During the European Council on 22nd March the Union's leaders discussed the economy, climate change and the means to counter disinformation. They reasserted their determination to deepen the single market, notably from the digital point of view. They hoped to implement the Paris Agreement on the Climate at national level but also via a long-term European strategy. They also prepared the EU-China Summit of 9th April.

On 20th March the European Commission set a further fine on the American internet giant Google, accusing it once again of abusing its dominant position, this time in a case involving its advertising branch, AdSense. This financial sanction is the third to be decided in under two years by the European executive, which ensures the respect of Europe's competition rules. This fine however is not a high as the previous two.

On 19th March the Commission adopted work programmes for the co-financing industrial defence and research projects with an envelope of 500 million euro for the period 2019-2020. An additional 25 million € has been allocated to the support collaborative research projects in the area of defence in 2019, with calls for proposals for Eurodrone and other industrial projects.

On 25th March the Commission completed its preparations in the event of a no-deal Brexit from the UK on 12th April. Since December 2017, the Commission has published 90 communications about the preparation for Brexit and put forward 19 legislative measures, 17 of which have been approved by the Parliament and the Council. The emergency measures focus amongst other things on the EU budget, fishing rights, road, rail and air connectivity, climate policy, Erasmus and visa reciprocity. The Commission is also preparing for the withdrawal from the Galileo sites which have been established by the UK.

On 25th March the Commission set a 12.5 million € fine on the American company Nike for having limited cross-border sales in Europe of derivated products such as football shirts and scarves. According to the European Commission, guardian of competition in Europe Nike prevented many shops to whom it had granted a permit to sell merchandise in a given country from trading these products in another Union country.

The tripartite social summit of 20th March targeted "For a stronger, united, future-looking Europe". Discussions focused on the means to improve European worker mobility: the digitisation of social security coordination, the reform of the posted workers system and the establishment of the European Labour Authority. Participants spoke of the deepening of the single market, notably regarding investments and the need to provide new impetus to European Social Dialogue.

On 20th March the Commission, the Parliament and the Council came to a provisional agreement on InvestEU, a programme that is part of the 2021-2027 budget and designed to stimulate investments in the Union. It copies the "Juncker Plan" for investment and should raise 650 billion € in additional investments according to the Commission. The provisional agreement will now have to be approved formally by the Parliament and the Council.

On 21st March the Council and the Parliament came to a provisional agreement on several proposals that aim to reform the European system of financial supervision, which is made up of three European supervisory authorities and the European Systemic Risk Board. The agreement provides for the strengthening of the role played by the supervisory authorities, particularly the European Banking Agency (EBA) in the area of countering capital laundering and the financing of terrorism. The system for supervisory convergence will also be improved with, for example, new common priorities at Union level.

On 21st March the Council and the Parliament came to a provisional agreement on the funding of the Union's tax cooperation programme (Fiscalis) for the period 2021-2027. This agreement will help Fiscalis guarantee closer tax cooperation between the Member States for the introduction of efficient tax systems and to reduce red tape that citizens and businesses in the single market have to face. The Parliament and the Council must now approve this agreement officially. It budgetary aspects will depend on an overall compromise regarding the Union's multi-annual financing framework.

On 19th March the Council, Parliament and the Commission came to a provisional agreement over social services of mobile workers in the Union. The new rules provided in this agreement will guarantee mobile workers with social security whilst coordinating and distributing fairly obligations between the Member States. Parliament and the Council must now officially adopt the agreement.

On 19th March the Council adopted new rules to prevent the abusive use of personal data by European political parties during the European elections. The political foundations and parties breaching the personal data protection rules will be sanctioned financially to a total of 5% of their annual budget and they will no longer be able to benefit from financing from the European budget the following year.

On 21st March the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) presented its team of seven leaders for the European election campaign. Former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, group's leader in the European Parliament, Slovenian Violetta Bulc, European Commissioner for Transport, Italian Emma Bonino, former European Commissioner and Italian Foreign Affairs Minister, Spaniard Luis Garicano, member of the Ciudadanos Party, Nicolas Beer, lead candidate for the German FDP, Hungarian Katalin Cseh and Dane, Margrethe Vestager, European Commissioner for Competition. The latter announced in the press that she would run to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as the President of the European Commission.

On 23rd March, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping holding talks that aimed to strengthen the international strategic partnership and cooperation regarding the Chinese "Silk Road". 29 sectoral agreements were concluded between the two leaders and Chinese investments will total between 7 and 20 billion €. The ports of Genoa and Trieste will receive funds for their modernisation.

On 25th March British Prime Minister Theresa May announced that for the time being she was giving up the organisation of a third vote on the Brexit agreement. Moreover 329 MPs against 302 approved an amendment enabling Parliament to decide on its own agenda, normally controlled by the executive. This will allow MPs to organise a series of indicative votes on 27th March regarding possibilities of alternative Brexit solutions to the withdrawal agreement.

Until 30th June the National Gallery of Bratislava, together with the Gallery of West Bohemia, is hosting the exhibition "From the Academy to Nature, landscape painting of Central Europe 1860-1890". The exhibition reflects a series of landscapes from daily and rurual life by a group of artists, of which the Barbizon School and the French Realist trend were the main inspiration.

Until 12th May around one hundred pieces of work from the collection of the Neo-Hellenic Museum of Art on the Island of Rhodes will be on show at the Theocharakis Foundation as part of the exhibition "Precious Paintings from the Neo-Hellenic Museum of Art of Rhodes". The exhibition includes works by 20th century Greek artists like Theophilos and Konstantinos Parthenis.

Until 21st July, the Maillol Museum in Paris is presenting the collection of German artist Emil Georg Bührle. This collection brings together a variety of works by famous French artists like Manet, Gauguin, Van Gogh and Braque. It is on show for the first time in France.

Until 20th April the FOTO WIEN festival is taking place in Vienna. For a month the Austrian capital will be running events highlighting both international and local photography. Universities, museums, art galleries and public places are all partners contributing to the festival.

For the first time in Italy, the Palazzo Grassi of Venice is hosting work by Belgian artist Luc Tuymans from 24th March until 6th January 2020. The exhibition entitled "La Pelle" set up in close collaboration with the painter himself, includes more than 80 works from Pinault collection and other international museums.