36 posts
"like, whatever:" today's standards, as Serious People see them
Pope Offers Apology, Not Penalty, for Sex Abuse Scandal Nowhere in the letter did Benedict...
On the Benchmarks for Reform and Bulgarian Organized Crime
There is an ongoing crackdown on organized crime in Bulgaria. This should be good news. But the prosecution will have to prove allegations in court. The benchmark is judgments with res judicata. There’s also the Bulgarian Supreme Judicial Counc...
Zionism, anti-semitism, ex-public schoolboys and the left
Anti-semitic attacks in Britain in 2009 reached their highest level since they were first recorded in 1984. Reported and verified attacks (physical, verbal abuse, bullying of schoolchildren, desecration of graves, etc) on Jewish people, properti...
EU: Criminal enforcement of IPR? Resurrection of IPRED2?
In the blog post EU IPR enforcement discussion (12 January 2010) we mentioned the conference arranged by the Swedish presidency of the Council of the European Union: Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights, with a Special Focus on Trademarks and...
Framework Decision on Settlement of Conflicts of Jurisdiction in Criminal Proceedings
The Framework Decision 2009/948/JHA on prevention and settlement of conflicts of exercise of jurisdiction in criminal proceedings has been published in the Official Journal. It establishes a procedure for establishing contact between the competent au...
EUX.TV on 5 billion Euro CO2 emissions trading fraud
Raymond Frenken who first made me aware of the massive CO2 emissions trading fraud has produced an EUX.TV video on the matter:...
Tackling violence against women
Domestic violence is at last moving up up the agenda of the EU. As the Swedes come to the end of their presidency of the European Council and the Spanish take over, violence against women looks set to be given a higher priority. It is an area...
Jobs, crime and climate at European Council
All 27 Heads of State and Government will gather tonight and tomorrow in Brussels for the European Council. Discussions on how to create conditions for new jobs in Europe will on top of the agenda. A new ”EU2020 strategy” is planned to follow on...
Europol: 5 Billion Euro fraud in EU CO2 emissions trading
Via Raymond Frenken I was made aware of a Europol press release that reports about fraud in the EU CO2 emissions trading, including a graphic that explains how this worked. But the sum is incredible: 5 billion Euros lost for the European taxpayer!!"...
Update on the Petition to keep the Met Police Specialist Trafficking Unit
You will know from previous blogs that I presented a petition on 26 November to the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) Board to try and stop the Metropolitan Police closing their special dedicated human trafficking unit. The meeting was broad...
International anarchy at sea
This blog has written before about the spate of piracy in the seas off the coast of Somalia. Ships are being taken hostage and ransomed back to their owners; the same is true of passengers on smaller craft.The limits of the law are exposed in these...
EU and Industry need closer dialogue on tobacco smuggling
I understand that there is a motion for resolution doing the rounds in the European Parliament basically banning any contact between the tobacco industry and the EU institutions. If this is true, not only is it gratuitously prohibitive and an ill-tho...
The Mafie (plural) – a problem for us all
In my little speech yesterday in Palermo I stressed the fact that, whilst we were honouring two noble and courageous local causes, the problems they were addressing – poverty and organised crime – were problems all of Europe had to face.
Down you go...
And so ex-UKIP MEP Tom Wise has been jailed for fraudulently claiming £39,000 in allowances from the European Parliament. He used his monthly staff allowance to pay for "fine wines" and other personal expenditure.His researcher, Lindsay Jenkins, was...
Racist Crimes are Underreported in Europe
The European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey shows that most of the racism-motivated crimes are not reported in EU Member States. Most of the interviewed didn’t report, because it would not change anything (63%). Roma in 4 countries...
EU: Victims of crime & compensation
Becoming the victim of a crime can have devastating consequences. If it happens to you outside your country of residence, your difficulties in getting help may be even greater. The member states of the European Union cooperate to build an area of fre...
Exchange of Information Extracted from the Criminal Records of Member States
The Council Framework Decision 2009/315/JHA on the organisation and content of the exchange of information extracted from the criminal record between Member States has been published in the Official Journal. Its main aim is to improve the exchange of...
EU: Criminal records
Slowly the European area of freedom, security and justice is taking shape. Two important justice and home affairs (JHA) acts concerning criminal records in cross-border cases have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) 7.
A deadly combination of crime and religion
In my last week article “Quadruple Helix …” I shortly hinted to financial connection between Wahhabi organizations and international terrorism. I also pointed historical and social link between organized crime groups and political leaders and...
The safe and law-abiding Balkans
Via the invaluable Osservatorio sui Balcani comes a fascinating report on crime in the Balkans. It’s by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (ONODC), and it offers some surprising conclusions: [The] Balkans is safer than thought…...
