European Parliament

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Orban Builds Far-Right Bloc in EU Parliament

Group includes Austrian, Czech parties, invites others

(Newser) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Sunday presented a new alliance with Austria's far-right Freedom Party and the main Czech opposition party, attempting to attract other partners to make it the biggest right-wing group in the European Parliament. Orban traveled to Vienna to present the Patriots for Europe alliance...

Macron Calls Election as Polls Show Far-Right Surge in Europe

Projections indicate parliament voters turning from centrists across continent

(Newser) - With forecasts in the European Parliament elections showing far-right parties surging on Sunday as voters abandoned ruling centrists, French President Emmanuel Macron called snap legislative elections. The votes were still being counted in France when Macron addressed the nation Sunday night. Projections showed his Renaissance party running at about 15%,...

This Is How EU Lawmakers Said Goodbye to UK
This Is How
EU Lawmakers
Said Goodbye to UK
video

This Is How EU Lawmakers Said Goodbye to UK

With a song

(Newser) - After endless debate , Brexit is now less than a day away. The divorce between the UK and the European Union formally takes place Friday, and members of the EU parliament marked the occasion Wednesday by joining hands for an emotional rendition of "Auld Lang Syne," notes Business Insider...

EU Chief Lambastes 'Totally Ridiculous' Parliament

Jean-Claude Juncker less than impressed with attendance on Tuesday

(Newser) - The head of the European Union's executive body denounced the bloc's parliament as "totally ridiculous" during a spat over the meager attendance at Tuesday's plenary session. After EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker thanked the few dozens of the 700-plus legislators in the huge atrium for showing...

Polish Politician Says Women Are 'Weaker, Less Intelligent'

Janusz Korwin-Mikke says this justifies women earning less than men

(Newser) - A member of the European Parliament is facing possible punishment after stating that women "must earn less than men because they are weaker, smaller, and less intelligent," the BBC reports. According to the Huffington Post , the statement was made by 74-year-old Janusz Korwin-Mikke while the parliament was discussing...

EU Parliament's Buildings So Confusing They Make People Cry

Politicians complain they're often late to meetings due to disorienting layouts

(Newser) - Hidden elevators, spiral staircases that twist into each other, and clocks throughout the building that are usually a few minutes off: It sounds like some nightmarish MC Escher-Lewis Carroll architectural collaboration, but for members of the European Parliament, it's just a hellish day at work. EU politicians are complaining...

EU Parliament Says It's Time to Break Up Google

Nonbinding move calls for search to be separated from other services

(Newser) - Europe's parliament has made a statement with a nonbinding vote: Google, the body says, needs to be divided. The European Parliament doesn't actually have power over antitrust matters, the New York Times reports, but the vote says that the EU's competition commissioner should "consider proposals aimed...

Pope: Europe Is 'Elderly and Haggard'

Francis warns EU that it risks 'losing its own soul'

(Newser) - Pope Francis has been rather nice to gays and atheists , but Europe, look out. The Wall Street Journal reports that the pope took Europe to task today during a speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, calling the continent "elderly and haggard" and "no longer fertile and...

Far-Right Surges in EU Parliament

Key 'Euroskeptic' groups make big gains

(Newser) - Europe's parliamentary elections have resulted in big gains for those opposed to European Union power, including far-right parties in France, the UK, and Greece, the BBC reports. "The people have spoken loud and clear," said the leader of France's National Front, Marine Le Pen. "They...

Malala Wins Top EU Human Rights Award

Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Skyi among previous winners

(Newser) - European lawmakers have awarded their top human rights prize to Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, who survived a Taliban assassination attempt last year. The European Parliament announced today that 16-year-old Malala, who has also been mentioned as a possible recipient of tomorrow's Nobel peace prize , won the $65,000 Sakharov...

Europe to Ban Menthols in Cigarette Crackdown

European Parliament also intends to mandate electronic cigarette regulation

(Newser) - Europe is trying to kick its smoking habit. A key European Parliament committee yesterday passed sweeping anti-tobacco legislation that would ban all flavored cigarettes—including menthols—and all slim cigarettes, and subject electronic cigarettes to medical regulation, among other restrictions. The moves coincide with similar efforts from the FDA in...

France Spies On Its People, Too
 France Spies On Its People, Too 
Report

France Spies On Its People, Too

Newspaper alleges that DGSE keeps massive database of 'who is talking to whom'

(Newser) - Looks like America isn't the only country with a massive surveillance hobby . France is monitoring its people's phone calls, emails and social media activity as well, the Le Monde newspaper reported today, according to Reuters . France's external intelligence agency, the DGSE, intercepts signals from phones and computers...

New Snowden Leaks: US Bugged, Spied on EU Offices

German's ' Der Spiegel' says US spied on offices, computer networks in DC, NY, Brussels

(Newser) - The latest dirt from Snowden's files: German news magazine Der Spiegel says it has seen documents taken from the NSA by Snowden that show the US bugged European Union offices, and spied on the EU's computer networks in Washington and at the United Nations, gaining access to internal...

Protesting EU Farmers Spray Cops With ... Milk?

They're protesting low milk prices

(Newser) - Thousands of enraged dairy farmers converged on the European Parliament in Brussels yesterday, and sprayed the building, and the cops who showed up to contain them, with their stock in trade: milk. The protesters arrived on tractors, blocked traffic along many of the city's main streets, then pulled out...

Another German Politician Stripped of Doctorate

Former VP of European Parliament Silvana Koch-Mehrin plagiarized thesis

(Newser) - A prominent German politician has been stripped of her doctorate after her former university found she plagiarized parts of her dissertation. The University of Heidelberg announcement came a month after Silvana Koch-Mehrin quit as vice president of the European Parliament and resigned from the leadership board of her Free Democratic...

Daniel Hannan: Member of European Parliament Warns the US Is Becoming Too Much Like Europe
 European Politician to US: 
 Don't Be Like Us
OPINION

European Politician to US: Don't Be Like Us

Parliament member thinks America becoming too much like Europe

(Newser) - Barack Obama isn't a socialist as some of his critics like to say, but he's definitely a "Eurocrat," writes Daniel Hannan. And he should know—he's been a member of the European Parliament for 11 years. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, he argues that Obama is trying...

'I Told the Truth': Berlusconi's Call Girl

(Newser) - Silvio Berlusconi's antics with models and call girls have threatened to derail his government, but the woman at the center of the sex-and-corruption scandal says she's seen it all before. "This is how Italy always works," Patrizia D’Addario tells the Financial Times. The hooker says she came...

Shift to Right in Europe Bodes Ill for US Dems

(Newser) - The global recession has sparked a conservative, anti-immigrant impulse in Europe—see the right’s victory in European Parliament elections—and US liberals should take notice, Michael Lind writes for Salon. Though “it would be a mistake to read too much into the elections” as the “European Parliament...

Brown Survives Party Revolt
 Brown Survives Party Revolt 

Brown Survives Party Revolt

(Newser) - British PM Gordon Brown survived a rowdy party meeting today despite Labour’s dismal election results and a backbencher uprising, the Guardian reports. 16 Labour parliamentarians spoke in defense of Brown and five called for his resignation in the wake of a high-profile financial scandal. “You solve the problem...

Swedish Pirate Party Scores EU Seat

(Newser) - Sweden’s Pirate Party scored a major victory last night, capturing one of the country’s 18 seats in the European parliament, AFP reports. The party—which advocates for the legalization of peer-to-peer file sharing, stronger digital privacy protections, and reforms in copyright law—was formed in 2006 and saw...

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