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Poland's eurosceptic Law and Justice party (PiS) is on course to unseat the ruling Civic Platform (PO) after eight years in power, an exit poll showed on Sunday …

<p>Poland is getting a new and more conservative president. Andrzej Duda, 43, won the European Union member’s presidential runoff election Sunday by an unofficial 6 percentage-point margin, Agence France-Presse reported.</p> <p>"I congratulate my competitor Andrzej Duda and wish him a successful presidency," President Bronisław Komorowski was quoted by the Associated Press as saying in a concession speech late Sunday in Warsaw. A TVP public broadcaster exit poll indicated Duda was comfortably ahead at 53 percent to Komorowski’s 47 percent.</p>

LONDON – Setting up an intriguing election battle, Britain’s opposition Labor Party announced Friday that it had hired President Obama’s chief campaign advisor to help the party return to power next year over the ruling Conservatives. The decision to recruit David Axelrod means that the 2015 British election will pit two of Obama’s strategists against each other. Working for the Conservatives is Jim Messina, who, like Axelrod, toiled on both of Obama’s presidential campaigns and who served as his deputy White House chief of staff during his first term. “David is used to tough fights, and he is going to...

Britain's Labour Party leader Ed Miliband has conscripted the services of American campaigns professional David Axelrod, otherwise known as the architect behind President Barack Obama's U.S. election victory in 2008. The appointment of Axelrod to the Labour team is the latest in a long line of foreign consultants brought in to try and help Ed Miliband's team on the run up to the UK General Election in May 2015. Axelrod follows in the footsteps of 69-year-old U.S. community organiser Arnie Graf, who embarrassed Labour by claiming he was working for them, rather than consulting for them, without a UK work...

European lawmakers on Thursday eased the way for cartel victims to claim compensation from companies under new rules that also shield price-fixing whistleblowers from being the main target of million-euro lawsuits. The green light from the European Parliament came nine years after the European Commission broached the idea, seeing it as an additional tool, on top of fines, to deter companies from breaking antitrust laws. According to the Commission, only one in four cartels and antitrust infringements faced damages claims in the last seven years. Its 2010 estimate put the cost of unrecovered damages of infringements at over €20 billion...

(Reuters) - Britain's economy could grow by 1.3 billion pounds if it left the European Union due to less regulation and more trade with emerging economies, a British diplomat who dreamt up a prize-winning blueprint for the country's EU exit said on Tuesday. Britain's free market Institute of Economic Affairs on Tuesday awarded a 100,000-euro prize to Iain Mansfield, a British diplomat based in the Philippines, who it decided had come up with the best blueprint for a 'Brexit,' a British departure from the EU. Amid widespread public disenchantment in Britain about the EU's perceived over-bearing role in everyday life...

The Tory revolt over Europe took a dramatic turn last night after senior Conservative David Davis called on the Government to open talks with Brussels on quitting the EU. Former Tory chairman Mr. Davis tore into David Cameron, accusing him of making a mess of his pledge to win back powers from the EU. “Scaremongers” who said Britain would collapse if it decided to go it alone were talking nonsense, said Mr Davis. Quitting the EU would be like a “revolution” and would boost UK jobs, wages, world power, arts and prestige, he added. Significantly, his intervention comes days after...

(Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron's handling of an expenses scandal engulfing one of his ministers has put him under pressure before European elections, threatening his Conservative party's already clouded electoral outlook. Cameron, whose party risks being beaten into third place in next month's European Parliament elections behind the anti-EU UK Independence party (UKIP), has stood by Maria Miller, Britain's minister for culture, since a parliamentary report ordered her to pay back wrongly claimed expenses last week. But the media and public backlash against Miller shows no sign of abating despite Cameron's efforts to end it. Many of his own...

The fragile Tory truce over Europe disintegrated last night after it emerged that more than 100 Conservative MPs and candidates are set to defy David Cameron at the General Election next year by vowing to leave the EU. The Prime Minister has promised the Tory manifesto will spell out his pledge for a referendum by 2017 on Britain’s links with Europe after trying to win back key powers from Brussels. But Tory rebels will go further and make their own personal manifesto vows to campaign to withdraw from the EU—regardless of any concessions by Brussels. …

The latest Opinium/Observer poll published on Sunday (19 January) suggested 52% of the British public aged over 18 would vote to leave the EU tomorrow, a small increase since last November when 50% said they would vote to leave. Sunday’s poll, carried out by Comres for the Independent on Sunday newspaper, also suggests the anti-EU and anti-immigration policies of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) remain popular, even though Cameron has already deployed tougher rhetoric on both issues. […] The poll came as UKIP was battling to restore party discipline after one of its local councillors in England caused it embarrassment...

