Saturday
3rd Dec 2022
This global tax rate for multinationals could yield up to €64bn annually. Yet, the Hungarian government led by Viktor Orbán has been blocking it for months. The impotency of the EU to strike a deal is irresponsible and incomprehensible.
Lavish birthday trips to Michelin-starred restaurants in France and sunbathing in Italy — leaked flight data show how the family of ruthless Belarusian president Aleksander Lukashenko lived la dolce vita in Europe.
Over the last 10 years, Portugal has given 1,470 golden visas to people originating from countries whose tax-transparency practices the EU finds problematic. But unlike common practice in other EU states with similar programmes, Portugal has not implemented "due diligence".
Germany even tried to mobilise support to turn the due diligence process, designed to prevent human rights violations, into a shield to protect companies from being taken to court. Thankfully this did not gain much traction.
Afghan and Syrian nationals are being abused at EU-funded removal centres in Turkey amid a lack of proper monitoring, says Human Rights Watch. The findings come at a time when Turkey is deporting large numbers of Afghans back to Kabul.
The EU should not be dragged into an intensifying subsidy race — least of all with a country with such deep pockets and the world's reserve currency.
Prime minister Viktor Orbán's government has to implement 27 measures "fully and correctly" before any payment from the €5.8bn recovery fund can be made, or the suspended €7.5bn of cohesion funds can be unblocked.
The EU proposed a plan to use the proceeds from the €300bn Russian Central Bank assets to help reconstruct Ukraine, but suggested the funds should be returned if a peace agreement were to be signed.
Terezija Gras from Croatia, Dutchman Hans Leijtens, and Frontex's current interim executive director Aija Kalnaja, are all competing for a job left vacant by the resignation of Fabrice Leggeri.
The lead rapporteur on asbestos, Danish MEP Nikolaj Villumsen, responds to EUobserver's two-part investigation.
Ukraine foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba on Tuesday asked for air defence systems and generators, as Russia has been pounding Ukraine's vital energy infrastructure.
Victims of the widening spyware scandal in Spain are demanding justice and reparations, following the revelations that journalists, lawyers, civil society and politicians had been targeted.
Let us be clear, Qatar is not a democracy, it is a conservative Muslim country that does not give foreign workers the rights and protection these workers deserve.
The EU Commission will launch a plan to certify the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but experts warn the rules are too 'vague' and prone to misuse, lobbying and accounting tricks.
COP27 in Egypt — which for many days looked poised to end in failure — ended with an historic breakthrough on long overdue action on loss and damage compensation for developing nations
Legal scholars have argued to MEPs that it would be difficult legally without the backing of the UN general assembly to set up a tribunal to prosecute Russian aggression against Ukraine.
Tokayev received congratulations on his election victory from presidents Xi, Putin, Erdogan, and Lukashenko. However, the phone in the Akorda, Kazakhstan's presidential palace, did not ring with congratulatory calls from Berlin, Paris, London, or Washington.
In the European Parliament, MEPs will hear from ECB president Christina Lagarde, Kyiv's Vitali Klitschko, and from the three candidates proposed by the EU Commission to be the new boss of EU border agency Frontex.
Sweden won't make any pledges to relocate asylum seekers under a French-inspired EU plan because there is no legal basis, says Sweden's ambassador to the EU. But Sweden's new right-wing government is also tightening migration rules.
EU sanctions' policies have one notable omission — they do not include corruption as an offence warranting restrictive measures, explains the Open Society Foundation.
EU member states could not agree on a plan to cap the price of wholesale gas, with some experts suggesting the EU should forget about the plan altogether.
We're asking the EU to stop hiding behind pinkwashed slogans and finally walk the talk by providing all necessary legal tools to guarantee women their rights, say two Left MEPs, for International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
Ukraine and a looming economic recession is set to dominate the upcoming Swedish EU presidency, which takes over at the start of next year. Sweden's ambassador to the EU, Lars Danielsson, laid out some of its priorities.
The EU executive, on the other hand, is expected to approve Hungary's recovery plan, worth €5.8bn, but only would disburse actual money if Hungary delivers on some 27 key reforms.
A European Commission proposal to limit the price of gas to €275 per megawatt-hour was immediately slammed by experts and politicians alike.
A central auction that pays consumers significant money for outbidding each other on energy savings could be a more effective mechanism to reduce both energy use and gas prices in one go.
MEPs, by 494 votes to 58, with 44 abstentions, argued that Moscow's military strikes on civilian targets such as energy infrastructure, hospitals, schools, and shelters violated international law.
EU leadership on Wednesday (23 November) rehashed decade-old statements on the importance of saving lives in the Mediterranean Sea. But the statements appear increasingly hollow after over 25,000 deaths since 2014.
An investigation by COE reveals oil and gas lobbyists have enjoyed unprecedented access to EU decision-making. As a result, a series of critical decisions on tax, energy-infrastructure, and regulation put fossil-fuel industry profits above millions at risk of energy poverty.
Where once working men in heavy industry were diagnosed with cancers related to a more direct exposure to asbestos, now women in professions such as teaching, nursing and other occupations are being diagnosed, as well as young people.
"He was there, but not saying or doing anything. I'm not sure if that's part of the behaviour of spies," Kox said.
The socialists in the European Parliament are leading compromise talks on human rights in Qatar despite voting against putting the issue to a plenary vote. The move comes after the Left demanded that the European Parliament take a stand.
The European Parliament (almost) unanimously approved legislation which aims to improve the security of physical and digital infrastructure in Europe, in the wake of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
