Latest news with #EUreform
Reuters
29-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Hungary's Orban backs Polish nationalist presidential candidate Nawrocki at CPAC
BUDAPEST, May 29 (Reuters) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban championed Polish nationalist presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki at the CPAC Hungary conference on Thursday and announced a "patriotic plan" that he said should "transform" the European Union. Nationalist Orban, who has been a long-time ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, was addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the United States' most prominent conservative gathering, in Budapest. "Long live Nawrocki," Orban said ahead of Sunday's second round of the Polish presidential election. The candidate from Poland's ruling Civic Coalition (KO), Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, leads Nawrocki in the latest polls ahead of the vote. Trump addressed the Budapest conference in a pre-recorded video message and called Orban a "great man". Orban, who early next year faces the toughest election challenge since he swept to power in 2010, has scaled up his attacks on the media and LGBTQ+ people since Trump's inauguration in January. On Thursday he said Trump's reelection has "changed the world" and presented a plan to reshape the EU in a conservative fashion. Orban again rejected EU membership for Ukraine, said he opposed joint European taxation or borrowing, and reiterated his stance on protecting national sovereignty. "We want to take Europe back from migrants. We want a Christian culture, schools based on national principles," Orban said in his speech. He also welcomed former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis as a speaker at the conference and endorsed the populist politician ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for early October. Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico, another Orban ally, is also scheduled to address CPAC later in the day.
Reuters
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
European leaders to ask EU for easier expulsion of foreign criminals
COPENHAGEN, May 22 (Reuters) - Nine European countries, led by Italy and Denmark, will on Thursday call on the European Union to make it simpler for member states to expel foreign criminals, according to a letter seen by Reuters. European governments have expressed frustration with how the European Court of Human Rights uses the European Convention on Human Rights to block deportations and they want to see it revised. The letter, which was prepared ahead of a meeting on Thursday between Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Denmark's Mette Frederiksen, urges the EU to review how courts interpret the convention. "We have seen cases concerning the expulsion of criminal foreign nationals, where the interpretation of the Convention has resulted in the protection of the wrong people and posed too many limitations on the states' ability to decide whom to expel from their territories," the letter said. Member states should "have more room nationally to decide on when to expel criminal foreign nationals," it said. The letter was signed by the leaders of Denmark, Italy, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Meloni and Frederiksen are scheduled to hold a joint press conference in Rome on Thursday. Meloni's conservative bloc won power in 2022, vowing to crack down on migration. Denmark has introduced increasingly harsh immigration policies over the past decade.
LBCI
20-05-2025
- Politics
- LBCI
EU seeks to relax rules on turning away asylum-seekers
On Tuesday, the EU unveiled plans to relax the rules on sending asylum-seekers to third countries in the latest reform aimed at reducing migration to the bloc. The European Commission said it proposed broadening the so-called "safe third country" concept, which allows member states to "consider an asylum application inadmissible when applicants could receive effective protection" elsewhere. AFP
Khaleej Times
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Khaleej Times
European Union seeks to relax rules on asylum seekers
The EU on Tuesday unveiled plans to relax rules on sending asylum-seekers to third countries in the latest reform aimed at reducing migration to the bloc. The European Commission said it proposed broadening the so-called "safe third country" concept, which allows member states to "consider an asylum application inadmissible when applicants could receive effective protection" elsewhere.
Forbes
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Forbes
EU To Announce Major Changes To Asylum Seeker Deportation System
The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, is expected to announce its proposals to reform the rules around what is and is not considered a safe country to deport people to. In particular, the reforms are expected to remove the requirement that a deportee have a connection to the country of deportation, something that would mark a major shift in policy up until now. It is also expected to be announced that a deportation process can begin or continue even when an appeal is in process. The announcement comes on the heels of proposed revisions to the EU's Returns Directive, which laid the groundwork for individual member states to pursue so-called 'return hubs' - effectively a system in which compliant non-EU countries would be used as the site for deportation centers, outside of the EU's jurisdiction. Various EU member states are eager to get their own scheme going, taking after the existing but legally fraught Italy-Albania deal, and the U.K. is known to be pursuing a similar scheme of its own. The expected EU revisions are a key step in making such return hubs a reality, as they will remove the obligation for states to only deport people back to somewhere they have a connection (where they were born or had been resident previously, for instance). This 'connection criteria' is considered critical in humanitarian policy, as without it someone can be deported to a country and situation completely foreign to them and face myriad challenges to their life and wellbeing. With these reforms, the EU 'is paving the way for migrants to be removed and deported basically anywhere, putting people in danger whilst enriching security companies invested in the business of deportation,' says Sarah Chander, Director of Equinox Initiative for Racial Justice. Advocates for the removal of the 'connection criteria' essentially argue that given the existing human rights, refugee and humanitarian frameworks, European states are unable to deport people who have had their asylum applications rejected, pose a security threat, or are in some other way considered undesirable. This is compounded by the refusal of many countries of origin to accept people who have been sent back against their will, as well as various other logistical problems, especially since the pandemic. The EU is also expected to announce that, where previously an appeal to a deportation order would see that deportation suspended until the process is complete, states will be able to deport people even when there is an ongoing appeal. This raises myriad procedural issues, not least of them being the problem of how someone who has been unfairly deported could seek redress and return once outside the EU's jurisdiction. This revision has been strongly condemned by human rights and civil society groups, as well as members of the European Parliament (MEPs). The proposed revisions to speed up deportation would amount to 'tearing international law apart,' said Spanish MEP and human rights activist Estrella Galan. "We firmly oppose this migration policy, dictated by the far right, that aims to seal off Europe at any cost – even at the expense of human rights.'
