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On November 13, 2007, more than 30 survivors of the extermination camp Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps met in Auschwitz for a one-day conference.
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December 14, 2011
Poland Protesters Blast EU Plan
WARSAW – Thousands of protesters marched through the heart of the Polish capital Tuesday night, shouting their opposition to the European Union's latest plans to rescue the euro zone and demanding that Poland's government not participate. Waving red-and-white Polish flags and chanting, “We want sovereignty, not the euro,” the demonstrators marked the anniversary of the communist-era imposition of martial law here by decrying proposed new EU limits on state budgets as an unwarranted loss of national independence.
Read article in the Wall Street Journal (USA)
December 14, 2011
Polish opposition: EU fiscal treaty means German rule
Opposition leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski has said Polish leaders at last week's EU summit sold the country's sovereignty to Germany for the sake of “private interests.” Kaczynski made the accusations at a rally in Warsaw on Tuesday (13 December) that saw several thousand people turn out to mark the 30th anniversary of the imposition of martial law in Communist times. “Herr Tusk and Sikorski: serve the Germans in Berlin, leave Poland to the Poles,” one banner proclaimed. “Euro macht frei,” another one said, referring to the motto of the Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz.
Read article at euobserver.com
December 12, 2011
Disgraced German re-emerges as European Commission adviser
Brussels – Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, a disgraced German politician who went into self-imposed exile nine months ago, re-emerged Monday with an honorary post as a European Union adviser.
Read article at monstersandcritics.com
Comment: Notably, Guttenberg was raised from the age of 14 by his step-father, who was the son of a prominent Nazi, Joachim von Ribbentrop. Ribbentrop was Hitler's foreign minister from 1933 to 1945 and coordinated the military component of WWII, the Oil and Drug Cartel's second war of global conquest. In 1947, Ribbentrop was tried in Nuremberg and hanged for his crimes. One may argue that a mere family relationship does not necessarily predetermine allegiances with corporate interests or political strategies. In this case, however, the facts speak for themselves. Former German defence minister Guttenberg is an adamant advocate of the militarization of Europe and the launch of a European army. Pressured for resignation after publicly defending the killing of innocent civilians in Afghanistan by German troops, Guttenberg responded in front of a German TV audience: “I will definitely stay, even if a storm is blowing. That is the way I have been educated – and that is the way I will behave.” To learn more about the hidden history of the Brussels EU, click here.
December 9, 2011
EU suffers worst split in history as David Cameron blocks treaty change
The European Union suffered the most damaging split in its 54 year history after David Cameron used the British veto to block eurozone treaty change after France and Germany opposed “safeguards” to protect Britain's economy.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)
December 7, 2011
New cases illustrate 'conflict of interest' involving former EU staff
Eight new cases "illustrating the extent of Brussels' revolving door problem" have been highlighted in a new report. The eight cases cited by the group Corporate Europe Observatory feature individuals who, it says, have moved through the "revolving door" from the European institutions, including the commission, into private sector lobbying jobs. The Brussels-based group says they have done so "apparently without the proper checks or adequate restrictions being imposed".
Corporate Europe Observatory says that the "easy shift" from the EU institutions to private sector lobby jobs can create "serious conflicts of interest and lead to privileged access by corporate interests".
Read article at theparliament.com
December 6, 2011
Euroscepticism hits record high in Sweden: poll
STOCKHOLM - Almost nine out of 10 Swedes want to stay outside the eurozone and keep their currency the krona, a poll published Tuesday showed as the single currency faces its worst crisis since its inception, AFP reported.
Read article on the website of the FOCUS Information Agency (Bulgaria)
December 5, 2011
Fascists enter by the back door
There has been a curious oversight in the mainstream media's coverage of the European Union's replacement of the elected Greek government with one allegedly of "technocrats." This effective coup d'etat involved the replacement of an elected government of social democrats, which was judged unable to carry out the diktats of the unelected triumvirate of European Commission, European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund, with a team headed by former ECB vice-president Lucas Papademos. The message was that, regrettable though it may be, the Greek people could not be expected to appreciate the ins and outs of the mess that they had got themselves into, and need a team of experts to get them out of it. What they needed, they were told, was a safe pair of hands. The reality of what they got turns out not quite to match this image.
