Category: EU

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of social media giant Facebook, will appear before the European Parliament on Tuesday to answer questions about the company’s privacy policy, the company said. The appearance will take place in closed session, behind closed doors, much to the chagrin of Guy Verhofstadt, former Belgian PM and leader of the parliament’s liberal faction. Zuckerberg’s appearance is in relation to new EU privacy rules which come into force later this month. Facebook has a European base in Ireland, and so is covered by the rules. The parliament will be…

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The winners of the 2018 EU Prize for Cultural Heritage were announced today by the European Commission and Europa Nostra, a pan-European network of heritage NGOs. 29 laureates from 17 countries were recognised for their accomplishments in conservation, research, dedicated service, and education, training and awareness-raising. As a contribution to the European Year of Cultural Heritage, this year’s awards put special emphasis on the European added value of the selected heritage achievements. The winners will be honoured at a high-profile award ceremony on 22 June in Berlin, during the first…

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From today, 15 May, at 13.00 [Central European time] precisely, Brussels and municipalities throughout the European Union (EU) will be able to apply for a first batch of 1,000 WiFi4EU vouchers, the European Commission announced today, and benefit more from today’s increasingly digital world. Indeed, the aim of this scheme, in the words of Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, is to connect “every European village and every city with free wireless internet access around the main centres of public life by 2020”. “The EU is bringing Wi-Fi into your parks, squares,…

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The British election Commission on Friday imposed a fine of £ 70,000 (€79,000) on leave for the movement Brexit. EU for multiple irregularities in the financing of its campaign for the June 2016 referendum on the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union (EU). The Commission said in a press release that Leave.EU had incorrectly reported its spending during the referendum campaign, exceeded its spending limit and submitted incomplete and erroneous statements of expenditure and transactions. It added that there were reasonable grounds to suspect that the responsible person in…

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On Tuesday 8 May, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Belgium, Mrs Naghmana Alamgir Hashmi, addressed a large audience of Belgian and Pakistani business people and government officials at a business conference in Brussels. The conference was hosted by the Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Mrs Hashmi highlighted the growth in trade between Belgium and Pakistan in recent years, up 38% from 2013 and currently standing at €470 million. “It’s not random but due to important developments that has enabled the space for trade to grow”, the Ambassador emphasised. The Pakistani economy…

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US President trump announced yesterday that the US will withdraw from the nuclear deal and impose sanctions against Iran for allegedly violating this deal. EU and the three European powers that signed the deal in 2015 declared directly after his unilateral withdrawal that they will continue to support the deal and even try to improve it. In his announcement, Trump ignored his own officials who in hearings in the senate had confirmed that Iran complied with the conditions in the agreement. Instead he referred to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s slideshow…

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Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions increased by 1.8% in the European Union (EU) last year, according to first estimates for 2017 from the EU statistical office, Eurostat. However, they decreased by 2.4% in Belgium, whose share of total emissions in the EU was 2.3% in 2017. Eurostat estimates show that CO2 emissions went up in most member States in 2017. The highest increases were in Malta (+12.8%), followed by Estonia (+11.3%), Bulgaria (+8.3%), Spain (+7.4%) and Portugal (+7.3%). On the other hand, reductions were observed in Finland (-5.9%), Denmark (-5.8%), the…

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Greek riot police used tear gas to try to disperse angry protesters in Lesbos who tried to turn the police bus during a demonstration against the EU migration policy. The protesters were among 2,500 demonstrators who gathered at the island’s main port as the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, arrived to speak at a conference. A large contingent of riot police formed a cordon to stop the protesters from advancing further. Scores of them then tried to push over a police bus. Officers fired teargas and earlier had discharged a…

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The French police arrested more than 200 people and used water cannons and tear gas against masked protesters who broke shop Windows and threw petrol bombs after a planned peaceful may day Union rally. The clashes came against a backdrop of union discontent with the president, Emmanuel Macron, over his plans to stimulate France’s economy and spur jobs growth by loosening labour regulations. Riot police in Paris had warned on Monday of possible clashes with far-left anarchist groups, known as Black Blocs, after a call on social media to make…

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Ukraine held a ceremony honoring the memory of victims, dead firefighters and rescuers in the Tchernobyl disaster, the worst nuclear accident in history, which polluted most of Europe, but most of all Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, which were Soviet republics then. “Tchernobyl will remain forever an open wound in the heart of our country,’’ declared the Ukrainian President Petro Porochenko on his Facebook page, calling to “do everything possible to ensure that this tragedy never happens again.’’ During the night, several hundred gathered together for a commemorative ceremony at Slavoutitch,…

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