Also available as a PDF.
Featuring:
European moves against search and rescue missions?
Frontex takes the lead on deportations
Europol extends its reach across the Atlantic
And: European Commission argues for legality of anti-encryption plans; latest documents on new EU migration and asylum laws; border police watchlist “progressing well”; open letter on the Artificial Intelligence Act.
Issue 03/23, 16 February (also available as a PDF)
And three new analyses: child migration to Spain; the European Union and its crises; EU support for authoritarian regimes.
Issue 02/23, 2 February
Also available as a PDF
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Welcome to our latest bulletin, featuring:
And: Draft European Council conclusions, Dutch police surveillance case, travel surveillance, and more.
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France’s President Emmanuel Macron (R) with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz as they arrive to attend a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the Elysee Treaty, Sorbonne university’s Grand Amphitheatre, Paris, Jan. 22, 2023The internal balances of the European Union are significantly transforming as a consequence of the US’ proxy war with Russia in Ukraine. The countries that are close neighbours of the conflict zone — countries of Eastern Europe and the Baltic States — have a greater sense of involvement in the conflict in comparison with the countries of Old Europe. These New Europeans have had a difficult history that puts them on a pronouncedly ‘anti-Russian’ trajectory.
Register for Privacy Camp 2023 here (our workshop is in-person attendance only). For more information on Privacy Camp, see the website.
In June 2022 EU policing agency Europol received substantial new powers. Legal changes mean the agency can now process data on entirely innocent people, more easily receive and transmit personal data from non-EU states, and is responsible for developing algorithms and other new technologies for police forces across the EU.
Pierre de Gaulle [Source: rt.com]Pierre de Gaulle, a grandson of former French President Charles de Gaulle, has said the U.S. is making Europeans suffer by fueling the Ukraine conflict and waging a pre-planned economic war against Russia.
According to the Brussels-based daily Le Soir, Belgian investigators into the European Parliament corruption scandal have put under scritiny the Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought.
President Vladimir Putin addressed an expanded meeting of the Russian Defence Ministry Board, Moscow, Dec. 21, 2022The defining moment in US President Joe Biden’s press conference at the White House last Wednesday, during President Zelensky’s visit, was his virtual admission that he is constrained in the proxy war in Ukraine, as European allies don’t want a war with Russia.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell (L) with Iran’s Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian, Tehran, July 27, 2022. (File photo)The European Union has returned to the ritual of sanctioning Iran to leverage its foreign and security policies. The highlight of the EU Foreign Affairs Council ministerial meeting in Brussels on Monday was the imposition of sanctions against Iran over a range of issues.
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‘Reichsbürger’ at a rally in Berlin: Neo-Nazi, or just a crackpot?The visit of German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock to New Delhi had an anti-climatic ending. Baerbock waxed eloquently about Germany as a paragon of democratic values and claimed affinity with India. She hoped to persuade Modi government to disengage from strategic partnership with “authoritarian” Russia.
By Alexia EYCHENNE
Aided by an algorithm, the Dutch tax office has plunged into distress tens of thousands of families – in particular, foreign-born mothers, in wrongfully demanding from them staggering sums. The state is proving incapable of setting things right.
Clare Daly is a member of the European Parliament who was elected from the constituency of Dublin, Ireland in 2019. She represents Independents4Change and sits in the Left group. Previously she was a member of the Irish Parliament, a former Airport Shop Steward, and Students Union President.
Von der Leyen and Zelenskiy might see eye to eye, yet with European fortunes looking bleak, other European politicians may be again be viewing ties with Russia.The last six months have presented Western leaders with first the opportunity to wave a big stick at Moscow, then realize that the Russian Bear is a good deal less frightened of the stick than those economies that need Moscow’s materials. This article will look at certain events over the last month that may indicate that at least a few Western leaders are getting cold feet concerning the economic Cold War they were so enthusiastic to start.
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The EU can’t have its own puppets swashbuckling the high life and doing their own thing, can they?
Is it possible that the President of the European commission, Ursula von der Leyen is not quite as squeaky clean as some might assume? Do such lightweights, who define themselves by how much they fail to achieve, who come from the bowels of political obscurity in Germany rise to such prominence without a little help from powerful elites, masonic links and corrupt corporations?
The new rules governing Europol, which came into force at the end of June, massively expand the tasks and powers of the EU’s policing agency whilst reducing external scrutiny of its data processing operations and rights protections for individuals, says a report published today by Statewatch.
Given Europol’s role as a ‘hub’ for information processing and exchange between EU member states and other entities, the new rules thus increase the powers of all police forces and other agencies that cooperate with Europol, argues the report, Empowering the police, removing protections.
New tasks granted to Europol include supporting the EU’s network of police “special intervention units” and managing a cooperation platform for coordinating joint police operations, known as EMPACT. However, it is the rules governing the processing and exchange of data that have seen the most significant changes.
Read more here: New Europol rules massively expand police powers and reduce rights protections
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The U.S. is luring in European businesses that cannot exist in the energy crisis. Washington has even legitimized this process. Germany and France are trying to resist. Who will win in this unfolding confrontation between Europe and the New World?
This has become a familiar picture over the last year, yet is the Ukrainian political establishment now attempting to flood Europe with its populace?The last month has seen Russian forces take the Ukrainian electricity system offline piece by piece, power stations as well as substations being destroyed in a series of devastating strikes. This has prompted the mayor of Kiev to propose evacuating the entire population from the city as well as its environs due to the increasingly untenable situation that the population faces as normal life slowly grinds to a halt and the cold of winter starts to bite. With things being as they are across the whole country today, it can be guaranteed that these displaced people will not stay in-country and will be sent to Europe. This article examines what this may mean for both the Ukraine as a country and those states who would be playing host to as many as four million more Ukrainian people.
With the exception of Hungary, Serbia has become an island surrounded as a sea of Atlanticists and aspirants attempt to play a western game in Eastern EuropeOver the last month, several statements have been made by the EU in Brussels as well as its member states as they attempt to pressure Serbia into acting against Russia as the West moves against the East. This shorter article will look at Serbia, the role it plays in Europe as well as what the future may hold as the West attempts to halt a presently unstoppable Russia. This short article is looking to the current situation rather than looking at affairs over the last few decades.
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Hot air from the politicians, yet no heat for the peopleWe have seen some pretty scary stories coming out of the UK of late, and the ones regarding its energy situation are even worse than those concerning the political rollercoaster that London has become of late. This shorter article will take a wry look at what it’s all about.
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Is it a lame duck, sitting duck or just a dead duck in the water? A tsunami of consequences now affects Brussels and many of its minions as the tide of events slowly sinks it.
The New Dark Age 