Thu 11 Mar 2010
This week (9 March) the leaders in Moldova of the ruling coalition Alliance for European Integration (AIE) decided in a joint meeting, to organize a referendum until 16 June in order to adopt a new Constitution. “New Constitution through referendum", announced the acting President, Mihai Ghimpu, after the meeting. He noted that the first step should be voting by simple majority, of the law concerning the adoption of the new Constitution. Based on this law, the Parliament votes the Constitution by articles, and then a referendum will be organized. “The adopting of a new Constitution does not mean total review of the current Constitution. It means adjustment, correction, in order to have a Constitution corresponding to the objective established by the AEI, and to European standards and regulations", Ghimpu said.
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Wed 10 Mar 2010
On 10 March it was announced that the first group of about 400 asylum seekers from southern Serbia, and a similar number from Macedonia, will be sent back to their home countries from Belgium this week. The first bus, carrying 44 passengers, left Brussels this morning (10 March). Belgian Prime Minister, Yves Leterme, said that there have not been any new demands from Serbian and Macedonian citizens seeking asylum in Belgium.
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Tue 9 Mar 2010
Between 5 and 7 March of 2010 Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in cooperation with Alfred Mozer Stichting and the European Forum for Democracy and Solidarity organized a seminar for young and promising politicians and members of social democratic parties from the countries of former Yugoslavia and Albania.
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Fri 5 Mar 2010
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Turkey has reacted angrily to a U.S. congressional panel's resolution branding the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as "genocide."
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Thu 4 Mar 2010
International organizations are exposed to increasingly intense political pressure in Gaza. In the beginning of February, the Olof Palme Center in Gaza was shut down by Hamas and a computer was seized.
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Wed 3 Mar 2010
Today (3 March) Ukraine's Parliament has voted out the government of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in a no-confidence vote. The vote followed weeks of shifting alliances in the Parliament after the pro-Western Tymoshenko lost her bid for the Presidency to the pro-Russian Party of Regions leader, Victor Yanukovych.
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Mon 1 Mar 2010
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In a statement that was issued today, the international election observation mission of the OSCE concluded that yesterday’s parliamentary elections took place peacefully, but despite certain small positive steps failed to meet many key OSCE commitments and basic democratic standards.
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Fri 26 Feb 2010
On 25 February, pro-Russian opposition Party of Regions leader, Viktor Yanukovych, was sworn in as Ukraine's new President after he won the run-off from Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko by a marge of merely 3,45%.
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Fri 26 Feb 2010
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The leader of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi, called yesterday (25 February) for a "jihad" or armed struggle against Switzerland. "Any Muslim in any part of the world who works with Switzerland is an apostate, is against (the Prophet) Mohammad, God and the Koran," Gaddafi said during a meeting to mark the Prophet's birthday. "The masses of Muslims must go to all airports in the Islamic world and prevent any Swiss plane landing, [..] and inspect all shops and markets to stop any Swiss goods being sold," Gaddafi said. The Swiss Foreign Ministry said it had no comment on Gaddafi's remarks.
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Thu 25 Feb 2010
This week police in Turkey arrested at least 49 generals and military officers, which are accused of plotting a coup.
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Thu 25 Feb 2010
The main opposition party in Albania, the Socialist Party (SPA), has announced it will end a six-month Parliamentary boycott today (25 February). The Socialists started their boycott over what they say was fraud in the general elections held on 28 June, which were narrowly won by the centre-right Prime Minister Sali Berisha. Socialist leader and mayor of Tirana, Edi Rama, said the return to Parliament will be, however, temporarily.
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Tue 23 Feb 2010
A new left-wing party in Russia, the United Russian Labor Front (ROTF), held its founding congress today (22 February). Party officials said they plan to adopt a charter and a program, to create party chapters in Russian regions, and to elect party leaders. The party's co-chairman and main candidate to be leader of the ROTF, Sergei Udaltsov, said the party's top priority is to become an officially registered, full-fledged ‘leftist’ political party. He told reporters that 230 representatives from 70 Russian regions were attending the congress. Local opposition media reported that among the attendants were also representatives from civil organizations, and other leftist political parties.
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Mon 22 Feb 2010
Last week boiling tensions between Turkey's government and judicial elite erupted into and open confrontation over the handling of a probe into an alleged plot to overthrow the Islamist-rooted government. Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said on 18 February that the decision made a day earlier by the Higher Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) to remove prosecutors from the long-running inquiry was a "heavy blow" against justice and "a shame for democracy." "The functioning of independent justice has been prevented. How can prosecutors now carry out probes freely, without fear?" he said. This weekend, however, Arinc said there was “no conflict between the government and the HSYK” .
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Thu 18 Feb 2010
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Following the Resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which the Socialist Party of Albania (SPA) has welcomed and supported, the President of the Republic, Bamir Topi, convened around the negotiating table with Edi Rama, the leader of the Sociliast opposition and Sali Berisha, Prime Minister and Chairman of the Democratic Party.
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Wed 17 Feb 2010
Belarusian riot police on Monday (15 February) arrested the leader of the Ivyanets branch of the Union of Poles in Belarus, Angelika Borys, along with around 40 other activists on their way to a rally in Valozhyn, in the west of the country. The sweep follows a raid on the union's headquarters in Grodno last week. The crackdown is part of the ongoing spat between Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko and the Union of Poles.
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