European Union

Far-left Croatian MP Katarina Peović called for the reintroduction of quotas for third-country workers on Thursday as the number of immigrants working in low-paid jobs has risen sharply in recent years.

Internal discussions in the EU’s centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) – the largest political family in Europe – saw an “unsettling” exchange about the drafting process of its EU election manifesto, Euractiv has learnt.

Ukrainian grain has successfully transited through Romania since the country introduced export licences under its grain export plan to help protect farmers last autumn, Adrian Pintea, state secretary in the Agriculture Ministry, said on Thursday.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe voted Wednesday to elect Bulgaria’s former GERB justice minister and current ombudsman, Diana Kovatcheva, to a nine-year term as the next Bulgarian judge at the European Court of Human Rights.

Renew Europe MEPs have proposed the rapid creation of a mini-Schengen between Greece, Romania and Bulgaria, to be operational this summer, to ease the heavy tourist traffic between the three EU Balkan countries.

The European Investment Bank is open to financing defence industries but is still reluctant to go beyond dual-use technology, a top EIB official told Euractiv, warning also that the idea of using eurobonds to finance military industry must be carefully weighed as they may not attract investors.

Ukraine expects to start construction work on four new nuclear power reactors this summer or autumn, Energy Minister German Galushchenko told Reuters on Thursday (25 January), as the country seeks to compensate for lost energy capacity due to the war with Russia.

As nationwide farmers' protests continue, the German government wants to have the market power of supermarkets and the food industry scrutinised, blaming their price-setting power for the poor economic situation of many farms.

Chinese officials have asked their Iranian counterparts to help rein in attacks on ships in the Red Sea by the Iran-backed Houthis, or risk harming business relations with Beijing, four Iranian sources and a diplomat familiar with the matter said.

Poland’s ruling parties have presented separate bills to liberalise the country’s abortion laws, proposing to make abortion legal up to the 12th week of pregnancy, but some MPs remain sceptical.

French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Sweden from 30 to 31 January at the invitation of Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf to discuss European defence issues, as Hungary remains reluctant to vote on Sweden’s NATO bid and EU states hold differing views on defence policy.

French farmers have called for the blockade of Paris on Friday afternoon, a week after they began protesting across the country, as new Prime Minister Gabriel Attal is due to announce concrete measures.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen questioned the collaboration with the German AfD over allegations that some members were involved in discussions about deporting German citizens with migration backgrounds, prompting her French competitor Eric Zemmour to rush to the German far-right’s defence. 

The European Space Agency gave the green light to two missions on Thursday (25 January), one to detect ripples in spacetime called gravitational waves and another to probe the secrets of Earth's closest neighbouring planet Venus.

Italian police said on Thursday (25 January) they had dismantled a tax fraud network worth €1.7 billion involving Italian and Chinese suspects using over 100 shell companies in the country's north.

Kenya faces s dispute with the EU on whiskey imports just weeks after its tortuously agreed trade pact with Brussels came into effect.

Talks about an EU visa-ban on 12 violent Israeli settlers have stalled amid objections this might put them on a moral par with Palestinian 'terror' group Hamas.

Nobody gave ‘informed consent’ for Brexit. That’s because, in the 2016 referendum, the electorate was not sufficiently informed.

On the contrary, we were grossly misinformed.

Legally, informed consent means that consent has been given with full knowledge of:

• the risks involved,
• the probable consequences,
• and the alternatives.

– During the referendum we were not fully aware of all the risks of Brexit, especially as ‘Leave’ did not define what kind of Brexit we’d get.

– During the referendum who really understood the “probable consequences” of Brexit? Would so many voters have opted for it had they fully realised that it would make us poorer, with increased costs of living, and so many barriers to trade with our nearest and most important neighbours?

– During the referendum we were not told about the different Brexit alternatives. Brexiters were only given the option of one meaningless, undefined word: ‘Leave’.

Because voters didn’t and couldn’t give their informed consent for the Brexit we got after the referendum, one day there will need to be a new democratic opportunity to reconsider the decision to leave the EU.

And when that happens, we need the people to be properly informed, so that next time they can truly give their INFORMED CONSENT.

Only those against democracy disagree.

• Who voted for Theresa May’s Brexit? 3-minute video

• £350m a week – the biggest Brexit lie. 2-minute video

• Newspaper lies and Brexit – 2-minute video

• If only David Cameron said this – 2-minute video

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The post Brexit doesn’t have informed consent appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

The European Greens are pushing for “massive” investments to simultaneously boost the green transition and protect living conditions under what they are calling the “Green Social Deal”, according to a draft electoral manifesto seen by Euractiv.

With tractors continuing to parade through the streets of Europe, on Thursday (25 January) European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met with food chain stakeholders and NGOs to launch a ‘strategic dialogue’ between agriculture groups and EU decision-makers.