The UK Independence Party will receive a multi-million pound boost before next year’s European elections after winning support from one of Britain’s wealthiest businessmen. Paul Sykes, a self-made tycoon and veteran of the campaign to keep the pound 15 years ago, has promised to do “whatever it takes” to help Ukip top the polls in May. His move deals a big blow to the Conservatives as they fight to contain Nigel Farage’s party. Mr Sykes supported the Tories under Margaret Thatcher and Michael Howard, but has backed Ukip in the past, giving the party £1.5 million in 2004. His latest investment...

The often stale British political system is being rocked by its very own Tea Party. The UK Independence Party (UKIP), formed in 1993 opposing Britain’s entry into the European Union, failed to make an electoral dent for a long time. However UKIP has built up steam in recent years and is spearheading a seismic shift in the British political spectrum. In this year’s local elections – the British version of midterms -- UKIP took a stunning 23 percent of the vote, up from the 3.1 percent they won in the 2010 national election. Their leader, Nigel Farage, is buoyed by...

The often stale British political system is being rocked by its very own Tea Party. The UK Independence Party (UKIP), formed in 1993 opposing Britain’s entry into the European Union, failed to make an electoral dent for a long time. Their leader, Nigel Farage, is buoyed by their recent success. “We want to take back our country, we want to take back our government, and we want to take back our birthright,” Farage told FoxNews.com in forthright language rarely seen in British politics.Capitalizing on dissatisfaction with the Conservative Party’s shift to the center under current Prime Minister David Cameron. Cameron...

EU policies ranging from the single market and trade, to culture and transport, are good for the UK, according to a series of government reports on the balance of power between London and Brussels. The findings are contained in eight reports published on Thursday (13 February), which form the second batch of the UK’s “Balance of Competences” review, comprising more than 30 separate studies by a range of government departments. […] Euroskeptics are already unhappy the reports published so far have all offered qualified support for the way that Brussels is using its powers. “The whole review has been commandeered...

Nigel Farage and Deputy Prime Minister Represent Opposite Ends of In/Out Argument LONDON— Nigel Farage, the leader of the small United Kingdom Independence Party, on Friday accepted a challenge from Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to debate Britain's membership of the European Union, paving the way for the most ardent advocates of each side of the in/out argument to lock horns. Britain's future in the EU has become an increasingly open question after Prime Minister David Cameron pledged that if he wins a second term next year he will renegotiate Britain's ties with the bloc and then hold a national...

Mass immigration has left Britain an "unrecognisable" country that many people would not want to leave to their children and grandchildren, Nigel Farage has said. In one of his strongest attacks on immigration policy, he said the arrival of migrants has some British people feeling that parts of the country are now alien to them. The UK Independence Party leader said parts of the country had been "taken over" by foreigners and told how he caught a recent commuter train from London to Kent and had to wait for several stops before he heard English being spoken.

Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage are set to debate the UK's place in the European Union live on radio. The deputy PM, who says his Liberal Democrats are the "party of in", challenged the UKIP leader, who wants the UK to leave the EU, to a debate in the run-up to the European elections. Mr Clegg argues that even threatening to leave the EU threatens British jobs. Mr Farage believes EU membership is "the most important issue this country has faced for hundreds of years". Following negotiations between the two party leaders and broadcasters, two one-hour debates have been arranged....

The UK Independence Party is on course to win the largest share of the vote in May's European Elections, according to a new poll. The party is currently on 30 percent, with Labour in second place on 28. The ComRes poll for the Independent on Sunday, which bases its European voting figures on the 38 percent of respondents who said they are "absolutely certain" to vote, is the first poll for some time to ask a question specifically about the European elections. The Conservatives, who maintain that they are the only party who can offer a referendum on the EU,...

ITV has been ordered to treat UKIP as a “major party” in the run-up to the European Parliament elections in May. In a landmark ruling, broadcasting regulator Ofcom last night said the anti-EU party’s success in previous Euro elections meant it should be put on a par with the other main parties. ITV and Channel 5, which are regulated by Ofcom, were ordered to grant UKIP “major party status” in the run-up to May’s elections, guaranteeing it increased coverage. …

Nigel Farage yesterday said he felt “awkward” when he could hear no English being spoken while on a train from London to Kent. The UKIP leader described how he was on his way home when he went several stops without hearing his native tongue. His comments followed a provocative speech in which he claimed some areas of Britain are being “taken over” by migrants, while others have become “frankly unrecognizable”. They came a day after figures showed a significant rise in net migration. …