European Union

Funke Medien NRW
Freedom of establishment
According to Advocate General Szpunar, a simple military report cannot enjoy copyright protection

Howard Wilkinson, a British former trader in Danske Bank's Estonia branch, will testify at public hearings in the Danish parliament on 19 November and the European Parliament on 21 November. A non-disclosure agreement with Danske Bank must however first be lifted for the whistleblower to speak freely about the world's biggest money-laundering scandal. Danske's chairman Ole Andersen and representatives from Dutch lender ING were also invited to the EP hearing.

Chaos and confusion threaten millions of air travellers if Britain leaves the European Union in March without any deal on how to manage air services, International Air Transport Association director general, Alexandre de Juniac, warned on Wednesday. "There are no fallback agreements" for air traffic, he pointed out, while urging the UK to remain in the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) at least.

Sciotto
SOPO
Workers in the sector of activity of operatic and orchestral foundations cannot be excluded from protection against the abuse of fixed-term employment contracts

The Romanian Justice Minister on Wednesday (24 October) formally asked the president to sack public prosecutor Augustin Lazar, a strong critic of the left-wing ruling party's judicial reforms, just months after the country's top anti-graft prosecutor was also dismissed.

An uncompromising challenge to EU budget rules by Italy is providing the first big test for reforms introduced to save the euro zone nine years ago as financial crisis threatened to tear it apart.

French leader Emmanuel Macron declined to say if he would back a German-led arms embargo on Saudi Arabia over its murder of a journalist in Istanbul. "I won't answer that question ... whether people like it or not," he told press Wednesday, after France sold €13.6bn of weapons to the retro-kingdom last year. Macron said he would back "international sanctions" against "those responsible", referring to targeted sanctions against Saudi individuals.

Environmentalists seek to tell bigger story of Arctic climate change, after studies show that the polar bear - the main symbol of the problem - does not risk extinction as previously feared.

Several people were injured on Wednesday (24 October) as migrants demanding to cross Bosnia's northwestern border threw stones at Croatian police who responded by firing teargas and using batons to push them back, a Reuters photographer at the scene said.

Germany has warned all nationals visiting Turkey to beware of posting social media messages that criticised Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan or risk to get arrested under Turkish laws against insulting its head of state. "Arrests and prosecution of German nationals have been repeatedly linked with anti-government criticism on social media," its foreign ministry said on Wednesday. "It is enough to share or 'like' a post with such content."

Austria is free to extradite Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash to face bribery allegations in the US, the EU court said in a ruling on cooperation with extra-EU jurisdictions Wednesday. Dubbed Russian leader Vladimir Putin's "bag man" by one EU diplomat speaking to EUobserver, Firtash, who used to oversee Russia-Ukraine gas trade, is believed to hold information on Russian corruption schemes and election-meddling, which could come out in the US trial.

The EU's foreign service says there are no "records" of the Global Tech Panel meetings, but acknowledged foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini writes summary letters. Five MEPs worried about killer robots suggest the panel's composition is skewed.

The European Union should set up a new agency to counter money laundering after a series of high-profile cases at banks bared weaknesses in the system, an influential think-tank said in a report, urging full disclosure of fines imposed on wrongdoers.

While COP24 president-designate Michał Kurtyka continues his intense climate diplomatic trail after end of pre-COP24 session 24 October in Polish Krakow showed uneven progress being made across the various negotiation tracks, the pro-coal position of Poland’s energy ministry throws sand into the process.

The European Central Bank seems certain to keep policy unchanged on Thursday (25 October) but likely to acknowledge the growth outlook is deteriorating, even if not yet enough to derail a carefully crafted retreat from stimulus.

By sidelining Soviet-era graduates of Russia's most prestigious academic institution - the Moscow State Institute of International Relations - Warsaw is failing to learn a key lesson: Know Your Enemy.

A new European Union mechanism to facilitate payments for Iranian exports should be legally in place by 4 November, when the next phase of US sanctions hit, but will not be operational until early next year, three diplomats said.

US authorities have criticised the EU's plans to introduce a 'digital tax,' describing the measures as 'discriminatory' in a letter penned to European Council president Donald Tusk and Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, at the close of last week's EU summit.

France said on Wednesday (24 October) it could impose sanctions on Saudi Arabia if its intelligence services find the kingdom was behind the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, even as Paris worked to maintain important business and strategic ties with Riyadh.

Every person from birth to death enters into relationships with others. These relationships, whatever their type, need to be regulated in order to coexist well, argues Pedro Carrión García de Parada, on the occasion of the European Day of Justice.