Tag: Europe

• Tuesday, January 22nd 2019 - 09:59 UTC

  French data regulator fines Google 50 million Euros for “lack of transparency”

  

  Google has been fined 50 million Euros by the French data regulator CNIL, for a breach of the EU's data protection rules. CNIL said it had levied the record fine for “lack of transparency, inadequate information and lack of valid consent regarding ads personalisation”.

• Tuesday, January 22nd 2019 - 09:51 UTC

  Cameron was warned about the referendum by EU leaders: “get real” over “this stupid referendum”

  

  The European Council President Donald Tusk told David Cameron to “get real” over his “stupid referendum” before the 2016 Brexit vote, a BBC documentary reveals. Mr Tusk tells the three-part show that he warned the then prime minister there was no “appetite for revolution in Europe” and he “could lose everything”.

• Saturday, January 19th 2019 - 08:36 UTC

  Leading Germans in an open letter ask UK to remain in the EU

  

  Leading German figures have written to the UK asking it to stay in the European Union. The letter, published in The Times, is signed by 31 people, including the leader of the Christian Democratic Union - and likely successor to Angela Merkel - Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and former Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann.

• Friday, January 18th 2019 - 10:01 UTC

  EU prepares contingency plans for a UK disorderly departure

  

  French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has said a no-deal Brexit looks “less and less unlikely” and has launched a contingency plan to prepare for it. After the UK Parliament rejected the withdrawal agreement, Mr Philippe said laws had to be passed and millions invested in French ports and airports.

• Friday, January 18th 2019 - 08:45 UTC

  Speaker of UK Parliament John Bercow, next Brexit victim?

  

  Such is the anger with the Speaker of the UK Parliament at senior levels of government, it has been suggested he could be blocked from getting a peerage when he retires. Ministers are furious at what they see as John Bercow's “bias” during Commons debates on Brexit.

• Thursday, January 17th 2019 - 09:01 UTC

  McDonald's defeated by Irish rival over the rights to the “Big Mac” name

  

  McDonald's has been defeated in a trademark dispute over its rights to the “Big Mac” name brought by a tiny Irish rival called Supermac's. The European Union Intellectual Property Office, EUPO, ruled that McDonald's did not have the exclusive right to “Big Mac” trademark in Europe, after McDonald's tried to use it to stop the Irish chain from expanding into Europe.

• Thursday, January 17th 2019 - 08:44 UTC

  EU frustrated, (and divided), but waiting for Mrs. May and Westminster Brexit B plan

  

  European Council President Donald Tusk has hinted that the UK should stay in the EU, after the prime minister's Brexit deal was rejected in parliament. “If a deal is impossible, and no-one wants no deal, then who will finally have the courage to say what the only positive solution is?” he tweeted.

• Tuesday, January 8th 2019 - 08:42 UTC

  First Minister Sturgeon: Brexit has strengthened the case for Scottish independence

  

  Brexit has “materially strengthened” the case for Scottish independence, Nicola Sturgeon has said. The First Minister said Scotland’s interests are being “completely ignored and sidelined” and that what has happened in the last two years has reinforced the case for it to leave the UK.

• Wednesday, January 2nd 2019 - 08:19 UTC

  UK has plans to establish military bases in the Caribbean and Far East after Brexit

  

  The Defense Secretary has said the UK could establish new military bases in the Caribbean and the Far East. Gavin Williamson has told the Sunday Telegraph it would allow Britain to become a “true global player” following Brexit.

• Saturday, December 15th 2018 - 08:45 UTC

  A hard Brexit will leave the UK “near bankrupt” and “the closure of quite a few businesses”

  

  Sir Richard Branson has warned that the UK will be left “near bankrupt” in the event of a hard Brexit. He told the BBC he was “absolutely certain” that leaving the EU without a deal would lead to the closure of “quite a few British businesses”.