Month: August 2025

Courts do not merely interpret law: they make it. This statement holds true of all courts, notably higher courts, in all legal systems. Judges, it should be said, cannot escape making law because written laws are not always clear and unambiguous. In this sense, judicial discretion is unavoidable and part of the legitimate judicial process.

Legitimate judicial discretion, however, should be distinguished from judicial activism, which occurs when courts disregard the clear and precise wording of the relevant legal texts or resolve legal uncertainty to further certain political objectives or their own power. Courts may also be described as activist if, when faced with objective legal uncertainty, they systematically resolve such uncertainty in a specific direction only, again primarily to achieve specific political ends.

A prime example of an activist court is the European Court of Justice (ECJ), originally set up as an impartial arbiter to decide competence disputes between the EU and its member states, displays a distinct pro-EU bias in almost all its decisions. The origins of the ECJ’s judicial activism go back a long way: to the early years of the European Economic Community.

Last year EU institutions celebrated the 60th anniversary of the ECJ’s ruling in Costa v ENEL. In this early milestone case the ECJ proclaimed the doctrine of the primacy (commonly also referred to as ‘supremacy’) of Community law over national law, building on the doctrines of direct effect and binding force of ECJ case law which it had articulated only one year before, in the case of van Gend en Loos.

This year marks the 55th anniversary of the ECJ decision in Case C-11/70 Internationale Handelsgesellschaft mbH, which is the last of the ‘Big Three,’ the early transformative cases of the EU legal order. In this case the ECJ held that the doctrine of primacy applied without qualification and confirmed that, to ensure the uniform application of EU law, EU law reigned supreme even over national constitutional law.

In each of these cases the ECJ was presented with issues to which the EU Treaties provided no explicit or clear answer. Nonetheless, in all three cases, it reached an integrationist outcome which strengthened and extended the scope of EU law at the expense of national law to a point which is not evident from the treaty texts. The ECJ did so in defiance of established principles of public international law according to which i. the EU is not a superstate whose laws prevail over national law but simply an international treaty organisation, and ii. which only regulates legal relations between states and not between international organisations and natural persons.

The same holds for the ECJ’s decision in van Gend, namely, that the original European Community Treaties established a “new legal order of international law for the benefit of which the States have limited their sovereign rights.” The Community Treaties did not say so, nor does international law provide for, or authorise the proclamation, of such a new category of international treaty by the highest court of an international organisation such as the EU, which is itself a creation of a treaty between sovereign states.

The ECJ’s early decisions in Van Gend, Costa and the Internationale Handelsgesellschaft live on and inform its pro-EU decision-making to this date. The court’s activism is rooted in its distinctive ultra-flexible approach to treaty and legislative interpretation.

The general rules of treaty interpretation are set out in Articles 31(1) and 32(2) of the Vienna Convention on the Laws of Treaties (VCLT), designed to limit judicial discretion and to prevent activism.

While the VCLT is not free from uncertainty, Art 31 VCLT emphasises the crucial importance of the ordinary meaning of the treaty text, and that the words of the text must be interpreted in good faith. If this means anything at all, it must mean that purposes cannot simply be read into the text and that the text itself is the primary guide to meaning and purpose. Only if there is real uncertainty or ambiguity should other interpretative criteria be applied.

Although the EU is not a signatory to the VCLT, its member states have signed the convention. Indirectly, therefore, the EU and the ECJ too are under an obligation to follow its provisions. The ECJ has not disputed those facts.

Indeed, at first sight the ECJ’s own position appears to echo Art. 31 VCLT. The reality, however, is quite different: if the ECJ regarded itself as bound by the VCLT it would not decide as it does. Why?

First, although the ECJ frequently refers to the words used in the legal instrument it interprets, this in itself establishes little. The ECJ often cites the text without proper textual analysis. Crucially, compared to most, perhaps all other higher international and national courts, the ECJ is more likely to give priority to purposive criteria over linguistic criteria. These purposes to which the ECJ refers need not be explicit in the Treaties: they may be inferred.

Second, the ECJ extremely rarely uses historical arguments which interpret treaty provisions in the light of historical documents, the preparatory works and how they were understood when they were signed. The ECJ instead adapts its interpretation to the contemporary context.

Third, amongst the purposes the ECJ relies on are general ‘umbrella purposes’ which may not even be written into the treaty. For example, the ECJ has referred to the “spirit of the treaties” in dozens of cases. The spirit has an established place in Hegelian philosophy—but not in law. 

