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Round-up of news stories from across the EU 3.5.16

01 May 2016

EU: Lobbying at EU level: Parliament hosts conference on mandatory transparency register (press release, pdf): "An upgrade of the EU lobbyist register is in the works after the European Commission launched a public consultation on switching from voluntary to mandatory registration for anyone interested in speaking to EU institutions to influence their work."

ITALY: Sino-Italian police patrols launched in Italy (New China, link): "Police officers from China are to collaborate with police officers from Italy in two joint patrols in Rome and Milan in a program based on a Sino-Italian agreement launched here on Monday.

According to the program, police who patrol touristic areas of Rome in central Italy and the business city Milan in northern Italy will include two Chinese officers each, who can speak Italian and English besides Mandarin, for two weeks starting from Monday.

"Today it is an important day because we are strengthening collaboration with China in a very special field," Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano told a press conference in Rome in the presence of the two countries' authorities.

Alfano said Chinese uniformed police would work together with Italian uniformed police in Rome and Milan to reinforce the sense of safety for the many Chinese tourists visiting Italy."

LUXEMBOURG: Deltour to give testimony in LuxLeaks trial (Luxemburger Wort, link): "On Tuesday LuxLeaks whistleblower Antoine Deltour is to give his version of events in the Luxembourg Criminal Court.

The former PwC Luxembourg employee is accused of stealing 45,000 pages of secret documents from more than 400 PwC clients.

The Frenchman is expected to say he did not plan to take the documents in advance and when he did, he acted in the general interest.

Deltour has always said he "acted out of conviction" for his ideas, "not to appear in the media.""

Poland’s ruling party calls for new constitution (New Europe, link): "Poland’s ruling Law & Justice party is gearing up to mark the 20th anniversary of the country’s modern constitution next year by starting to work on replacing the charter.

As reported by Bloomberg, the party’s co-founder Jaroslaw Kaczynski dug in over the party’s conflict with the Constitutional Tribunal, saying it won’t accept a court that’s putting itself “above the law”.

“We might not find enough support to change the constitution during this term, but it’s time to start the work,” Kaczynski said in Warsaw on May 2. “We can ask Poles if they prefer Poland that we’ve all seen or the one that’s ahead of us.”"

UK: Blacklisted workers win compensation from big construction firms (The Guardian, link): "Hundreds of workers who were blacklisted by large firms in an illegal conspiracy have won compensation following a long-running lawsuit.

Approximately 420 trade unionists have secured damages from major construction firms after launching legal action four years ago.

On Friday, they announced that they had reached out-of-court settlements with the firms. However, another group of approximately 90 workers have yet to settle and are scheduled to have their case heard in the high court on 9 May."

UK: Officers accused of 'hit-and-run' after police car collides with cyclist, crushes bike and drives off (Evening Standard, link): "The police 4x4 hit the cyclist – causing him to stumble backwards and drop his bike – and then crushed a second bike under its wheels before racing off on Friday night.

Witnesses described the incident at the junction of Vauxhall Bridge Road and Millbank as a “hit and run” as they slammed the officers’ actions.

Scotland Yard said police were trying to drive away in their BMW X5 after being “targeted by demonstrators”. They drove over the bike after it had been deliberately left in the road as an obstruction, a spokesman said."

UK: Spycops impresario Lambert referred to as core influence on entryism in Quilliam report (UndercoverInfo, link): "The Government’s flagship ‘counter-extremism’ think tank, the Quilliam Foundation, extensively references the ideas and approach associated with discredited spycops impresario Bob Lambert, according to a document seen by UndercoverInfo. The document, published by Quilliam, refers to ‘Lambertism’ (or entryism into the Muslim community – specifically the ‘non-violent extemist’ element) to describe this approach. A detailed analysis of Lambertism and its application to current counter-extremism strategies is provided in the document. What is astounding, however, is that Quilliam Foundation document mentions nothing about how Lambert is a core player in the spycops scandal, currently under investigation via the Pitchford Inquiry."