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Greece is the EUs heaviest-smoking country, a survey published by the European Commission for World No Tobacco Day has found.

Thirty-seven percent of Greeks are smokers, according to the report, which also showed that Greece had the smallest proportion of people, 44 percent, who said theyve never smoked a cigarette.

The survey showed a wide range of smoking rates among countries in the EU, which overall has a smoking rate of 26 percent. After Greece, France and Bulgaria were tied in second place, both with a 36 percent smoking rate, then Croatia at 35 percent.

Sweden had the lowest rate at just 7 percent. It also found that overall in the EU, the smoking rate among 15- to 24-year-olds has gone up from 25 percent in 2014 to 29 percent this year.

In terms of measures to stamp out smoking, 63 percent of those surveyed for the study said the use of electronic cigarettes should also be banned in places where smoking is prohibited.

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Survey: Greeks are heaviest smokers in European Union - Kathimerini

It lists 74 different EU bodies which it wants Britain to pay its share of funding, including the European Commission, the European Standards Agency and the EU Council.

The final bill should be paid in euros, it says, adding that the financial settlement should be based on the principle that the United Kingdom must honour its share of the financing of all the obligations undertaken while it was a member of the Union.

The United Kingdom obligations should be fixed as a percentage of the EU obligations calculated at the date of withdrawal in accordance with a methodology to be agreed in the first phase of the negotiations.

The bill should also take into pensions and other employee benefits of staff at the EU institutions.

Mrs May will use the demands to try to convince voters that she is better placed than her Labour rival Jeremy Corbyn to negotiate Britains exit from the EU.

Mrs May is expected to say today: The European Commission has shown the importance of the choice faced by the British public next week.

They are adopting an aggressive negotiating position, which can only be met by strong leadership on behalf of Britain. Jeremy Corbyn is in no position to provide that kind of leadership. He has no plan to deliver Brexit, and he has already admitted he would give control of our borders and control of our laws back to Brussels. The Brexit negotiations are due to begin only eleven days after polling day.

If I lose just six seats, Jeremy Corbyn could become Prime Minister at the head of a coalition of chaos, with the parties still arguing among themselves rather than negotiating for Britain.

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European Union demands indefinite right to remain for unborn children of EU nationals in UK - Telegraph.co.uk

EUROPEAN LOCAL COMMUNITIES, WHATEVER THE HELL THEY ARE, are to be equipped with and offered WiFi hotspots under European Union proposals.

This plan has been bubbling under for some little time now, and was hinted at in September last year when the EU said that a thing called WiFi4EU could be used to blanket cities and towns with free and fast wireless when otherwise it would not be available.

"On 14 September 2016, the Commission published a proposal for the promotion of very fast wireless internet access in local communities. This service would be provided free of charge to the public at large. The areas covered would encompass public administrations, libraries and hospitals, as well as outdoor spaces accessible to all," explains the European Parliament.

"The aim is to increase accessibility to high-performance mobile internet, and to raise awareness of the benefits of such connectivity. It is planned to simplify administrative procedures and to use EU funds to provide financial support to the establishment of such networks."

The UK did a thing last June that surprised us, and could now mean that we stand outside of this WiFi bonanza and look on enviously and wonder how a gigabit society would feel under our feet. So we cannot be too enthused about this right now, but the Eurocrats certainly are.

"This action comes within the framework of the digital single market, and is one of several legislative proposals announced by the Commission with its communication, Connectivity for a competitive digital single market - Towards a European gigabit society'", they added.

"The proposal aims to develop, by 2025, fast wireless internet connections for citizens in spaces where public services are provided. These could be public administrations, libraries and hospitals. Other places where community life takes place should be targeted too, such as outdoor spaces accessible to the general public.

"It is expected that this operation will raise citizens' awareness of, and interest in, high capacity internet services, thus promoting both the use of new, fast services, and the development of public infrastructure."

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European Union greenlights free WiFi for towns and villages - The INQUIRER

The panel of judges at the European court of justice will hand down its final ruling on the case this summer. Photograph: Francois Lenoir/Reuters

The Home Office was wrong to deny the Algerian husband of a dual British-Spanish citizen the right to live with her in the UK, according to the initial opinion of the European court of justices advocate general in a test case.

In the AGs official opinion, Toufik Lounes does have the right to remain in the UK even though his wife, Perla Nerea Garca Ormazbal, became a British citizen in 2010 a change in status that it had been claimed meant she had lost the right she had previously enjoyed to bring her family to the UK.

The panel of 15 judges will hand down its final ruling on the matter this summer. The judgment will then be considered by a high court judge, who referred the Lounes case to Europe last year.

The Home Office had argued that the womans freedom of movement rights, which enable EU citizens to live with their family in any other state within the EU, had fallen away once she naturalised. The advocate general, Yves Bot, agreed that this appeared to be the case under the European directive 2004/38 on freedom of movement, but found that Garca Ormazbal had legacy rights as an EU national.

The rights she used to reside in the UK continued to apply even though she had become a British national subsequently, under article 21 of the superior and overarching treaty on the functioning of the European Union (TFEU), he found.

Under article 21(1) TFEU, member states must permit EU citizens who are not their nationals to move and reside within their territory with their spouse and, possibly, certain members of their family who are not EU citizens, said Bot.

