European parliament nord stream 2

On Wednesday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz quit the center-right European People's Party bloc in the European Parliament after EPP members backed rule changes that would have made it easier to kick lawmakers out. One hundred forty-eight MEPs voted in favor of, and 28 against, new rules to allow them to suspend or dismiss an entire national party delegation The EPP group is the biggest in the parliament. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats are members. Orban pulls Fidesz Orban hit out in a letter released on Wednesday, saying Fidesz was quitting before it could be ousted from the center-right alliance. "I hereby inform you that Fidesz MEPs resign their membership in the EPP group," Orban wrote to group leader Manfred Weber, claiming the changes were "clearly a hostile move against Fidesz and our voters." Watch video 04:44 Share Hungary: Orban is rebuilding Budapest Send Facebook Twitter reddit … [Read more...] about Hungary’s Orban pulls Fidesz from center-right EU alliance

Hungarian newspapers, TV stations and media platforms have been under pressure from President Viktor Orban's government for many years now. Advertising revenues from state and even private sources have practically dried up. In recent years, press and media platforms have been bought up by business people with close ties to the government and have either been closed down or co-opted. Now the government appears to have found another way of taking aim at the country's independent media . Magyar Posta, Hungary's state postal service, made the shocking announcement last week, tersely stating that nationwide delivery services for daily newspapers would be terminated on 1 July. The official explanation is that it is no longer possible to maintain the service because years of declining circulation have made distribution economically unviable. It's an explanation that many greeted with skepticism. "We were shocked when we found out," says Csaba Lukacs, the director of the Hungarian … [Read more...] about Hungary’s postal service to stop delivering newspapers

Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) have placed the Alternative for Germany (AfD) under surveillance, according to local media. That designation gives state agents more powers for surveillance in certain circumstances, including potentially tapping the party's communications. The BfV refused to comment on media reports from Der Spiegel magazine, the DPA news agency and public broadcaster ARD. The Interior Ministry, which oversees the BfV, said it would neither confirm nor deny them. Why has there been no official statement? The BfV is apparently unable to announce the decision officially because of an ongoing legal dispute. A court in the city of Cologne last week rejected an urgent motion by the AfD to stop the BfV from placing it under formal investigation . The party said any announcement that it was being investigated would undermine its right to fight the election on an equal footing to other political parties. In response, the … [Read more...] about Germany places entire far-right AfD under surveillance — reports

Germany on Wednesday took a step towards forcing companies to take responsibility for any labor or environmental abuses in their global supply chain. A new law (Lieferkettengesetz in German) allows for hefty fines starting at several hundred thousand euros if their contractors abroad are found to breach human rights or environmental rules. The fines go up to two percent of the company's annual revenues if they exceed 400 million euros ($484 million). The companies are held responsible for every step of the way: from the raw materials to the finished product. "This law protects workers from exploitation across sprawling supply chains and protects human rights across the world," Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday, adding "In future, it will be clear that 'Made in Germany' also means respect for human rights." The SPD-run development and labor ministries initially wanted the law to also target smaller companies, but backed down in the face of strong opposition from the … [Read more...] about Germany to implement supply chain law against exploitation