Read article in the Morning Star (UK)
November 29, 2011
Public support for EU social policy in 'dramatic' nose-dive
A regular European Commission social issues survey out on Tuesday (29 November) has shown that the public's belief that the EU is having a positive impact on employment and social policy - policies with the biggest impact on ordinary peoples' lives - has sharply declined in almost all countries. “Compared with 2009, there has been a substantial fall in the number of people who think that the EU has a positive impact,” the survey says.
Read article at euobserver.com
November 24, 2011
Campaigners call for more transparency on ex-commission officials
A report says that “too few” checks are being made on ex-commission officials who move into jobs in the lobby industry. It says this potentially can result in “abuses of power”.
Read article at theparliament.com
November 10, 2011
MEPs hit out over 'shameful' report on EU accounts
MEPs say that EU leaders should be "shamed" by the latest report of the European Court of Auditors. One MEP said the latest annual report on the EU accounts for 2010, published on Wednesday, "once again found them riddled with fraud and waste". The court said that overall 3.7 per cent of the EU's €122bn budget in 2010 was spent in error or against EU rules. In the area of cohesion, energy and transport, the figure was as high as 7.7 per cent of total spending. The report suggests that 'irregularities' - or possible fraud in layman's terms - are on the rise from their previous 2009 report.
Read article at theparliament.com
November 5, 2011
Europe's democratic deficit grows wider by the day
The Eurocracy's contempt for the nation-states it governs is growing ever more flagrant.
It isn’t often that you are aware of the world order changing before your eyes. Last week, the European Union effectively undermined the democratically elected government of one member state and put another one on notice.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)
November 3, 2011
Greek public 'should have the right to say' in referendum
Party of European Socialists president Poul Nyrup Rasmussen has called for "everyone to respect the right of Greek people to express their will freely" in the referendum called by the country's prime minister George Papandreou. Speaking on Thursday, Rasmussen, a former Danish MEP, said, "It is difficult for those outside Greece to realise the extent of the sacrifices that Greek citizens are making.
Read article at theparliament.com
November 2, 2011
Citizens may be compelled to appear before EU parliament
Plans to allow parliament the right to summon any resident of the EU to appear before it have been branded a "huge power grab". The attack comes after parliament adopted a report by UK Labour MEP David Martin, allowing MEPs to summon any resident of the EU concerning a matter of European law. The report also says the assembly should have the right to demand a resident testifies under oath at a parliamentary inquiry and impose sanctions through the member state if the person does not comply.
Read article at theparliament.com
November 1, 2011
Financial crisis: Eurocrats are terrified of democracy
Greece’s prime minister George Papandreou is in the doghouse only because he dared to offer voters a choice. Shall I tell you the truly terrifying thing about the EU? It’s not the absence of democracy in Brussels, or the ease with which Eurocrats swat aside referendum results. It’s the way in which the internal democracy of the member states is subverted in order to sustain the requirements of membership. George Papandreou, the luckless Greek leader, is the latest politician to find himself being chewed up because he stands in the way of the Brussels machine. On Monday afternoon, Papandreou announced a referendum on whether to accept the EU’s bail-out terms.
Read blog entry by Daniel Hannan on the Daily Telegraph website (UK)
October 31, 2011
Did the Euro’s Architects Expect It to Fail?
Could it be that the politicians and eurocrats who designed the structures of the euro zone always knew they were flawed, but reasoned that a structural breakdown would enable them to bring in the common fiscal policy that would otherwise have been politically impossible?
Read blog entry by Martin Essex on the Wall Street Journal website (USA)
October 27, 2011
Europe could be plunged into war if efforts to save euro fail: German Chancellor
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has issued a warning that European countries could end up warring with each other if the euro collapses.
