
EU data protection chief launches Frontex investigation
Warsaw-based Frontex is likely violating rights by data dumping migrant testimonies with the EU's police agency Europol, according to a data protection authority.
Sunday
4th Jun 2023
Warsaw-based Frontex is likely violating rights by data dumping migrant testimonies with the EU's police agency Europol, according to a data protection authority.
New EU sanctions against foreign kleptocrats should take into account the size of bribes taken and be decided by majority, instead of unanimity, details of the proposals say.
France has collected more DNA profiles for police use than any other member state. As of the end of last year, it had amassed almost 6.5m profiles.
The EU Comission plans to extend the sanctions regime that it uses to punish third countries for human-rights abuses — to include corruption.
"It is increasingly clear that the 'hybrid' tribunal will be the solution," a senior EU official said, after foreign ministers of the key Western powers supported a tribunal option which is not Ukraine's preferred option.
The Christian Democrat, Social Democrat, liberal and green groups, plus the smaller Left group, warned that the latest legislative developments in Hungary will further deteriorate the rule of law, fundamental rights and democracy.
Next year, the EU will have a new anti-money laundering agency. Madrid has offered its tallest skyscraper rent-free, but other cities are also in the running.
MEPs have adopted a non-binding resolution that "questions" if Hungary is fit to hold the EU's presidency in the second half of 2024, given persistent concerns over the country's democratic backsliding.
Germany has raised doubts on Hungary's 2024 EU presidency, amid an European Parliament vote on rethinking prime minister Viktor Orbán's eligibility.
EU Parliament head Roberta Metsola knew final details of a harassment case more than 30 weeks before she sanctioned the accused MEP.
The Kremlin's main tormentor of 'foreign agents' is to join an EU blacklist for sending dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza to die in jail.
EU and Italian complicity in crimes against humanity in Libya has yet to grip the public debate among EU circles, says the lead author of a new European Parliament study.
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.
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.
Detailed plans are taking shape for the EU's new anti-money laundering agency, which is to have a beehive of secure offices around a massive meeting room.
The aim is "to avoid a controlled society based on AI, instead to make AI support more freedom and human development, not a securitarian nightmare" a key MEP on the file said.
Three far-right French MEPs are to stay on a European Parliament blacklist after losing a legal challenge.
Every year, neo-Nazis come together to pay tribute to Nazi war criminals and their collaborators, from Benito Mussolini to Rudolf Hess, Ante Pavelić, Hristo Lukov, and of course Adolf Hitler, in events that have become rituals on the extreme-right calendar.
We're trying out a new format, in which we publish an op-ed and a counter-op-ed. This week, we have the S&D group president responding to EPP chairman Manfred Weber's call for stricter financial screening of NGOs to combat corruption.
Frustration over the lack of cooperation from member states and the European Commission has left MEPs probing spyware in the EU upset and demanding answers.
Jailed Greek neo-Nazi MEP Ioannis Lagos, who continues to draw a European Parliament salary, had his immunity lifted for a second time.
Sweden has launched new EU talks on combatting racism and antisemitism — but not Islamophobia, prompting accusations of a rightwing approach.
Press-freedom groups from Paris to New York have voiced dismay at Sweden's proposal to weaken a landmark EU law against corporate and political bullies.
Next summer's EU elections could see voters targeted by very personal ads and EU parties more free to take foreign money, as talks on new laws build momentum.
Europe's top prosecutor Laura Kovesi wants to create an elite corps of highly-specialised financial fraud investigators. The demand came in Kovesi's introduction to the annual report published by the Luxembourg-based European Public Prosector's Office.
The Strasbourg-based human rights watchdog Council of Europe wants Russia to pay for its crimes in Ukraine. Its secretary general Marija Pejčinović Burić says this includes setting up a new claims register to gather evidence for eventual prosecution and reparations.
The EU's legitimacy and credibility has also suffered recently due to the Qatargate scandal engulfing the European Parliament, which undermines the EU's ability to protect the rule of law in member states.
EU ambassadors signed off — with qualified majority — on two decisions that would give the green light on EU ratification of the convention in areas where the EU has exclusive legal competence.
Levits also criticised western European countries for having a provincial understanding of Europe and for naively developing a dependency on Russian energy.
Israel is still a functional democracy and no sanctions are foreseen, the EU has said, amid mounting concern on its new rightwing government's abuse of rule of law.
Proposals in December to stamp out corruption at the European Parliament in the wake of Qatargate have been progressively watered down, says the Left. Manon Aubry, Left co-president, said decisions being made behind closed doors are burying pro-transparency efforts.
EU Council should expect a flood of new requests for internal documents in the wake of a pro-transparency court win by EU Parliament official turned activist Emilio De Capitani.