EU institutions aim to revive an anti-snooping clause in their data protection bill, even though it would do nothing to stop a US-type operation. The so called article 42 in the new regulation would create a legal ...

Violence against Muslims in Europe is on the rise among the handful of member states that officially record such incidents. A report published on Tuesday (18 June) by the Vienna-based Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) ...

The European Commission wants to set up a platform to compare how well member states tackle youth unemployment. Employment commissioner Laszlo Andor on Monday (17 June) told reporters in Brussels the platform would help ...

A G8 summit kicks off Monday (17 June) in Northern Ireland amid embarrassing revelations that Britain's intelligence services set up fake Internet cafes to spy on its allies at international summits in London in 2009. ...

US attorney general Eric Holder aimed to reassure his EU counterparts at a ministerial meeting in Dublin that the secret Prism snooping operation on EU citizens by the American intelligence agency operates within the ...

Turkish riot police pummeled protestors with tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons in Istanbul’s Taksim square into the early hours of Wednesday (12 June) as unrest deepens over Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’ ...

Left-wing MEPs in the European Parliament and some national MPs are calling for answers on whether European intelligence services colluded with the US to snoop on EU citizens. The centre-left group in the EU assembly, ...

A junior EU official on Tuesday (11 June) broke Brussels' silence on US data snooping, urging Washington not to abuse its "special relationship" with Europe. Tonio Borg - the Malteste commissioner in charge of health ...

The US National Security Agency (NSA) snoops on all EU member states and on Germany the most, new data reveals. A colour-coded map of secret surveillance activities by the NSA ranks countries according to how much they ...

EU interior ministers in Luxembourg are backing a "risk-based approach" for data protection standards that would allow greater industry self-regulation. Ireland’s justice minister Allan Shatter said on Thursday (6 June) ...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has admitted it failed to fully realise the severity of the bailout conditions imposed on Greece. The Washington-based fund acknowledged making mistakes in its past analysis, ...

European airlines may be forced to hand over passenger details to Russian authorities in contravention of EU privacy rules or face landing and overflight bans. Russian lawmakers are pushing through a passenger name ...

The European Commission says it is ready to unleash funds to help the thousands affected by one of the worst floods to hit Europe in a decade. Six people are reported dead in the Czech Republic with another two dead in ...

The EU's data privacy chief wants tough new limits imposed on EU police agency Europol. "A strong framework of data protection is important not only for those under suspicion or involved in an investigation, but also ...

Violent clashes between protestors and police in Turkey over the weekend have seen its Prime Minister deny accusations that he is becoming a "dictator." A violent crackdown on a peaceful demonstration on Friday (31 May) ...

EU border policies focus too much on security instead of human rights, a UN official has said. "Within EU institutional and policy structures, migration and border control have been increasingly integrated into security ...

Independent experts tasked with overseeing the EU’s anti-fraud office, Olaf, say they are unable to carry out their duties. Speaking to MEPs in Brussels on Wednesday (29 May), members of the Olaf supervisory committee ...

Backroom discussions among pro-industry MEPs and lobbying efforts by large companies risks undermining fundamental rights in one of the largest EU legislative proposals to ever hit the European Parliament floor. The ...

Retiring EU ombudsman Nikiforos Diamandouros says he has witnessed the slow erosion of a dominating culture of secrecy among the EU civil services. “[But] this in no way suggests that I am content and satisfied,” the 70 ...

Euro-deputies are thrashing out the details on European data protection reform, with the latest debates split on provisions on "territorial scope." The European Commission wants the legislation to cover non-EU entities ...

The director general of the EU’s anti-fraud agency, Olaf, has said public confidence in the office has increased despite allegations of wrongdoing in an investigation that led to the dismissal of EU commissioner John ...

Battered women and other victims of violence will be afforded greater EU-wide protection under European Commission proposals voted through by euro-deputies in Strasbourg on Wednesday (22 May). “We want to make sure that ...

Iceland’s bid to join the EU has come to an end, Iceland’s centre-right independence party leader Bjarni Benediktsson has said. The eurosceptic politician made the statement in an interview with Icelandic news outlet ...

Large depositors in the EU will from 2016 be in line to suffer losses if a bank gets into serious trouble, but deposits under €100,000 should be fully protected, MEPs in the economic affairs committee voted late on ...

Energy and tax policy are on next WEEK’s agenda as European leaders gather in Brussels for a summit on Wednesday (22 May). Member states want to harvest an estimated €1 trillion lost every year to tax evasion. It is ...

