Business Insider: Former ECJ judge: Theresa May's pledge to end all ECJ jurisdiction 'shows just how ignorant she is'

He added: "If a business manufacturing goods in the UK wants to export goods to the EU, as hundreds of them do, then those goods must comply with EU standards. As a practical matter, if you're manufacturing wedding cakes, for example, and you have to comply with EU food standards, you don't want to have to create two sets of wedding cake. You want to create one set to come off the production line so the cakes can be consumed both in the UK and the EU. [...]

"We will not have truly left the European Union if we are not in control of our own laws," the prime minister declared in her keynote Lancaster House speech in January.

However, for Sir David, it is not just May's unrealistic promises regarding the ECJ that have left him frustrated, but signs that both she and the government don't fully understand its purpose and remit. "The ECJ does not have 'direct jurisdiction' in or over the UK," the former ECJ judge tells BI. [...]

He continues: "They [ministers] use expressions like the ECJ can 'enforce' EU law or can 'direct' the UK — but it can't do any such thing. All it can do is say what the law is. The great thing about EU law is it doesn't have any police and enforcement is entirely by consent."

He says the only exception to this is in the "very rare case" of the ECJ fining an EU member state for repeatedly failing to comply with EU law. "It's happened with Greece when it was dumping hospital waste in a stream in Crete. They were told to stop it and they didn't and eventually the Court imposed a penalty on them for every day they failed to deal with the dumping of waste," Sir David explained. "But that's a very remote thing from us [the UK]."

"It's just ignorant," he adds. "The idea that the ECJ is a body like the US Supreme Court that can strike down legislation of states is just false.

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Deutsche Welle: Muslims 'integrate' better into Germany than rest of Europe

A study of five European countries found that 60 percent of the 4.7 Muslims in Germany participated in the labor market with near identical employment relative to other Germans. The unemployment rate among Muslims is also improving, and slowly approaching the national average.

The study by Germany's Bertelsmann Foundation assessed self-identified Muslims' language skills, education, work, and social contacts in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France and the United Kingdom. It did not include Muslims who arrived after 2010. [...]

Seventy-three percent of children born to Muslim parents in the Federal Republic grow up with German as their first language.

Though high school graduation rates are improving, there remains room for improvement. The study found that in France only 11 percent of Muslims do not graduate from high school, for instance, though in Germany, the number is 36 percent. [...]

For instance, when it comes to more devout Muslims, integration works much better in the UK. Yasmin El-Manouar, an Islam expert on behalf of Bertelsmannn and one of the study's authors, said Britain had created a "level playing field" for pious Muslims - female police officers in the UK have been able to wear a headscarf at work for the past 10 years. 

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BoredPanda: Supermarket Removes All Foreign Food From Shelves To Make A Point About Racism, And Here’s The Result

When customers walked into Edeka supermarket in Hamburg recently, they were surprised to find that the shelves were almost empty, and the small handful of products that remained were all made in Germany. It seemed like the supermarket had simply forgotten to restock their produce until customers saw the mysterious signs left around the shop. “So empty is a shelf without foreigners,” read one sign at the cheese counter. “This shelf is quite boring without variety,” read another.

It turns out that Edeka, in a rather controversial move, had opted to solely sell German food for a day in order to make a powerful statement about racism and ethnic diversity. As a result, there were no Greek olives, no Spanish tomatoes, and very little of anything else that can normally be found in a typical modern household. “Edeka stands for diversity, and we produce a wide range of food in our assortment, which is produced in the different regions of Germany,” said an Edeka spokesman. “But it is together with products from other countries that we create the unique diversity that our customers value.”

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MapPorn: Forest area as percent of total land in Russia

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