EU Commission cannot hold Frontex to account
MEPs probing the EU's border agency Frontex cross-examined the agency's director. They also spoke to EU home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson, who made it clear she had little sway over the agency.
News in Brief
- MEPs urged to keep immunity of Catalan colleagues
- EU accused of plundering tuna in Indian Ocean
- Italy blocks vaccine shipment to Australia
- EU preparing legal action on Brexit violations
- US and UK agree to suspend tariffs to settle row
- Russia asks France, Germany to help ease tensions in Ukraine
- Germany and Sweden permit AstraZeneca jab for over-65s
Feature
Covid-hit homeless find Xmas relief at Brussels food centre
The Kamiano food distribution centre in Brussels is expecting 20 people every half hour on Christmas Day. For many, Kamiano is also more than that - a support system for those made homeless or impoverished.
Top court finds Hungary and Poland broke EU rules
EU tribunal said Hungary's legislation made it "virtually impossible" to make an asylum application. Restricting access to international protection procedure is a violation of EU rules.
MEPs chide Portugal and Council in EU prosecutor dispute
The Belgian and Bulgarian prosecutors who were appointed had also not been the experts' first choice. Belgian prosecutor Jean-Michel Verelst has challenged the council's decision at the European Court of Justice.
Frontex and Europol pledge greater access to documents
Frontex has pledged to create a searchable central document management system by the end of the year, while Europol has agreed to be more proactive.
MEPs to debate Portugal's EU prosecutor controversy
Leading centre-right and liberal MEPs have called on Lisbon to clarify the appointment of José Guerra as its EU public prosecutor, amid efforts to depoliticise the new anti-fraud body.
Internal Frontex probe to deliver final report this week
A management board at Frontex is tasked to make sure its operations stick to the rules. An internal probe, known as the working group, will soon deliver its final report on the Warsaw-based agency.
EU Parliament to hold Frontex probe behind closed doors
Earlier this month the European Parliament set up a permanent probe into the EU's border agency Frontex. Now that the Frontex boss is set for his first grilling, MEPs have decided to keep the public in the dark.
EU top court advised to strike down Hungary's asylum policy
The Hungarian legislation, dubbed 'Stop Soros', was a 2018 amendment to Hungary's criminal code and threatened aid workers and human rights advocates working with asylum-seekers with up to a year in prison.
Frontex chief: 'about time' MEPs probe his agency
Some 14 MEPs have created a group to probe allegations of rights abuse by the EU's border agency Frontex. Its head, Fabrice Leggeri, welcomed its creation and said it "is about time".
Romania denies forcing migrant-boat back to Turkish waters
Romania's ministry of internal affairs wrote to Frontex claiming it did not engage in any illegal pushbacks of people on rubber boats into Turkish territorial waters. The country says it followed EU engagement rules and Greek orders.
LGBTI fears over new Polish member at EU institution
A letter sent to the European Economic and Social Committee by a group of cross-party MEPs fighting for LGBTi rights expresses fears that a recently-appointed Polish member may try to undermine those rights.
EU condemns Slovenian PM's harassment of journalist
Slovenia's populist prime minister Janez Janša attempted to discredit a Brussels reporter after she published a critical article about the state of media freedoms in the country. The European Commission condemned the PM's language - but refrained from naming him.
Coronavirus
EU fraud agency warns governments on vaccine scams
OLAF said fraudsters may offer to sell large quantities of vaccines, deliver a sample in order to pocket the first advance payment - and then vanish with the money, or deliver fake vaccines.
Interview
Polish editor: Why I blacked out my front page
Poland's right-wing rulers will row back on plans for a "political" tax on free press after a media blackout, the editor of one leading newspaper predicts.
Poland imposes anti-abortion law amid EU concern
Poland is bringing a divisive anti-abortion law into force, amid escalating EU doubt on the legality of its court system.
MEPs: Portugal 'risks undermining' trust in EU prosecutor
Portuguese justice minister Francisca Van Dunem, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, argued that the Lisbon government was only following the advice of the country's magistrates when pushing for its candidate.
Stakeholders' Highlights
- Nordic Council to host EU webinars on energy, digitalisation and antibiotic resistance
- EU Code of Conduct can showcase PPPs delivering healthier more sustainable society
- Klaus Heeger and Romain Wolff re-elected Secretary General and President of independent trade unions in Europe (CESI)
- Women benefit in the digitalised labour market
- Report: The prevalence of men who use internet forums characterised by misogyny
- Join the Nordic climate debate on 17 November!
