Germany Bans Facebook from Using WhatsApp Data over Privacy Concerns

May 12, 2021

Finnish Christian Politician Facing Charges for ‘Discriminatory Hate Speech'

May 10, 2021

Päivi Räsänen, a Christian Democrat MP, is facing charges of 'discriminatory hate speech' in her home country of Finland for stating her belief that homosexual activity is sinful according to the Bible.

Top German Court Rules Climate Law Partly ‘Unconstitutional’

May 04, 2021

Germany’s Constitutional Court ruled that the country’s 2019 climate protection law, which sets out to cut emissions to net-zero by 2050, was partly “unconstitutional” citing that “sufficient measures for further emission reductions after 2031 are missing,”  putting an improper burden on future generations after 2030.

Lawyer Monthly: TikTok Sued for Billions Over Children’s Data Collection

April 28, 2021

Former children’s commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, has launched legal action against TikTok alleging that the social media app illegally gathered the personal data of millions of children since May 2018, when General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect.

Politico: EU slams China’s ‘Authoritarian Shift’

April 28, 2021

A high-level internal report shows the EU is increasingly pessimistic about keeping business interests separate from political concerns over President Xi Jinping’s “authoritarian shift.”

EU Drops Plans to Punish China over Hong Kong

April 21, 2021

The European Union had planned to announce new measures against Beijing’s electoral reforms in Hong Kong at this months Foreign Affairs Council, but have withdrawn the announcement after failing to gain support from all 27 member states.

Russia’s Sputnik Vaccine Causing Division in EU

April 21, 2021

As vaccine roll out in the EU continues to lag behind other countries, Russia’s offer to sell their Sputnik V vaccine and the question of whether of not to accept is causing divisions within the bloc and even, in some cases, within individual countries.

ECtHR Opens Itself up to Climate-Related Human Rights Cases

April 19, 2021

The European Court of Human Rights, which is responsible for interpreting the European Convention on Human Rights, has begun considering whether states have violated their citizens’ human rights by failing to do enough to cut emissions.

ECtHR backs Mandatory Pre-School Vaccination

April 14, 2021

For the first time first time, The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled on compulsory vaccination against childhood disease and has backed the Czech Republic in its requirement for mandatory pre-school vaccinations, finding that while the Czech policy interfered with the right to a private life, there was a need to protect public health.

The Istanbul Convention Ignites Europe’s Cultural Wars

April 12, 2021

Politico reports that after nearly ten years, the Istanbul Convention, which was intended to « protect women against all forms of violence » and was signed by the 45 Council of Europe member countries, is today causing division as Eastern and Western Europe enter a culture war concerning the definition of gender.