We publish here in full the text of a declaration issued by the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Policy. The authorities in Hong Kong arrested over 50 people on 6 January 2021 on charges pursuant to the National Security Law (NSL). The charges in question relate to the holding in July 2020 of pro-democracy primary…
Three women journalists were detained and another was beaten by police on 5 January during a protest in the Turkish capital Ankara against the disappearance of a Kurdish student a year ago. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and their affiliate, the Journalists’ Union of Turkey (TGS) condemned the violence and demanded the…
In a landmark case, the UK Court of Appeal has ruled that EU citizens with pre-settled status can access welfare benefits on an equal basis with other claimants. The test case was brought on behalf of two Romanian nationals, Ms Fratila and Mr Tanase who came to the UK in 2014 and 2019 respectively. In…
In response to the brutality of the Belarusian authorities and in support of the democratic rights of the Belarusian people, the Council last week decided to adopt 36 additional designations. These sanctions target high-level officials responsible for the ongoing violent repression and intimidation of peaceful demonstrators, opposition members and journalists, among others. They also target economic actors, prominent businessmen and companies…
The European Parliament adopted a resolution for the new EU Security Union Strategy, presented by the Commission, to step up the fight against violent extremism and to increase EU resilience against security threats. The ECR Group specifically welcomes the move to increase efforts against terrorism, organised crime, human trafficking and online child sexual abuse. However,…
MEPs debated and voted on a resolution last week on forced labour and the situation of the Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The Parliament vote, strongly pushed for by the Greens/EFA group, is in response to ongoing human rights violations, internment and forced labour of more than one million Uyghurs in China’s autonomous…
Four journalists were arrested on 11 December and 12 December while covering protests against the murder of Klodjan Rasha, a 25 years-old Albanian citizen, in Tirana. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and its affiliate, the Association of Professional Journalists of Albania (APJA) strongly condemn the harassment and arbitrary…
The European Commission has presented new proposals for the reform ofEuropol and a strategy to combat terrorism. Europol has just beenreprimanded by the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS). Now it isto be allowed to collect large amounts of data on non-suspects such ascell-mast data. In addition, the EU Commission’s counter-terrorismstrategy advocates, among other things, facial…
Today, the European Commission publishes the fourth set of reports from the signatories of the Code of Practice on Disinformation on actions they have taken to fight false and misleading coronavirus-related information. In their latest reports, the online platforms have responded to the Commission’s call to provide information specifically about the measures taken to limit the spread of disinformation on coronavirus vaccines….
On International Anti-Corruption Day (9 December), 101 leading transparency, anti-corruption and open data organisations along with investigative journalists from across Europe have called on the European Commission and national governments to act to ensure that company registers, including ownership and corporate structure data, are freely accessible and published in open data format. In an open…
