
EU women promised new dawn under anti-violence pact
The EU is meant to become a safer place for women from Sunday (1 October), as the Istanbul Convention enters into force.
Monday
2nd Oct 2023
The EU is meant to become a safer place for women from Sunday (1 October), as the Istanbul Convention enters into force.
International media must make clear that these are not fair, democratic elections. The flawed race should be the story at least as much as the race itself.
On Tuesday, the Hungarian parliament passed a troubling piece of legislation known by its critics as the 'revenge law', which aims to punish and intimidate teachers who dare to defy Viktor Orbán's regime. This law is a brutally oppressive tool.
Poland and Malta are the worst places in Europe for legal harassment of journalists, in what NGOs called a "worrying threat to democracy".
Knives are back out for Barroso, the former EU Commission chief, after a Belgian court found his top sleuth guilty of gross misconduct in the biggest EU scandal before Qatargate.
Hungary is now threatening to halt Nato's war-time expansion over a 10-minute Swedish video-clip it doesn't like.
Another Koran burning is set to take place in Sweden on Thursday, risking Muslim anger and feeding Russian propaganda.
Denmark and Sweden countries are at the centre of a heated debate over religious sensitivities and freedom of expression which have sparked concerns over the potential risks to national security.
The governments that spend all that money on the OSCE? They shrugged and sent congratulatory telegrams to Turkey's president Erdoğan regardless. Same in Poland: twice the OSCE found its elections violated international norms for democratic elections. Reaction? Zero.
MEPs on Thursday passed another integrity resolution on the European Parliament that is unlikely to have any practical effect. The non-binding resolution is among a series of similar declarations passed by the European Parliament since the 'Qatargate' scandal.
Poland has made little progress on the rule of law, while Hungary made only marginal improvements, says a new European Commission report.
Hungary has all-but dropped its veto on Sweden's Nato entry, as Turkey dials down rhetoric despite a Koran-burning scandal.
Prison terms of up to three years and fines of up to €1m for Italians who use foreign surrogate mothers in draft new Italian law.
Some pictures are hard to forget, such as that of a black street cleaner in Paris in a fluorescent vest, sweeping up rubbish left the night before by young, petit bourgeois protesters.
How do we justly exit the era of fossil fuels when climate summits and EU officials stay surrounded by Big Oil lobbyists?
With many of Russia's EU lawyers based in Brussels, Belgian bar chief Plasschaert explains why he'd work on an anti-sanctions case: "There are no good or bad clients, the only duty of a lawyer is to defend their client".
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.
Meet the Russian oligarchs' number one go-to man for overturning EU sanctions: bespectacled, 56-year old Belgian attorney Thierry Bontinck.
The total bill for the Polish government for not amending its disciplinary scheme for judges is €556m. The EU Commission has already deducted €360m from transfers of EU funds to Poland.
Just think of the creative ways in which autocratic leaders aligned with Viktor Orbán would gain more access to the EU.
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.
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.
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.
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.