EU Confidential

This week Violeta Bulc, the European transport commissioner and a taekwondo black belt, explains why she’d have Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary as a Brexit negotiator to make sure planes can still fly from the U.K. to the EU and vice versa the day after Brexit. Bulc is also passionate about drones and tells us why there should be millions of them, why they need to be regulated and how she plans to do it. You'll also hear what it takes to establish a cross-border fast train link, and so why many obvious connections — like one between Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest — are still missing from Europe's map.

Bulc even entertains the idea of giving farmers EU Common Agricultural Policy money to buy drones to help with their work.

Joshua Posaner, a POLITICO transport reporter, talks us through a big week for the automotive sector. Allegations of a massive cartel in the German auto sector prompted soul-searching at the European Commission. Their response was to create a new role, which may as well be called Vice President for Sorting Out The Car Sector, given to Vice President  Jyrki Katainen. The U.K. also became the latest country after France and Norway to announce it will ban petrol and diesel cars. The catch: the ban will only kick in 23 years from now.

In "EU WTF," our Brussels brains trust, Lina Aburous and Ailbhe Finn, discuss the European Commission's decision promote six men and no women to the top civil service rank, on the same day the institution released its new staff diversity policy.

And in our Dear Politico section, we hear from yet another Parliament assistant: this one is worried about whether they will be linked for ever in search engines to their MEP's legally dubious behavior.

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