The UK Parliament voted twice to defy its government last week. First, they rejected the government’s negotiated terms for leaving the EU. Second, they voted that the UK cannot leave the EU without a negotiated agreement. Since the EU has declared they will not improve the terms rejected by the first vote, it appears that the UK can neither accept any agreement nor accept that there is no agreement. Brexit is, officially, an utter mess.

The office market in Europe is flourishing, with 2018 total volumes at the same level as those of 2017, by far the most active year in the decade. At city level, Central London benefited from the return of activity from small and medium businesses and from the high demand from the Media Tech sector, reaching 1.4m sq m (+19% over 1 year). The four main German markets combined dropped 8% but still represented 3.04m sq m, well above the long-term average. Volumes in Central Paris diminished by 9%, notably due to the lack of very large deals (-30% in transactions over 20,000 sq m). Very high results were achieved in Vienna (+54%), Luxembourg, Lisbon (+21%), Milan and Warsaw (+10%).

The aim of the project is to develop a technology for monitoring and evaluating the state of alertness of the pilot with use in aviation. For several years, a research team at the Honeywell's branch in Brno has been working on this topic, addressing it as part of its contribution to the European Clean Sky II initiative. Technology should increase flight safety in the future and also allow new ways of organizing air transport. The Sleep Medicine research team and engineers from the Biomedical Engineering research team contribute their knowledge and equipment. The first part of the unique project, which will gather data from volunteers primarily from professional and interested pilots, took place at the beginning of February.

Brno is the city of Mendel, whose studies of peas led to modern genetics, and Godel, whose math underlies the computer industry. Avast and Y Soft Corporation started their global growth from there.

For the tenth consecutive year, expert public can vote on the Act of the Year. The anniversary vote for the best legal regulation, set of acts or legislative act with a positive impact on business in the Czech Republic has started. This year, the Nomination Committee has selected three legislative acts. Furthermore, participants will also be able to select the winner of the new “Exclamation Mark” category. The results will be announced on 16 April.