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Iain Duncan Smith has pledged to appeal after a judge ruled that emergency legislation introduced over a flagship back-to-work program is “incompatible” with European human rights laws. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said that it “disagrees” with Mrs. Justice Lang, who said that retrospective legislation introduced interfered with the “right to a fair trial” under the European Convention on Human Rights. Human rights lawyers said the judgment was a “damning assessment” and, if upheld on appeal, could lead to some £130 million having to be paid out to thousands of jobseeker’s allowance claimants denied benefits under the schemes....

Twelve EU countries have warned investors not to do business with Israeli settler entities, amid a security crisis in Israel and Palestine. The group includes: Austria; Belgium; Croatia; Denmark; Finland; Greece; Ireland; Luxembourg; Malta; Portugal; Slovakia; and Slovenia. Portugal published its statement on Wednesday (2 July) and the others came out on Thursday. France, Italy, and Spain put out similar communiques earlier this week. Germany and the UK already did it months ago. Poland is expected to publish a warning shortly. The Irish foreign ministry said the action “has been coordinated at EU level”. …

Google has removed over 70,000 Internet links, amid accusations it is trying to promote critical reactions to a EU court ruling by targeting major media outlets. The US firm on Thursday (3 July) said it was getting around 1,000 “right to be forgotten” requests a day. The EU court in Luxembourg in May ruled the search giant should delete links on searches done on the basis of a person’s name if found “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant.” …

Americans frustrated by German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s reluctance to meet demands for stronger sanctions against Russia have now begun to ask if there is a good reason the German leader has been targeted by US spies. Questions are being raised about Merkel’s early life in totalitarian East Germany, the extent of her ties to its communist regime and her history as "an ardent Russophile" in Soviet-dominated East Germany. Last year, in information leaked to the German news magazine Der Spiegel by former US National Security Authority contractor Edward Snowden, Merkel learned that the US intelligence service had been tapping her...

Students at German universities have shown themselves to be a risk-free lot in a survey by Ernst & Young. The civil service is their most popular choice of future profession, while job security is valued above all else. […] The number was higher for female students (36 percent), but government work also came in first among men with 23 percent choosing it as their preferred career path. […] Other future positions popular with students were in the fields of science (19 percent) and culture (17 percent). Consultants and auditors were the private sector jobs most interesting for students in Germany...

German lawmakers on Thursday voted to introduce a minimum wage of €8.50 per hour, despite criticism from both unions and employers of the new law. While employers said the law could cost jobs, unions criticized the final version for falling short. […] Labor Minister Andrea Nahles praised the government’s bill before the vote. “Cheap, unprotected—that is over,” Nahles told lawmakers. Her center-left Social Democrats (SPD) had made the minimum wage a condition for joining Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) in a coalition government at the end of last year. …

This is the third part of the article by Italian journalist Alessandra Nucci. Here are the first two parts: The Looting of ItalyHow the EU and the Left Ruined Italy ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A Never-ending Flow of Illegal Immigrants Overburdens Italian WelfareVery little is ever said about the immigration load, which together with bureaucracy is largely responsible for the burgeoning debt. It is routinely downplayed, while Italy gets lectured to for supposedly not living up to impossible standards that are provably not expected of any other country. The Italian Coastguard and Carabinieri have saved countless lives and generous Italian welfare, including...

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) says acrylamide in food potentially increases the risk of developing cancer for consumers in all age groups. The authority has launched a public consultation on its draft scientific opinion about the substance. Acrylamide is a chemical compound that typically forms in starchy food products such as potato crisps, chips, bread, biscuits and coffee, during high-temperature processing (above 150°), including frying, baking and roasting. […] Acrylamide has previously been linked to cancer. In 2002, Swedish researchers found the compound by coincidence and had a strong suspicion that acrylamide was a carcinogenic agent. But EFSA acknowledges...

