European Politics Thread

Google is closing Google News in Spain and removing Spanish media outlets from the service following a row with the country’s government over new legislation aimed at protecting local publishers that requires the search company to pay for using their content.

The tech giant announced late on Wednesday that Google News would close in Spain on 16 December. A spokeswoman said she was “incredibly sad” to announce the company was shutting the service.

The Spanish government passed a new copyright law in October that imposes fees for online content aggregators such as Google News in an effort to protect the country’s print media industry. The law comes into effect in January.

Known popularly as the “Google Tax”, the law requires services that post links and excerpts of news articles to pay a fee to the Association of Editors of Spanish Dailies. It will also affect other news aggregators including Yahoo News. Authorities will have the power to fine websites up to €600,000 ($748,000) for linking to pirated content.

“This new legislation requires every Spanish publication to charge services like Google News for showing even the smallest snippet from their publications, whether they want to or not. As Google News itself makes no money (we do not show any advertising on the site) this new approach is simply not sustainable,” Richard Gingras, head of Google News, wrote in a blogpost.

He said Google was driving more than 10bn clicks to publisher websites every month and its Adsense product, which delivers ads to websites, paid out over $9bn to publishers last year, up from $7bn the year before. Google news is currently available in 70 international editions, covering 35 languages.

The Spanish law is one of a series of spats Google is now facing in Europe. European publishers including Axel Springer have accused the company of abusing its dominance in search and are pressing for action from the European parliament.

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Last month the parliament approved a motion calling for tougher regulation of internet search and suggested a break-up of Google to end its dominance in Europe.

Germany passed a similar law to Spain’s and Google removed newspapers from Google News in response but in October publishers reached an agreement with the company after traffic to their websites plummeted.

“For centuries publishers were limited in how widely they could distribute the printed page,” wrote Gingras. “The internet changed all that - creating tremendous opportunities but also real challenges for publishers as competition both for readers’ attention and for advertising euros increased.

“We’re committed to helping the news industry meet that challenge and look forward to continuing to work with our thousands of partners globally, as well as in Spain, to help them increase their online readership and revenues.”

Juncker survived a no-confidence vote in the European Parliament last month following revelations that companies such as Shire and Icap engaged in legal manoeuvres to reduce their tax bills by channelling money through Luxembourg while he was finance minister and prime minister of the Grand Duchy.

Since the names of more multinationals including Disney emerged this week – suggesting Luxembourg encouraged industrial scale tax avoidance – Juncker has been struggling to keep a distance from the scandal.

In an interview with the French left-leaning daily newspaper Libération in the wake of the latest revelations, he broke his silence to admit it was personally damaging.

“Subjectively speaking, I’ve nothing to blame myself for any more than others have, and I should add that European governments have said nothing following these articles. But, objectively speaking, I am weakened because Lux Leaks suggests that I took part in operations that did not follow basic ethical and moral rules.

“There are many doubts in the minds of numerous Europeans and I’m profoundly sad about that,” Juncker told Libération.

Juncker said that in 1997 he tried to ensure that a code of good conduct “against harmful tax competition” was adopted by the European Council of Finance Ministers. He said: “I tried to go further by proposing a binding directive, but certain countries opposed it.”

He added: “I don’t think I should be treated in isolation, detached from the actions of others. This is not a noble excuse, but everyone was at fault because we did not react to the disparity between national fiscal norms that allow multinational societies to find a darkroom. The fight against tax evasion and fraud are among my 10 priorities since my election campaign: so it’s not following the Lux Leaks revelations that I have suddenly discovered the need for action. Then my sincerity was believed, now people believe me less, but I will prove that those who believe in me are right.”

Acknowledging that “the atmosphere” has changed with regard to taxation, he said: “Public opinion and especially the victims of austere or rigorous policies no longer accept, and rightly so, the nonchalance with which other actors in economic and social life are treated.

“As governments now claim that we must fight against evasion and tax fraud, I trust that nobody will be opposed to the adoption of tools that allow us to do what we say. A directive on the automatic exchange of information on planned tax rulings will be presented during the first half of 2015. We will see who objects to it.”

A directive on the automatic exchange of information on planned tax rulings will be presented during the first half of 2015. We will see who objects to it.

(Reuters) - Europe's top court ruled on Thursday that obese people can be considered as disabled, but stopped short of saying that obesity was a condition that needed specific protection under European anti-discrimination laws.

The landmark decision will be closely read by European employers and means that companies might have to provide greater support to obese staff.

The case was instigated by a Danish court, which wanted guidance over a complaint of unfair dismissal brought by a child-minder who was sacked by a local authority.

Karsten Kaltoft, who never weighed less than 160 kilogrammes (352 pounds) during his employment, argued that his obesity was one of the reasons he lost his job and that this amounted to unlawful discrimination — an allegation the council denied.

The joint condemnation of PEGIDA was published on the morning after the latest pro- and anti-PEGIDA demonstrations were held in a number of German cities.

Police in Dresden estimated that around 18,000 people had turned up to the demonstration organized by a group known as PEGIDA, or "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West," on Monday evening, the largest number to turn up so far for the weekly rallies there.

Police in the eastern German city said around 3,000 people turned out to a counter-demonstration.

Similar rallies were held in other German cities on Monday night, including the capital, Berlin and the western city of Cologne, but in both cases the tables were turned on PEGIDA, with counter-demonstrators far outnumbering the anti-Islamist rallies.

The DPA news agency reported that around 5,000 demonstrated against PEGIDA in the capital, compared with several hundred supporters. Among the counter-demonstrators was Germany's justice minister, Heiko Maas, who tweeted pictures of the rally.

The city's authorities also ordered the lights that normally illuminate Brandenburg Gate to be turned off for the duration of the pro-PEGIDA demonstration.

Similarly, in Cologne, lights on the cathedral, which dominates the city's skyline, were ordered dimmed by the Roman Catholic church.

Cologne Cathedral Provost Norbert Feldhoff told private news broadcaster that the move was meant to make the demonstrators think twice about the cause they were supporting.