Thursday
9th Feb 2023
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.
Draft legislation in Poland aimed at relaxing some of Europe's strictest laws surrounding onshore wind-turbines has been derailed by a surprise last minute amendment, which could put Poland back on a collision course with the EU.
The ECHR ruled that Russia was in "effective control" of separatist regions of Eastern Ukraine from 11 May 2014. In doing so, the court has formally acknowledged the inter-state character of the conflict and Russia's culpability for human rights abuses.
MEPs' assistants, EU Commission officials, and industry insiders should help drain the lobbyist swamp in Brussels by tipping off a new "early-alert" system, Dutch socialist MEP Paul Tang has said.
Hungary has blamed a conspiracy for coming bottom in an EU corruption rating as it seeks to unfreeze European funding.
The EU has appointed a new anti-Islamophobia coordinator after an 18-month long gap which attracted criticism by Muslim rights groups.
Last June, a Latvian socialist MEP went to Azerbaijan and sang its praises — but the EU Parliament committee he claimed to represent had no idea he was there.
The director of Amnesty International Greece on the political spying scandal that now threatens to bring down prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Activists and NGO staff work with the constant fear that they are being spied on.
A no-confidence vote on the Greek government is set for Friday, following revelations of state-led surveillance on senior military officials and a minister.
The auditors are set to focus on actions taken by the commission for 6 member states., Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Italy and Greece.
Legal scholars, however, have argued that without the backing of the UN general assembly, it would be legally challenging to set up a tribunal to prosecute Russian aggression against Ukraine.
The EU Parliament has cast doubt on whether Hungary's commissioner, Olivér Várhelyi, is fit to do his job following his antics in the Western Balkans.
The European Parliament is set to unveil proposals to crack down on corruption following the on-going scandal over alleged Qatari and Morocco influence peddling.
Sweden is demanding Hungary ratify its Nato accession, following fears Budapest may leverage rule of law and frozen EU funds in exchange.
The story of how Wilma Viscardini, a young female lawyer in a town in northern Italy in the 1950s, pioneered using new, liberal European legislation on issues like the free movement of workers or consumer rights, to help citizens.
The European Parliament's voluntary pension scheme held 14,900 shares in Raytheon in 2008 with a market value of $547,000, despite being blacklisted by Norway's sovereign wealth in 2005 for producing and selling cluster munitions.
In 2012, it was against Orbán's Hungary that the EU first proposed to suspend cohesion funds under strengthened budgetary rules, after Budapest failed to step up efforts to end the country's excessive government deficit. Then Orbán toed the line.
EU parliament president Roberta Metsola blamed "malign actors linked to autocratic third countries" for the Qatargate corruption scandal. But the parliament's Bureau has for years seeded a culture of impunity where MEPs can get away with almost anything.
Almost 16,000 European arrests warrants were issued in 2020, compared to just over 20,000 in 2019, according to a European Commission document.
Former EU home affairs commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos held meetings with EU commission vice-presidents at a time when he was being paid by Fight Impunity, an NGO linked to the Qatari corruption allegations.
The parallels between the two leaders can be seen in the campaign to denigrate and delegitimise political opposition and ethnic minorities, attempts to muzzle the independent judiciary, exploitation of religion to promote nationalism, and efforts to co-opt extreme rightwing parties.
More than half of registered trafficking victims are EU nationals, with most sold off for sex, said the European Commission. Most are registered in Romania, followed by Germany and the Netherlands.
Belgian MEP Frederique Ries, vice-chair of the Renew Europe political group, sat on a board of a foundation fronting for Morocco — at a time when Rabat was lobbying MEPs to secure an EU trade deal.
The plans include strengthening whistleblower protection, a ban on all unofficial parliamentary friendship groups (groups of MEPs discussing relations with non-EU countries), reviewing enforcement of code of conduct rules for MEPs, and new rules interactions with officials from non-EU countries.
Over 4,000 documents from the EU's border police agency Frontex, including freedom of information request responses, are now public. The files were uploaded and published by German-based transparency group FragDenStaat.
In the last-minute deal, the EU unblocked Hungary's opposition to joint financial assistance to Ukraine and the bloc's adoption of the global minimum tax.
Greek socialist Eva Kaili is set to lose her seat as vice-president of the European Parliament after being arrested and charged with corruption as fallout hits other socialist MEPs, including the chair of the human rights committee.
European Parliament vice-president Eva Kaili has had her tasks suspended but retains her seat until a formal vote is taken. The move follows allegations of corruption as well as a spate of arrests by the Belgian police, involving €600,000 cash.
The EU Commission says it works closely with EU states on dual-use exports but won't comment on revelations Greece authorised the sale of spyware software to Madagascar.
"We cannot afford any more delays," Czech minister Zbyněk Stanjura said of aid to Ukraine, adding that his country's EU presidency is "fully committed to finding a compromise".
The German constitutional court declared the EU's €800bn pandemic recovery fund 'legal' — although there was one dissenting voice.
Hungary will be in the spotlight on Tuesday as EU governments struggle over suspending EU funds to prime minister Viktor Orbán's government — despite rule of law concerns — and unlock key EU policies which Budapest has been blocking.
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.