Read news report at yahoo.com
Comment: Merkel’s statement follows the recent illuminating analysis of the Polish Finance Minister, Jacek Rostowski. Providing evidence that the message of the Dr. Rath Health Foundation’s book has now reached the minds of the European political elite, and with EU leaders scrambling to contain the panic, Rostowski spoke candidly of the risk of war on the continent within 10 years if the eurozone collapses.
October 26, 2011
Public in no mood to amend Lisbon deal
The Irish electorate is likely to reject any attempt to amend the Lisbon Treaty to deal with the financial crisis in the European Union, according to the latest Irish Times /Ipsos MRBI poll. When asked how they would vote on an amendment to the Lisbon Treaty to extend the powers of the EU to deal with the financial crisis, 47 per cent said they would vote No; 28 per cent said they would vote Yes; and 25 per cent were undecided.
Read article in the Irish Times (Ireland)
September 30, 2011
Half of all Germans want to ditch euro
Half of Germans want to ditch the euro and return to the deutschmark, a major survey showed just a day after Angela Merkel drove through a vote in favour of a Greek bailout. The poll conducted for respected newspaper Die Welt showed 50% of Germans wanting a return to the old currency and only 48% supporting the euro.
Read article in the Evening Standard (UK)
September 28, 2011
MEP hits out at plans for EU 'schools propaganda'
A UK Conservative MEP has hit out against commission plans which she fears will lead to schoolchildren being "force-fed pro-Brussels propaganda". She claims the proposals, contained in a report to parliament, could lead to pupils having "compulsory lessons in how to be good Europeans and receiving a biased version of the EU's benefits to society".
Read article at theparliament.com
Comment: The EU Commission’s plans follow demands by the so-called “European People's Party” group for school pupils in all EU member states to be forced to take lessons about the bloc. Without doubt, therefore, under the dictatorial regime of the ‘Brussels EU’, such lessons would not result in school pupils being taught the real facts about the bloc and its origins.
September 19, 2011
Greece may hold referendum on euro zone membership: report
Greece may hold a voter referendum on euro zone membership as a way to strengthen the government's hand in dealing with the debt crisis within the euro zone or by exiting the single currency, the Kathimerini English language newspaper reported on its website on Tuesday.
Read news report at reuters.com
September 14, 2011
Poland warns of war 'in 10 years' as EU leaders scramble to contain panic
Germany, France and the European Commission are scrambling to contain panic and "quash rumours" about a eurozone break-up amid repeated off-piste messages from other senior EU politicians. But even amid their desperate efforts, the finance minister of Poland, the country that currently represents the EU to the world as holder of the bloc’s rotating presidency, warned of war on the continent within 10 years if the eurozone collapses.
Read article at euobserver.com
September 13, 2011
New EU members to break free from euro duty
Seven EU members which joined the European Union between 2004 and 2007 are concerned about an obligation to adopt the euro under the terms of their accession and could stage referenda to change their accession treaties, AFP reported, quoting diplomatic sources.
Read article at euractiv.com
September 5, 2011
Herman van Rompuy wants second term as strengthened EU president
Herman van Rompuy is ready to run for a second term as EU president, at the head of a “United States of Europe”. His comments came as Germany further strengthened demands for a new treaty giving the president extra powers.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)
Comment: Readers who live outside of Europe should not be misled into thinking that van Rompuy will be “running” for EU president in a democratic election. Appointed by an elite circle of corporate interests in November 2009 following his presidential “job interview” being held at a meeting of the Rockefeller-controlled Bilderberg Group, he assumed the post via a political system in which the people of Europe are totally excluded from the selection process. As such, the Brussels EU system of governance reverses all democratic achievements of European civilization over the past thousand years and throws the entire continent back to Medieval times, when autocratic monarchs ruled Europe outside of any democratic control. To learn more about the nature of the Brussels EU, click here.
