This year we have witnessed an extraordinary and tragic series of events. Hundreds of thousands of migrants have tried to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe. The UN estimates that over 2,500 people have lost their lives in the process. In the last few weeks, the focus has shifted to the EU’s...
On 8 September 2015 State Secretary for Justice and Security Klaas Dijkhoff announced that from now on only refugees who have applied for asylum in a safe place outside the EU would be accepted in the Netherlands. The government wants to put an end to asylum-seekers placing their fate in the hands...
On September 9th 2015 the president of the Commission, Juncker, adressed for his first time the European Parliament in his State of the Union. This year’s State of the Union was entitled: Time for Honesty, Unity and Solidarity. And the key concepts were: more Europe in the Union, and more Union in...
The EU is negotiating trade agreements in secret because orthodoxy, mysticism and a wishful thinking-based approach to policymaking have returned to power in Europe.
Two prominent issues on the agenda of European equality lawyers have so far largely (although see recently CJ C-83/14 Nikolova) remained outside scrutiny of the Court of Justice of the European Union: discrimination on grounds of religion or belief and segregation of Roma. Recent developments may...
On August 29, 2015, a group of European Ministers in Paris agreed to increase security on key international rail routes in response to the thwarted attack on a Thalys train that took place earlier in the month. Increasing various security measures in the aftermath of such an incident is perceived...
After months of media bombardment about ostensibly lazy Greeks who are unwilling to pay their taxes or their debts to the fellow countries of the Eurozone, the latter of which generously helped Greece out of its self-inflicted dire financial straits, many in Europe have breathed a collective sigh of...
After months of negotiations between Greece, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Union (EU), which acuminated in an overwhelming amount of over 60% of “no”-votes by the Greek citizens to the reforms attached to the second Greek bailout programme...
The 2015 Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) update highlights and confirms the shift towards a restrictive migration and integration policy in the Netherlands. Overall, the Netherlands dropped to the eleventh place in the MIPEX ranking, down from the fifth in 2010.
Last Friday, in Obergefell et al v. Hodges the United States Supreme Court by a 5-4 vote held that same-sex couples may exercise the right to marry in all US States. President Obama, a fervent supporter and promotor of the gay-marriage and gay rights, decided to light up the White House as a rainbow...
