⊂ EUROPE ⊃
Europeans continue to believe in EU: According to an ORB International opinion poll published on Thursday, across 14 EU countries polled, 64 percent wanted to stay in the union, unchanged from one year ago. Poland and Hungary with their nationalist tendencies, however, were not represented in the survey. Support for staying in the EU was highest in Romania (85 percent), Germany (72 percent), Finland (71 percent) and Spain (68 percent). Great Britain was an exception, with 54 percent of British voters wanting a British exit.
dailymail.co.uk
Orban and Merkel support Cameron: British Prime Minister David Cameron has won support from German Chancellor Angela Merkel for European Union reforms to protect European welfare systems. Cameron said he’s confident he can reach a deal in his renegotiation of Britain’s place in the EU even as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban warned him not to treat its workers as „parasites“ in his plans to restrict welfare. Cameron said he still wants to push through his proposal to curb benefits for EU citizens until they have worked in Britain for four years.
chicagotribune.com
Hungary supports Poland against EU: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Friday flagged a veto on any possible EU sanctions against Poland, following a recent meeting with the head of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party (PiS), Jaroslaw Kaczynski. The EU should not think about applying any sort of sanctions against Poland, because that would require full unanimity and Hungary would never support any sort of sanctions against Poland, Orban said.
reuters.com
EU contributes billions to construction of Brenner Base tunnel: The EU’s Innovation & Networks Executive Agency (INEA) has allotted the Brenner Base project, the longest railway tunnel in the world, with an estimated 879 million euros for construction costs and 300 million euros for technical studies. The tunnel, on which construction has already started, is slated to be opened by 2025 and will run from Innsbruck to Fortezza, Italy. It will make up a part of the 2,200 km long railway link between Stockholm and Palermo and is intended to relieve the serious traffic problems that plague the main route between Bavaria and northern Italy.
euractiv.com
Refugee crisis: Progress following Western Balkans Route Leaders‘ Meeting europa.eu
Libya: High Representative Mogherini meets Libyan Designate-Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj eeas.europa.eu
Competition: EU approves FedEx acquisition of TNT Express wsj.com
⊂ QUOTES ⊃
„There is a distinct macho culture in Germany even without migration.“
German Left party politician Dietmar Bartsch considers sexual assaults to be a widespread problem.
tagesspiegel.de
⊂ COUNTRIES ⊃
Refugees write open letter to German Chancellor Merkel: Four refugees from Duisburg and Mülheim/Ruhr wrote an open letter to Angela Merkel regarding the attacks against women in German cities on New Year’s Eve. The three Syrians and one Pakistani expressed horror and revulsion at the incidents in Cologne, Hamburg, and Stuttgart, where presumably refugees and migrants were involved. German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere called for improved video surveillance and more police presence to prevent attacks in the future.
tagesspiegel.de
Paris attacker was German asylum applicant: The man shot dead in Paris on Thursday while attacking a police station was known to police and had served jail sentences for several offenses, German authorities say. The identity of the man who attempted to enter the police station with a butcher knife remains uncertain, said Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins. Current information indicate that the incident was a lone wolf attack. French authorities said the man was carrying an IS flag at the time of the attack.
dw.com
London is sold out: London is considered a safe haven for real estate purchases and magnetically attracts capital from around the world. Few cities in Europe are currently changing so rapidly. On one hand, more than 260 skyscrapers will be built in the next few years. Adding all construction projects together totals 620 billion pounds until the year 2030. On the other hand, increasingly fewer and fewer Londoners are able to afford their city. Much of what makes this city so attractive has had to give way to exorbitant prices.
faz.net
New government in Catalonia: On Saturday, Artur Mas abandoned efforts to regain the Catalan regional presidency after another party refused to support him. The new leader of the government in the Spanish region of Catalonia has pledged to continue Mas’s plans to secede within 18 months. Carles Puigdemont was speaking in the regional assembly ahead of a vote that confirmed him in office by 70 votes in favour to 63 against. The future of Catalonia’s independence movement had been uncertain since regional parliamentary elections in September.
bbc.com
Poland summons German ambassador: Germany’s ambassador to Warsaw, Rolf Nikel, is set to meet with Poland’s Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski on Monday, as a row between the two countries concerning the new Polish government’s policies continued to deepen. A statement from the foreign ministry referenced anti-Polish remarks by German politicians after multiple politicians had questioned legislation supported by Poland’s right-wing government. The passage of a new media law prompted tens of thousands of Poles to take to the streets in at least 20 cities in protest on Saturday.
dw.com
Germany: SPD party falls to 23 percent in polls faz.net
France: President Hollande and Paris Mayor Hidalgo unveil memorial to victims of 2015 terrorism dw.com
Italy: Entrepreneur leaves fortune to workers in his will dw.com
Greece: Tax inspectors to be trained in Germany spiegel.de
Turkey: Turkish forces kill 32 Kurdish militants reuters.com
Kosovo: Opposition protests turn violent bbc.com
⊂ DATA ⊃
The number of cases reported to police in Cologne after a night of mass sexual assaults and thefts rose to 516 on Sunday, sharply up from a previous 379.
dw.com
⊂ JOB-BOARD ⊃
politjobs.eu: 350.org seeks campaigner *** Steltemeier & Rawe seeks Senior Associate (m/f) *** 1&1 sucht EU Public Affairs Manager VKU sucht Referentin/en *** Afore Consulting seeks Junior Consultants in European Public Affairs
politjobs.eu, politjobs.eu/submit (Inserat schalten)
⊂ MALFUNCTION ⊃
Brits advised to drink less: England’s chief medical officer has defended tough new drinking guidelines, insisting that the updated advice is not scaremongering but based on hard science. The new recommendation of only 14 units of alcohol, or seven pints of beer, a week means that England now has one of the strictest drinking guidelines in the world. The guidelines also warn pregnant women that they should aim to abstain from drinking entirely, when they were previously told they could safely drink one or two units a week at most.
theguardian.com, independent.co.uk