Day: February 27, 2019

    France would block a delay to Brexit unless it had a clear objective based on a new choice by the British, Emmanuel Macron has said. Speaking at a joint press conference with German chancellor Angela Merkel in Paris, the French president became the first EU leader to categorically raise the possibility of blocking an extension to the Article 50 negotiating period. We would support an extension request only if it was justified by a new choice of the British, he told reporters. But we would in no way accept an extension without a clear objective. France has a veto on an Article 50 extension because all EU countries must unanimously agree to an extension for one to happen. Speaking at the roughly same time in Madrid, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez warned that ...

    A Dutch court has backed the suspension of a Muslim man’s benefits over his refusal on religious grounds to shave his beard while on training for a job. The unnamed man had been offered a job as an asbestos removal officer but was subsequently told he would need to be clean shaven in order to undergo the training course. When he refused on the basis of his religious convictions, Amersfoort city council suspended payments to both him and his wife for a month under the Participatiewet, which provides a minimum income for every legal resident in the Netherlands. The man appealed the decision at the court of central Netherlands, where he claimed that the removal of his benefits was an infringement of article nine of the European convention on human rights which protect...