September 5, 2011
Former UK chancellor calls for Lisbon treaty to be scrapped
Former UK finance minister Lord Lawson is reported in the Daily Express as saying the time has come to scrap the Lisbon treaty. The senior Tory, who was chancellor from 1983 to 1989 uses an article in the Times to say that "eurozone meltdown" is continuing to inflict substantial economic damage, not merely on its member countries but also on the wider world.
Read article at theparliament.com
August 4, 2011
EC president Jose Barroso warns eurozone debt crisis is spreading from smaller nations
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has warned that the eurozone sovereign debt crisis is spreading from the smaller debt-laden nations to Italy and Spain, the currency area's third- and fourth-largest economies.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)
July 22, 2011
Serbia loses faith in European future
The country is on course to qualify for EU membership but public opinion is becoming more sceptical.
Read article in the Guardian (UK)
July 15, 2011
Poll: British People Overwhelmingly Ready to Leave EU
The people of Great Britain have had enough of the European Union and its growing financial difficulties. In fact, according to a recent poll, if they had a choice in the matter, the British would leave the EU as soon as possible.
Read article in The New American (USA)
July 8, 2011
Brussels' Eurocrats see EU project in 'lasting crisis'
A recent survey has found deep pessimism among European Commission staff on a wide range of issues, including the course of European integration over the past decade and the likelihood of success of the EU's strategy for economic growth. Some 63% partially or totally agreed that "the European model has entered into a lasting crisis".
Read article at euractiv.com
Comment: European Commission staff are of course correct in recognizing that the so-called 'EU project' is in "lasting crisis." Moreover, with global awareness growing of the construct's Nazi origins, we can be sure that calls for its dismantling will continue to grow.
June 27, 2011
Mark ‘set for comeback’ as German euro crisis deepens
Almost three-quarters of Germans doubt that the euro has a future, a poll reveals. They also believe rescue attempts are futile as billions more euros will be paid to bail out Greece. A poll by German newspaper, the Frankfurter Allgemeine, found 71 per cent had “doubt,” “no trust” or thought there is “no future” for the euro. Only 19 per cent expressed “confidence” in it.
Read article in the Daily Express (UK)
June 15, 2011
Greece crisis: Commissioners 'fear future of eurozone'
EU commissioners have a "profound sense of foreboding" about Greece and the future of the eurozone, a leaked account of a meeting has suggested.
Read article on the BBC News website (UK)
June 9, 2011
FAZ: the EU has become "a demon, uncontrollable, impossible to vote away"
This is some forceful stuff from the Vienna correspondent for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Dirk Schümer. In a piece published in Monday's paper under the headline "Back to the nation", Mr. Schümer takes a long, critical look at the current state of the European Union - and he takes no prisoners.
Read article on the Open Europe blog site (UK)
June 2, 2011
Greece default risk at 50:50 says Moody's
Greece's credit rating has been cut again by rating agency Moody's. Moody's cut its rating by three notches from B1 to Caa1 - just five notches short of default. The new rating means Greece is 50% likely to default on or restructure its debts in the next five years, according to Moody's methodology.
Read article on the BBC News website (UK)
May 29, 2011
Nigerian fraud prompts parliamentary control of European Development Fund
Millions of euros of EIB credits to Nigeria are being handed to dubious private equity funds and banks, a watchdog claims. The European parliament at the same time says it is "surprised at [a recent] EIB's statement [saying] that no fraudulent practice exists in the context of EIB Investment Facility programmes." In a recent report, the European Parliament has urged the Commission to compile an overall audit of all development projects financed by the European Investment Bank (EIB). The call reflects an investigation by Counter Balance, a group of non-governmental organisations published in the British newspaper The Guardian in November 2010. Claims have arisen that the EIB granted loans and credits out of the European Development Fund (EDF) to fraudulent private enterprises in Africa.
