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EUROPEAN Union (EU) bosses have blamed Angela Merkel and her open-door policy for the migrant crisis and Islamic State (ISIS) terror attacks on the continent. Donald Tusk did not hold back about Angela Merkel's migrant policy As the remaining 27 EU leaders attempted to put on a show of unity at a summit in Bratislava, Slovakia, Donald Tusk, president of the European Council hit out at the German Chancellor. He said she created chaos in the region by welcoming 1.1million Syrian migrants last year. Mr Tusk blamed “political correctness” for delays in closing Europe’s borders in 2015 which allowed more...

The European Union needs a military headquarters to work towards a common military force, the Commission president has told MEPs in Strasbourg. Jean-Claude Juncker said the lack of a "permanent structure" resulted in money being wasted on missions. Part of his annual state of the union address was devoted to the UK's unexpected vote to leave the EU. He insisted that the bloc was not at risk but called for Brexit negotiations to take place as quickly as possible. Modelled on the state of the union address by the US president, the Commission president's annual speech was introduced in 2010...

EU chief Jean-Claude Juncker has blamed Brexit on 40 years of 'lies' by British politicians. The European Commission president said the UK's historic vote to leave the EU showed 'something was wrong in Britain'. He admitted Europe was partly at fault for the vote but said people 'cannot be surprised' that voters backed Brexit because for decades politicians in the UK had circulated 'half-truths' and had branded the EU 'stupid'. Responding to his remarks, Ukip MP Douglas Carswell dismissed the EU bureaucrat as a 'parasitical clown,' telling MailOnline: 'Herr Juncker'sarrogant disdain for the views of the British people beautifully explains...

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) issued a study that outlines a roadmap for the United Kingdom's (UK) exit from the European Union (EU), entitled “Cutting the Gordian Knot: A Roadmap for British Exit from the European Union.” Authors Iain Murray and Rory Broomfield provide a step-by-step guide on how the UK can leave the EU. The foreword was written by the former private secretary of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Sir Mark Worthington, who noted that "the British people have chosen for themselves" a future where "they are firmly in control." He hoped that with 'Brexit,' the United Kingdom...

German economic growth will nearly halve in 2017 as Brexit and other risks hit exporters, the DIW institute said on Thursday, although it predicted a pick up to 1.9 percent this year due to strong domestic demand. The subdued outlook followed a string of economic data which painted a bleak picture for German manufacturing, with industrial orders barely rising in July and output posting its steepest drop in nearly two years. "The German economic engine is likely to start stuttering for a while," DIW said in a statement, adding that Britain's decision to leave the European Union would limit Germany's...

For the past year as some of you know, Sweden has called for a ban on lobster imports from the United States. Without a shred of proof, they claim that American raised lobster threaten their native lobster in its own habitat. Only two forces seem to be fighting this unjustified and uncalled for ban, Nova Scotia and New England Fisherman, particularly those from my home state of Maine. The ban proposal has already cleared its first hurdles despite new data by European scientists that show that American imports have nothing to do with the increase of North American lobsters in...

Environmentalists fear Brexit could see European rules on water cleanliness being undermined. But could leaving the EU result in filthy coastlines and smelly beaches? Until recent decades, swimming in the sea off the coast of Britain could be a perilous and unhealthy activity. "We were frequently surfing in poo," says Steve Crawford, who remembers the seas off Cornwall in the 1970s and 80s and is now a member of the campaign group Surfers Against Sewage. "Back then sewage just went straight to sea. There was no treatment - it was just basically chopped and sent, not even that far out...

The thousands of Muslim asylum seekers pouring into Denmark have spawned a backlash, and questions over whether the country has a latent racial hostility at its core. Johnny Christensen, a stout and silver-whiskered retired bank employee, always thought of himself as sympathetic to people fleeing war and welcoming to immigrants. But after more than 36,000 mostly Muslim asylum seekers poured into Denmark over the past two years, Mr. Christensen, 65, said, “I’ve become a racist.” He believes these new migrants are draining Denmark’s cherished social-welfare system but failing to adapt to its customs. “Just kick them out,” he said, unleashing...

After announcing her ambitions to join the presidential race earlier this year, Le Pen used the UK’s June decision to leave the European Union to her advantage, promising to hold a similar ‘Frexit’ referendum if elected. “The British had the courage to choose independence despite all the prophets of doom,” she said. “This referendum on France belonging to the European Union, I will do it. Yes it is possible to change things. Look at the Brits, they chose their destiny, they chose independence,” Le Pen said. “We can again be a free, proud and independent people.” Quoting: [link to www.rt.com...

