Russia should bear “criminal responsibility” for the death of dissident Alexie Navalny, according to MEPs. The claim, by the Greens, came on the day Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya , made a speech to the EU parliament plenary session in Strasbourg. Her husband died in suspicious circumstances in a Russian jail over a week ago. Sergey…
Photo by mahdi rezaei on Unsplash Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of murdered Russian anti-corruption activist Alexei, has made an emotional appearance in the European Parliament. Fighting back tears in an address to a packed plenary in Strasbourg on 28 February, she accused the Russian mafia state, led by President Vladimir Putin, of having orchestrated her husband’s killing. She…
Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash A new campaign has been launched “to ensure the safety and accessibility of abortion services across the continent.” It started on Tuesday with a petition with over 300,000 signatures – a “first step towards laying the groundwork.” Activists from across Europe, including Slovenia, Spain, France and Poland have formed an alliance to…
Photo by Keszthelyi Timi on Unsplash The ruling Fidesz party has announced that Tamás Sulyok, president of Hungary’s Constitutional Court, will be Fidesz-KDNP’s presidential candidate. Fidesz faction leader Máté Kocsis said, “He is the best person for the job, as he can best express the unity of the nation.” Kocsis said that Sulyok was proposed by Viktor Orbán. Orbán subsequently…
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash New rules are set to be introduced which would protect journalists and activists from abusive lawsuits against public participation. The long-awaited anti-SLAPP directive protects journalists and human rights defenders from strategic lawsuits against public participation that aim to silence them. The new rules contain a set of safeguards to protect victims, such…
Photo by Hans Martin on Unsplash The German city of Frankfurt has been chosen by Parliament and Council as the seat of AMLA, the EU’s new enforcer in the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing. MEPs and EU ambassadors chose Frankfurt to host the EU’s central enforcer in the fight against dirty money, the Authority for Anti-Money…
Photo by Cédric VT on Unsplash Over 7,000 people took part in a demonstration in Brussels on Sunday against the Russian invasion of Ukraine and in solidarity with the Ukrainian people. The gathering, on the initiative of “Promote Ukraine,” an NGO, is part of an international campaign commemorating the second anniversary of the war. The demonstration was supported…
Business is booming at this pandemic-hit Brussels resto as it bounces back in style. Imagine opening a new business just on the eve of what turned out to be the worst health crisis in living memory. That is the fate that, inadvertently, befell the owners of The Fifty One a restaurant in Brussels. Little did…
Photo by Marjan Blan on Unsplash The European Commission has announced an initial €83 million in humanitarian aid to support the people affected by Russia’s war against Ukraine for 2024. On Tuesday, it said that, of the funding, €75 million is allocated for humanitarian projects in Ukraine to provide emergency aid including access to basic needs such as shelter, protection services,…
Photo by Guillaume Périgois on Unsplash EU auditors say that rule-of-law breaches can now be addressed more effectively since the EU’s legal framework was bolstered in January 2021 by the Conditionality Regulation. In a new report they say that together with other protective mechanisms under the Recovery and Resilience Facility and cohesion policy, the framework provides for the…