Latest News
- China and Russia abusing corona for geopolitics, Lithuania says
- Worries on Europe's infection surge, after six-week drop
- EU wants large firms to report on gender pay-gap or face fines
- EU Commission cannot hold Frontex to account
- Orbán leaves EPP group - the beginning of a long endgame
- 'Corporate due diligence'? - a reality check before EP votes
- Austrian ex-minister joins list of EU's pro-Kremlin lobbyists
- Internal Frontex probe to deliver final report this week
EU Commission mulls police access to encrypted apps
The European Commission has not ruled out allowing police access to encrypted services. Instead, it says a balance needs to be found to protect rights while at the same time offering some leeway to law enforcement.
UK access to EU police database hangs in balance
With Brexit talks intensifying, MEPs are pressing negotiators to cut UK access to the EU's Schengen Information System, a database used by police and border guards.
Muscat poker-faced in Malta inquiry into journalist murder
"How well I'm screwed," was the then Maltese prime minister Joseph Muscat's first thought on 16 October 2017, when he found out his country's best-known journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia, had just been murdered by a car bomb.
Belgian expulsion orders of EU nationals lowest in years
Belgium revoked residency rights of 16,563 EU nationals between 2008 and 2019, according to Liège University migration scholar Jean-Michel Lafleur.
EU law needed to protect free press, NGOs say
More than 60 NGOs and media, including EUobserver, have signed a call for an EU-wide law to stop the rich and powerful from silencing critics with malicious litigation.
Frontex takes transparency activists to EU court
The EU border agency Frontex's annual budget for 2020 is €460m. Now they are launching court proceedings against two pro-transparency campaigners for not paying them €24,000 in legal fees after losing a case last year.
Investigation
EU taxpayers in the dark on US corona-drug deal
The EU recently signed a huge contract for a US anti-corona drug which, the WHO says, might not work, but there's little transparency on how the deal was made.
Poland hammered on women's rights in EU debate
The European Commission has urged Poland not to abandon a treaty against domestic violence, as Warsaw continues to drift further from EU norms.
'Golden Passports': Malta takes 67 days to respond to EU
The European Commission exchanged 24 letters with Bulgaria, Cyprus and Malta over their 'Golden Passports' schemes between October 2019 and October 2020. Malta took 67 days to respond to the commission's first letter, followed by Cyprus (42) then Bulgaria.
Opinion
We need to call Orbán's bluff by going ahead without him
You hear voices already calling for the European Council to give in to the Hungarian and Polish demands, by coming up with supposedly 'technical' solutions allowing them to veto any corruption case or breaches of the rule of law .
Opinion
The human cost of whistleblowing
The fate of Jonathan Taylor, a British whistleblower stuck in legal limbo in Croatia, is a test of European laws designed to protect those who put themselves at risk for the common good.
Opinion
Rule-of-law deal: major step for Europe of values
At the very moment when an incumbent president across the Atlantic was carrying out staggering attacks on the foundations of democracy, the European Parliament obtained a historic agreement to protect the rule of law in Europe.
EU to target migrant integration and encrypted apps
Migrants ought to learn EU languages and "integrate" their children, while encrypted messaging apps should give keys to authorities to combat terrorism, EU ministers are preparing to say.
EU Commission: EU free-travel overhaul planned
Plans to reform the EU free-travel zone were already announced in September by the European Commission. On Friday, it re-stated those intentions following demands by the French president for a major overhaul.
France pledges overhaul of EU free-travel to stop terrorists
French president Emmanuel Macron has pledged deep reform of free movement in the EU in the wake of recent terrorist attacks.
Feature
Poland: Abortion 'revolution' means end of old order
More than half a million people protested in Poland over the weekend against a recent court ruling that effectively bans abortion.
Stakeholders' Highlights
- Making healthier diets the easy choice
- UN Secretary General to meet with Nordic Council on COVID-19
- Well-designed Deposit Return Schemes can help reach Single-Use Plastics Directive targets
- Nordic Council meets Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tichanovskaja
- Nordic Region to invest DKK 250 million in green digitalised business sector