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy could face up to five years in prison and a €500,000 fine on allegations of corruption and influence peddling. The embattled center-right politician was released from police custody late Tuesday (1 July) and is now under formal investigation. Sarkozy is suspected to have attempted to obstruct an investigation into the financing of his 2007 presidential campaign. He denies any wrongdoing and says the accusations are politically motivated. …

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The euro crisis may have eased recently, but companies and countries in the common currency zone still aren’t investing enough to fuel growth. The best solution, a Berlin economics institute argues, is to establish an EU-wide investment fund. […] But simply ratcheting up public expenditures, as some Southern European governments have advocated, is not a sound strategy for improving the situation, the [German Institute for Economic Research (DIW)] believes. “One of Europe’s biggest weaknesses is the lack of private investments,” (Marcel) Fratzscher says. “We have to close the gap by way of a European investment agenda.” …

Instead of a no-spy deal, the US has begun a Cyber Dialogue with Germany. In a Spiegel interview, John Podesta, a special advisor to President Barack Obama, speaks of the balance between alliances and security and says that changes are being made to NSA espionage practices. […] “(W)ith respect to what German citizens think, the United States has a pretty good track record of standing up for values of global democracy, of free expression, of protecting the rights of individuals, of trying to ensure that people are not discriminated against, of not suppressing free speech. Every country has a history...

Jean-Claude Juncker, the next head of the European Commission, plans to implement a new digital strategy for the Continent. Europe, he believes, needs to become better equipped to defend itself from the US and Asia. […] Part of Juncker’s agenda will be to ensure that Europe challenges market abuse by American Internet giants with greater self-confidence. More important, however, will be for the EU to start cleaning up its own backyard. Juncker wants to take advantage of a broad consensus among European politicians to put enough muscle in the EU’s digital market that European companies can stand up to competition...

David Cameron has suffered "utter humiliation" over the nomination of Jean-Claude Juncker as European Commission president, Ed Miliband has claimed. The Labour leader told MPs the PM's renegotiation strategy for the UK in Europe was now "in tatters".

A gang threw excrement at the office of a gay organization in Rome, while shouting death threats against people inside, Italian media reported on Friday. \Di Gay Project (DGP) in southern Rome was attacked on Wednesday night, with the crime being reported to police on Friday, Corriere della Sera said. A mob threw excrement and other items, such as wooden boxes and vegetables, at the organization’s office, as people were rehearsing a theatre performance inside. Members of the gang, estimated to be aged between 15 and 40, also shouted threats such as “We’ll set you alight” and “you deserve to...

France is replacing its plan to teach children the “ABCD of equality” between boys and girls after protests by some parents who feared it was a stealth effort to erase gender differences. […] The initial plan was essentially an experiment with 275 schools, and it came under protest from Roman Catholic leaders, the French far right, and some parents groups. …

A handful of former EU officials and an outgoing top MEP have landed jobs in industry sectors that they legislated on. The cases highlight what pro-transparency experts describe as a “revolving door” where policymakers are hired to work for private companies with a vested interest in EU-level legislation.Last October, two consultancy firms hired João Pacheco. Pacheco was at that time the European Commission’s deputy director of agriculture. Today, he is the director for European markets AFJ and associates in the US. He is also president at the Brussels-based JSPacheco-International consultancy firm. …

Tobacco giant Philip Morris International (PMI) wants to challenge new EU rules on tobacco to see if it can get the stricter labeling requirements changed. The Marlboro manufacturer on Friday (27 June) said the EU’s new tobacco products directive “appears to ban truthful and non-misleading claims on the packaging of tobacco products”. “PMI intends to seek review of whether this ban respects the fundamental rights of consumers to information about the products they are choosing,” it added. The EU’s reformed directive says cigarette packages must have “Smoking Kills—Quit Now” and “Tobacco smoke contains over 70 substances known to cause cancer”...

Germany wants to promote structural economic, financial market and tax reform when it takes over the presidency of the G7 club of rich nations next week, German media reported on Sunday. Member states must “join forces to support an even stronger economic recovery”, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and central bank chief Jens Weidmann said in a written message to other G7 members, the Handelsblatt business daily said. […] Germany—the Eurozone’s largest economy—also called for progress to address “the remaining gaps in financial market regulation”, including shadow banks, and on the automatic exchange of tax information. Schäuble also wants to promote...

Germany’s domestic intelligence service wants to increase surveillance on users of social networks such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, but stressed it would only target terrorists and extremists. […] But the Süddeutsche Zeitung had reported that the BfV’s chief, Hans-Georg Maaßen, wanted to develop a system which collected “large amounts of online data”. …