Fourth, any ECJ statement on the law may effectively become a precedent. The importance of de facto precedents in the ECJ’s argumentation is illustrated by the fact that there is now hardly any case in which the ECJ does not refer to at least one or two of its previous decisions. In referring back to its own case law, the ECJ implicitly also relies on meta-teleological considerations and the body of precedents itself acquires a communautaire flavour. Moreover, the appeal to precedent also lends later decisions the aura of legal objectivity, simply because in analysing a case not every relevant previous case is excavated and subjected to legal analysis.

Fifth, the ECJ does not apply a clear hierarchy of interpretative criteria. Instead, in departure from the VCLT, it adopts a variable interpretative approach which allows it to rely on purposive or literal criteria, depending on which outcome it favours. This ultra-flexible approach, combined with its meta-teleological dimension, gives its decision-making a distinctive pro-union tendency: a predisposition, in other words, to resolve legal uncertainty in favour of further integration and more EU power at the expense of national autonomy.

Finally, the ECJ operates in an extremely permissive political and judicial environment. ECJ judgments can be overruled only by the ECJ itself or by unanimous treaty amendment by the member states. In these circumstances general acceptance throughout the EU of the ECJ’s activist and integrationist approach to treaty interpretation means that the ECJ acquires a de facto power of amending and extending the EU Treaties.

The areas of substantive law where the court’s integrationism has been most evident include the free movement of persons, asylum & migration, fundamental rights & freedoms, and infringement cases. In these areas the ECJ has gradually but steadily extended the scope of Union law at the expense of national law. In other words, it has judicially amended the EU Treaties, in many cases beyond all recognition.

europeanconservative

A primary school has appointed a teacher who identifies as non-binary and wishes pupils to use the title “Mx” rather than traditional honorifics.

The appointment in the southern England school came to light when the school’s end-of-June newsletter listed new staff members joining in September, including someone with a masculine name preceded by “Mx”.

Following parental enquiries, the school confirmed the new teacher, who will work with children under eight, identifies as having neither male nor female identity.

School staff have already begun using “they” pronouns for the teacher, whilst some pupils who met them noted they wore nail polish and had a voice that “sounded a bit like a girl”.

Several parents have expressed alarm about the appointment, with some withdrawing their children from the school.

One mother said told the Telegraph: “At first I thought the ‘Mx’ was a spelling mistake.”

She added: “I don’t want him being told that the man in front of him isn’t a ‘he’ or a ‘him’. That’s very mixed up.”

Another parent said: “I’m sure this teacher is a nice guy, but if you don’t know what gender you are, what else are you going to be teaching our children?”

Legal and safeguarding specialists have raised concerns about the appointment, noting that non-binary status lacks legal recognition in the UK.

Tracy Shaw from the Safe Schools Alliance said: “Non-binary is not a status with any definition or meaning in law, as confirmed by the Supreme Court, and anyone claiming to have both (or neither) male and female identities should not be working in any capacity with children.”

“Safeguarding must always come first. Keeping children safe in education [KCSIE] statutory guidance used to be the bedrock of safeguarding in school but more and more we see diversity and inclusion being prioritised.

“KCSIE says that staff and leaders must always act in the best interests of the child, even when it is uncomfortable to do so, and adult needs, whether personal, professional or reputational, should never take precedence over a child’s right to be safe.”

Rosie Duffield, MP, said: “Professional adults should never require young children in their care to confirm or validate aspects of their private life or personal identity in a work setting.

“This person is, of course, entitled to live as they choose, but it has nothing to do with their professional paid job and raises complex, age-inappropriate issues which appear not to have been considered with much depth.”

The UK does not permit X markers on passports instead of M or F designations.

The school offered individual meetings with concerned parents rather than group discussions.

A spokesperson said: “We have offered or scheduled individual meetings with the small number of parents who have contacted us about the matter. These meetings are the right forum for discussing any concerns.”

Parents report the school insists on meeting them individually alongside council representatives, which some view as intimidating.

Multiple teachers and teaching assistants across UK schools reportedly use Mx titles, primarily in secondary education.

