Dirty business: mafia’s toxic waste crimes spread across Europe
The illegal dumping of domestic and sometimes even hazardous industrial waste by the mafia has long been a problem in Italy. Now it has emerged that the trafficking of rubbish has spread across Europe, with garbage transported from Italy to countries including Germany and Sweden. It is a dirty business, but a hugely profitable one for the crime gangs. The price may be even higher for some, as the clandestine disposal of dangerous substances is being linked with rising cancer rates and birth defects in the areas affected. People are asking what is being done to deal with this toxic time bomb. Why are investigators and prosecutors not bringing the guilty to justice? How are the gangs’ activities spreading across Europe and what more could politicians at a national and European level be doing? These issues were discussed with a panel of experts from Eurojust, the European Union’s prosecutorial agency this week.
Belgium: Euthanasia ‘appropriate’ for suicidal woman
A 24-year-old Belgian woman has been told she qualifies for euthanasia because she suffers from ‘suicidal thoughts’. The anonymous woman says that she has wanted to die since her childhood and spoke about her decision in an interview with a Belgian newspaper. She has been a patient in a psychiatric institution since she was 21 but feels that the treatment did not help, saying, ‘Death does not feel to me as a choice. If I had a choice, I would choose a bearable life, but I have done everything and that did not work.’ Last year, a Dutch academic who supported legalising euthanasia in the Netherlands, warned of rising numbers of patients with psychiatric illnesses or dementia being euthanised. He said, ‘Cases have been reported in which a large part of the suffering of those given euthanasia were aged, lonely or bereaved. These patients could have lived for years or decades’. At Westminster, Labour MP Rob Marris is set to introduce an assisted suicide bill in the coming weeks (see article 2 in British Isles section).
Norway: New special unit will strengthen emergency response
A new special unit has been established in the Norwegian Civil Defence that will assist the firefighters and police emergency services when critical situations arise. Forty-eight men and women in South Trøndelag County will be the civil defence’s first support unit. Six months ago it was decided that the civil defence would establish six mobile support units in Trondheim, Tromsø, Bergen, Oppland, Kristiansand and Bodø between 2015-2017 so that Norway will be better prepared for future crisis and events. The units will be organised in two different departments. One will focus on tents, light, heating, communication devices and electricity, the other will specialise in pumping capacity for fire extinguishing, discharge capabilities in the case of flooding and transportation. It will make a difference and be an additional resource for the firefighters, police and others, as a rapid-response facility across the country.
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: EU referendum
Prime Minister David Cameron is in uncharted territory as he lays out UK demands. The United Kingdom is staging a plebiscite on whether to stay in. If you do not give me what I need, Cameron implicitly states, then the EU’s third biggest country may quit. Many in the EU elite are bemused that the question of Europe played no role at all in the UK general election campaign, but became the number one issue on 8 May. Leaders and officials said repeatedly, with some relief, that once Cameron had won his second term they would learn the details of Britain’s aims and hopes. In vain. Cameron is being advised to remain vague’ The months ahead will be dominated by ‘technical’ and legal discussions between the lawyers, eurocrats and Downing Street aides. Senior sources in Brussels reported, ‘during the recent round of bilaterals, Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, told an EU colleague that the City question was the most important in the negotiations. He demanded a British veto over Eurozone and European Central Bank decisions and regulations that affect the City’.
Ukraine: Franklin Graham preaching in Ukraine
Ukraine has been in the spotlight for political tension and unrest, but 1,200 churches from six regions came together to share hope with their country on the 20th and 21st June in a football stadium in the city of Lviv. ‘We have a lot of prayer going on in that city,’ said Russian-born Viktor Hamm, vice president of Crusades for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA). Hamm has visited Ukraine several times in past months to prepare for the ‘Festival of Hope with Franklin Graham’. For months now, people across Ukraine have been praying for this Festival every day at 10 p.m. Prayer time ramped up the weekend before the event with churches praying around the clock for the whole week prior to the Festival. And with 1,200 churches involved, that's a lot of people. This isn't just a one-time deal that happens before people start packing up and going about business as usual. Locals, along with teams from Samaritan's Purse, have worked hard for months to serve the community.
