Tag Archives: EU

The Independent reports: Top EU leaders have given Boris Johnson an ultimatum to come up with a new Brexit plan by the end of September, or face up to a no-deal. The deadline, agreed at a meeting in Paris on Wednesday evening, comes as the bloc’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier told Mr Johnson to stop “pretending” to negotiate. On Wednesday …

Bloomberg reports: Google’s battle against French proponents of a worldwide “right to be forgotten” enters a decisive phase at the European Union’s top court on Thursday, in a case that highlights the growing tensions between privacy, freedom of speech and state censorship. Ahead of a ruling later this year, an adviser at the EU Court of Justice will on Jan. …

Oh, the irony. The Guardian reports: The former chief strategist to Donald Trump has spent months trying to recruit European parties to his Brussels-based group, the Movement, which he promised would operate as kind of a political consultancy for like-minded parties campaigning in the bloc-wide vote in May 2019. But the Guardian has established that Bannon would be barred or …

Reuters reports: EU antitrust regulators hit Alphabet unit Google with a record 2.42-billion-euro ($2.7 billion) fine on Tuesday, taking a tough line in the first of three investigations into the company’s dominance in searches and smartphones. It is the biggest fine the EU has ever imposed on a single company in an antitrust case, exceeding a 1.06-billion-euro sanction handed down …

Raw Story reports: President Donald Trump is ready to fight Germany in an auto battle according to Germany’s Der Spiegel. Trump got a chilly reception at the NATO summit in Belgium after attacking fellow members. But he was caught pledging a battle with German automakers as part of his anger with “back dues” he feels the country owes to NATO. …

Bloomberg reports: Apple Inc. was ordered to repay a record 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) plus interest after the European Commission said Ireland illegally slashed the iPhone maker’s tax bill. The world’s richest company benefited from a “selective tax treatment” in Ireland that gave it a “significant advantage over other businesses,” the European Union regulator said Tuesday. It’s the largest …

Credit goes to Pope Francis and the local Catholic Church. Via the Associated Press: Preliminary referendum results have shown that Slovenians have rejected a same-sex marriage law by a large margin. The results released Sunday by authorities show 63 voted against a bill that defines marriage as a union of two adults, while 37 were in favor. The results are …

On Friday the Romanian Parliament resoundingly defeated a civil unions bill put forward by Green Party president and 2009 presidential candidate Remus Cernea [INSET].  In 2013 Cernea introduced a similar bill, spurring a denouncement by the Orthodox Archbishop of Tomis, who said that Cernea is controlled by Satan. Cernea’s latest attempt failed after an MP suggested that civil unions would …