News

European Court of Justice: “Humanitarian visa obligation not enforceable”

7 March 2017

The European Court of Justice has ruled that State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Theo Francken is correct across the board in his position regarding the legal procedure that came about after a Syrian family wished to travel to Belgium with a humanitarian visa in order to request asylum here. A …

Campaign for Ottoman Empire 2.0 unwanted

5 March 2017

Just as it did for the two 2015 elections, the Turkish governing party AKP is currently organising election meetings in Western European countries once again in the run-up to Turkey’s upcoming constitutional referendum. In Germany, two of those meetings have already been banned. The Dutch …

Future of the EU: can the taboos finally be put to rest?

2 March 2017

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has proposed a white paper with five scenarios for the future of the European Union. “Against expectations, the Commission is not steering clear of a number of taboos in the paper,” says MEP Sander Loones. “For example, as far as I know this is the …

Dieselgate Committee: preventing a new emissions scandal

28 February 2017

The Dieselgate Committee of the European Parliament has approved a series of recommendations to prevent a new emissions scandal. “A year and a half after the outbreak of Dieselgate, it is clear that this scandal for public health could and should have been avoided,” says MEP Mark Demesmaeker, vice …

Procedural abuse in cases involving aliens finally tackled

24 February 2017

At the proposal of State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Theo Francken, a draft bill has been approved with which the fight against procedural abuse in cases involving aliens can be both facilitated and turned up a notch. “From now on, it is possible in one and the same hearing to pronounce …

Freeze EU accession negotiations with Turkey