Read article on the New Europe website
May 27, 2011
Greeks to choose between euro and drachma
Athens is ready to stop using the euro and go back to the drachma. This was announced by European Commissioner for Greece Maria Damanaki. An official message placed on her web site on the 25th of May reads that "the scenario of Greece being distanced from the euro is now on the table".
Read article on the Voice of Russia website
May 12, 2011
True Finns won't join govt after clash on bailout
Finland's eurosceptic True Finns party dropped out of talks to form a new government, its leader said on Thursday after disagreeing with the country's top two parties over helping bail out Portugal.
Read news report at reuters.com
May 11, 2011
EU to keep files on all air passengers (and that includes what they EAT on flights)
Millions of holidaymakers will have their personal details tracked on huge databases thanks to the latest EU diktat. Countries will be expected to record air passengers’ information, including who they travelled with, the price they paid for a ticket, and even any meal requests they made.
Read article in the Daily Mail (UK)
May 6, 2011
Greece Considers Exit from Euro Zone
Athens Mulls Plans for New Currency
The debt crisis in Greece has taken on a dramatic new twist. Sources with information about the government's actions have informed SPIEGEL ONLINE that Athens is considering withdrawing from the euro zone. The common currency area's finance ministers and representatives of the European Commission are holding a secret crisis meeting in Luxembourg on Friday night. Greece's economic problems are massive, with protests against the government being held almost daily. Now Prime Minister George Papandreou apparently feels he has no other option: SPIEGEL ONLINE has obtained information from German government sources knowledgeable of the situation in Athens indicating that Papandreou's government is considering abandoning the euro and reintroducing its own currency.
Read article on the Der Spiegel website (Germany)
April 27, 2011
Plans for EU-wide electoral list condemned as 'nonsense'
Eurosceptic MEPs have condemned plans for a major shake-up of the European elections. Under the plans, 25 MEPs would be elected to represent a single constituency of Europe. The proposals, put forward by UK ALDE deputy Andrew Duff, have been approved by parliament's constitutional affairs committee. Duff, a federalist, says the move is necessary in order to help boost turnout at the elections, which are held every five years.
Read article at theparliament.com
Comment: The elections organized by the Brussels EU dictatorship in June 2009 were nothing short of a Waterloo for its architects. Almost 60 percent of the people of Europe who were eligible to vote protested against the bloc by deliberately abstaining. In addition, a further 4 percent of the eligible electorate cast deliberate votes against the Brussels EU by voting for parties that are anti-EU and/or opposed to the Lisbon Treaty. As such, with voter turnout having fallen consistently in every Brussels EU election since the first one in 1979, Andrew Duff’s plans for an EU-wide electoral list are clearly a desperate attempt to delay the construct’s increasingly inevitable collapse and ultimate dismantling.
April 20, 2011
"For 500 million Europeans in times of austerity"
...That was how EU Budget Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski presented his 2012 EU budget proposal, tabled today. With such a heading it must include lots of belt tightening, better targeting and some relief for those European governments whose budget is already incredibly strained, right? Unfortunately, not. To the surprise of no one, the proposal includes increasing the budget by 4.9% (€6.2bn), around 2% more than average inflation in the EU.
Read blog entry on the Open Europe website (UK)
April 18, 2011
Finland's Euro-Skeptics Poised to Form Government Following Election Upset
Finland’s euro-skeptic bloc is poised to enter a government with the pro-Europe National Coalition led by Finance Minister Jyrki Katainen after voters used yesterday’s election to protest against funding bailouts.
Read article at Bloomberg.com
April 7, 2011
Eurosceptics cry foul as EU 'history house' costs soar
Plans to create a museum to celebrate the history of the European Union were hit by controversy this week, amid soaring costs and claims from Eurosceptic MEPs that the project is beset by conflicts of interest.
Read article at euractiv.com
Comment: As we have stated previously, whatever this museum ends up containing, there’s one thing we can be almost certain of: Evidence of the Nazi roots of the Brussels EU, and the role of IG Farben in financing the rise of the Nazis and the preparation for WWII, will be notable only by its absence.
