As long as there are ‘equal’ and ‘more equal’ farmers within the EU, its Eastern member states will be giving up farming and abandoning rural areas, a group of 65 EU lawmakers warned in a letter addressed to the presidents of the bloc’s top institutions. The lawmakers mentioned the most famous line of George Orwell’s timeless classic ‘Animal Farm’ to describe the need for a fair distribution of direct payments in the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), on a par with other European countries. “Fed up with this concept of…
Read MoreDay: May 8, 2020
EPP German delegation wants special attention to application users
MEPs belonging to Germany’s CDU/CSU outfit have published a wish list for a European digital response to the corona pandemic, featuring recommendations for the lifting of quarantine restrictions for people who install contact tracing apps. Dedicating the first chapter to tracing apps, MEPs call for a “common architecture for tracing app” instead of 27 different systems. National solutions built upon it should be compatible and interoperable across EU borders. “Although we support the principle of voluntary use, at least 60 percent of European citizens will have to download a tracing…
Read MoreThe Commission proposes a pan-European government to deal with “dirty money”
The European Commission outlined on Thursday (7 May) a series of proposals to bolster Europe’s flawed anti-money laundering system, including a new pan-European authority, following a series of major scandals. The Commission’s action plan includes a more harmonised set of rules and more powers and resources for national and European supervisors. They will be put forward within the next year. Europe has already revised its rules against money launderers and terrorist financing five times, almost at the same pace that the bloc’s banks were involved in scandals. The latest example…
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