Legal experts suggest employers face complex challenges when staff claim non-binary identities, particularly regarding potential conflicts between employee rights and those of pupils and parents.

gbnews

A Christian doctor in Australia was found guilty of professional misconduct, not for substandard patient care, but because he had previously shared social media posts critical of abortion, LGBT ideology, and COVID-19 policies. 

Dr. Jereth Kok was suspended over six years ago and lost his career.  

His suspension was upheld on July 25 by the Victorian Civil and Administration Tribunal (VCAT), which decided that 54 of 85 social media posts published online over a 12-year period were examples of “misconduct” under the National Law.  

The decision “sets a concerning precedent for freedom of speech in Australia, particularly for professionals who hold Christian or conservative beliefs,” declared a statement from the Human Rights Law Alliance (HRLA), the attorney group that represented Dr. Kok. 

“It confirms that regulators like AHPRA and the Medical Board have significant powers to discipline practitioners not only for what they do in their clinical practice, but for holding and expressing unpopular social or moral views – even in a private capacity,” wrote HRLA. 

“This is a deeply concerning shift in regulatory scope over personal speech,” noted HRLA. “For Christian professionals – and indeed for any professional who holds views outside the progressive mainstream – the implications are serious.”

Australia’s Family First organization slammed the VCAT decision to uphold Kok’s suspension, calling it a “gross injustice and a chilling attack on freedom of speech.”

“Dr. Kok has harmed no patient. His only ‘crime’ was to express his views online — many of them satirical or Christian in nature — and for that, he has been punished with the loss of his medical career,” said Family First’s National Director Lyle Shelton.

“This is not justice, it is un-Australian,” said Shelton. “This is Victoria’s ‘ministry of truth’ enforcing ideological conformity and crushing dissent.”

“The fact that a satirical Babylon Bee article and a Christian commentary on transgenderism were key elements in VCAT’s findings shows just how far gone the Victorian legal and political establishment is,” said Shelton.

“Anti-free speech laws masquerading under ‘anti-discrimination’ and ‘anti-vilification’ laws are part of each state and territory jurisdiction. This is a national problem,” continued Shelton. “They are un-Australian because they crush freedom of speech and they allow activists with hurt feelings to unjustly weaponise the legal system.”

“The government has no place limiting the rights for professionals to express political and religious views, especially in their private capacity,” he added. 

“Maybe VCAT should consider changing its name to ‘The Ministry of Truth’, in keeping with its gatekeeping role regarding freedom of speech and any associated thought crimes of ‘doublespeak’,” asserted Christian commentator Mark Powell. “And yet, sadly, we probably have not reached our peak Orwell.” 

lifesitenews

A regional court in Potsdam has acquitted a 23-year-old migrant from Guinea of criminal responsibility for the January murder of a young CDU member in Beelitz and a separate knife attack on a woman, ruling that he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the crimes.

Mamadou Alpha B. will be committed on Thursday to a secure psychiatric facility indefinitely.

The court concluded that the Guinean, who arrived in Germany in 2016 and had no prior criminal record, was not in control of his actions due to a severe mental illness. “The defendant cannot be held criminally responsible,” presiding judge Bodo Wermelskirchen stated. “This was a treacherous murder, but the accused was mentally ill and is dangerous to the public.”

Remix News previously reported how, on Jan. 14, the migrant slit the throat of 24-year-old Christoph R., a neighbor and member of the CDU and its youth wing, the Junge Union. According to court testimony, Mamadou B. blindfolded the man, stabbed him to death, and then set his apartment on fire. He later called emergency services himself. The two men were previously acquainted, and the perpetrator claimed that they had met on multiple occasions, during which the victim allegedly blindfolded him and took photos in exchange for money.

The Guinean was arrested for another stabbing two weeks later, and police were able to connect him as a suspect to the previous murder of the CDU politician. This time, he targeted a 57-year-old Ukrainian woman, whom he stabbed in the neck in the same apartment building on Doktor-Hermann-Street.

The Ukrainian woman, who also had a personal relationship with the defendant, survived and testified during the trial.

On the first day of the trial at the Potsdam Regional Court, Mamadou B. admitted the charges, claiming that voices in his head ordered him to commit the crimes.

“I did it, I can’t change it. I feel like a stranger then, I can’t control myself,” he said.

Mamadou B. has reportedly been hearing voices since 2019, typically that of an older German woman, but had never sought treatment before his arrest. Psychiatric expert Jens Köhler described his condition as a long-term, deeply rooted form of schizophrenia. “He dissimulates, conceals symptoms, and is likely to abandon treatment outside a secure setting,” Köhler warned.