March 31, 2011
Buzek allows Olaf probe, continues to deny access to offices
European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek has let the EU's anti-fraud office (Olaf) conduct an investigation into the Sunday Times cash-for-amendments scandal. But he continues to deny access to MEPs' offices.
Read article at euobserver.com
Comment: Few people will be surprised by the news that, with four members of the Brussels EU Parliament having been caught up in a "cash-for-laws" scandal, the institution’s President is preventing a full investigation into the matter. Moreover, given that the Brussels EU operates outside of the basic principles of democracy and was designed as a dictatorship under the control of the Oil and Drug Cartel, we should not expect this latest exposé to result in any significant changes as regards the way the construct is run.
March 28, 2011
Fourth Euro MP named in lobbying scandal
A fourth Euro MP caught up in a "cash-for-laws" scandal has denied wrongdoing as the European Parliament investigates corruption allegations. Spanish MEP Pablo Zalba said he had been "deceived" by the Sunday Times undercover reporters and had not accepted their offer of cash. But he said he did amend draft legislation at the request of the reporters posing as lobbyists. Two other MEPs have resigned in the affair and a third has left his party.
Read article on the BBC News website (UK)
March 18, 2011
EU history museum branded 'waste of money'
A parliamentary committee has approved the release of EU funds for work to start on a 'House of European history' museum in Brussels. The decision was immediately condemned by eurosceptics as a waste of money.
Read article at theparliament.com
Comment: Whatever this museum ends up containing, there’s one thing we can be almost certain of: Evidence of the Nazi roots of the Brussels EU, and the role of IG Farben in financing the rise of the Nazis and the preparation for WWII, will be notable only by its absence.
March 7, 2011
The tide is turning and we see the EU for what it truly is
No politician symbolises the twisted values of the EU more graphically than Baroness Cathy Ashton, the Brussels foreign affairs boss. All the European Union’s traits of hypocrisy, profligacy, arrogance and lack of democracy are embodied in this ridiculous bureaucratic parasite. Baroness Ashton has never been elected to any public office during her unedifying career. Yet now, amid the turmoil of North Africa, she has the nerve to give lectures about the importance of elections and liberty. “True democracy is the necessary foundation of tolerance, peace and prosperity,” she piously intoned in an article last Friday. Well, if she really believes that, why does she not apply such a principle to the unaccountable, self-serving oligarchy of her own EU Commission? If anywhere needs the breath of democracy it is the closed politburo of Ashton and her cronies.
Read article in the Daily Express (UK)
March 3, 2011
Survey: Czechs' trust in EU lowest in history
Czechs' trust in the European Union is at a historical low of 46 percent, according to the latest poll conducted by the STEM polling agency, which has monitored the trust since 1994, and released to CTK Wednesday. Public trust in the EU has dropped under 50 percent for the first time in history.
Read article on the Prague Daily Monitor website (Czech Republic)
March 1, 2011
Commission accused of power-grab under new EU rules
Member states and interest groups stand to lose considerable power to the European Commission under new rules surrounding the implementation of EU legislation, experts on the subject say. The rules, which come into force on Tuesday (1 March), are designed to overhaul decision-making in the 300-odd EU committees that vote on the detailed implementation of EU laws - a procedure known as 'comitology'. Through ratification of the EU's Lisbon Treaty, member states handed greater control over hundreds of daily decisions such as food labeling and trade-protection measures to the commission, Daniel Gueguen, a leading public affairs consultant, told EUobserver.
Read article at euobserver.com
February 24, 2011
A step backwards for transparency
The bulk of the cost of regulations in both the UK and Europe stem from the European Union, as we've showed in our extensive research on the subject. But this isn't even the end of the story. Many key decisions on the actual substance of EU laws and regulations are being taken during an uber-opaque process called “Comitology”. As we've noted before, Comitology involves special committees consisting of Commission and national experts deciding on how EU legislation should be implemented - usually behind closed doors - after the proposal has been agreed by national governments and the European Parliament. The Lisbon Treaty - the document, if you remember, that would lead to more transparency in Europe - is introducing new rules for the Comitology procedure, effective from 1 March 2011. The new rules were meant to improve and simplify the system, but are now universally acknowledged to have made the situation even worse.
