100 posts
Old Man Sun: Just Foolin’!
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See the face there, the wink? This is a NASA photograph, but it was recently brought forward to top an article in the Dutch Volkskrant*. And when was this particular sun-shot taken? Yes: on 22 December, just after the day when many claimed the Mayans...
BIG NEWS: webcams at Gibraltar - Spain border to monitor the queues go live!
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After a stuttering start on Wednesday, the Frontier webcam positioned at the border between Gibraltar and Spain has this afternoon gone live and is freely available to view online at www.frontierqueue.gi. Following the visit of Deputy CM Dr Joseph G...
Central Europe Doctors Threaten to Emigrate in Search of Better Pay
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Medical doctors of four central European countries held peaceful demonstrations Tuesday in their countries demanding an increase of their low wages or else they'll emigrate.
Croatian foreign pension tax law: de jure and de facto discrimination
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Foreign pensions were excluded from income tax prior to March 2012 but now, anyone from the U.S.A., Australia, New Zealand etc., in receipt of pension wanting to live in Croatia can only do so as targets of extreme discrimination and material losses.
2013 European Year of Citizens
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The Commission has proposed to make 2013 the Year of Citizens in order to raise awareness of their rights and responsibilities. Particular attention will be devoted to the right to move and reside freely in another Member State and to non-discriminat...
Non-Schengen compliant border control between St Jean de Maurienne and Modane, 9th October 2012, 1240
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Four French police boarded the front carriage of the 0749 Paris Gare de Lyon – Milano Garibaldi TGV at St Jean de Maurienne on 9th October. The train was running with a delay of around 55 minutes, hence departing from St Jean at around 1230. At 124...
Cameron, Eurozone budgets and the Single Market
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David Cameron signaled his support for the competence review to look at whether the free movement of people should be changed on The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday. You can watch the interview on BBC iPlayer if you're in the UK (the interview starts at 2...
Cameron to review EU migration to UK
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British Prime Minister David Cameron has said his government could challenge the freedom of some EU migrants to live and work in the UK and promised to block 'massive increases' in the EU budget...
The experience of East European migrants in the UK suggests that there is racism towards newcomers regardless of racial difference
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Jon Fox looks at the racialisation of migration in the UK. While immigration policy can be seen as managed to maximise economic benefits, it is also done in a way that seeks to minimise social disturbances. Migrants are often portrayed in the t...
For a Europe without borders !
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Mobility is officially regarded as having an intense impact in fostering European citizenship and pluralist societies on one hand, and as a prime asset for a competitive labour force on the other. Europe nowadays is the continent where all citizens s...
Die Euro-Krise weckt diffuse Ängste
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Die Intelligenz wandert ab Die Euro-Krise weckt diffuse Ängste. Der Streit um Anleihenkäufe und Bankenrettung zwischen EU-Kommission, Europäischer Zentralbank und Dutzenden Regierungen ist abstrakt und nur noch schwer zu durchschauen. Selbst im Bu...
Le volontarisme de l’Europe concernant les Roms, suffit-il? L’ONU s’inquiète
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La Commission européenne veut se montrer volontariste lorsqu’il s’agit de «l’inclusion» des Roms ». Plans stratégiques, fonds européens, intégration dans la stratégie 2020 et même surveillance de la France. Est-ce suffisant ? A ceux...
France: New Pro-Roma Employment Policy Strikes a Nerve
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'The 4,395,000 French "job seekers" will be happy to learn that the Roma job problem has been solved!!! Their access to work will be "helped".'...
Freedom of movement in the Union
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During my trips, it happen several times that I had my identity checked at the hotels I was staying in… So I asked my self: “Is it compatible with the freedom of movement of citizens in Europe ?” I put the question up on this blog [...
Droit de circulation dans l’Union
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Durant mes voyages, il m’est arrivé à plusieurs reprises d’avoir mon identité contrôlée dans les hôtels où je séjournais… Je me suis donc posé la question: “Ceci est-il compatible avec la liberté de circulation des c...
France dismantles camps, deports Gypsies
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By Robert Marquand Unlike former President Sarkozy's virulent anti-immigrant media campaigns, the new Socialist gov...
#wlic2012- Day 2 in Erkan’s adventures to go to Finland. Finland is now the most beloved European country for Erkan. here is why:
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I was mobile all day and I could not post before. In early morning I arrived at the Finland Embassy which is located in Gaziosmanpaşa in Ankara like many other embassies. (it is ironic: the same named district in Istanbul is a lower class district a...
