France Labor Laws: Macron government launches overhaul of France's labour laws - by Kim Willsher

Emmanuel Macron’s government has announced a “major and ambitious” transformation of France’s complex labour laws aimed at tackling mass unemployment and making the country more competitive in the global market.

Five decrees have been issued, containing what ministers said were “concrete and major measures” to overhaul and simplify the weighty Code du Travail, which covers every aspect of working life in France.

In an interview before the measures were unveiled on Thursday morning, the French president said the country was “turning the page on three decades of inefficiency”.

Read more: Macron government launches overhaul of France's labour laws | World news | The Guardian

EU Policy Renewable Energy: opening markets for corporate renewable energy buyers

RE100 is a global collaborative initiative bringing together 102 influential and multinational businesses that are committed to sourcing 100% renewable electricity globally. Together, they represent demand for over 146 terawatt hours of renewable electricity annually – about enough to power Poland.

These companies have made this highest-level commitment because they know that renewable electricity makes long-term business sense. The technology is ready, unsubsidized costs are competitive, and companies are ready to invest at scale.

Corporate sourcing of renewables represents a major new flow of capital and finance into Europe’s renewable electricity infrastructure. Much of the electricity used by our members in Europe is already from renewable sources, and they are leading the way through a combination of power purchase agreements (PPAs), on-site generation, green contracts and certificates.

IKEA Group, a founding member of RE100, owns more wind turbines than stores and is aiming to produce as much energy as it consumes by the end of the decade. The company has also invested an impressive $1.78 billion (€1.5 billion) in purchasing its own wind and solar power generation equipment since 2009 and in FY15 committed a further $715 billion (€600 million).

Last year, Mars, Inc. signed a PPA for a wind farm in Scotland to power its entire UK operations. Meanwhile, RE100 members Royal DSM, Google, Royal Philips and AkzoNobel joined forces to sign an exciting joint PPA for 350 gigawatt hours per year in the Netherlands.

RE100’s 102 members are:

AB InBev	Equinix	Philips Lighting
Adobe	Facebook	Procter & Gamble
AkzoNobel	Formula-E	Proximus
Alstria	Gatwick Airport	Rackspace
Amalgamated Bank	General Motors	RELX Group
Apple	Givaudan	Ricoh
AstraZeneca	Goldman Sachs	Royal Philips
Autodesk	Google	Salesforce
Aviva	H&M	SAP
AXA	Heathrow Airport	SAVE S.p.A. Group
Bank of America	Helvetia	SGS
Bankia	HP Enterprise	Sky
Biogen	HP Inc.	Starbucks
Bloomberg	IFF	Steelcase
BMW Group	IHS Markit	Swiss Post
British Land	IKEA	Swiss Re
Broad Group	Infosys	Tata Motors
BT Group	ING	TD Bank
Burberry	Interface	Telefonica
Caixa Bank	J&J	Tesco
Carlsberg	J. Safra Sarasin AG	Tetra Pak
Coca-Cola European Partners	Kingspan	UBS
Colruyt Group	KPN	Unilever
Commerzbank AG	La Poste	Vail Resorts
Corbion	Landsec	Vaisala
Credit Agricole	LEGO	VF Corporation
Dalmia Bharat Cement	L’Occitane	VMWare
Danske Bank	Marks & Spencer	Voya Financial
Dentsu Aegis Network	Mars	Walmart
Diageo	Microsoft	Wells Fargo
DNB	Nestlé	Workday
DSM	Nike	YOOX
Ebay	Nordea
Elion	Novonordisk
Elopak	Pearson

For additional info – or to join the campaign – contact:

info@re100.org

Read more: EU policy: opening markets for corporate renewable energy buyers | The Climate Gr

Brexit: EU's Juncker Slams U.K. on Brexit as Fractious Talks Resume - by Ian Wishart and Nikos Chrysoloras

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker joined the bloc’s chief negotiator in lashing out at the U.K. for failing to prepare for Brexit talks, as the third round of negotiations looked set to produce little progress.

“I’ve read all the position papers produced by Her Majesty’s government and none of them is satisfactory,” Juncker said on Tuesday at a conference in Brussels, as talks between the U.K. and the EU resumed. “There is still an enormous amount of issues that remain to be settled.”

The stage had already been set for an intense round of negotiations after chief negotiator Michel Barnier and Brexit Secretary David Davis met on Monday for the first time since July and candidly aired their frustration at each other’s approaches. Barnier said time was running out, as the U.K. continued in its bid to change the order of topics discussed.

Read more: EU's Juncker Slams U.K. on Brexit as Fractious Talks Resume - Bloomberg

Poland tells EU its overhaul of judiciary in line with EU standards

Poland said on Monday that the legislative process overhauling its judiciary is in line with European standards and called the European Commission’s concerns about rule of law in the country groundless.

