EU Friday – 12 June

EU Friday – 12 June

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Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. BIG ON BIG THINGS: STOP KILLING VIDEO GAMES (AND GIVE ME A BLUE PASSPORT) Big on the big things, and small on the small things. That's what Europe should be, right? Packaging waste? Small thing, so simplify. Sustainability reporting for companies? Small thing, so simplify. High-risk AI use? Small thing, so simplify. Planned obsolescence of video games? Big thing. HUGE thing actually. Well, if you believe the 1.3 million citizens who signed a petition to Stop Killing Videogames. On paper, it makes sense. You buy a video game, which rewards the makers but also finances some of the operating costs if it's an online game -- think the servers that host multiparty games, or simply an anti-piracy check that requires the…
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EU Friday – 5 June

EU Friday – 5 June

EU Friday
Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. DON’T TOUCH MY SCHENGEN Ah, Schengen. Who hasn’t visited the sleepy village on the Moselle river, with its German-French-Luxembourgish border tripoint, the Columns of Nations and the brand-new Schengen museum? For most of us, the treaty named after the village represents something bigger – free unbothered travel across the borders between European countries. Even if the Brussels bubble thinks the word “border” refers to the outside of the EU and prefers to refer to “Member States”, the reality is that freedom of movement hasn’t been the most accessible of the four freedoms we were promised. From the full-scale shutdowns during Covid to the recurring deadly traffic incidents due to symbolic attempts to stop migrant flows at the non-borders, the measures come…
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