Swiss gun rights proponents fear a new European Union measure to tighten gun control could disarm thousands of law-abiding citizens, Reuters reports. The proposed gun restrictions which Switzerland, a non-EU member, would be obliged to implement under cross border agreements, has raised hackles among the Swiss, who resent intervention from Brussels, the news wire reported. It also comes at a time of increased tensions between Switzerland and the EU over Swiss efforts to curb immigration.

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland's cabinet agreed on Friday to join Apple in appealing against a multi-billion-euro back tax demand that the European Commission has slapped on the iPhone maker, despite misgivings among independents who back the fragile coalition. A government spokesman said that following the cabinet's decision, it would ask parliament to endorse the legal challenge on Wednesday next week. Finance Minister Michael Noonan has insisted Dublin would fight any adverse ruling ever since the European Union began investigating the U.S. tech giant's Irish tax affairs in 2014, arguing that it had to protect a tax regime that has...

Britain could cut corporation tax to attract major international companies under plans being considered by Theresa May after Apple was hit with a record tax bill by Brussels. Downing Street yesterday said it would "welcome" Apple to the UK after the European Commission took the extraordinary step of hitting the company with an £11billion fine. In a damning report published yesterday, the commission found that a deal with Ireland meant the technology giant paid as little as 0.005 per cent tax on its European profits for more than a decade.

Apple has already threatened to cut jobs in Europe after Brussels ordered it to repay £11billion ($14.5billion) - the biggest tax bill ever imposed outside the US. The European Commission's three-year investigation into Apple's sweetheart deal with Ireland has found it amounted to illegal state aid. Its damning report published today says the tech giant paid as little as 0.005 per cent tax by funnelling its non-US profits through its Irish headquarters with no staff or premises then on to its $178billion (£120bn) offshore fund.

see link in post below __ some interesting comments in article regarding reservations about TTIP

Economy minister Sigmar Gabriel warns UK must take responsibility for vote that has left Europe as an ‘unstable continent’ __ German economy minister Sigmar Gabriel has said that Britain must not be allowed to “keep the nice things” that come with EU membership without taking responsibility for the fallout from Brexit. As Theresa May called a cabinet meeting to discuss the UK government’s Brexit strategy on Wednesday, Gabriel warned if the issue was badly handled and other member countries followed Britain’s lead, Europe would go “down the drain”. “Brexit is bad but it won’t hurt us as much economically as...

The European Union on Tuesday said US tech giant Apple must repay a record 13 billion euros ($14.3 billion or roughly Rs. 95,910 crores) in back taxes after ruling that a series of Irish sweetheart tax deals were illegal. "The European Commission has concluded that Ireland granted undue tax benefits of up to 13 billion euros to Apple. This is illegal under EU state aid rules because it allowed Apple to pay substantially less tax than other businesses. Ireland must now recover the illegal aid," a Commission statement said. EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Apple's "selective treatment" in Ireland...

"Guests" Angela Merkel will go down in history as the woman who destroyed theBundesrepublik Deutschland, and for absolutely no reason. The childless Ossie, with zero stake in the future of a country she was raised to loathe, opened up the heart of central Europe to Muslim "immigration" -- and now, finally, the Germans have had enough: Germany’s Angela Merkel urged European Union countries that have refused to take on a share of the bloc’s refugees to reconsider, as a new poll indicated that half of Germans don’t want her to seek another term as chancellor. “What I still say...

WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- Poland says German Chancellor Angela Merkel is wrong to criticize European Union partners who are refusing to give refugee protection to Muslims. Poland's deputy foreign minister, Konrad Szymanski, said in an interview Monday on state-run Radio Three that countries such as Poland which reject EU-negotiated refugee quotas are in line with the public mood. Szymanski was responding to Merkel's criticism of EU countries, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, that have rebuffed EU plans to share responsibility across the 28-nation bloc for sheltering people fleeing war and poverty. "I believe it is harmful to Europe and...

The refusal of some EU countries to accept Muslim refugees is “unacceptable”, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday as Germany called for quotas to divide the influx throughout the bloc. “That’s not right at all that some countries say: ‘generally speaking, we don’t want to have Muslims in our countries’,” Merkel told German public television channel ARD.

The two victims - a 66-year-old woman and a 57-year-old man - were attacked but managed to overpower the man who was then arrested by police in Oberhausen A couple at a German music festival have been attacked by a knifeman who witnesses claim was heard shouting "Allahu Akbar". A 66-year-old woman, believed to be the other victim's wife, is said to be fighting for her life. The other victim - a 57-year-old man - is seriously injured however he still managed to overpower the man who was then arrested by police officers in Oberhausen. The attack took place just...