Algerian militants behead kidnapped French tourist Algerian militants beheaded French tourist Hervé Gourdel, who was kidnapped by gunmen in what the group said was a response to France’s action against ISIL militants in Iraq French hostage beheaded in Algeria France confirms an Algerian jihadist group linked to IS has beheaded 55-year-old tourist Herve Gourdel, who was … Read more
European Court of Justice bans German language requirement for Turkish spouse visas EurActiv.com On Thursday (10 July) the EU’s top court ruled against Germany’s language requirement for Turkish spouses applying for residence in the country, rebuffing the German government and saying the right to family reunification is essential to integration in the member states. EurActiv … Read more
Whistleblower: NSA secretly continues Merkel surveillance by bugging other German officials An anonymous NSA leaker revealed to the German magazine Bild am Sonntag that the agency has been spying on senior German government figures. The move is apparently a response to Obama prohibiting the agency from spying on Chancellor Angela Merkel (or other world … Read more
Buses, planes, Bulgarians, Romanians and The Daily Mail: An Update The Daily Mail: Buses and Planes – full or not? On 31 December 2013 the UK?s Daily Mail published a story claiming that buses and planes to the UK from Bulgaria and Romania were sold-out, fully-booked, and single plane tickets were selling for up to £3,000 each. The … Read more
MAIN FOCUS: Next pillar of banking union standing | 19/12/2013 The EU finance ministers agreed on a system for dealing with failing banks on Wednesday. Europe‘s financial institutes are to start building up a joint fund so that in future the owners and investors are the first to pay for bank bailouts. Europe is gradually … Read more
MAIN FOCUS: NSA defends spying attacks | 30/10/2013 The US intelligence NSA has vehemently defended its controversial spying programme at a congressional hearing. Europe also spies on the US, NSA head Keith Alexander said on Tuesday, as well as on its own citizens. Commentators accuse Europe’s politicians of double standards and find the public … Read more
Morning Brief: NSA Monitored 60 Million Calls in Spain in One Month NSA Monitored 60 Million Calls in Spain in One Month Top News: A report that the National Security Agency monitored 60 million Spanish telephone calls over the course of a one-month period prompted calls from Spain that that the United States must explain the extent 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
Europe threatened by power outages this winter Renewable energy is blamed for jeopardising Europe’s energy security this winter, a new study has found. EurActiv France reports. The French multinational company Cap Gemini warned in their European Observatory of Energy Markets that energy security in Europe was under threat and that the region could soon be exposed to massive … 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
Athens anti-Nazi protest turns violent Greek police fired tear gas at anti-fascist protesters who hurled petrol bombs and stones near the Athens headquarters of Golden Dawn on Wednesday (25 September) following the killing of an anti-racism rapper by a supporter of the far-right party. Thousands of Greeks marched towards the party’s offices earlier on … Read more
Germany’s path towards new government fraught with dilemmas After losing out on her preferred coalition partners, Germany’s newly re-elected chancellor, Angela Merkel, faces a number of hurdles in securing a power-sharing deal with rival left-leaning parties. While Merkel and her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) won a resounding victory in Germany?s general elections on Sunday (22 … 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
Golden Dawn loses support after rapper killing: poll Support for Greece’s Golden Dawn has fallen by 2.5 percentage points after the fatal stabbing of an anti-racism rapper by a supporter of the far-right party and most Greeks believe it threatens democracy, a poll showed on Monday. The poll by Rass for the Eleftheros Typos … Read more