Since April, the migrant has been held at Asklepios Specialist Hospital in Brandenburg in a high-security ward reserved for dangerous offenders with psychiatric conditions. Despite treatment efforts, the clinic reported non-compliance with medication and had recently barred him from work due to security concerns.

As reported by Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung, Judge Wermelskirchen described Mamadou B. as an ongoing threat to society. “We have serious underlying offenses, and a serious dangerousness is evident,” he said, telling the defendant directly, “You are considered dangerous to the public. You lack a sound understanding of your illness and treatment.”

Mamadou B. had lived in Germany for nearly a decade and had worked in various sectors, including hospitality and nursing. His asylum application had been rejected due to previous applications in Italy and France, but he held a temporary residence permit at the time of the attacks.

Although the court did not rule on civil compensation claims, it suggested that B. may not be liable under civil law due to his mental condition. The victim’s mother is seeking at least €60,000 in damages.

The verdict is not yet final, and the defendant has one week to appeal the ruling.

rmx.news

On today’s #NCFNewspeak, Amy Gallagher of Stand Up to Woke is joined by political commentators David Oldroyd-Bolt and Peter Barnes to discuss: The Online Safety Act + The Manchester Airport Convictions + Trump’s Visit to Scotland

By Andrea Widburg

An indigenous British friend of mine (yes, her forebears go back more than 1,000 years) sent me a disheartening email about a recent visit she made to Gloucester, a small city in Southwest England. It’s worth reading her message to understand what has happened to the United Kingdom.

You don’t have to know anything about Gloucester to know that it was originally a Roman fort. That’s because the “cester” in the name comes from the Latin word “castrum,” meaning a “fortified place.” In the case of Gloucester, it was one of the first places the Romans established, way back in 48 A.D. It’s been continuously occupied since then and has played a significant part in British history.

In the next thousand years, Gloucester shuttled back and forth between the Romans, the Celts, the Angles, and the Saxons. After the Norman Conquest in 1066, the Gloucester barony was a major player in the massive mid-12th-century civil war between the Norman royal family. Fortunately, the barony picked the winning side, garnering a lot of grace and favor in the coming decades. By 1216, King Henry III was crowned in Gloucester Cathedral.

Oh, and about that Cathedral, it’s gorgeous. Its location as a holy site goes back to the seventh century, and it has been a place of worship since then. Construction on the present building began not long after the Norman Conquest, although the most recognizable parts date to projects begun in the 13th century and carried on for the next several hundred years.

So it goes through British history, with Gloucester repeatedly playing a featured role. It was a major medieval wool processing center; Parliament met there for decades around the turn of the 15th century; the Tudors were frequent visitors; and it played a significant role in the Roundhead (Parliamentarian) victory in the English Civil War in the 17th century, an victory that led to many of the ideas about liberty that we Americans once believed.

After its role as a power player in early British history, Gloucester subsided gracefully into being a nice place to live and, because of its gorgeous location, buildings, and the Cathedral, a major tourist hub. It’s also a big aerospace hub, as well as being a banking center. So, all in all, a nice place with a storied history.

According to the Office for National Statistics, 82% of the Gloucester population was born in England, although that doesn’t actually tell you how deep their roots in England are. The real information lies in the “ethnic groups” data, which says that 6.5% of Gloucester residents say that they’re “Asian,” which means Muslim. The website adds that “Asians” generally are growing rapidly as a percentage of the population in Southwest England. In addition, the percentage of people identified as black is growing rapidly, too.

So, Gloucester in a nutshell went from a Roman fort, to an important historic city, to a quiet tourist, aerospace, and banking area. And slowly, slowly, its population is changing.

And that gets me to my friend’s recent visit:

Yesterday I was in Gloucester which is a historic city and could be a real go-to destination if the local council spent some money on it. It has a fine cathedral, interesting old docks with a waterways museum, shops and restaurants, and Roman and medieval remains.

However, it’s the sort of place where you always have to keep looking over your shoulder, and I don’t like being there after dark (which is unavoidable on an autumn or winter afternoon).

