Новости за 13.02.2020

British prime minister Boris Johnson has lost his chancellor, Sajid Javid, through resignation, and sacked his minister for Northern Ireland, Julian Smith, in a much-wider than expected cabinet reshuffle, which the opposition said showed the government was in "crisis" just two months after being elected. Smith had been widely-praised in Brussels and Dublin for getting the devolved Stormont Assembly in Belfast running again, after several years suspension.

They call themselves the "Pact of Free Cities". The mayors of Budapest, Bratislava, Prague and Warsaw want EU funds to bypass their governments, in order to fight climate change and populism.

Morocco is a far cry from Libya. But Spain's cooperation on migration with Morocco still warrants closer scrutiny. The argument that Morocco is a safe country and a reliable recipient of EU funding is becoming harder to uphold.

The new president of the Committee of the Regions has warned the EU Commission that a top-down, centralised, Brussels-driven conference will fail to rebuild trust in Europe. Instead, he proposes a stronger say for local and regional authorities.

How are campaigners winning progressive victories in the age of bigots and bullies?

The European Commission said on Wednesday that it has sent legal warnings to eight member states - Cyprus, Hungary, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain - over their delay in applying new anti-money laundering rules, adopted two years ago. The "formal notice" is the first step of a legal procedure that could end up in fines if EU rules are not quickly implemented into national law.

MEPs have called on the EU Commission for an action plan to end the illegal trade in pets that causes animals to suffer, spreads disease, and generates money for organised international crime. The non-binding resolution was approved by 607 votes in favour, three votes against and 19 abstentions. According to the commission, about 46,000 dogs are traded between EU member states every month - most of them without being registered.

The UN rights office on Wednesday published a list of companies that have business activities related to settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Among the 122 business entities identified in the report, 94 are domiciled in Israel and 18 in six other states. These include the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. A full list can be found here.

As many as 60 British officials who work in the EU Commission have secured an Irish passport in order to be able to progress within EU institutions after Brexit, RTE News reported Wednesday. Simultaneously, there is concern in Dublin that not enough Irish officials are taking on EU positions, with 29 percent of Irish officials being over 58 years of age. EU officials are employed proportionally to member states' size.

The European Parliament approved on Wednesday a resolution calling on the EU Commission to protect consumers and citizen's rights in the context of artificial intelligence and automated decision-making. The resolution will be passed to the EU Council and commission, so that they take into account MEPs' views, ahead of the commission's announcement on the European approach to AI on 19 February.