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CoR Officials Push for Social Indicators in EU Spending
February 22, 2016
Officials from the EU Committee of the Regions ("CoR") have called on the EU to expand the development indicators it uses to decide where certain funds are spent to go beyond the economic performance of the member states and regions by including "environmental quality" and "social inclusion."
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CoE Calls for Delay, Consultation on Laws in Poland
February 22, 2016
Following his recent visit to Poland, the Council of Europe ("CoE") Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muižnieks, called on Polish authorities to delay the passage and implementation of laws affecting the country's Constitutional Court and public media management in order to allow consultation, both by the public and international institutions, on proposed reforms.
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ECtHR Permits Defamation Penalty for Comments Against Business
February 19, 2016
In a recent case, the European Court of Human Rights ("ECtHR") held that the Vienna Commercial Court's imposition of a penalty on the president of the Vienna Chamber of Medical Doctors for referring to a business as a "locust fund" in a website post was permissible under the European Convention on Human Rights.
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NGO Warns UK's EU Proposals Could Politicize Courts
February 19, 2016
The think tank Open Europe has published a report exploring options for the British Government to increase the authority of the UK judiciary to resist encroachment on national competences by Brussels and warning that such an expansion of judicial powers could lead to the politicization of the courts.
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UK Seeks Increased Sovereignty within EU Structure
February 19, 2016
The BBC reports that the British Government is considering proposals to perform the balancing act of regaining UK sovereignty while remaining in the EU, including by increasing the authority of the UK judiciary to resist what the courts deem to be overreaching decisions of the Court of Justice of the EU.