Free Republic

Leading economic advisers to the German government have called on European politicians to stop Britain’s exit from the European Union. “The German Council of Economic Experts calls for constructive negotiations to prevent an exit, or at the least to come to an agreement that minimizes the damage on both sides,” the experts wrote in their annual report. […] Even after Britain has activated Article 50, Brexit can still be prevented, they argue. They also encourage European leaders not to draw red lines on certain concessions which London might demand — a possible reference to Britain’s desire to impose immigration controls...

Germany’s justice minister is proposing legislation which would dissolve child marriages, with limited exceptions in cases where spouses are at least 16. Amid the recent influx of migrants to Germany, authorities are seeing a growing number of minors who claim to be married. The exact figure of child marriages in Germany isn’t known, but officials estimate there are more than 1,000. …

Britain’s former leader, Tony Blair, says the nation’s voters should be given another chance to weigh in on whether the U.K. should leave the European Union. The former prime minister told the BBC on Friday that people are entitled to change their minds on the crucial decision. Blair says there should be some way “either through Parliament, or through an election, possibly through another referendum, in which people express their view.” …

German federal prosecutors said Thursday they had brought charges against a 19-year-old Syrian man accused of having scouted targets in Berlin for a potential attack by the ISIS terror group. The man identified only as Shaas Al-M. allegedly joined the jihadist group in 2013 and took part in various military operations in Syria, they said in a statement. Prosecutors declined to tell AFP when and how the suspect entered Germany last year, which in 2015 took in nearly 900,000 asylum seekers, around 40 percent of them from war-ravaged Syria. …

The White House announced on Tuesday that US President Barack Obama will be paying one last unexpected visit to the German capital — his last before he leaves office. Obama is now set to stop by Berlin on November 16th, after the divisive US national election takes place on November 8th and following a trip to Athens. But the trip will be short, as two days later he will head to an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Lima, Peru. …

A left wing expert on Salafism has suggested that Germany has no real culture and that Syrians should be allowed their own city rather than be forced to integrate into German society. Expert on Salafism and Green party member Kurt Edler is proposing a radical idea on how the German government should handle the integration of Syrians and other migrants into German society.

Several hundred Muslims staged a protest prayer outside the Colosseum in Rome on Friday over what they see as unfair restrictions on their freedom to practice their faith in Italy. Organizers said they had called the demonstration following the recent closure on administrative grounds of five makeshift mosques. Many Italian Muslims suspect local authorities are responding to a climate of mistrust caused by recent Islamist attacks in Europe by closing down the places of worship on the grounds of easily resolved problems such as the number of toilets on a particular premises. …

Residents of Sarajevo expressed Saturday their support for Hillary Clinton in the upcoming U.S. presidential election based in part on the role her husband’s administration had in ending Bosnia’s devastating war during the 1990s. Several hundred people turned out for the “Sarajevo Votes for Clinton” event organized by activists through social networks. Participants said supporting Clinton means supporting the values of a civilized society and showing resistance to hatred and segregation. …

More than 1.5 million Germans, many of them highly educated, left Germany during the past decade. — Die Welt. Germany is facing a spike in migrant crime, including an epidemic of rapes and sexual assaults. Mass migration is also accelerating the Islamization of Germany. Many Germans appear to be losing hope about the future direction of their country.

German lawmakers have approved a bill that allows the country’s foreign intelligence agency to spy on European Union institutions and fellow EU member states. The legislation passed Friday is part of a range of measures meant to improve oversight of espionage in the wake of the revelations by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. […] Critics say that instead of clamping down on questionable BND activity, the law will merely legalize them. …

Fathers will now be allowed the same parental leave as new mothers, under measures agreed by Spain’s parliament. The Spanish congress has voted to extend paid paternity leave from 13 days to 16 weeks, equal to that awarded to women. Until now, fathers were entitled to just 13 consecutive days off work with the arrival of a new member of the family, be it through birth, fostering or adoption, plus two days to be present at the birth itself. …

