Tag: European Union

Germany’s Human Rights Commissioner has asserted that Turkey does not belong in the European Union until its human rights record improves – a standpoint that puts him at odds with EU leaders and his country’s leader Angela Merkel. In an

British newspapers tend to bury bad news from Brussels on the international pages of their publications. It is as if what happens in Brussels is really not relevant to our lives in the UK. I have railed against this for years, to little

President Andrzej Duda on Monday signed into law a controversial bill reforming Poland’s constitutional court despite widespread domestic opposition and mounting alarm in the international community. Thousands of people have taken to the streets over changes pushed through by the

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Bavarian allies will support British Prime Minister David Cameron if he wants to address Europe’s weaknesses but do not want a British Europe, an EU conservative leader told a German newspaper. Britain is due to hold

Northern Britain has spent Christmas being inundated with floods of “biblical proportions”.  For green activists like Bill McKibben this is obviously another consequence of man-made climate change. And the politicians agree – not just left wing ones like Hilary Benn but

ROME – Italy is not getting enough respect from the European Commission or its partners and it is determined to convince the European Union to adopt bolder, more growth-friendly policies, Rome’s top EU affairs official said on Thursday. “We hope

The European Union warned eastern European powerhouse Poland to avoid endangering the rule of law with controversial reforms that former president Lech Walesa said undermined democracy and made the country a laughing stock. A European Commission letter — seen Wednesday

Up to 300,000 Britons will lose entitlement to in-work benefits if David Cameron accepts a Brussels compromise on his call for strict restrictions on European Union (EU) migrant benefits. The prime minister has been warned that is the price Britain will pay if he continues

Hungary has accused Austria of confusing “solidarity and stupidity” after Vienna said that nations which do not accept their share of refugees under European Union quotas should face sanctions. Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann had said that countries who did not

One of David Cameron’s most senior former Cabinet ministers has warned that those who wish to leave the European Union (EU) are not “idiots” and the time has come for the country’s leader to stop touring Europe with a “political begging bowl”. Former

The head of the European Union’s border agency has said the large number of refugees entering Europe poses a security risk, with civil war making it harder to check the authenticity of Syrian passports. Hundreds of thousands of people fleeing

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – By any measure, it has been a year from hell for the European Union. And if Britons vote to leave the bloc, next year could be worse. Not since 1989, the year the Berlin Wall fell and

KOPER (SLOVENIA) (AFP) –  Slovenia on Sunday began voting in a referendum on whether to allow the largely-Catholic EU member state to become Europe’s first ex-communist country to allow same-sex marriage. Polling stations opened promptly at 7:00am (0600 GMT), although hardly

Spaniards vote today in a parliamentary election in which new parties are loosening the grip of the once-dominant conservatives and Socialists, raising the possibility of a new era of consensus politics – or a period of instabilty. With many people saying

BRUSSELS – Prime Minister David Cameron gave his strongest suggestion yet on Friday that he hopes to hold a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union in 2016, before a self-imposed two-year deadline. The timing of the referendum, to

The Conservative Party’s pro European Union (EU)-expansionism cheerleader, Daniel Hannan MEP, has lobbed a dud grenade at Breitbart London this evening, demanding to know when we “last attacked Brussels”. Mr. Hannan – a long standing advocate of the EU’s expansion

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Christmas came early for Brussels lawyers and policy wonks who relish nothing better than a brain-teasing multidimensional constitutional puzzle to while away the dark days of winter. After a “make-or-break” summit dinner with Prime Minister David Cameron,

LONDON — British Prime Minister David Cameron faces two months of difficult negotiations in his bid to alter European Union rules ahead of a planned referendum on Britain’s continued membership in the EU. Substantive differences remain, but Cameron and other

Brussels is becoming less democratic and more monolithic by the week. At a time when 76 per cent of EU citizens believe corruption is widespread across the European Union, why is Britain giving away our personal and financial data? We

SARAJEVO – After years of delay, Bosnia will officially apply in January to join the European Union, encouraged by the bloc’s positive assessment of its reform progress, the chairman of the Balkan country’s three-man presidency said on Thursday. Bosnia signed