Digital agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes has promised to roll out a single telecoms market throughout the EU before she leaves office in one and half years. “I'm the same age as [ex-Manchester United football club ...

Ideological and political divisions emerge among European Parliament political groups as they debate amendments on the draft EU data protection bill. “I can see a shift towards more of the protection, under quotation ...

The Arctic Council at its biannual meeting on Wednesday (15 May) in Sweden allowed in six new observer states, but deferred the EU's application until a later date. China, along with India, Italy, Japan, South Korea and ...

Criminals are using bitcoins and other unregulated digital currencies as a payment method of choice when blackmailing companies following a data breach. Belgian-based Buy Way Personal Finance told this website on ...

The European Commission wants to tighten tax loopholes on savings of EU citizens who hold accounts in member states and in Switzerland, Andorra, San Marino, Monaco and Lichtenstein. "We are looking for an ambitious ...

Tax havens and banking transparency top this week’s agenda as EU finance ministers meet to discuss the issue on Tuesday (14 May). The ministers are set to adopt a mandate enabling the European Commission to negotiate ...

European Commission vice-president Viviane Reding has proposed to extend EU nationals' welfare rights despite a warning on "benefit tourism" by major EU countries. Ministers from Austria, Germany, Netherlands, and the ...

A leaked report on the EU's anti-fraud office (Olaf) questions the legal basis of the investigation that led to former Maltese health commissioner John Dalli losing his job. "It clearly describes in 22 or 23 pages what ...

Small businesses such as bed and breakfasts or cafes will have to hire a data protection officer (DPO) under new rules currently being fine-tuned by the European Parliament. The parliament says any business that has 500 ...

The European police college Cepol and the EU police agency Europol both formally rejected on Tuesday (7 May) a proposal by the European Commission to merge the two in a cost cutting measure. Both agency chiefs and their ...

Those who support the EU's proposed data protection bill and those who oppose it are putting forward vastly different figures on the cost of the new law. "It's been a massaging of the numbers on both sides," Chris ...

The European Commission on Monday (6 May) tabled an extensive package covering plant and animal health it says will strengthen standards for the whole food chain, but others call it a victory for the seed industry. EU ...

Jan Philipp Albrecht is overseeing one of the most extensive and complex pieces of legislation to ever hit the European Parliament. Just 30 years old, the German Green MEP is the parliament’s top negotiator on the EU ...

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s speech against anti-Semitism at the World Jewish Congress (WJC) in Budapest on Sunday (5 May) failed to impress organisers, as the far-right Jobbik party staged a rally against ...

Prison populations and overcrowding in member states is linked to sentence length and not to the number of people incarcerated. A study published Friday (3 May) by the Strasbourg-based human rights watchdog Council of ...

European Central Bank director Mario Draghi handed out signed copies of the new €5 bank note on Thursday (2 May) to a group of ‘euro children’ who have grown up only knowing the euro. "The children who are here today ...

The titanium metal box implanted inside Hugo Campos' chest keeps him alive. The size of a wristwatch, the €20,000 gadget houses a generator, circuitry and a battery with thin wires attached directly to the Californian's ...

Plans to launch an independent European credit agency have fallen apart after it failed to generate enough interest in the business world. After three years of efforts, its co-founder renounced the plans in an interview ...

The European Commission will push ahead with its original plan to place a two-year ban on pesticides thought to kill bees. Tonio Borg, the EU commissioner for health, pledged in Brussels on Monday (29 April) “to do my ...

EU anti-fraud office Olaf had no hard evidence that former health commissioner John Dalli tried to solicit a bribe from a tobacco firm. The information comes from its confidential report into the Dalli case, part of ...

The president of a EU-wide network against homelessness has slammed Europe's human rights watchdog for its recent analysis of Hungary’s constitutional changes. “We find it quite shocking that the Venice commission came ...

Iceland's EU-sceptic opposition groups are facing off with the island-nation's pro-EU government ahead of a general election on Saturday (27 April). Polls indicate voters are likely to unseat the ruling Social Democrats ...

Italy nominated Enrico Letta as its new Prime Minister on Wednesday (24 April) in a move it hopes will end a two-month parliamentary deadlock. "The country is waiting for a government. Everyone knows this is situation ...

The EU’s anti-fraud office (Olaf) has been unjustly accused of wrongdoing over the Dalli affair, its chief, Giovanni Kessler, has said amid calls for his resignation. His defence came in response to a 44-page annual ...