Free Republic

Europe’s biggest banks are facing a day of judgment as the European Central Bank prepares to unveil the results of a yearlong search through the dark corners of their finances. It’s a step that comes none too soon for the struggling economy of the 18-country eurozone. The ECB review to be unveiled Sunday seeks to identify banks that are too weak to lend to businesses or make it through another recession and force them to strengthen their finances. It includes a detailed look at 130 banks’ loans, holdings and investments, as well as a so-called stress test that simulates how...

Irish senators have adopted a non-binding motion on Palestine recognition, as the EU prepares to set out new red lines on Israel relations. The motion, tabled by Averil Power from the opposition Fianna Fáil party, passed without a vote on Wednesday (22 October) after winning cross-party support. It urges the Irish government “to formally recognize the state of Palestine and do everything it can to help secure a viable two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”. Power told the Senate that in the past 20 years “while pretending to talk peace … [Israel’s] illegal settlements in the West Bank have trebled...

A primary school has been accused of racism after English speaking children were barred from going on school trip and forced to attend classes instead. St Mary’s C of E Primary School in Kidderminster, Worcs., laid on a petting zoo visit on Tuesday for non-English speaking pupils only, while pupils who did speak the language had to stay in lessons. Parents criticized the decision and said their children had been discriminated against for being British. Several even refused to allow their children to go to school on the day of the trip to Rays Farm, near Bridgnorth, Shrops., which was...

Germany’s pilots and train drivers are taking it in turns to bring the country to a standstill with strikes that have cost the economy tens of millions of euros in the last two weeks. Are unions abusing their power or standing up for their rights? After a 50-hour strike by the train drivers unions, GDL, Deutsche Bahn said the loss of the weekend’s services cost the company “tens of millions of euros”. One analyst said that the latest strike in escalating industrial action by pilots union Cockpit will cost Lufthansa €30 million. But all parties accuse the other of the...

Older workers in Germany are allowed more time off than younger ones, a court ruled on Tuesday, saying the difference was not discriminatory. Younger employees of a shoe manufacturer in Rhineland-Palatinate brought a case against their employer for giving two extra days off per year to their colleagues aged 58 and over and appealed it to the country’s highest labor court. But Germany’s anti-discrimination law (AGG) allows for different treatment for workers based on their age, experience or length of service under certain conditions, the judges said. …

Europe’s leaders are about to consign the Earth to the risk of dangerous climate change, a UN expert says. Prof Jim Skea, a vice-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, says the EU’s plan to cut CO2 emissions 40% by 2030 is too weak. He says it will commit future governments to “extraordinary and unprecedented” emissions cuts. The Commission rejected the claim, saying the 40% target puts Europe on track for long-term climate goals. Prof Skea believes governments are setting targets by what appears to be politically achievable rather than what is necessary to transform the way we make...

The German family structure is changing, with nearly a third of every family no longer living in the “classic model” and big differences in what family looks like in the former East and West, statistics agency Destatis announced on Monday. The 2013 Microcensus showed that 70 percent of families consisted of a married couple and at least one child under the age of 18. And while the classical model still dominates, the figures show it’s in decline. In 1996, 81 percent of families centered on a married couple.Today, 20 percent of children live with single parents, up six percent from...

The first thing the firefighters saw was the arm sticking out of the barred window on the second floor of the factory. Flames reached through the partially collapsed roof and a high column of smoke darkened the winter sky. This fire had been burning for some time. The fire station is two minutes from the Teresa Moda garment factory, on the edge of the main industrial zone of Prato, a town outside Florence. The zone was developed for Italian textile manufacturers in the 1980s but now is predominantly Chinese. […] Prato is the epicenter of a thriving, illicit Chinese economy...

The gay marriage debate arrived within walking distance of the Vatican on Saturday as Rome’s mayor registered 16 gay marriages celebrated abroad in open defiance of Italy’s government. Gay marriage is illegal in Italy. […] Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino received thunderous applause as he arrived in the city hall reception room where the couples, their friends and family gathered to make their marriages official in Rome’s city ledger. One by one, the couples—gay and lesbian, some with children—were called up to witness Marino transcribe the date and locations of their weddings, including in Spain, Portugal and the U.S. …

A regional judge in Munich is embroiled in a highly charged dispute over her statement in a civil case that German anti-Semitism was limited to the Nazi period of 1933-1945, suggesting that post-Holocaust anti-Semitism is not a factor in Jew-hatred. The Munich regional judge, Petra Grönke-Müller, sparked outrage on October 8 with her courtroom assertion during a civil case that “a fiery anti-Semite is someone in Germany who talks, with conviction, in an anti-Semitic way and, with conviction, does not condemn the Third Reich and cannot view the period 1933-1945 as separate from the background of history.” […] Speaking to...