Okay—here I’m going to be racist and judgmental: At a guess, getting on for half the people on the streets are not indigenous British (that doesn’t mean that they are elegant French women or hunky Icelanders. Most of the males have beards and a good proportion of the females are in head-to-toe black.) The Italian café on the waterfront which I used to love is now run by someone called Mohammed and the clientele are a mix of sub-Saharan Africans, Iraqis or Afghans, and Albanians or Rumanians.

As for the other people in Gloucester, they’re divided pretty equally into those verging on the insane, those who are grossly obese, and those who go in for alcohol or substance abuse. I do occasionally spot someone, like myself, who still appears to be reasonably normal.

Having described in grim terms a city that she’s visited regularly for thirty years, my friend had a further comment about life in Britain generally for those who remember it before Britain’s open-door policy to the Muslim swath of the Middle East and Africa:

There’s much about the UK which is depressing, and it’s galling to be told constantly that our lives are being enriched by diversity and that newcomers have so much to offer. I suppose that my reaction is just to get on with my life as best I can, and I’m lucky to live in what is still a relatively safe and pleasant part of the country, although how much longer it will remain like that is anyone’s guess. I still haven’t given up on the idea of moving abroad permanently, though. I don’t mind being a second-class citizen in someone else’s country, but I do object to being one in my own!

Historic England was flawed, as all countries are, since humans are flawed. However, over the centuries, sometimes through bloody warfare (e.g., the Magna Carta), sometimes to avoid bloody warfare (e.g., the English Bill of Rights), and sometimes because of brilliant men who synthesized their culture, the Bible, and the philosophers of the ancient world—men such as Adam Smith, John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and Thomas Paine—it is the country that, more than any other, gave the world the idea of liberty. It is tragic to witness its fall.

americanthinker

Austria’s largest Islamic association is caught up in a mega scandal: high-ranking officials are alleged to have diverted donations to prostitutes, among other things. The affair highlights a fundamental problem of Islamic associations: a lack of transparency.
The Turkish newspaper Sözcü dropped a bombshell on Friday that has caused uproar not only in Austria but also in Ankara. And the accusations are not coming from “Islam haters”, but from the very top: The Turkish religious authority Diyanet has been conducting an investigation in Vienna for five years into the alleged misuse of donations, bringing to light many things that Allah has forbidden: donations collected on a variety of occasions are said to have been misappropriated.

At the center of the affair: the Austrian-Turkish Islamic Union (ATIB), the largest mosque association in Austria and, alongside the Islamic Federation (AIF), a dominant organization of the Islamic Religious Community (IGGÖ) with 63 mosque associations.

The Turkish TV station Veryansin calls it an “escort scandal”. The most spectacular accusation relates to the use of donations collected on Fridays and Islamic holidays for “escort ladies”, i.e. prostitutes. At least four escort women are said to have been hired with the embezzled funds.

Employees working abroad are accused, including Imam F.M.K. and M.Ş., who were responsible for the Diyanet foundations in Austria and the ATIB. They are said to have already been dismissed. According to Diyanet, Sözcü reports, the dismissals were due to “indiscipline and inadequacies”. The embezzled funds are said to have come from hajj (pilgrimage), kurban (sacrificial animal donations) and book sales as well as from the burial fund. The illegal expenditure was disguised using false accounting data such as “costs for residence permits, rents, etc.”.

Süzcü also reports on alleged bribery attempts by the suspects in Vienna: Diyanet investigators are said to have been invited to luxurious events in order to influence the results of the investigation.
One of those dismissed is said to be related to a former minister of the Turkish ruling party the AKP, which fuels speculation about a possible cover-up attempt: The investigations by the Diyanet, which reports directly to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, dragged on for five years and have only now been leaked.

It is no coincidence that media critical of the regime reported on it. The Sözcü newspaper, founded in 2007, is published by BEME Media AG, which is registered in Switzerland, and is considered one of the most prominent media houses in Turkey with a clear anti-government orientation. The paper is highly critical of the policies of President Erdoğan and the AKP. It has been the target of legal action on several occasions – such as arrest warrants against founder Burak Akbay and his staff. Pro-government circles accuse Sözcü of having links to the Gülen movement (FETÖ), which the paper strictly rejects. The TV station Veryansin is also critical of Erdogan.

Information from the Austro-Turkish community, according to which the affair triggered a personnel change at the Turkish embassy in Vienna two years ago, is an indication of what appears to have been a long and successful cover-up attempt. A high-ranking Attache was ordered back to Turkey in August 2023, where he was district mufti until last January, before being appointed Diyanet advisor. However, his name can no longer be found in the religious authority’s organization chart.

