Pirate Party Gets Observer Status at World Trade Organization Following the launch of the first Pirate Party in Sweden the ?Pirate? movement quickly spread all over the world, and not without success. During the German elections earlier this year nearly a million people voted for the local Pirate Party, in Iceland the national Parliament has three Pirate MPs, … Read more
Google and Microsoft take steps to block Internet search results linked to child porn Google revealed today that it has been putting more than 200 people to work in the last three months to develop new technologies to block Internet search results linked to child porn, after UK Prime Minister David Cameron in June demanded Google and … Read more
Leaders gather in Warsaw for climate talks Delegates expected to make only modest progress in halting global warming, but could lay the groundwork for comprehensive agreement in two years? time ‘Realism’ to dominate climate talks Over the next fortnight, negotiators from all over the world are meeting in Warsaw in the hope of advancing discussion … Read more
Remembering Aaron: activism and the effective citizen This morning, I gave a speech to a gathering of public media executives from around the world, Public Broadcasters International. This evening, I will open a hackathon at the MIT Media Lab in memory of Aaron Swartz. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I wanted to talk … Read more
Mass Surveillance of Personal Data by EU Member States and its Compatibility with EU Law Source: Centre for European Policy Studies Abstract: In the wake of the disclosures surrounding PRISM and other US surveillance programmes, this paper assesses the large-scale surveillance practices by a selection of EU member states: the UK, Sweden, France, Germany and the … Read more
Sweden is Europe’s most innovative economy, Commission says Sweden is the best country in the EU when it comes to getting new ideas to reach the market, according to a new innovation indicator launched by the European Commission. The new indicator measures innovation output, which creates better jobs and makes Europe more competitive, the … Read more
UK aims to become centre for Islamic finance Global Islamic finance market is valued at $1.3tn and is growing faster than the conventional banking sector Germany hits back at US criticism Germany hits back at the US Treasury’s criticism of its export-led growth model, describing the attack as “incomprehensible”. Spying leaks should not interrupt cooperation with … Read more
In Mass Surveillance Fallout, European Parliament Votes To Suspend Financial Data Sharing With United States Privacy:?This week, the European Parliament voted to immediately suspend the sharing of European financial tracking data with the United States in a 280-254 decision, as well as calling for criminal investigations of the NSA. This follows in the footsteps of … Read more
EU lawmakers vote stricter data privacy rules Lawmakers in the European Parliament?s civil liberties committee voted to strengthen Europe’s data protection laws on Monday (21 October), including plans to impose fines of up to ?100 million on companies such as Yahoo!, Facebook or Google if they break the rules. The vote in parliament’s civil … Read more
Identity and Migration: A European Problem Firstly, let me apologise for the length of this post. I simply couldn?t have written this more concisely. I wanted to start this week?s instalment to say that I thought that various official reactions to the crisis in Lampedusa was funny. However, the more I thought about the situation the … Read more
MAIN FOCUS: Austerity and hope in Ireland | 16/10/2013 The Irish government presented the budget for 2014 on Tuesday – the seventh austerity budget in a row. Prime Minister Enda Kenny stressed that the top priority was to create jobs and exit the bailout programme. Ireland’s success is proof that the stringent austerity policy is the right … Read more
Is Turkish intelligence or PM Erdoğan in question? An article published by The Wall Street Journal on Oct. 9 about Turkey?s Intelligence Chief Turkish PM?s support of Obamacare or deep-running friction with the US Facing a Republican-led impasse and a partial government Global chemical weapons watchdog OPCW wins Nobel Peace Prize The Organisation for the Prohibition … Read more
MAIN FOCUS: Shift to the right in France | 11/10/2013 The far-right Front National could emerge as France’s strongest party from the European elections in May 2014, according to the results of a poll published by the magazine Le Nouvel Observateur on Wednesday. The party is benefiting from the mainstream parties’ lack of ideas, commentators write, fearing that France’s shift … Read more
France breaking own rules on Roma camps: ombudsman France’s official defender of citizens’ rights on Friday accused the government of flouting its own rules related to the expulsion of Roma migrants Eurostat: English reinforces its status as Europe?s ?lingua franca? Ninety four percent of upper secondary students learn English as a foreign language, according to new … Read more
Eleven Turks enter German Parliament Eleven lawmakers of Turkish origin have been elected to the German Bundestag Merkel faces tough coalition talks Chancellor Angela Merkel is triumphant but must now form a new ruling coalition, with the Social Democrats (SPD) seen as likely partners. As focus shifts to German coalition negotiations, who are the … Read more