sales markets," senior economist Timo Wollmershaeuser said.

The European Parliament on Tuesday called on all member states to exempt female hygiene products like tampons from value added tax (VAT). The text calls on member states "to eliminate the so-called 'care and tampon tax'". An amendment with weaker language on the tampon tax was narrowly defeated, receiving support from 318 MEPs, but a 'No' vote from 319 MEPs. The resolution is non-binding.

The European Parliament voted on Tuesday to back Europe's planned continued involvement in an international research programme aimed at creating a nearly-unlimited energy source through fusion power. A resolution which backed the plan to invest €6.1bn in fusion research in 2021-2027 was supported by 526 MEPs, with 126 voting against, and 43 abstaining. The non-binding text said the European contribution "should not be exceeded".

The European Parliament adopted a non-binding resolution on autonomous driving on Tuesday, with 585 MEPs in favour, 85 against, and 26 abstaining. It calls for more investment and said driverless cars would "reduce transport costs, improve road safety, increase mobility and reduce environmental impacts". It also called for "awareness campaigns to increase [the] confidence" of citizens in automated driving, acknowledging some citizens expressed "distrust" in self-driving cars.

Parts of a German risk assessment of the weedkiller glyphosate was copy-pasted from contributions from industry, according to a report presented in the European Parliament Tuesday. The authors said 50.1% of the chapters assessing studies on health risks related to glyphosate were identified as plagiarism. This report was financed by three centre-left and left-wing political groups, and comes ahead of a vote on the conclusions of parliament's pesticides committee.

Germany has reacted with disdain after America's "unusual" ambassador to Berlin threatened sanctions against its new Russian gas pipeline.

The Faroe Islands and the UK will sign a free-trade agreement later this month to keep trade going after Brexit. "Trade with the UK is secure and can continue unhindered when the country leaves the EU," minister of foreign affairs and trade, Poul Michelsen, told Greenland newspaper Sermitsiaq. The new free-trade agreement is based on the current EU agreement regulating trade with the Faroe Islands.

British MPs on Tuesday night are expected to reject Theresa May's deal on leaving the European Union amid calls that the 29 March Brexit deadline could be pushed back.

German chancellor Angela Merkel has proposed a EU-China summit during Germany's 2020 EU presidency, likely to coincide with China's displacement of the US as the EU's largest trade partner. Merkel communicated the idea to EU colleagues in December, according to Reuters. The summit would include national leaders of EU countries as well as officials from Brussels and Beijing.

Flemish government head, nationalist party N-VA member Geert Bourgeois, announced on Monday that he will lead the party's list in the European election in Flanders. "We want to express our Flemish voice very explicitly at European level," he tweeted. Belgian federal election will be held the same day as the European parliament elections, after the federal government collapsed in December over N-VA's refusal to sign the non-binding UN migration pact.

The EU commission is set to propose on Tuesday that EU governments gradually abandon their national vetoes, starting this year with policies that do not have an impact on national taxation rights. Member states should agree to take decisions by supermajority in more sensitive areas by the end of 2020, according to the draft obtained by Bloomberg. EU decisions on taxation require unanimity among governments, according to the EU treaties.

Thousands of people gathered across Poland on Monday after the fatal stabbing of Gdansk mayor Pawel Adamowicz on stage at a charity concert on Sunday evening. Adamowicz was for 20 years a popular, liberal mayor. EU Council president Donald Tusk, a Gdansk native, joined the crowds and called Adamowicz a "man of Solidarity and freedom" and "a European". No evidence has emerged that the attack was politically motivated.

'If there is a very last chance to keep Britain in the EU, any effort is worthwhile doing it,' says centre-left German MEP Jo Leinen.

EU commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and council president Donald Tusk on Monday sent an open letter to UK premier Theresa May to have the negotiated Brexit deal approved on Tuesday in the UK parliament. The letter says that if the Irish backstop were triggered, it "would only apply temporarily, unless and until it is superseded by a subsequent agreement that ensures that a hard border is avoided".

French leader Macron and far-right leader Le Pen have reached out to 'yellow vest' protesters, as debate on the EU elections heats up in France and Germany.