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NEW YORK, November 27 (C-Fam) The European Commission intends to unleash a barrage of policies to impose LGBT uniformity across the European Union, including through the threat of sanctions. The powerful European Commission announced that it wants to make “hate speech” and “hate crimes” EU crimes by 2021 and to impose mutual recognition of “rainbow families” across the European Union by 2022. The EU Commission made the announcement in its first-ever EU-wide strategy for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, non-binary, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) equality on November 12. Alongside the pledge to legislate “hate crimes” and “rainbow families” the strategy sets...

Finance ministers of the 28 European Union countries met in Helsinki on Friday to discuss measures to finance and encourage environmentally sustainable growth. The meeting took place on the same day the governing coalition parties in Germany met to decide on climate measures targeting the transportation sector to ensure the country meets its 2030 goals to combat the climate crisis. Spending toward that end could approach a reported €75 billion ($83.6 billion). […] The EU, says German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, must find a way to put a sensible price on carbon dioxide emissions, optimally on an international level. “I...

A German politician who is looking to become the next head of the EU Commission on Saturday said he wanted a bloc that rested on Christian values and did not include Turkey.Manfred Weber is the center-right European People’s Party candidate and frontrunner to replace Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the European Commission. “We are proud that this continent has a Christian influence… it is not only something for museums, and that should guide us for the future,” Weber said at a political meeting in Münster, western Germany. […] The European project should be “defended against nationalists and the selfish” he...

The State could face infringement proceedings by the EU or a third party if a Bill that would ban imports from Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories is passed, the European Commission has warned. A Government official privately sought the advice of the Commission’s trade directorate last week on the proposed legislation, which is sponsored by Independent Senator Frances Black and passed its first vote in the Seanad in July with the support of Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, Labour and some independents. Fine Gael opposes the passage of the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018 on the basis...

US president Donald Trump’s threat to hit car imports with punitive tariffs risks sparking global retaliation against as much as $300 billion of US products, Brussels has warned. The warning is the first time that the European Commission, in a written submission to the US Department of Commerce seen by the Financial Times, has set out a detailed response to Mr. Trump’s threat to slam punitive tariffs on imported vehicles, with EU capitals increasingly convinced that the unpredictable US president will act soon. Mr. Trump on Sunday said that the EU was “as bad” as China when it came to...

The European Union is proposing bans on plastic products like cotton buds, straws, stirs and balloon sticks when alternatives are easily available in an attempt to cut marine litter. The European Commission said its proposal would seek to cut marine litter in half for the ten most prominent items and avoid environmental damage estimated at over $250 billion over the next dozen years. …

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Friday said that Hungary sees a strong Poland as a vital component of a central European caucus within the European Union and that he would, therefore, block any action to suspend Poland’s voting rights in the EU. The European Commission recently launched proceedings to trigger Article 7 against Poland for breaching European common values and rule of law. “We need to make it clear to the EU that it is pointless to even start proceedings against Poland as there is no chance of seeing it through — because Hungary will be there and form...

European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis said today (27 January) that the goal of setting up European Safe Assets is to reduce banks’ exposure to sovereign debt. Speaking after the Ecofin Council, Dombrovskis said that work has been going on “for some time” on the concept of European Safe Assets at the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB). As part of the board, the Commission has been involved in the project. The vice-president explained that the concept is about the securitisation of EU member states’ sovereign bonds. “We find this concept useful since it helps to address the issue of banks sovereign...

The EU commission scrapped plans to publish a report on anti-corruption efforts throughout EU states. When pressed to explain why, EU commission spokesperson Margaritis Schinas on Thursday (2 February) refused to speculate. […] The Commission was also supposed to look at the EU institutions, but dropped the internal assessment because they “realized that this is something we will have to come back to in a future EU anti-corruption report.” With the 2016 report already past the due date, the transparency campaigners were hoping for a late release. But commission vice-president Frans Timmermans has dashed those hopes. …

Germany wants the European Union’s executive branch to question Italy over software that regulates emissions in Fiat Chrysler diesel cars. A Transport Ministry spokeswoman says German authorities believe the software constitutes an unauthorized “defeat device.” […] Transport Ministry spokeswoman Svenja Friedrich noted that Fiat Chrysler had refused to meet German authorities, and Italy had canceled a “mediation” meeting with the European Commission scheduled for the end of the month. …

EU countries finally accepted the Commission’s proposal to strengthen firearms regulations on Tuesday (20 December), after the executive agreed on a number of compromises. EurActiv France reports.Presented in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks on 13 November 2015, the revised firearms directive was the subject of long and tortuous negotiations. It led to a widespread mobilization of pro-firearms lobbies across Europe, supported by politicians on the extreme right, the center-right and the political center. […] The executive originally wanted a complete ban on the most dangerous semi-automatic weapons, including assault rifles like the AK47 and the AR15. The Commission...

