Latvia’s six-month presidency of the Council of the European Union comes at “a critical time for Europe”, according to Jean-Claude Junker, President of the European Commission. In his visit to Riga on 7 January, Mr Junker welcomed Latvia’s Presidency and the country’s priorities for the upcoming semester.
Nearly half a million Ukrainians have fled the country since April. More than 387,000 went to Russia, and among them most were Russian speakers from the east. The official count by the UN is 4707 dead since the Ukrainian revolution turned violent at the end of February 2014.
When the Greek conservative party failed to gather the necessary 180 votes to elect a president in the third parliamentary vote, snap elections were called, and the European press diagnosed a political crisis. Within days it became evident that this was not the case. Elections were set for 25 January.
The second round of voting for the election of a new president of Greece by the Greek parliament did not yield the necessary 200 votes. If the Parliament fails to elect a President in the third round, Greece will have general elections, with the left-wing Syriza party poised to obtain the majority of votes…
Taking over from Herman Van Rompuy, the former Polish prime minister is the first-ever president from a former Communist or Soviet state to take a top EU position since the 2004 enlargement. The summit was also the first formal occasion to showcase his English.
In a highly polarised climate Greece appears to be heading closer to snap elections. The government has failed to secure the required 200 votes in the recent presidential elections for its candidate Stavros Dimas, a former European Commissioner.
Users of Google can fill out a form and request the delisting of their information, which is reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Since launching its webform for the right to be forgotten requests in May, Google has reported that 174,266 requests have been filed for 602,479 links
Clashes between 6,000 protesters and riot police erupted in the evening as teargas and water cannon were used to beat back protesters in the Exarchia neighbourhood, where about 200 anarchists hurled stones and molotov cocktails.
Edward Snowden was awarded the Right Livelihood award by the Swedish parliament. The American exile in Russia received what is considered to be the alternative Nobel prize for his revelations of the scale of state surveillance.
It’s been 26 years since the European Parliament had a papal visit. Pope Francis addressed the Parliament at Strasbourg, and his speech was far from a diplomatic eulogy of the European Union. It was a direct attack on the European elites and their bureaucracy, which cannot seem to find the way to address the problems of unemployment, recession and migration that plague the continent.
