The prospects of Turkey joining the EU faded yesterday (29 May) as the French National Assembly approved a bill making referenda obligatory for accepting new EU member countries with populations over 5% of the bloc's entire size.

The proposal, which was introduced as part of a broader institutional reform project, was accepted with a 48-21 vote majority and has now been sent to the Senate for approval. The final vote will be in July, when both chambers convene for a joint session. 

The move comes just one day after MEPs and the Commission heavily criticised Turkey for slowing down the pace of reforms during the visit of the Turkish foreign minister Ali Babacan to Brussels (see EurActiv 29/05/08). 

Commercial fishermen throughout Europe launched new protests Friday against soaring fuel bills, blockading ports and refineries in France and handing out fresh fish for free in Madrid.

The protests against diesel fuel costs have been simmering all week, with truckers in Britain blocking highways and fishing vessels halting port traffic on the English Channel in France.

Outside the Ministry of Environment, Agriculture and Fishing in Madrid, news agencies reported that hundreds of angry fishermen handed out 20 tons of fish to people lined up at trucks loaded with the catch of Europe's biggest fishing fleet. Spanish union leaders claimed the strike among fishermen had 100 percent support.

The Spanish government has not responded to the protests but more trouble is on the way: truck and taxi drivers are threatening a strike next week.

Pressure is building in the European Union for common rules to discourage, or punish, excessive payments to top business executives.

France, which takes over the presidency of the EU on 1 July, will ask finance ministers to consider a European directive to curb disproportionate bonuses or golden handshakes to company bosses. The Dutch government has already introduced a draft national law to punish what it describes as "unjustifiable" payments to business leaders. The French finance minister, Christine Lagarde, said companies must put their own house in order or face a rash of national, or EU, legislation to clamp down on "excesses".

French officials said Paris felt that, without such an EU-wide curb, large companies or highly paid executives would evade national curbs by exercising their right to move from one EU country to another.

Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg's Prime Minister, and president of the "Eurogroup" - the countries using the Euro - recently described steep increases in executive pay as a "social scourge". He said EU governments should consider ways of punishing disproportionate bonuses and high severance payments with windfall taxes.

The Conservatives predict that 25,000 children will leave the state education system when they are 16 in the next few weeks without a single qualification to their name.

It is why David Cameron and Michael Gove have looked overseas to the Swedish model to try to stop the rot.

In Sweden 900 schools have opted out of the state delivery system to become "free schools", which is five per cent of primary schools, 15 per cent secondary. More than 1,500 applications were granted last year for more schools to join the exodus.

Many of the applications for new schools are from parents battling with a council which is threatening to close down a local school. Swedish parents don't protest against school closures - they apply to open a rival school.

Inflation in the 15 countries sharing the euro snapped back to a record 3.6 percent in May amid soaring oil prices, according to a first estimate from the EU's Eurostat data agency on Friday.

The 12-month inflation rate had eased in April to 3.3 percent after hitting 3.6 percent in March, the highest level since the launch of the euro in 1999.

Recent record oil and food prices have pushed inflation higher, putting additional strain on consumers and businesses already struggling with slowing economic growth.

The bounce-back to 3.6 percent in May took eurozone inflation further away from the European Central Bank's comfort zone, which it defines as annual consumer price growth of close to but less than 2.0 percent.

There's nothing the central bank can do about this inflation either on the upside or on the downside. It's not something that lends itself to monetary solutions. Differing perspectives on what the bank should do by the EU governments (mostly false, but erring on both sides) mean that it will likely do nothing. This should hopefully open a possibility for real long-term solutions through industrial and transportation policy.

Business airline Silverjet has gone into administration after financial problems forced it to suspend all its flights, leaving passengers stranded.

The cancellations left about 7,000 UK and 2,500 non-UK customers needing to make alternative plans at short notice.

Seats were selling for £1000/return to New York and Dubai - which wouldn't normally be expensive for a business class trip.