Новости за 23.04.2018

Immediately after Orban's landslide victory in April, a list of so-called 'Soros mercenaries' was published by pro-government media. Those on it - mostly human rights defenders, activists and Orban critics - are now anxious but vow to continue.

The European Commission finally proposed a directive to protect whistleblowers in response, at least partly, to scandals like Luxleaks, the Panama Papers and the ongoing Cambridge Analytica revelations.

Finnish MEP Heidi Hautala won a trailblazing court case two decades ago for the right of EU citizens to receive 'partial access' to documents. Now she says it is "outrageous" the European Investment Bank is refusing to release Volkswagen documents.

The European Commission "will not shy away from consequences" if the inquiry into the 2017 murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia finds who ordered the killing, "even if that would have other implications pertaining to authorities in Malta or other economic structures," first vice president Frans Timmermans declared on Monday. Timmermans said that recent revelations by an international consortium of journalists will be "carefully ascertained" by the commission.

The European Commission opened an investigation on Monday over a €900m loan from the Italian government to Alitalia last year. "The commission has a duty to make sure that loans given to companies by member states are in line with the EU rules on state aid," said EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager. The loan was given to avoid bankruptcy, after the airline was placed under extraordinary administration in May 2017.

The only surviving suspect from the 2015 terror attacks in Paris was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a Belgian court on Monday, for his part in a shoot-out with Brussels police in March 2016. Salah Abdeslam injured four Belgian police who were trying to arrest him in connection with the Paris attacks, which left 130 dead. Abdeslam will go on trial for the Paris attacks in 2020.

Former and current members of the parliamentary assembly, including Spain's current state secretary for defence, broke codes of conduct, according to a damning new report.

French lawmakers are cracking down on asylum seekers in a bid to send those rejected back home. Controversial measures they passed over the weekend will now be debated in the French senate in June.

German chancellor Angela Merkel and Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto hailed on Sunday the EU-Mexico trade agreement reached in principle on Saturday. At a trade fair in Hanover, they insisted on the need for "free international trade based on common rules." The agreement, when confirmed after more technical talks, will abolish duties on "practically all trade in goods" between the EU and Mexico.

Andrea Nahles was elected leader of Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) on Sunday - the first woman to reach this position. Nahles' result - 66.35 percent of the delegates' votes - highlighted the party's division after its electoral defeat last year and the debate over whether to participate in the 'Grand Coalition' with Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats. Nahles insisted on the need to reform the party while supporting SPD ministers.

EU funds could be redirected from eastern to southern member states, according to a draft European Commission proposal seen by the Financial Times. Under the post-2020 EU budget, cohesion funds would be distributed on the basis of GDP per head, but also according to criteria such as unemployment, education, migration and innovation. This would move funds away from countries like Poland and Czech Republic to Spain or Greece.