EFDbackup: Eurosphere agenda: “Thousands across Europe protest against TTIP…”Another refugee tragedy in the Mediterranean…

Monday, April 20, 2015

Eurosphere agenda: “Thousands across Europe protest against TTIP…”Another refugee tragedy in the Mediterranean…

Thousands across Europe protest against TTIP

EurActiv.com

Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Europe on Saturday (18 April) to oppose what could be the world’s biggest free trade deal, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the US and European Union.

MAIN FOCUS: Another refugee tragedy in the Mediterranean | 20/04/2015

euro|topics

What is possibly the worst refugee tragedy in recent times occurred off the Libyan coast on Saturday night. According to eyewitnesses, more than 900 people may have drowned. Only stabilising war-torn Syria and Libya will prevent people from fleeing, some commentators write. Others call on Fortress Europe to open its doors wide.

Can we afford to ignore what Katie Hopkins says about migrants drowning in the Med?

open Democracy News Analysis – by Des Freedman

The Sun columnist’s violent words about the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean are indefensible. They should be condemned as hate speech.

Europe’s war on migrants

open Democracy News Analysis – by Heaven Crawley

The unending series of mass drownings in the Mediterranean of migrants and refugees are not unfortunate tragedies: they are the dread outworking of the occluding of humanitarian concern by the rhetoric of border control.

The latest refugee deaths in the Mediterranean—up to 700 people drowned when the overcrowded fishing vessel in which they were travelling from north Africa capsized of the coast of Libya—follows a similar tragedy last week in which 400 people perished.

Millionaire businessman wins Finland vote, eurosceptics take second place

EurActiv.com

A millionaire former telecoms executive, touted as a technocrat capable of rescuing Finland from its economic slump, won Sunday’s parliamentary election, but he will likely need coalition support from a second-placed eurosceptic party critical of any more Greek bailouts.

Europe’s far right goes mainstream

AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (IN DEPTH)

Many far right parties across the continent are shifting their agendas.

VIDEO: Greece turning to commune life

BBC News | Europe | World Edition

As Greece’s talks with the EU drag on, communes are springing up across the country as people take matters into their own hands.

Not in front of the MPs: Why can’t Parliament have a frank discussion about the EU?

Centre for European Reform

Britain’s Parliament does a poor job of examining EU business. Some simple reforms would improve the way that it scrutinises European legislation.The British prime minister, David Cameron, wants to make the EU more democratic. National parliamentarians, in his view, understand citizens’ concerns better than MEPs who deliberate in far-away Brussels and Strasbourg; national parliaments should therefore play a greater role in EU decision-making. However, Cameron’s argument would carry more weight if UK parliamentary scrutiny were improved.

ECB chief hit by confetti protest

BBC News | Europe | World Edition