The ATIB head office in Vienna has remained silent about the affair. Written and telephone inquiries from exxpress have so far gone unanswered. According to Turkish media, the Austrian authorities have already been informed about the scandal.
The Federal Chancellery’s Cultural Affairs Office, which is responsible for religious affairs, informed exxpress that it will request a statement from the association regarding the Turkish media reports. In addition, an investigation by the Cultural Affairs Office into foreign funding in the ATIB is currently underway.
The affair raises the question of fundraising activities in the context of Islamic organizations in Austria. ATIB is not the only organization that collects donations on many occasions. There is even an Islamic counterpart to the Catholic Caritas, namely the Hasene organization belonging to the Islamic Federation (= Milli Görüs), which is active worldwide and also collects donations on many occasions in the Turkish community – including for Gaza.

In contrast to Caritas, however, Hasene does not offer any transparency: although handovers of relief supplies to those in need are repeatedly published on social media, inquiries about the exact balance of donations and the detailed use of the funds repeatedly go unanswered by Hasene Austria, even though donations to this organization are tax-deductible.

exxpress

The European Union’s hydrogen strategy is facing growing scrutiny as cost-efficiency concerns have mounted and deployment targets missed.

Despite political backing and multi-billion-euro commitments, experts warned the core assumptions behind renewable hydrogen — particularly its role in industrial decarbonisation — were not supported by the energy and economic realities.

In 2020, the European Commission presented its hydrogen strategy, targeting 10 million tonnes of annual “green” hydrogen production by 2030. Reaching this would require investments of up to €470 billion and a doubling of the EU’s electricity generation capacity. A significant portion of the bloc’s €1 trillion Green Deal package is earmarked to support this transition.

But four years later, progress is far behind schedule. As of early 2024, the EU had installed only 200 megawatts of electrolyser capacity, just 3 per cent of the 6 gigawatt interim goal for 2024.

Electrolysers use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis. The process is crucial for producing green hydrogen.

Meanwhile, one in four European hydrogen projects has been delayed or cancelled.

Sweden’s Stegra project (formerly H2 Green Steel) exemplified both the ambition and the structural issues. Backed by SEK 75 billion (€6.5 billion) in financing — including SEK 4 billion (€360 million) in grants from the EU and Swedish Government, and SEK 18 billion (€1.61 billion) in state-backed loans — the company aimed to produce fossil-free steel using hydrogen instead of coal.

When operational, the facility in Boden would consume 10 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity annually, equivalent to about 7 per cent of Sweden’s total electricity use.

According to the Swedish Energy Agency, national electricity demand could double by 2045, largely due to hydrogen-related industry growth. The combined needs of Stegra, the Hybrit project, and  mining giant LKAB’s electrification plans total more than 90 TWh — in excess of half of Sweden’s current electricity production.

Chemical engineer and hydrogen specialist Paul Martin told Swedish weekly economic magazine Affärsvärlden recently that the numbers did not add up.

“Green hydrogen retains only about 37 per cent of the original electricity input after electrolysis, compression, and conversion,”  Martin said. “You lose most of the energy before it can do any useful work.”

He added that hydrogen was not only energy-inefficient but also economically unsustainable under current conditions.

Stegra, for example, required electricity prices below SEK 0.40/kWh (€0.03/kWh) to remain viable, he said. The projected cost of electricity from new nuclear reactors, though, a key part of Sweden’s long-term energy strategy, was SEK 0.80 to 1.10/kWh (€0.071 to €0.098/kWh), based on government and market estimates.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimated that green hydrogen currently cost $3-$8/kg (€2.6-7/kg) too produce, depending on electricity prices.

Fossil-based hydrogen remains at $1-$2/kg (€0.8-1.75/kg). In sectors such as transport, the gap was even larger.

In Q1 2025, only 39 hydrogen-powered vehicles were sold across the EU.

According to a speaker at an industry conference led by the Swedish Environmental Research Institute, hydrogen would only become viable for freight transport at SEK 50/kg (€4.4/kg). Today, Swedish hydrogen sells for approximately SEK 200/kg (€17.8/kg).

Jonas Nycander, professor of meteorology at Stockholm University told Affärsvärlden: “Today’s low electricity prices are based on the fact that the surplus is so large that exports to the south reach the capacity ceiling in the pipelines – something that a massive expansion of hydrogen production risks putting a stop to.”

