European Institutions

EU Data-Protection Group Studies Social Media Policies

May 21, 2018

The Working Party 29, an association of national data-protection authorities in Europe, has announced its creation of a Social Media Working Group to develop a long-term strategy on how authorities should respond to the collection and misuse of personal data by tech companies.
ECJ: Courts Must Review Religious Qualifications for Church Positions

May 21, 2018

The Court of Justice of the EU (ECJ) has held that EU member states must offer effective judicial review in cases in which a prospective employee challenges a church's inclusion of a particular religious affiliation as a job qualification, ruling such a requirement must be "necessary and objectively dictated," proportionate, and be relevant to the "ethos of the church."
ECJ Adviser Seeks Extension of Parental Access Rights

May 21, 2018

The Court of Justice of the EU's (ECJ) Advocate General Maciej Szpunar has advised the ECJ to rule, as a matter of harmonization and uniformity of parental access rights throughout the EU, that parental responsibility rights of access extend to grandparents as a matter of EU law.
Activists Criticize Report on EP Allowances

May 21, 2018

Politico reports that transparency advocates are dismissing as "wholly inadequate" recommendations contained in a European Parliament (EP) report suggesting reforms to an allowance distributed each month to EP Members, calling on the EU institution to require a full accounting of expenditures made using the allowance.
EC Seeks to Mandate Biometric ID Cards

May 18, 2018

Reuters reports that the European Commission (EC) has issued a proposal that would require national governments to include their citizens' fingerprints on the identification cards they issue, as a measure aimed at preventing terrorism and transnational crime in the EU.