Read blog entry on the Open Europe website (UK)
February 21, 2011
MEPs question 'Big Brother' urban observation project
Greek MEP Stavros Lambrinidis, a vice-president of the European Parliament, has called on the European Commission to clarify the purpose of an EU-funded project that develops "observation" algorithms to enhance the "security of citizens in urban environments". In an interview with EurActiv Germany, Socialists & Democrats MEP Lambrinidis warned that the project aims to access "all existing feeds in cameras, in the Internet, in DNA databases and even on personal computers". The INDECT project, launched under the European Commission's research programme, develops "algorithms" through "observation" to enhance the "security of citizens in urban environments". According to the MEP, the cameras don't just register crimes but also "abnormal behaviour". This, he says, can introduce "Big Brother into our lives".
Read article at euractiv.com
February 2, 2011
Transparency NGOs call on EU not to restrict document access
The EU is set to tightly restrict its freedom-of-information rules just seven years after they were introduced, says an alliance of some 180 human rights organisations, transparency pressure groups and journalist unions, which have called on the European Parliament to apply the breaks to proposed legislation. On the weekend a public letter signed by 56 investigative journalists and 131 groups including transparency and access-to-information campaigners and environmental NGOs warned that European Commission proposals that are set to be approved in the coming weeks will "substantially reduce the number of public documents" available upon request.
Read article at euobserver.com
February 1, 2011
EU to collect data of international air travelers
Air travellers going in and out of the EU may soon have to give their personal details to national authorities in the member state of departure or arrival, if proposals set to be put forward by the EU commission on Wednesday are approved by governments and the European Parliament.
Read article at euobserver.com
January 20, 2011
EU commission condemned over new 'ethics' code for ex-commissioners
A draft ethics code for former EU commissioners has been branded a "half measure" which will not end the "revolving door scandals." The commission’s new draft code of conduct is designed to address cases where former commissioners exploit their inside knowledge and contacts by taking up lobbying jobs for industry. But the campaign group, Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation in the EU (ALTER-EU), said the draft in its current form would not prevent commissioners from "going through the revolving door" in future.
Read article at theparliament.com
January 11, 2011
Danish PM sued over Lisbon Treaty
The Danish Supreme Court on Tuesday (11 January) ruled admissible a complaint filed by 28 citizens who are trying to sue Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen for having adopted the Lisbon Treaty without a referendum. In a surprising ruling, the country's top constitutional judges allowed the plaintiffs to pursue their case against Mr Rasmussen for breach of the constitution. The Supreme Court found that the 28 plaintiffs have a "requisite legal interest in having their claims verified." The group of professors, actors, writers and euro-sceptic politicians mounting the constitutional challenge argues that the Lisbon Treaty does indeed hand over parts of national sovereignty to Brussels and therefore a referendum should have taken place.
Read article at euobserver.com
January 11, 2011
EU financial watchdog 'systemically sabotaged fraud investigations'
The EU's financial watchdog has systemically "sabotaged" investigations and caved into intimidation from countries including France and Italy to cover up fraud, according to a senior official.
Maarten Engwirda, a former Dutch member of European Court of Auditors for 15 years, who retired 10 days ago, has alleged that abuse of EU funds was swept under the carpet by an auditing body that was supposed to expose wrongdoing. "There was a practice of watering down if not completely removing criticism," he told the Dutch Volkskrant newspaper yesterday. Slim Kallas, the European Commission's vice-president, who was responsible for anti-fraud measures from 2004 to 2010 and who is now the EU transport chief, is accused of putting "heavy pressure" on investigators to tone down findings of abuse.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)