Tuesday
24th Apr 2018
By EUOBSERVER
Romania has made "very limited progress" in reforms to fight corruption, the Council of Europe has said. In a report published on Thursday, the institution's anti-corruption body, the Greco, said that Romanian authorities have implemented only two of the 13 recommendations it made in 2016. The Greco calls among others for more transparency, and an improvement in MPs' declarations of assets and interests.
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.
