Episode 4: Marietje Schaake — Politics of EU-Japan deal — Parliament's PhD babysitter

This week Christian Oliver, POLITICO Europe's trade editor, talks us through the astonishing speed with which the EU completed its trade deal with Japan, and why future trade deals will not be so easy. Marietje Schaake, a Dutch liberal member of the European Parliament and member of the 2017 POLITICO 28 list, tells us why she thinks a data flows chapter could still be added into the Japan trade deal, why she thinks protestors at the G20 summit have no excuse for their violence, and why she is so worried about the Trump administration. Schaake also has a message for Theresa May. Schaake thinks May is living in a fantasy land when it comes to post-Brexit trade deals: “Where's the sense of realism and what kind of narrative are you projecting out there and how are you ever going to meet it?” she told EU Confidential. Our Brussels brains trust, Lina Aburous and Ailbhe Finn, chew over whether it's OK for Ryanair and the European Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc to support special flight deals for Erasmus program exchange students. And in our Dear Politico section we hear from a listener who wants to know what she should tell her boss — a male member of the European Parliament — who asks her to babysit, for no payment, at the end of long parliament sitting days in Strasbourg. She has a PhD and her male colleagues are never asked to babysit, she says.