European Union

ECB President Mario Draghi committed the Eurozone to an indefinite period of low-interest rate policy on Friday.

He is not the only one who feels the need to assert the need for ultra-low rates. Wolfgang Schäuble, Donald Trump, and Theresa May have been voicing criticism on monetary policy, particularly low-interest rates that have hurt fixed income funds and savers.
Draghi and the ECB
Speaking at the European Banking Congress in Frankfurt on Friday, Draghi said that there was some optimism...

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Germany’s justice minister, Heiko Maas, says Facebook is not a technology platform, but rather a media company according to Reuters. Maas favors making social media organisations criminally liable for failing to remove hate speech.

The German authorities are currently running a program that monitors the efficiency of Facebook in dealing with the removal of hate speech on its site by looking at how many comments are taken down within 24 hours of a complaint.

This decision comes after Facebook has been scrutinized for the way it has dealt with hate speech.  The EU specifically wants to address hate speech that corresponds to xenophobia and racism, two issues that have recently been important in Europe.  The EU has also set up a ‘code of conduct’ which, though not legally binding, pressures companies like Facebook and Twitter to respond to notifications of hate speech in under 24 hours.

According to the EU commissioner for justice, Vĕra Jourová, one of the main reasons for this new code is the radicalization of “young people” through the use of social media.

If Facebook were to be thought of as a media company and not a “technology platform,” the company could be held legally responsible for failing ro remove hate speech.  Recently, Facebook has been criticized due to its questionable decisions concerning the removal of pictures and other controversial material.  According to Reuters, though the EU currently does not impose legislation on social media, Germany will move to “take legislative measures if the results are still unsatisfactory” when the data from the program is analyzed.

According to a FORTUNE article published on November 17th, “one big reason is that being defined in such a way could open the network up to regulation, and impose a range of responsibilities on it that it probably wouldn’t like.”

The post Is Facebook a media or technology company? appeared first on New Europe.

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The former Pilipino dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, was buried on Friday in the country’s Heroes’ Cemetery.

Marcos supporters, along with his family, have long held the view that as a former soldier and President, Marcos was entitled to the honour. Marcos had people murdered, over 34,000 tortured, and 70,000 people jailed over his 21-year rule. It is said he stole millions from the country’s coffers.

There is no media coverage of the burial, which the family requested to be “private.”

Thousands petitioned the denial of Marcos burial in the armed forces cemetery, intended for heroes, but the Supreme Court ordered on November 8 his burial. The Supreme Court’s decision came with an overwhelming 9-5 majority.

The main advocate for the burial honoring the former dictator was President Duterte.

Duterte has praised Marcos, and he has also demonstrated his own contempt for human rights abuses by proceeding with over 3,000 extrajudicial killings since he came to power.

Until Friday, the remains of the general had been kept for years in a refrigerated crypt of the family’s Mausoleum, while his family was in exile in Hawaii.

From Peru, where he is attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit, a spokesman for Duterte said that Filipinos should find it in their heart to forgive Marcos.

The post Former dictator Marcos gets a hero’s burial appeared first on New Europe.

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The Council is meeting on 21-22 November 2016 in Brussels to adopt a resolution on a New Skills Agenda and to reach political agreement on a recommendation establishing a Skills Guarantee. On the second day, the Council is taking note of a progress report on the proposal for a revised directive on audiovisual media services (AVMS), and is also expected to adopt a general approach regarding a proposal for a decision on a European Year of Cultural Heritage (2018).

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4,437 Turkish citizens have applied for asylum in Germany from January to October 2016, Funke Mediengruppe reported on Friday.

Last year there were just under 2000 application.

The number of applications has averaged 350 a month, surging to 485 in October.

The surge is linked to a purge of over 100,000 academics, journalists, the army, and the judiciary have been dismissed and/or arrested.

Earlier this month, the Social Democrat State Minister for Europe, Michael Roth, said Germany will welcome asylum applications from intellectuals prosecuted in Turkey. Speaking to the daily Die Welt, he asserted the government did not agree with the prosecution of lawmakers, critical journalists and academics.

But, there is no consensus in parliament for accepting them.

The Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) politician, Stephan Mayer, says opponents of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan should not apply for asylum. The CSU politician is spearheading a revolt of the Christian Democratic Party’s sister party in Bavaria that opposes Chancellor Merkel’s immigration policy. “We cannot solve Turkey’s problems by inviting all critical citizens to apply for asylum here. That is exactly what he wants: the opposition disappears,” Mayer says.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, has accused Germany of lending its support to terrorist groups such as the Kurdish PKK and far-leftist DHKP-C.

The post Turkish asylum seekers in Germany double appeared first on New Europe.

During his farewell visit to Berlin, the outgoing US President Barack Obama was generous in his praise for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, declaring that she "stands for great credibility and is willing to fight for her values". Many journalists see Merkel as the last remaining guarantor of Western ideals after Trump's election victory. Others doubt whether she is up to the task.

Speculation is rife about Donald Trump's future strategies, including his economic policy. In the election campaign he promised lower taxes, deregulation, less free trade and more domestic investment. Commentators see the advent of a new era of protectionism in the US and ask whether the end of low interest rates could thwart his plans for major public investment.

After meeting on the weekend to discuss their reaction to Donald Trump's election, the EU foreign ministers announced stronger cooperation on foreign and defence policy. Trump has announced plans to seek closer cooperation with Moscow. Is this good or bad news? Europe's commentators are at odds.

Immediately after his pro-EU candidate lost Bulgaria's presidential election to opposition candidate Rumen Radev, who is seen as pro-Russian, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and his government announced that they were stepping down. The Bulgarian media discuss what the prime minister's resignation means for the country.