Saturday
22nd Jul 2017
By EUOBSERVER
The number of jobless people in Spain fell to 4.3 million, or 18.9%, in the July-to-September quarter, its National Statistics Institute said Thursday. Figures are down from a peak of 6 million in 2013 and below 20% for the first time in six years. Growth came from the tourism sector, as Europeans shunned Middle East and north Africa due to security fears, but new jobs were mostly short-term contracts.
Friday will mark 128 days since elections in the Netherlands. Four parties are negotiating to form a government coalition.
Lawmakers in Poland adopted a controversial reform of the Supreme Court, despite warnings from the EU that the move could trigger a sanction procedure over the rule of law.
EU and UK negotiators presented their Brexit positions to identify common grounds this week, but that was made difficult by the scarcity of UK position papers.
EU law professor Ellen Vos says the commission's proposed mini-reform on comitology, an obscure but often-used method of EU lawmaking, should go much further.
Candidates from all political families should be presenting their vision on where the Union should be headed. European socialists want to keep the Spitzenkandidat procedure for future elections.
Huge amounts of money from criminal activities are funnelled into the legitimate European economy. But little is being done about it at EU or national level.
