Still living in exile in Belgium, Carles Puigdemont the independent Catalan politician chose the Brussels Press Club as the venue to announce today his candidature for election to the European Parliament in the 23 May elections. Flanked by four colleagues from the party “Junts per Catalunya” Gorka Knorr, Erika Casajoanna, Calara Ponsati and Toni Comin,…
We publish here in full the text of a letter to the President of the European Parliament, and to the Leaders of the Parliamentary Political Groups, from Dan Radu Rușanu. My name is Dan Radu Rușanu and I have been a PNL member (Romanian National Liberal Party) since January 1990. During the period 2000-2013, I was Vice-President…
The Freedom of Religious Belief (FORB) is a fundamental right in the countries of the European Union. However, social hostility towards certain religious groups is also widespread and threatens social cohesion, writes Willy Fautré Director of Human Rights Without Frontiers. The phenomenon is not new. In the 1980s-1990s, non-mainstream religious groups such as Jehovah’s Witnesses or…
Though migration remains important for Europe’s voters, a majority do not consider it to be the most important issue. Corruption, living standards, housing, unemployment and health rank above, or alongside, migration as key issues for European voters. Despite what Viktor Orban, Matteo Salvini and Steve Bannon have said, the EU elections will not be a…
At this week’s plenary session in Strasbourg MEPs welcomed the fact that the error rate for payments – as estimated by the ECA – had reached an all-time low of 2.4%. However, they raised some concerns about how testing samples were selected. MEPs are worried about the mounting payments backlog, which reached a new record of…
Following the hearing on the #EUGreenCard proposal which took place at the European Parliament’s Constitutional Affairs Committee on 18 March, New Europeans has embarked on a series of briefings of national parliaments of EU member states to promote the initiative. At a press conference at the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Roger Casale, Founder and CEO…
MEPs have voted to end the practice of adjusting clocks by an hour in spring and autumn from 2021. EU countries that decide to keep their summer time should make their final clock change on the last Sunday in March 2021. Those that prefer to keep their standard (winter) time, can adjust their clocks for…
Developers of creative content and news publishers will be empowered to negotiate with internet giants thanks to new copyright rules which also contain safeguards on freedom of expression. MEPs adopted the directive in plenary by 348 votes in favour, 274 against and 36 abstentions. This marks the end of the legislative process for the European…
The Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) has welcomed initial steps taken by the European legislators to acknowledge territorial cohesion as an objective of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) after 2020. However, the CPMR is concerned that the three co-legislators have failed to fully recognise the importance of maritime transport in CEF. The European Parliament’s…
In the first round of the Slovakian Presidential elections last weekend, first place has been won with 40.6% of the vote by Zuzana Čaputová representing the Progressive Slovakia party. Turnout in the elections was 50%. She is an environmental lawyer who campaigned on an anti-corruption ticket, and is hitherto relatively unknown, with no prior experience…
