This Week in Europe: 08/07/2018
Hello and welcome to the latest edition of This Week in Europe!
Poland's government stepped up its attacks on the judiciary, forcing the chief justice of the Supreme Court to retire by lowering the compulsory retirement age. This is just one part of a series of changes being made to Poland's judicial system in an attempt to give the government political control over the judiciary and reduce the possibility of any internal challenges to its rule. More than a third of Supreme Court judges will be made to retire and their replacements will be appointed by the President, an ally of the ruling PiS party. The move has been condemned by the EU.
Slovenia is struggling to form a new government following its elections. The right-wing Slovenian Democratic Party won the elections and is the largest party in the Slovenian Parliament. The President is therefore likely to ask their leader, Janez Jansa, to form a new government. However many other parties are opposed to Jansa meaning he may not have enough support in Parliament to form a new government. A group of centre-left parties is trying to organise an alternative government but has yet to produce a coalition agreement. The tight balance of power within the Parliament may mean that this process lasts a while longer.
Italy and Lybia have revived an old deal that allowed migrants to be returned to Lybia. The deal had originally been made during the time of Gadaffi but was suspended when the Lybian revolution took place. It's not clear how much of the deal has been reinstated and what Lybia is getting out of it. Previously the country received billions of euros in Italian investment in exchange for taking back migrants that came to Italy illegally.
There were also protests in Germany going in a very different direction to the Italian government. Demonstrators marched in Berlin in support of the private ships that have been running rescue operations in the Mediterranean to save people from drowning when trying to make the crossing. These ships are facing mounting opposition from the Italian and Maltese governments, making it harder for them to continue operating.
The Slovak government has been fined 1 million euros over a landfill site. The site failed to comply with EU rules and after the Slovak government failed to shut it down, they were taken to court in 2013. The government then missed a deadline in 2014 and were again referred to the ECJ in 2016. Now the court has again ruled in favour of the European Commission and will brook no further delays, imposing an additional 5000 euro penalty for every extra day.
Finally, in lighter news, the World Cup has now become an all-European competition, with England, France, Belgium and Croatia the only remaining teams ahead of the semi-finals. Whoever wins at this point, Europe will be on top.
Poland's government stepped up its attacks on the judiciary, forcing the chief justice of the Supreme Court to retire by lowering the compulsory retirement age. This is just one part of a series of changes being made to Poland's judicial system in an attempt to give the government political control over the judiciary and reduce the possibility of any internal challenges to its rule. More than a third of Supreme Court judges will be made to retire and their replacements will be appointed by the President, an ally of the ruling PiS party. The move has been condemned by the EU.
Slovenia is struggling to form a new government following its elections. The right-wing Slovenian Democratic Party won the elections and is the largest party in the Slovenian Parliament. The President is therefore likely to ask their leader, Janez Jansa, to form a new government. However many other parties are opposed to Jansa meaning he may not have enough support in Parliament to form a new government. A group of centre-left parties is trying to organise an alternative government but has yet to produce a coalition agreement. The tight balance of power within the Parliament may mean that this process lasts a while longer.
Italy and Lybia have revived an old deal that allowed migrants to be returned to Lybia. The deal had originally been made during the time of Gadaffi but was suspended when the Lybian revolution took place. It's not clear how much of the deal has been reinstated and what Lybia is getting out of it. Previously the country received billions of euros in Italian investment in exchange for taking back migrants that came to Italy illegally.
There were also protests in Germany going in a very different direction to the Italian government. Demonstrators marched in Berlin in support of the private ships that have been running rescue operations in the Mediterranean to save people from drowning when trying to make the crossing. These ships are facing mounting opposition from the Italian and Maltese governments, making it harder for them to continue operating.
The Slovak government has been fined 1 million euros over a landfill site. The site failed to comply with EU rules and after the Slovak government failed to shut it down, they were taken to court in 2013. The government then missed a deadline in 2014 and were again referred to the ECJ in 2016. Now the court has again ruled in favour of the European Commission and will brook no further delays, imposing an additional 5000 euro penalty for every extra day.
Finally, in lighter news, the World Cup has now become an all-European competition, with England, France, Belgium and Croatia the only remaining teams ahead of the semi-finals. Whoever wins at this point, Europe will be on top.
Comments
Post a Comment