Sunday
23rd Jul 2017
By EUOBSERVER
A Swedish lower court on Thursday found journalist Fredrik Onnevall guilty of human smuggling, after he helped a Syrian boy travel safely from Greece to Sweden. Onnevall met the 15-year old when making a documentary in 2015. The court said it was clear Onnevall had acted for humanitarian reasons, but the law was very restrictive in terms of pardoning crime on that basis. Onnevall has appealed the verdict.
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.