Bulgarian and Romanian students barred from working in the UK
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Today, The Guardian carries the news of the unusual discrimation against Bulgarian and Romanian students who are prevented from easily working in the UK during their studies. Click here. This situation arises from a transitional arrangement put in p...
You've Got to Move
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The collision of demography and politics in the current crisis should push EU policy makers to move quickly on some of the unfinished business of European integration. In response to my recent post on the outmigration of qualified young people...
Labour market union, cross-border worker mobility and yellow cards
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The 6th among the nine enhanced cooperations I've proposed here was labelled "labour market union".The rational behind this kind of enhanced cooperation is to increase cross-border labour mobility. Increasing intra-European cross-border lab...
Moving in Europe – Pensions and unemployment benefits
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I will be moving to Brussels at the end of the month to work for the Transparency International EU Office. This weekend, I was discussing with my father how the social security aspects of this work would look like – he was mainly concerned about my...
On Cameron’s ‘No more Greeks’ policy
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According to The Guardian Website, the UK Prime Minister told MPs that UK ministers have examined legal powers that would allow Britain to deprive Greek citizens of their right to free movement across the EU, if the eurozone crisis leads to “st...
LAISSEZ PASSER: AN OPEN LETTER TO @NO10GOV
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The Right Hon. David Cameron PC MP, Prime Minister of the United KingdomDear Prime MinisterMy name is Emmanuel Schizas. I was born and grew up in Athens, Greece, and moved to London in 2005, at a time when my homeland was growing and gaining in influ...
A small footnote about Miliband, the EU and immigration
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So Ed Miliband today weighs into the UK debate on immigration. Others are better placed to express the overall problems with this. I am instead going to focus on one small aspect of Miliband’s comments, namely this point at the end of The Guard...
Are European borders set to close?
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European parliament has reacted strongly this week about calls for the review of the Schengen agreement. The Schengen agreement was instituted in 1985 near the town of Schengen in Luxembourg, initially with five member states of the European Ec...
Erkännande av yrkeskvalifikationer och införande av europeiskt yrkeskort
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I dag finns det cirka 800 kategorier av reglerade yrken i de 27 EU-medlemsstaterna. Avsikterna har i regel varit goda, men så många ”orgelpipor” eller icke kommunicerande rör lägger nog sordin på arbetsmarknaden, med praktiskt taget obotlig...
EU Parliament attacks Council over Schengen decision
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Yesterday, the Council of Ministers for Justice attacked Schengen, and they attacked hard (Update: Council press release & formal “compromise” text). So it’s good to see the four major political groups in the European Parliame...
Times they are a changin´ - Germany and France want to reintroduce border controls
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These "border controls" are not anymore good enough for the GermansWe now read about a joint proposal by Germany and France to allow Schengen-zone countries to temporarily reintroduce border controls:Germany and France are seri...
New borders inside Europe? A Franco-German push
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France's Nicolas Sarkozy has made EU borders an issue in his re-election campaign The issue of the European Union’s passport-free travel zone has become a political hot potato again, thanks in part to Nicolas Sarkozy, who has warned during his...
EU against Swiss Quotas
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The EU has remained united against Switzerland's move to introduce a quota on immigration from the Member States from the 2004 enlargement. Introducing the quota is contrary to the EU's agreement with Switzerland on the free movement of people, Cathe...
Ukraine-Moldova race to EU visa-free regime
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This will probably make boring reading, but for those with some stamina to go through typically unreadable, but important, EU-speak here is a comparison of how Ukraine and Moldova perform on their way towards a visa-free regime with the EU. The asses...
More Europe Manifesto for free travel
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As I mentioned yesterday, a group of Spanish eurobloggers has launched an appeal for More Europe, in order to overcome the impending catastrophe in the eurozone and the wider European Union. You can join the appeal on the More Europe blog and you ca...
Schengen Wars: Bulgaria and Romania are victims of populism
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Image Source: Bogartier Bulgaria and Romania, two of the latest members of the European family, have been denied accession to the Schengen Area despite the fact that they satisfy all the necessary criteria. The denial comes from the side of two...
How to lose support for EU free movement and alienate people
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The European Commission just made it a lot more difficult to defend free movement in Europe. Free movement and open borders (two separate but related EU issues) are very difficult things to sell to the public, witness the Bombardier row (which had co...
Very Good Proposal on Schengen
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The Commission has put forward a proposal for improving the institutional framework of the Schengen area. First, the Commission proposes a strengthening of the Schengen evaluation mechanism. Announced and unannounced monitoring visits to a given Memb...