The vast majority of Sweden’s Riksdag members of parliament are hoping to see Hillary Clinton win the forthcoming US presidential election, according to a survey of MPs. Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN) asked all 349 MPs who they hoped would be the next US President, and 83 percent of those who responded backed Clinton. Only two percent said they were backing Donald Trump. …

Russian President Vladimir Putin is to arrive in Berlin on Wednesday as part of a summit hosted by Chancellor Angela Merkel on the Ukraine conflict. Merkel’s spokesperson Steffen Seibert announced on Tuesday that Putin would arrive for the summit alongside President François Hollande of France and Petro Poroshenko, the leader of Ukraine. It will be Putin’s first visit to Berlin since Russia annexed the Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, leading to EU sanctions against Moscow. Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine will hold the summit in Berlin on Wednesday to “evaluate the implementation” of the Minsk peace accords for Ukraine, the...

Tens of thousands of people have marched in Paris to call for the repeal of a law allowing gay marriage, six months before France’s next presidential election. The protesters ended up at Trocadéro Plaza, near the Eiffel Tower. Police estimated the crowd at 24,000, while organizers gave a figure of 200,000. They were also protesting Sunday against the use of assisted reproduction techniques and surrogate mothers to help same-sex couples have babies. …

Chancellor Angela Merkel says Germany wants friendly ties with Britain but won’t drop its insistence that London can only enjoy full access to the European Union’s internal market if it allows free immigration of EU citizens. […] Merkel argues that making concessions on free labor movement would create a dangerous free-for-all in the EU. She said Saturday that, although Britain is dear to Europe and she regrets its decision to leave the bloc, “we cannot work toward ultimately putting into question the whole European Union.” …

Europe has one of the highest rates of prisoner suicides compared to other regions, according to the WHO. Prison reform advocates have called for alternative solutions for tackling the harrowing phenomenon. While questions over security and personal well-being have emerged in the wake of the Chemnitz explosives suspect Jafer Albakr’s death, figures show that prisoner suicides happen far too often. […] The UN Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) suggested in 2014 that suicide among prisoners appeared more frequently in Europe than other geographical regions, averaging 62 suicides per 100,000. …

The French are more gloomy about the future of their country than anyone else in the world, a new study has found. A new study from Ipsos has revealed that the French are the most likely to think their country is heading down the wrong path. In fact, a full 88 percent of respondents to the survey answered that they think the country is going in the “wrong direction”. This compared with 83 percent of Italians who think their country is also on a downward spiral and 82 percent of Spanish. Sweden and Germany had 73 and 71 percent of...

Property taxes, known as “taxes foncières” in France, have rocketed over the last few years, a new report found. Between 2010 and 2015 property taxes in France, known as “taxes foncières”, shot up by an average of 14.70 percent. Some areas were particularly hard hit, including Clermont Ferrand in central France with a rise of 20.29 percent and Lille in the north which saw a 19 percent increase. …

Norwegian Justice Minister Anders Anundsen said on Thursday that the EU must allow Norway to continue with its temporary border controls for as long as the nation deems them necessary. When the ministers of justice of the EU and the four EFTA countries meet in Luxembourg on Thursday, Anundsen will ask for the green light to keep Norway’s controls in place. “I think it’s important that we have the opportunity to continue with internal border controls as long as we believe it is necessary,” Anundsen said. Norway is one of five Schengen countries that have introduced border controls in the...

The Danish government on Tuesday presented a list of measures to combat radicalization, including a “corps of digital voices of reason” to challenge extremist views on the internet. Part of the new plan was for the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) to form a “national alliance against online radicalization” including authorities and people from civil society, to which the new “voices of reason” project would be linked. […] The group would “systematically be present in social media and engage critically in relevant forums, take part in dialogue and challenge extremist views,” it said. A new unit would also be...