Sir Julian King, the man likely to be the United Kingdom’s final European Commissioner, insisted tonight (12 September) that if MEPs confirmed him in the post, his loyalty would be to the European Union rather than Great Britain. King was put forward as the EU’s new anti-terror boss by Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker after the resignation of Commissioner Jonathan Hill in the wake of Britain’s vote to leave the EU. A European Parliament vote will be held on Thursday over whether to back him. The Security Union portfolio was created by Juncker after brutal terror attacks in France and Belgium...

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is increasingly under fire because of his unilateral style of leadership. Officials in Berlin and Brussels are losing their patience and EU legal experts have cast doubt on some of his methods. […] … According to the European treaties, the body Juncker leads is a normal government agency that must ensure that agreements reached are in fact adhered to. Juncker, though, sees himself as the head of a government — one who has made it his job to break agreements if it appears politically advantageous. The list of his unilateral forays is a long one....

The European Commission plans to attack citizens’ right to online privacy, insisting that state-issued ID cards should be used to log into platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and even Uber. The Vice President for the Digital Single Market on the European Commission, former Communist Andrus Ansip, is behind the next European Union (EU) raid on personal freedoms, promoting the idea of using national ID cards to log in to online services.

Poland has accused the Dutch EU commissioner, Frans Timmermans, of "left-wing" bias and "astonishing" ignorance in trying to "exert pressure" on constitutional reform. If Timmermans had expected a conciliatory reply, on technical issues, after he asked the Polish justice minister, Zbigniew Ziobro, in December to explain the reforms, then he would have been surprised on Monday evening (11 January). [...] Ziobro's letter arrived shortly before the commission holds a debate on Poland on Wednesday. [...] Some commissioners, such as Germany's Guenther Oettinger, have said Poland should be placed under a supervisory mechanism, which could lead to EU sanctions. ...

Mr. Farage told Breitbart News Daily radio live on Sirius XM this morning: “Froman basically said that if Britain was to leave the European Union there would be no bilateral trade deal between the United States and the Untied Kingdom. It’s ludicrous. “It is political interference by the Obama regime in the British referendum… prior to being Obama’s trade envoy, he worked for the European Commission. He worked in Brussels for the Commission’s Forward Studies Unit. “I am outraged at his level of interference”. In 2013, Mr. Froman spoke at the Commission in Brussels, declaring his huge ambitions to have...

European antitrust regulators on Wednesday charged the Russian energy giant Gazprom with abusing its dominance in natural gas markets, a move amounting to a direct challenge to the authorities in Moscow. The European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, said that unfair pricing might have resulted in higher gas prices in Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, which have long been wholly or substantially dependent on Russian gas. In those countries, the commission said, Gazprom was suspected of charging wholesalers prices that were significantly higher compared with the company’s costs or to benchmark prices.

The European Commission asks Apple and labels to explain their pacts for the relaunch of Beats Music to see if they're trying to crimp free offerings from streaming rivals like Spotify, a report says. Apple's bid to relaunch its Beats streaming music service is already facing scrutiny. The European Commission has sent questionnaires to several labels and digital music companies about Apple's plans for Beats Music, according to a report in the Financial Times (subscription required). The questionnaires are a first step and don't automatically presage a formal investigation, said the FT, adding that such information gathering is often sparked...

The European Commission has warned EU citizens that they should close their Facebook accounts if they want to keep information private from US security services, finding that current Safe Harbour legislation does not protect citizen’s data. The comments were made by EC attorney Bernhard Schima in a case brought by privacy campaigner Maximilian Schrems, looking at whether the data of EU citizens should be considered safe if sent to the US in a post-Snowden revelation landscape. “You might consider closing your Facebook account, if you have one,” Schima told attorney general Yves Bot in a hearing of the case at...

The European Commission on Tuesday proposed scrapping a mandatory requirement to label tar sands oil as highly polluting after years of industry opposition. The new proposal abandons one obstacle to Canada shipping crude from tar sands to Europe and is likely to draw strong criticism from environmental campaigners and Green politicians. It is suggested in a revised draft law on how refiners report the carbon intensity of the fuel they supply. The debate about labelling tar sands, also known as oil sands, dates back to 2009 when EU member states approved legislation with the aim of cutting greenhouse gases from...