Britain is “lighting a fire under the European Union” by holding an in-out referendum on membership, Philip Hammond said today, as the Bill to give the public a vote cleared its first crucial hurdle in the House of Commons. The Foreign Secretary said setting in law a referendum on EU membership would force Brussels to grant Britain “meaty and substantial” reforms. The Private Members Bill, sponsored by Bob Neill, a former minister and vice-chairman of the Conservative Party, yesterday sailed through its second reading of the Commons by 293 to 0, and will now face further scrutiny. […] David Cameron...

For more than a decade, Berlin has been governed by an openly homosexual mayor. But is the city, renowned for its tolerance, ready for a leader from a Palestinian background? It may have to be. […] … Berlin SPD parliamentary leader Raed Saleh only needs to open his mouth to stand out from the crowd. Saleh came to Berlin at the age of five with his Palestinian parents, and although his German is beyond reproach, he speaks the language with a distinct Arabic twang. “Berlin is a city of diversity; a city of 100 different accents,” Saleh told DW. “People...

With two weeks to go until he is formally out of office and, as of yet, with no fixed onward job, Jose Manuel Barroso is a politician concerned with his legacy. […] He argues the EU has emerged stronger from the crisis, equipped with around 40 new pieces of legislation dealing with financial supervision—and a whole lot more power for the European Commission. “We have powers that our predecessors could not even dream of,” he says, highlighting the commission’s new right to “reject” draft national budgets. […] Asked about the roots of euroskepticism—a stronger political phenomenon in recent years—he says...

Here we go again. Another sovereign debt crisis on the periphery of the EU is underway and many of the same factors that led to previous debt meltdowns are present. Germany is headed for a triple dip recession. Continent-wide deflation is nearly a reality. And many EU nations are smashing the debt limits demanded by treaty, thus threatening the Euro itself. All of this is impacting the percentage of debt in relation to GDP in several countries, making government bonds more expensive and debt servicing a nightmare. The Hill: Among Europe's most recent economic tremors has been the growing evidence...

A Euro-skeptic bloc within the European Parliament has collapsed. A Latvian member has pulled out of the group, breaching an EU rule that at least seven countries must be represented in a parliamentary faction. […] The exit also prompted European Parliament President Martin Schulz to postpone the assembly’s decision over this year’s Sacharov human rights prize until Tuesday next week. Nominees include Ukraine’s pro-EU Maidan protesters. […] There was a celebratory response from the main center-right European People’s Party (EPP) faction in the parliament, which alternates its sittings between Brussels and Strasbourg. “First defeat for euro-skeptics!” the EPP responded in...

In a 20-minute address to the German parliament on Thursday, covering a range of policy issues, German Chancellor Angela Merkel placed emphasis on the crisis in Ukraine. Merkel’s speech came ahead of direct talks with Russian and Ukrainian leaders at the European-Asian ASEM summit that also opens on Thursday in the Italian city of Milan. “The situation on the ground in Ukraine is dire,” Merkel said in front of Bundestag lawmakers, adding: “I will speak face-to-face with [Russian President Vladimir Putin] and [Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko] about ways to move forward in constructive fashion while in Milan.” […] Merkel’s address...

A German Islamist fighting for the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria has released a propaganda video threatening Germans and Chancellor Angela Merkel. […] The German jihadist, who has the name Abu Dauoud al-Almani, first rants against the US and President Barack Obama, before turning his attention to his homeland. “The same to you O Germans and to filthy Merkel who gave gifts to Israel” He then calls for his “brothers” in Germany, Austria and Switzerland to join jihad. …

International donors this week praised the leaders of the Palestinian Authority as moderate peace-seekers who can be trusted with billions of dollars in aid for Gaza—at the very same time the PA was being named “second worst offender” for distributing anti-Semitic publications at Europe's largest book fair. The European branch of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, headed by Dr. Shimon Samuels, this week released its list of those who circulated anti-Semitic books and magazines at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the largest annual gathering of publishers in Europe. Qatar was cited as the “Worst Offender of 2014.” But the Qataris had stiff...

In a Trans-Atlantic debate over cigarette packaging, North Carolina’s governor poses a rhetorical question to the Irish and French governments: Would Guinness be recognizable labeled simply as “beer?” Or would champagne sell as well in a bottle lacking its distinctive curves? Gov. Pat McCrory has written letters to French and Irish officials decrying plans in those countries to force manufacturers to package their cigarettes in plain containers. McCrory argues farmers and manufacturers in the top U.S. tobacco-producing state would be hurt by the proposals to remove brand logos and colors from cigarette boxes. “Plain packaging laws are a direct assault...

European officials are looking at new ways to press Israel to halt its building of settlements on land the Palestinians want for a state, as frustration over the construction program reaches a new high, European diplomats say. The discussions are at an early stage, but officials say the European Union may look at stopping Jewish settlers convicted of crimes from visiting the EU and could examine the fine print of a free-trade agreement, although there is no talk of sanctions. A series of steps by Israel in recent weeks, including the seizure of 1,000 acres of land near the Palestinian...