Section: European Voice (EU)
‘Little Englanders’ take comfort from Dutch ‘No’ to EU
LONDON — The organizers of a shock Dutch vote against the EU have struck a deal with British Euroskeptics to campaign in the U.K. ahead of this summer’s historic Brexit referendum. In a boost for the “Leave” campaign, Nigel Farage, the MEP and leader of the anti-EU U.K. Independence Party, said he had been contacted by the leaders of the...
Juncker is ‘sad’ about Dutch No vote
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is “sad” about the results of a Dutch referendum on an EU-Ukraine deal, an emotion shared Thursday by many European politicians to what is being seen as another sign of voters’ antipathy to Brussels. Dutch voters on Wednesday overwhelmingly rejected a cooperation agreement between the EU and...
Dutch reject EU-Ukraine deal
The Dutch rejected an EU deal with Ukraine in a referendum on Wednesday, with 64 percent voting No, according to an exit poll. According to the broadcaster NOS, the turnout was 29 percent when polling stations closed at 9 p.m. The final result will come in late Wednesday evening, polling organization Ipsos said. The result of the referendum is...
Journalist at center of Panama leaks: ‘Nobody hiding offshore is safe’
For months, as they worked in secrecy to pull together a huge trove of leaked data from a Panamanian law firm, the investigative team at Süddeutsche Zeitung knew they had an explosive scoop. Even so, the international reaction has been “far above what we expected,” Frederik Obermaier, one of the German newspaper’s investigative reporters,...
5 ways the Panama Papers swept up EU figures
European politicians and their families did not escape scrutiny in the huge leak of confidential documents revealing how tax havens are used to hide wealth. More than 11 million records from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca provide a look at the secretive world of offshore finance, and some prominent politicians have been caught up in the...
Obama reassures NATO leader after Trump rants
Barack Obama wants NATO to know that, unlike Donald Trump, he’ll never let go. The president met with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg at the White House on Monday, a gathering that drew heightened interest in the wake of suggestions by Trump, the GOP presidential front-runner, that it may be time to leave the decades-old security...
Margrethe Vestager says Panama Papers the ‘tip of the iceberg’
The Panama Papers scandal is the “tip of the iceberg” when it comes to wealthy individuals being helped to avoid paying tax, European Competition Commissioner Magrethe Vestager said Monday. The commissioner told Danish paper Børsen Finans that other companies provide offshore services similar to those performed by Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based...
Trump and Putin: Two Liars Separated at Birth?
Among the many dangers of Donald Trump is that he will make the United States “great” again in exactly the way that the GOP front-runner’s one-time admirer, Vladimir Putin, claims he is making Russia “great” again. In other words, fraudulently. In Russia today, thanks to Putin, spectacle, theater and lying pervade the media, confuse the...
Why NATO is unlikely to respond to Brussels attacks
President Obama and Donald Trump don’t agree on much. But when both make similar complaints about NATO allies “free-riding” on U.S.-provided security, you have to worry about the Alliance’s future. To her credit, Hillary Clinton pushed back hard against Trump’s assertion that “NATO may be obsolete.” Referring to the...
Europe to US: Ignore Donald Trump, we need NATO
WASHINGTON — The disconnect was striking. As Donald Trump doubled down on his disdain for an “obsolete” NATO this week, Eastern European and Baltic leaders were pitching a very different message to U.S. leaders: American support for the 66-year-old alliance is more vital than ever. “It is in the interest of the United States not to have war in...
