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EU clarifies Western Balkans enlargement strategy

The Eu­ro­pean Com­mis­sion has adopted a new strat­egy with an EU ac­ces­sion per­spec­tive for the coun­tries in the West­ern Balkans. The ini­tia­tive high­lights key ar­eas where the po­ten­tial fu­ture mem­ber states need to re­form along with fun­da­men­tal EU in­sti­tu­tional re­forms nec­es­sary for the ef­fec­tive func­tion­ing of an en­larged union. »

European Parliament copyright rapporteur announces resignation

Therese Co­mo­dini Cachia, the lead rap­por­teur for the Eu­ro­pean Par­lia­men­t’s re­port on the pro­posed new copy­right di­rec­tive, has an­nounced that she will step down fol­low­ing her ap­point­ment this week to the Mal­tese par­lia­ment. It is how­ever still un­clear who will take over the key post on the copy­right dossier. ∎

“The West­ern Balkans are part of Eu­rope: we share the same his­tory, the same ge­og­ra­phy, the same cul­tural her­itage and the same op­por­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges to­day and in the fu­ture. We have a com­mon in­ter­est in work­ing more and more closely to­gether to guar­an­tee to our peo­ple eco­nomic and so­cial de­vel­op­ment, and se­cu­rity.”

Fed­er­ica Mogherini, High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Union for For­eign Af­fairs and Se­cu­rity Pol­icy

Issue: Copyright Reform

European Commission’s proposed new right for press publishers is mired in controversy

The new press pub­lish­ers right in the Com­mis­sion’s pro­posed copy­right di­rec­tive is a rad­i­cal mea­sure aimed at sup­port­ing a news in­dus­try in peril. The pro­posal may how­ever have se­vere un­in­tended con­se­quences.

Issue: Data Privacy

EU-U.S. Privacy Shield maintains legal limbo for transatlantic data transfers

A new deal for EU-U.S. per­sonal data trans­fers was rushed through af­ter the Eu­ro­pean Court of Jus­tice in­val­i­dated the pre­vi­ous Safe Har­bor agree­ment. It is how­ever still doubt­ful whether the new frame­work meets EU data pro­tec­tion re­quire­ments.

Issue: European Integration

Kosovo is slowly moving closer to normalising its relationship with the EU

Seven years af­ter Kosovo's de­c­la­ra­tion of in­de­pen­dence, Kosovo is still fac­ing sub­stan­tial ob­sta­cles to reg­u­lar­is­ing its re­la­tion­ship with the EU. We had a dis­cus­sion with Kosovo's Min­is­ter of In­te­rior Af­fairs, Sk­ender Hy­seni, about what lays ahead.

Issue: Roma Inclusion

We are condemning a generation of Roma children to growing up in walled ghettos

Roma seg­re­ga­tion is fre­quent in Ro­ma­nia. In Baia Mare, a so­cial-hous­ing com­plex mostly in­hab­ited by Roma peo­ple is be­com­ing a walled-in ghetto. In Roșia, Roma chil­dren are sent to seg­re­gated schools. Both is al­legedly be­ing done for the well­be­ing of the chil­dren.

Issue: Roma Inclusion

What western Europe can do for one of the most marginalised communities in the EU

The pres­ence of Roma peo­ple is a con­tested and di­vi­sive is­sue across Eu­rope, and of­ten­times lo­cal au­thor­i­ties make the prob­lem worse by de­stroy­ing camps and push­ing com­mu­ni­ties from one lo­ca­tion to an­other, thereby stig­ma­tis­ing and re­in­forc­ing neg­a­tive stereo­types.

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ISSN 2002-5491

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