In his editorial on air transport, Jean-Dominique Giuliani deems that MEPs have a good opportunity to demonstrate that the European Parliament really is relinquishing its naïve position for a modern conception of European sovereignty.

Two parties won in the parliamentary elections that took place in Italy on 4th March: the 5 Stars Movement (MS5) and the League (Lega). The M5S won 32.68% of the vote. The right coalition - formed of Forza Italia (FI); the League (Lega) and the Brothers of Italy (FdI) - came out ahead but without taking the absolute majority. The League (17.37%) easily drew ahead of Forza Italia (14.01%) and the Brothers of Italy, 4.35%. The left suffered a defeat. The Democratic Party (PD) won 18.72% of the vote. In all the left coalition won 22.85% of the vote. Free and Equal (LeU) won 3.39% of the vote. Turnout was lower than the figure recorded in the previous elections on 24th and 25th February 2013 (-2.29 points). It totalled 72.91%.

After Albania, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, Jean-Claude Juncker completed his trip to the Balkans on 28th February in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. During this trip he unveiled a new enlargement strategy of the EU to the Western Balkans reasserting that they were candidates to integrate the Union, whilst recalling that this membership was a demanding choice and that it would involve a long process.

MEPs adopted a report on Banking Union on 1st March. On 26th February the members of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee received Mario Draghi, President of the ECB, and then Luis de Guindos, candidate for the Vice-Presidency of the ECB.

The European Affairs Ministers discussed the issue of the rule of law in Poland on 27th February. They adopted a regulation aiming to ban unjustified geo-blocking within the internal market and the reform of the emissions trading system.

On 26th February the EU-Kazakhstan Cooperation Council said it was happy with the implementation of the partnership and cooperation agreement between the two partners and debated political, judicial and economic reform. Federica Mogherini chaired a bilateral meeting with the Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov.

On 28th February nine judges and the Advocates General at the ECJ (European Court of Justice) were appointed for a mandate of six years as of 7th October 2018.

On 4th March the SPD approved the coalition agreement with the CDU following a vote by the party's members. With a turnout rate of 78.4% i.e. 363,494 voters, the "yes" won with 66.02% of the vote i.e. 239,604 votes. Angela Merkel will therefore form a fourth government.

On March 1st Carles Puigdemont said that he was withdrawing as candidate for the presidency of Catalonia. However, the crisis is not over since he is suggesting that Jordi Sanchez, who is in prison, take his place. The Spanish government's spokesperson Íñigo Méndez de Vigo and Justice Minister Rafael Catalá qualified this move as a "farce".

The Greek government undertook a ministerial reshuffle on 28th February following the resignation of an Economy Minister. The latter was replaced by the present Deputy Prime Minister Yannis Dragasakis. Five others were concerned by this including the Immigration Minister who is in hospital, replaced by former Deputy Defence Minister Dimitris Vitsas.

Dutch MPs have voted to repeal the bill on consultative referendums, a type of election that placed the government in a difficult position when the citizens rejected the association agreement between the EU and Ukraine in 2016.

On 27th February the Scottish and Welsh governments presented their draft bills on Brexit, designed to repatriate into their regions certain competences, notably in terms of fishing and agriculture at the risk of causing a constitutional crisis. In real terms these two texts aim to enable the governments in Edinburgh and Cardiff to recover competences devolved to the EU once Brexit has occurred.

Angela Merkel met Serb President Aleksander Vucic in Berlin on 27th February. During their press conference the Chancellor recalled Germany's support to Serbia's possible entry into the EU.

French President E. Macron met the Norwegian Prime Minister, Erna Solberg on 27th February at the Elysée Palace. Together they discussed the importance of their bilateral relation and especially the different trade agreements that link Norway to the EU.

On 26th February the European Union adopted three new programmes, totalling more than 150 million euros, in virtue of a emergency trust fund for Africa, thereby following up directly on commitments made by the joint EU-African Union-UN working group in view of remedying the situation of migrants in Libya.

According to figures published by Eurostat on 28th February the euro zone's annual inflation rate is estimated at 1.2% in February 2018, against 1.3% in January 2018.

Until 30th March the "Free Culture" Festival is taking place at the Solbosh Campus in Brussels. Devoted to cultural diversity it pays tribute to cinema, architecture, street-art, music, dance and also photography.