Europe
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Statewatch News 11 April 2024: The Migration Pact passes: what next?
Thursday, 11 Apriil 2024 — STATEWATCH Also available as a PDF. In this issue: The Migration Pact passes: what next? Hardwiring border externalisation into EU law “Multipurpose aerial surveillance” as “harm reduction” —————————————- The Migration Pact passes: what next? On Wednesday, MEPs voted to approve the vast majority of new laws that make up the… Continue reading
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The European Union’s fires where freedom burns
The European Union shows all the symptoms of a structure in deep crisis. Like other organizations in the past, the more it tries to convey an image of internal cohesion, the greater the fissures it creates, based on the increasingly rigid demand for compliance with the rules that this appearance of cohesion requires. Continue reading
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Statewatch News: Seeing protest as terrorism; Undoing police accountability; Colonial continuities and border security
Protests might be disruptive – indeed, that is often the point – but does that amount to terrorism? The authorities in Spain think so, with terrorism charges laid against 12 protesters who participated in blockades of Barcelona’s airport and a motorway heading towards France, in protest at the jailing of Catalan independence leaders. Continue reading
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Former judge Manfred Kölsch on how the EU’s Digital Services Act will end free speech
The Digital Services Act (DSA) will come into full force in Germany on 17 February 2024 as EU Regulation 2022/2065. Before this date, the Digital Services Act (DDG), which concretises the DSA, is to be passed by the Bundestag without fanfare. Continue reading
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Is the EU Is Willing to Go to War Over Lithium?
The riddle of unhinged EU support for the Zelensky regime in Kyiv is now solved. Anyone inclined can unravel why the Germans, in particular, backstabbed Russia in the Minsk peace boondoggle. Lithium. Continue reading
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Refugee Week: celebration and resistance
Thursday, 22 June 2023 — Institute of Race Relations As we mark Refugee Week, we applaud all those who have taken to the streets to ensure that criticisms of the EU and Greece for creating the conditions for the worst shipwreck in recent Mediterranean history are not staved off by authorities in Greece who have… Continue reading
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EU moves against search and rescue?; Frontex takes the lead on deportations; Europol looks across the Atlantic
Thursday, 25 May 2023 — Statewatch News 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… Continue reading
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Frontex and personal data; Social media deportations; Statement against undercover police abuse
Thursday, 16 February 2023 — Statewatch Issue 03/23, 16 February (also available as a PDF) Frontex and interoperable databases: a vast data trove Social media profiles to facilitate deportations Spain: 88 organisations condemn undercover police abuse And three new analyses: child migration to Spain; the European Union and its crises; EU support for authoritarian regimes. Continue reading
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Spycops in Spain; EU asylum plans; AI Convention draft leak; UK govt attacks basic freedoms
Friday, 3 February 2023 — Statewatch Issue 02/23, 2 February Also available as a PDF statewatch.org / Twitter / Mastodon / LinkedIn / Facebook / RSS Welcome to our latest bulletin, featuring: Special report: Spycops in Spain EU asylum plans: unaccountability and failure First draft of artificial intelligence convention published UK government assault on basic freedoms continues And: Draft European Council conclusions, Dutch police surveillance case,… Continue reading
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Europe has enemies within, enemies without
The 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… Continue reading
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Statewatch: Join us in Brussels on 25 January at Privacy Camp 2023
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. Continue reading
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Grandson of Charles de Gaulle, an Old CIA Nemesis, Condemns West’s Policy in Ukraine
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. Continue reading
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Corruption in European Parliament: Sakharov Prize in the cross-hairs
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. Continue reading
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Ukraine war tolls death knell for NATO
The 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. Continue reading
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EU cracks the whip (gently) on Iran
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. Continue reading
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Demons creep up from Europe’s attic
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. Continue reading
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In the Netherlands, a Discriminatory Algorithm has Impoverished Thousands of Families
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. Continue reading
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Watch: Ukraine, NATO, and the State of the EU w/ MEP Clare Daly!
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. Continue reading
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Is there an Offramp in the Offing?
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… Continue reading
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EU Commission Chief Faces Corruption Probe Over Pfizer Contracts
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… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 