Thursday
8th Jun 2023
Transparency campaigners say the new ethics body proposed by the European Commission will do little to prevent corruption at the EU institutions. The proposal comes six months after allegations of a Qatari corruption affair involving a former European Parliament vice-president.
Pedro Sanchez best option to win re-election would be to stick to highlighting his economic achievements during his past three plus years in power. He has plenty to show.
Authors Samira Rafaela MEP and Tom Theuns present as facts the extreme views of a politically-motivated campaign in the European Parliament. By doing so, they undermine the very foundations of the European Union.
As the elected leader of Belarus and wife of a political prisoner, forced into exile, we have to rely on the solidarity of the international community to apply meaningful pressure for change in Belarus.
At 2024's European Parliament elections, the stakes will be very high. A lot has happened in the last four years. In 2019, there was no pandemic, no war in Europe and no johnny-come-lately countries demanding a seat at the table.
The so-called Qatargate scandal has had little effect on the image of the European Parliament so far, officials said, although the survey did not specifically asked people about the scandal.
EUobserver interviewed Spanish MEP Jordi Cañas to discuss the situation of Europe's middle class, the dangerous political reaction if certain groups feel neglected, and the role that member states and the EU can play at the policy level.
Everything could be seen as a 'political ad' — even well-known voices championing important issues, such as Greta Thunberg, could find themselves subject to European regulations for every tweet, Facebook post, or snap they share.
Final negotiations on the EU due diligence law begin this week. But will this law make companies embed due diligence requirements in their internal processes or incentive them to outsource their obligations to third parties?
Just think of the creative ways in which autocratic leaders aligned with Viktor Orbán would gain more access to the EU.
The Spanish government has officially requested to postpone the presentation of its upcoming EU presidency priorities in the European Parliament's plenary chamber until September.
EU Parliament head Roberta Metsola knew final details of a harassment case more than 30 weeks before she sanctioned the accused MEP.
How the EU Commission and national governments delete official emails and text messages — creating areas of decision-making without oversight and control.
"This will be the first time a member state that is under the Article 7 procedure will take over the rotating presidency of the council," French Green MEP Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield, the key lawmaker on Hungary, warned.
Budapest previously delayed ratifying Finland's application, and has cited grievances with criticism from both Helsinki and Stockholm of Viktor Orbán's domestic record on democracy and the rule of law.
The European Parliament's Bureau, a political body composed of the president and its vice-presidents, decided to slash payouts from the fund by 50 percent, freeze automatic indexations, and increase the pension age from 65 to 67.
In a world where cultural clashes and sectarianism seems to be on the increase, Spanish novelist Javier Cercas (b.1962) takes the opposite approach. He cherishes both life in the big city and in the countryside.
NGOs and lobbyists slammed the EU commission for removing contact details of non-managerial staff from its public register, arguing that the institution is now less transparent.
Six months after Qatargate, as institutional inertia and parliamentary privileges weigh in, the sense of gravity and collective resolve have all but disappeared. MEPs show little enthusiasm for reform of the rules that today allow them significant outside paid activities.
MEPs tasked with controlling spending of EU funds said they continued to have "great concerns" on how Hungary is handling EU money and called on prime minister Viktor Orbán's government to implement the necessary reforms to unblock suspended EU funds.
What started in 2015 as a 'friends-with-benefits' relationship between Viktor Orbán and Jarosław Kaczyński, for Hungary and Poland, is ending in disgust and enmity — which will not be overcome until both leaders leave.
With the significant influence it can have on EU legislation, it is disturbing that the Regulatory Scrutiny Board is allowed to operate largely in secret. EU citizens and even MEPs have no insight into how the RSB reaches its decisions.
My hopes of reclaiming Turkey for liberal democracy were shattered on Sunday. An opportunity to close the doors of the hell of autocracy slipped through our grasp.
While the European Parliament was demanding a clamp down on tax havens, many of its own MEPs were using their monthly office allowances to finance a luxury pension scheme that held corporate assets in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and elsewhere.
A majority of EU states failed to resettle refugees last year, reneging on their past promises to help evacuate a total of 20,000 people vetted by the UN refugee agency.
Forget about Poland and Hungary, Bulgaria's democratic backsliding is accelerating.
MEPs called for new revenue sources, including a financial transaction tax, a digital levy, a levy on share buybacks, a tax on cryptocurrencies, and a fair border tax to be paid by firms that do not pay workers enough.
The European Commission has long experience in regulating and policing complex industries, such as artificial intelligence. Even the big EU member states do not have such capacities and skills anymore.
The EU Comission plans to extend the sanctions regime that it uses to punish third countries for human-rights abuses — to include corruption.
The EU Commission has outsourced its merger policy to a consultancy which counts Google as its best friend. And it's not the first time the Commission has hired consultants with a vested interest for policy advice.
The EU Commission's proposed new debt rules give capitals more power over their own spending, but still envisage tough fines for profligates.
Tests on using the EU budget to support defence research have delivered scarce results, says the EU's financial watchdog.
Our 2023 Media Freedom Report shows that withering media pluralism is one of the greatest threats facing Europe's media landscape.
