France has lashed out at Brussels over the European Commission's criticism of its treatment of Roma migrants and its threat to launch proceedings in the European Court of Justice

The EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights comes with the Lisbon Treaty, that Brussels plans to bludgeon through in the teeth public resistance and an Irish NO vote.  It includes the following items:   Article 11, Freedom of expression and information.  Para 1. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold

This morning we wake up to the sad news that France yesterday lost 10 of her men (with a further 21 injured) fighting for freedom in Afghanistan. They were ambushed by a resurgent Taliban just on the outskirts of Kabul....

With a nod and a wink accompanied by an embarrassed cough, Brussels has cleared the way for Gordon Brown to introduce a more Napoleonic style of internet freedom; one where the State decides whether you should have access or not.

France secures oversight of the European Union's banking and financial services policy, after a long political dog-fight which sees it take the key internal market portfolio in the next European Commission

Our man in Brussels, namely Bruno Waterfield is hot on the trail of the latest in the long saga of the euroweenies' attempts to create a European Army. The latest plan, he writes - which has "influential support in Germany and France" – is to set up "Synchronised Armed Forces Europe", or SAFE. This, he tells us, is a first step towards a true European military force. It isn't the f...

The World Economic Forum now ranks Sweden as the second-most competitive economy on earth, behind only Switzerland. According to the 2010 Index of Economic Freedom (compiled by the Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation), Sweden offers greater business freedom, trade freedom, monetary freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom, freedom from corruption,

Via Brussels Journal, France does what France does best. Here's Nicholas Sarkozy, Napoleons retarded little brother: The French National Assembly was the scene of a meeting earlier this month of the first Conference on the Teaching of Arabic Language and Culture, attended by a variety of interested parties. There was much wearisome blather about the need for "dialogue." In his message to the parti...

I am off. In more ways than one. First I am going on the campaign trail for what will be a pretty intensive month before the European election results are announced on 7 June, and don't expect to be in Brussels much. Of course my colleague Jonny Dymond has a head start on me and has already "done" France and Ireland. For me it's first stop France, and there'll be more on the mood th...

Consider the basic liberal rights - freedom of expression, freedom of religion and so forth. All bar a lunatic fringe would support them, yes? Nope: The data charted above has been extracted from a report by WorldPublicOpinion.org, and while many other countries were polled on all or some of the issues, I have limited the chart to the UK, US, France and as a contrast Nigeria. In order to keep the ...