The opinion is not the final word on the case, with a full ruling yet to be arrived at by the panel of the grand chamber, which heard the case earlier this month.

However, it is seen as a significant step in a case that could have widespread implications for all EU citizens applying for British passports and those married or considering marriage to a third-country national.

The case was referred to the European court by the high court in London last year after the Home Office rejected an application by Lounes for permanent residency in the UK on the basis that his wife remained an EU national as a dual British-Spanish citizen.

The Home Office had argued that Garca Ormazbals rights under the freedom of movement directive no longer applied because she had become a British citizen in 2010.

They argued that instead, domestic immigration laws applied and therefore he was not entitled to apply for permanent residency under EU legislation.

Bot sided with the Home Office in part of his opinion, which centres on the complex interplay between domestic and EU law. He found that she did not have rights under the 2004/38 freedom of movement directive.

In his opinion Bot said: Garcia Ormazabal no longer falls within the definition of a beneficiary within the meaning of the directive. It follows that her spouse is not eligible, on the basis of the directive, for a derived right of residence in the member state of which his spouse is now a national.

Her legal situation has profoundly altered, both in EU law and in national law, on account of her naturalisation.

But he found that although it is for each member state to lay down the conditions for the acquisition and loss of nationality, that competence must be exercised having due regard to EU law and the national rules in question must have due regard to EU law.

Under article 21(1) TFEU, member states must permit EU citizens who are not their nationals to move and reside within their territory with their spouse and, possibly, certain members of their family who are not EU citizens, he said.

Lounes came to the UK on a six-month visitor visa in 2010 and illegally overstayed, according to the high court ruling on the case last year.

The high court judges referred the matter to the European court for future clarity on the complex interplay between European treaties, directives and British legislation.

They described it as a test case and stayed its judgment pending the European courts interpretation of the law. They heard that in 2013 Lounes formed a relationship with Garca Ormazbal and the couple married on 16 May 2014.

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UK wrong to deny residency rights in test case, EU's legal adviser says - The Guardian

Berlin: Germany unleashed a volley of criticism Monday against US president Donald Trump, slamming his "short-sighted" policies that have "weakened the West" and hurt European interests.

The sharp words from Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel came after Trump concluded his first official tour abroad which took him to Saudi Arabia, Israel, Brussels and then Italy for a G7 summit.

They followed Chancellor Angela Merkel's warning on Sunday that the United States and Britain may no longer be completely reliable partners.

Germany's exasperation was laid bare after the G7 summit which wrapped up on Saturday with the US refusing so far to sign up to upholding the 2015 Paris climate accord.

Days earlier, in Saudi Arabia, Trump had presided over the single largest US arms deal in American history, worth $110 billion over the next decade and including ships, tanks and anti-missile systems.

File image of Donald Trump. AP

Gabriel said Monday that "anyone who accelerates climate change by weakening environmental protection, who sells more weapons in conflict zones and who does not want to politically resolve religious conflicts is putting peace in Europe at risk".

"The short-sighted policies of the American government stand against the interests of the European Union," he said, judging that "the West has become smaller, at least it has become weaker".

"We Europeans must fight for more climate protection, fewer weapons and against religious (fanaticism), otherwise the Middle East and Africa will be further destabilised," Gabriel said.

'Take fate into our hands'

Germany's harsh words for Washington, traditionally a close ally, were highly unusual and came as relations have grown increasingly frosty.

When Trump was inaugurated in January, Merkel had told the billionaire and former reality TV show star that cooperation would be on the basis of shared democratic values.

The relationship between Merkel and Trump contrasts with the warm ties between her and former US president Barack Obama who last week travelled to Berlin to attend a key Protestant conference.

Obama's participation in a forum with Merkel last Thursday came hours before her meeting with Trump in Brussels at the NATO summit.

At the alliance's meeting on Thursday, Trump lambasted 23 of the alliance's 28 members including Germany for "still not paying what they should be paying" towards the funding of the bloc.

After the NATO and G7 summits, Merkel said at an election rally in southern Germany that "the times in which we could completely depend on others are on the way out. I've experienced that in the last few days."

"We, the Europeans, will have to take our fate into our own hands. Our friendship with the US, the UK, our neighbourly relationship with Russia and also with other countries count, of course. But we must know, we have to fight for our own future," she said.

In response to Merkel's comments, Britain said it would be a "strong partner" to Germany.

"As we begin the negotiations about leaving the EU, we will be able to reassure Germany and other European countries that we are going to be a strong partner to them in defence and security and, we hope, in trade," Britain's interior minister Amber Rudd told BBC radio.

"We can reassure Mrs Merkel that we want to have a deep and special partnership so that we can continue to maintain European-wide security to keep us all safe from the terrorists abroad and those that are trying to be nurtured in our country," she said.

Separately, France's defence minister Sylvie Goulard said that Trump's broadside at NATO allies could boost efforts toward a common European defence policy.

"At a time when we want to take steps forward for Europe and its defence, it is a spur," said Goulard.

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker "supports building bridges," spokesman Margaritis Schinas said, while the EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said on Twitter he "agreed" with Merkel that "Europe's destiny is in our own hands".

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Donald Trump has 'weakened' the West, hurt European Union interests: German FM Sigmar Gabriel - Firstpost