Switzerland: Greek minister slams Swiss over tax evasion
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has taken a swipe at Switzerland for providing only limited information about wealthy tax evaders from cash-strapped Greece who are believed to have stashed billions of euros in Swiss banks. ‘Sometimes we know that someone has taken money away from Greece,’ he said ‘But we do not know in what city or which bank it is located in Switzerland.’ The finance minister, a key player in the Greek government as it struggles to reach an agreement with the European Union to finance its debt, said it was impossible to obtain such information from Swiss authorities. ‘We know too little to be able to locate the black money.’ But Varoufakis said the Greek government is working on a plan to allow tax evaders to voluntarily disclose their situation and invest their assets in Greece while paying a penalty of around 22 percent.
Sweden: Princess Madeleine gives birth to young prince
Princess Madeleine of Sweden has given birth to a baby boy just two days after the wedding of her brother Prince Carl Philip and Sofia Hellqvist. The Swedish Royal Court announced the birth in a press release, saying that the new prince was born at Stockholm’s Danderyd Hospital at 13:45 on Monday 15 June 2015. Spokesperson Svante Lindqvist added that both the princess and her son were doing well. Head midwife Anna Stahl said later that the delivery was without complications but, although it was a normal birth, it felt special. The baby boy is now sixth in line to the Scandinavian country’s throne and Madeleine and US financier husband Chris O’Neill’s second child after the birth of Princess Leonore in New York last year. It was a busy few days for the Swedish royals, with Prince Carl Philip and Sofia Hellqvist tying the knot in a plush ceremony on Saturday.
Spain: Spanish thalidomide victims seek help from Pope Francis
‘We’re really happy,’ said Alejandro Romero, one of the 100 Spanish thalidomide victims who travelled to the Vatican to meet the pope. ‘He promised he would try to help. He’s the most important diplomat in the world, so maybe he can ring people that won’t speak to us on the phone.’ An estimated 3,000 Spaniards are believed to have suffered severe birth defects after their mothers took thalidomide, prescribed by Spanish doctors five decades ago to combat morning sickness during pregnancy. Unlike victims in many other countries in Europe, only two dozen victims in Spain have ever received any kind of compensation. Many of them were unable to meet the stringent criteria set out by the drug’s manufacturer, asking for the bottle of medication taken by their mother decades ago and, at times, the doctor’s prescription, in order to offer compensation. And unlike other governments in Europe, successive Spanish governments have refused to create a fund for victims.
Slovenia: Unconditional help to refugees
Ljubljana, 20 June - Although people are shocked by the photos of dead refugees at sea, they quickly forget about the pictures when they need to show some genuine solidarity, Delo says in Saturday's commentary Figures and Life Stories. What makes someone risk their life by crossing the Mediterranean in an overcrowded boat, the paper wonders while pointing out that while hearing about refugee counts and death tolls, one often tends to forget that each of them has a story to tell. Second thoughts about taking in refugees seem legitimate. So do concerns about security. And the fact that some actually are not fleeing from war but from poor economy and are thus not eligible for a status of a refugee, Delo points out. But maybe extreme poverty should also be included in the Geneva convention, the daily says, adding that a humane perspective on the matter surely recognises a deadly journey overseas in pursuit of a better life is reason enough to take someone in as a refugee.
Slovakia: Anti-Immigration attitude
Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Bratislava to express their anger. Police cars were vandalised . People held banners that read, Slovakia is not Africa, and one Arabic family, including a mother and baby in a pushchair, was pelted with stones. These protests come as the discussion on the influx of immigrants to Europe from war or poverty inflicted parts of North Africa is coming to a head. The European Commission proposed a solution which would see at least 40,000 immigrants resettled throughout the EU with certain quotas for each Member State. Slovakia would receive a quota of 700 immigrants. There is tension and disunity in the Member States on this issue. Many countries in the West such as Germany, France and the UK are feeling the impact of immigration. The EU has proposed that all Member States come together to solve this problem and take the weight off the most affected countries, but attitudes are much more defensive among the newer states.