Martin, who co-founded the Hydrogen Science Coalition, said many proposed hydrogen-use cases, in heating, transport and storage, were technically feasible but not practical.

“When renewable electricity is limited, as it is in Europe, the question isn’t what hydrogen can do but what it does better than other options. And in most cases, the answer is: Nothing,” he said.

Even in steelmaking, where hydrogen is one of few fossil-free options today, competing technologies have emerged.

US-based Boston Metal has been developing a fully electric method using molten oxide electrolysis, for example.

Meanwhile, more than 70 per cent of steel in the US is already made using recycled scrap in electric arc furnaces, with no hydrogen required.

Martin warned: “Europe is heading into a dead end.

“We see huge amounts of public money being spent on hydrogen projects in infrastructure, transport, heating and energy storage.”

Because of the many applications of green hydrogen, progressive US billionaire Bill Gates has called it the “Swiss Army knife of the decarbonisation”.

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said in a speech to The Hydrogen Council in 2021 that “Clean hydrogen is a perfect means to achieve our goal of climate neutrality”. The EC chief was also the deviser of the Green Deal, a set of EU-wide policy initiatives with the overarching goal of making the European Union climate neutral by 2050.

The EU has pumped enormous amounts of money into green hydrogen.

Martin called the Swiss army knife metaphor accurate. “Not because hydrogen is good – but because, for practical reasons, the army knife is almost never the right tool for the job.

“Of course, hydrogen can be used for everything from heating, storage and transport. But almost every time, there is a solution that is simpler, cheaper and more efficient.”

brusselssignal

A woman in Basauri, Spain, says her life has been destroyed after a homeless migrant she took in through a charity association refused to leave her home, stopped paying rent, vandalized her property, and subjected her to a campaign of verbal abuse and intimidation.

Estíbaliz Kortazar, who initially rented a room to the man in a spirit of solidarity, has now been forced to abandon her own house out of fear.

“I met him through an organization that helps the homeless,” Estíbaliz told 20minutos. The man, a 48-year-old foreign national, agreed to pay €350 a month and initially honored the agreement. But after the informal contract ended at the end of last year, he refused to move out. By February, he had stopped paying rent altogether. Even before that, Estíbaliz says, the situation had become intolerable.

“He would take all my cooking pots into his room and leave nothing for me to use,” she said. “He turned up the television at midnight so I couldn’t sleep, he broke my furniture, he called me a slut, a dirty bitch, and a whore.” She says the man also tampered with the door locks, allowing himself to come and go at will while denying her full access to her own home.

Estíbaliz, a teacher who works online, said the squatter deliberately disrupted her lessons and left common areas in a state of filth. As utility bills soared, she grew convinced the man’s goal was to financially and psychologically break her.

She filed a complaint with the authorities, but was told the only real option was to keep reporting the matter. By January 2025, she had launched formal legal proceedings. In March, a court issued an eviction order, but due to Spain’s Decree 11/2020 — emergency legislation introduced during the pandemic to protect vulnerable tenants — the eviction was suspended until the end of 2025.

Unable to continue living with the man, Estíbaliz moved in with her brother in June and is currently on medical leave, undergoing psychological treatment. “He’s a psychopath, and his only goal is to ruin my life,” she said. “He’s not right in the head. He hasn’t attacked me yet, but I’m afraid he might.”

She emphasized that she is not seeking financial compensation. “He owes me over €2,100, but I don’t care about the money. I just want my house back.”

Estíbaliz has now launched a petition demanding faster eviction procedures in cases involving non-paying tenants.

“I feel like crying every time I enter my own house. I turn the key and feel terror. I used to rent a room, and now I live with a squatter who terrifies me and whom I can’t kick out,” Estíbaliz writes. “You don’t know what it’s like to live under the same roof as the person who’s making your life miserable. Watching them destroy your house… and your life. And feeling abandoned by your country’s justice system because the squatter who lives like a king has more rights than you.”

“Sign to demand that the processes to evict a non-paying tenant from your home be expedited now,” the petition reads. It has already received more than 27,000 signatures.

In her appeal to the public, she added: “The law protects squatters more than homeowners. The courts and police have forced me to live with an abusive man. I just want to feel safe in my own home again.”

rmx.news