Tuesday
24th Apr 2018
By EUOBSERVER
Spanish socialist leader Pedro Sanchez has said he will oppose Mariano Rajoy's bid to be installed as prime minister in a parliamentary vote on Wednesday. Caretaker PM Rajoy said he would risk the vote even though his centre-right People's Party and its allies are six deputies short of a majority, with 170. Some commentators had urged the socialists, with 85 deputies, to abstain to break eight months of deadlock.
Immediately after Orban's landslide victory in April, a list of so-called 'Soros mercenaries' was published by pro-government media. Those on it - mostly human rights defenders, activists and Orban critics - are now anxious but vow to continue.
The European Commission finally proposed a directive to protect whistleblowers in response, at least partly, to scandals like Luxleaks, the Panama Papers and the ongoing Cambridge Analytica revelations.
Finnish MEP Heidi Hautala won a trailblazing court case two decades ago for the right of EU citizens to receive 'partial access' to documents. Now she says it is "outrageous" the European Investment Bank is refusing to release Volkswagen documents.
Former and current members of the parliamentary assembly, including Spain's current state secretary for defence, broke codes of conduct, according to a damning new report.
French lawmakers are cracking down on asylum seekers in a bid to send those rejected back home. Controversial measures they passed over the weekend will now be debated in the French senate in June.
Years of heavy-duty and expensive lobbying, including of a European commissioner for health, has not opened the way for mouth tobacco sales in the EU. The EU court in Luxembourg last week refused to lift the ban.
