Displaying items by tag: Europe

The Irish Senate has voted to approve a proposal to criminalise doing business with Jews in settlement areas, parts of Jerusalem and the Golan Heights - areas that came under Israel’s control after the 1967 Six-Day War. After the vote the Irish ambassador was summoned to a meeting at the Israeli foreign ministry’s office. If Eire officially approves the proposal, it will become the first country in the European Union to criminalise import of goods from Israel. The proposal’s initiator, Senator Frances Black, slammed Israeli settlements as ‘war crimes’ and compared her initiative to Ireland’s anti-apartheid actions against South Africa. Ireland’s government strongly opposes the initiative, which creates trade restrictions contrary to EU values and undermines Ireland’s influence in the region. EU law states that its members can only mark products coming from settlements - not boycott or impose sanctions on their imports.

Nazeri Zubair’s travelling companion crushed a pill, dissolved it in water, and fed it to her two-year-old daughter to make the baby sleep for over a day. It was a requirement of the smugglers who were guiding the group from Serbia across Croatia’s border then into Slovenia; opening up possibilities of travelling without passport checks within 26 countries on Europe’s mainland. Over 90% of undocumented immigrants who enter the EU illegally use people smugglers at one stage of their journey, according to Europol. Nazeri came into contact with dozens of smugglers while traversing 12 countries. Finding them was as easy as finding a regular travel agent, through recommendations or at notorious hot spots such as Victoria Square in Athens. One led him through a minefield, and another across treacherous Mediterranean waters. Nazeri said children aged under 4 were systematically spoon-fed sedatives to keep them quiet. Smugglers refuse to take young families who won't administer drugs.

President Trump’s seventh foreign trip of his presidency took him to Brussels NATO meetings, where he called members of the alliance ‘delinquent’ in their defence spending and insisting they increase it ‘immediately.’ The NATO summit focused on ‘Make Peace Great Again’, but Trump's provocative comments aimed at Germany amplified the unease and detracted from the summit's goal of projecting unity in the face of Russian aggression (see World article on Israel/Russia/Syria). However Trump and NATO leaders did agree to bolster their defence and deterrence capabilities to head off Russian threats. In both Brussels and the UK thousands have shown their negative opinions of president, stating, ‘He is not welcome because he predicts a world of war, detains children in cages, has discriminatory travel bans, and policies on women's rights and climate change. See

The UK's proposals for fishing in UK waters after Brexit was unveiled on 4 July. Michael Grove hopes that our fishing industry will get a larger share of domestic catch after Brexit, once the UK ‘decides access’  to its own waters. Currently 60% of fish caught in UK waters   goes to Europe. The environment secretary said the UK would be in the ‘driving seat’ in quota negotiations once the UK leaves the EU's Common Fisheries Policy but would not commit to a specific figure. UK fishing groups are pressing to keep more than 80% of domestic catch. There were protests earlier this year when it was revealed that the UK would continue to be bound by the Common Fisheries Policy during the post-Brexit transition that ends in 2020. Now the White Paper sets out a UK vision for an ‘independent coastal state’ from 2021 onwards.

Poland’s Supreme Court ruled against a print-shop owner who refused to create a banner for a homosexual group. He believed it would be wrong to promote something that God calls sin. The matter began in 2015 when Adam J., turned down the project for the LGBT Business Forum. The matter went to the regional court which ruled against Adam. While Polish law allows refusal for a ‘justified cause,’ his religious convictions were not a sufficient argument. Poland’s minister of justice, Zbigniew Ziobro, filed an appeal to the Supreme Court, which upheld the ruling on 14 June. Ziobro said the ruling violates the freedom of conscience enshrined in the constitution. ‘It’s about principles not prejudice. If a service provider refuses to carry out a service, the customer may turn to their competitors.’ Alliance Defending Freedom International has now filed an intervention with the Constitutional Tribunal of Poland decrying the outcome of Poland’s high court.

The National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC Spain) has fined UK’s Revelation TV 6,000 Euro. The Christian ministry has broadcast in Spain through satellite since 2012. The fine comes after an individual complained to CNMC about one of the two-hour programmes which discussed a homosexuality news item for 13 minutes. The licensing authority said the show’s comments could be considered 'threatening to the dignity of homosexual and transgender groups'. Revelation’s CEO said, ‘The programme was expressing a biblical view on the subject and homophobia had no part in it. We will take the matter through the courts if necessary. Our lawyers said that if they find us guilty they will have to find every Roman Catholic Church guilty also. Revelation TV is a Christian station, owned by a charity, dealing with issues form a Christian perspective. We look at the news, we have Bible study, worship, church services and everything you would expect of a Christian TV station.’

Home secretary Sajid Javid, after unveiling a new ID scheme for EU citizens living in Britain, has called on EU leaders to publish concrete plans to preserve the rights of British citizens living on the continent post-Brexit. He is concerned that other EU member states have not stated how they are going to support Britons in Europe, when the Government has advanced plans for a new status for the estimated 3.4 million EU citizens living in the UK. The European parliament’s chief Brexit coordinator, Guy Verhofstadt, said there were ‘serious concerns’ over all citizens impacted and affected by Brexit. ‘British in Europe’ complained last week that they represented the forgotten victims of Brexit, with neither Brussels nor London taking up their fight to retain their rights to maintain free movement and continue to work freely and offer services across the continent. The ‘right of return’ to the UK without any immigration barriers was also raised.

In a dusty Roma camp, life goes on despite threats of an ethnically-targeted census and deportation by Italy's new hardline interior minister Matteo Salvini, who recently refused to take in a rescue ship carrying 630 migrants. He intends to throw out Roma people without legal status. His call was blasted as ‘unconstitutional’ by rights groups and criticised by members of his own government. Some are drawing parallels with measures targeting Jews under fascist wartime leader Benito Mussolini. ‘If Salvini comes here, we will welcome him with kindness. He needs to see how we live’, says Habibi Mehmedi, a teenager in a camp outside Rome's main ring-road - away from the eyes of the office workers and tourists. ‘Some do bad things, but most of us are Italian and have not committed any crimes.’ Despite the Roma community making up at most 0.3% of Italy's population, they are subject to extreme hostility from the general public. The Joshua Project states that the Italian Roma people’s primary religion is Christianity.

Europe has almost two thousand years of Christian history, from the Apostle Paul planting the first European church in Lydia’s house in Philippi through to the Moravians, Jan Hus in Moravia, Count Zinzendorf and the Herrnhut community in Saxony, Pietism in the Lutheran church, Huguenots in France, and the evangelical awakening in Britain through George Whitefield and John and Charles Wesley. More recently there have been Pentecostal revivals in Wales. God is still at work in Europe today! It is said that where a revival has happened before, it is easier for it to happen again. This encourages us to hope that the recent decline in church life can turn to growth again. Pray for such a total turnaround in the spiritual situation in Europe that atheism and humanism can no longer claim to be dominant.

MP Istvan Bajkai hopes homelessness will become a thing of the past if his proposed law is taken on by the government. Bajkai previously worked as prime minister Viktor Orban’s lawyer. He wants to amend the constitution to ban homeless people from living and sleeping in public spaces. He said sleeping rough shouldn’t be necessary as everyone without a home is guaranteed shelter. Support services, day centres, and night-time accommodation, are widely available. But according to a local NGO, there are 11,000 places available in temporary accommodation for 30,000 people sleeping rough. Critics say many shelters are unsuitable and lack security, and banning the homeless from public spaces would be impossible to enforce. The director of Shelter Foundation said that to solve homelessness, Orban’s government should support the development of cheap rentals in cities or offer financial support to those who cannot afford to live in them.