On July 26, the Commission said it would launch legal action against Poland over the reforms and gave Warsaw a month to respond to concerns that the process undermines the independence of judges and breaks EU rules.

Last month, Polish President Andrzej Duda signed into a law a bill giving the justice minister the power to replace heads of ordinary courts, but after mass street protests blocked two other bills.

Read more: Poland tells EU its overhaul of judiciary in line with EU standards

Hungary severs diplomatic ties with the Netherlands

Hungary is suspending high-level diplomatic ties with the Netherlands in a row over the relocation of asylum-seekers from Greece and Italy.

The country is recalling its ambassador to the nation following remarks made by the Dutch ambassador which criticised Hungary for its stance.

The Hungarian foreign minister said his country’s decision was "one of the most radical steps in diplomacy" and that it would ask the Dutch foreign ministry for its position on the statements of Ambassador Gajus Scheltema, published Thursday in Hungary by the 168 Ora magazine.

Peter Szijjarto said Scheltema - already scheduled to leave Hungary soon - was no longer welcome at any Hungarian ministry or state institution.

"We won't settle for an explanation behind closed doors," he added.

In the interview, Scheltema was critical of Hungary's unwillingness to participate in a European Union plan to relocate asylum-seekers from Greece and Italy.

He also criticized the Hungarian government's campaign against billionaire financier and philanthropist George Soros and drew parallels between the government's efforts to "create enemies" and those of the Islamic State group.

Note EU-Digest: It seems the Hungarians are only interested in the benefits of being a member of the EU and not in living up to the obligations. Shame on them. 

 Read more: Hungary severs diplomatic ties with the Netherlands - The National

Spain Terrorist Attacks: King Felipe joins thousands on anti-terrorism march

Hundreds of thousands marched in Barcelona in a show of unity on Saturday evening, with chants of “I am not afraid”, after two terrorist attacks in the Spanish region of Catalonia last week left 15 dead.

The march was led by shopkeepers and residents of the city’s central boulevard, Las Ramblas, where a van ploughed into pedestrians on 17 Aug, killing 13 and injuring over 100.

The crowd applauded representatives of the police, fire services and medical professions, who were also prominent.

Spain’s King Felipe VI, prime minister Mariano Rajoy and the head of Catalonia’s regional government, Carles Puigdemont, dressed in dark suits, walked in the throng as people cheered while carrying red, yellow and white roses – the colours of Barcelona.

Read more: Spain attacks: King Felipe joins thousands on anti-terrorism march | World news | The Guardian

European Railways: Why interrailing as an adult is the best way to explore Europe - by Chris Beanland

Interrailing should be a compulsory teenage rite of passage – no wonder the EU recently floated the idea of giving out free passes to all 18-year-olds. What better way to protect this beautiful, but fragile union than by showing the next generation what they have in common with each other and how many hi-jinks they can get up to in neighbouring European countries?

It was my first taste of independent travel too – 17 summers ago, though it seems like yesterday. Back then it was a Karrimor loaded with band T shirts, Lonely Planet Europe On A Shoestring and bank robber sacks of change for telephone boxes. This time, instead of sleeping cars, hostels and that tangy scent of socks, there were nice hotels and the scent of understated luxury. Three’s Feel At Home free roaming contract and my iPhone brought the whole experience into the 21st century, and meant home was only the touch of a button away.

It was a cultural whip round the first time, but it was also a piss up – getting out of your tree being the sine qua non of teenage travelling – that resulted in lost cash cards, nearly getting into fights on night trains and passing out on deck chairs on Positano Beach. And I met so many people – this was social networking avant la lettre, coming across fellow flaneurs from Australia, Canada, Finland, and making firm friends, if not for life then at least for a night.

Interrailing as an adult was much more relaxed and even more cultured, with less boozing and earlier mornings. I sped through Rotterdam’s Docklands on a watertaxi, climbed all over Tomas Saraceno’s incredible spiderweb netting art installation five floors above the ground of Dusseldorf’s Modern Art Gallery, had a sneak preview of some of the exhibits at Kassel’s famous art festival, Documenta (documenta.com), saw Eileen Gray furniture at Munich’s Design Museum, drank at Wes Anderson’s Bar Luce in Milan’s Fondazione Prada, and explored Novi Belgrade’s mind-blowing brutalist architecture.

The food was better this time around too. Back in 2000 I had inadvertently explored the premise “how can a human function on pizza alone for three weeks?” shortly after enduring the very worst meal of my entire life (do not ever accidentally order the minced heart and lung soup at Worgl station buffet).

This time I ate mushroom arancini with a vegetable mayonnaise in an old swimming pool in Rotterdam (alohabar.nl) and fresh white asparagus at the BMW Welt’s restaurant. Even the train food was good – on Deutsche Bahn’s ICE I chowed down on lamb kofte with yoghurt and mashed carrots in the Bordrestaurant.

Read more: Why interrailing as an adult is the best way to explore Europe | The Independent