![]() WorldStatement by High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini on the attack on Mariupol2015-01-26, 12:11Residential areas of the city of Mariupol have been fired upon today from separatist held territory, which has cost the lives of at least fifteen civilians, wounding many others and terrorising the innocent population. This comes after a series of indiscriminate attacks in the Donbas in the past few days, accompanied by the announcements of further offensives by Russia-backed separatists, who bluntly refuse to observe the cease fire. The recent clampdown on an NGO, media freedom and the potential for the EU to monitor the fundamental rights situation in member states were among the main issues raised at a public hearing on human rights in Hungary. The hearing took place on 22 January in the Parliament's justice committee with representatives of NGOs, international organisations and the Hungarian government in attendance. After more than a year of conflict and protracted negotiations, it is high time for the leaders on both sides to start putting the interest of their people first and work genuinely towards peace and prosperity. On 21 January, at Lithuania's request, the Security Council of the United Nations discussed the rapidly deteriorating situation in the eastern regions of Ukraine and continued violations of the truce as well as the Minsk Agreements. In June 2013 the EU and the US launched negotiations on the world's largest free-trade agreement to date. It was promised that the agreement would lead to faster growth and more jobs but after seven rounds of negotiations many issues remain unresolved. We spoke to German S&D member Bernd Lange, chair of the international trade committee, who is drafting a report which will assess the results of the TTIP talks and express the Parliament's views on the main issues of a potential agreement. President Dalia Grybauskaitė will attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 21-22. The President is invited to be the keynote speaker at the debate on the effect of geo-economics on energy. Lithuania will establish a consulate general in Los Angeles, making it the country's first consulate general in the West Coast of the United States. Parliament passed three resolutions on Thursday: stressing that the convictions of Alexei Navalny and his brother were "based on unsubstantiated charges" and calling for the judicial proceedings to be "free of political interference"; condemning the "brutal massacre of schoolchildren" in Pakistan; and deeply concerned by the homosexual propaganda bill in Kyrgyzstan. MEPs condemn the police raids and arrests of journalists in Turkey in December in a resolution adopted on Thursday. They call on the Turkish government to address media freedom as a priority, recalling that "a free and pluralistic press is an essential component of any democracy" and pointing to the need to make progress with reforms in order to gain pre-accession funding. On January 14, Martins Virsis, Latvian ambassador to Lithuania, presented the priorities of the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) at a joint meeting of the Committee on European Affairs and the Committee on Foreign Affairs. |
|
© 2013 All rights reserved to the public enterprise ‘L24plius’. |