President of european parliament

In his remarks about consulting voters on changes to the EU, Cameron stopped short of specifically mentioning a referendum because the timing of a new EU agreement could mean it would make more sense to seek the consent of voters in a general election. The fact that he says the decision will come after the next election show he thinks EU negotiations on new eurozone governance arrangements will proceed slowly. … [Read more...] about David Cameron and Nick Clegg at odds over European arrest warrant

Schatz notes that many Eastern European countries have made significant efforts to comply with the Terezin Declaration, irrespective of their financial situation. "Using the funding argument for not addressing the restitution issue — which is fundamentally a moral question — is short-sighted and an inaccurate perspective on this issue. At its heart, efforts of survivors to recover their properties is about memory and about repairing a historical injustice: their homes are often the last physical connection to a lost family and lost world," Schatz says. "Other countries who have dealt with restitution have addressed the property issue while providing protections for good faith property owners or tenants so that they are not removed from their homes." … [Read more...] about Nationalized Jewish property: Warsaw’s restitution problem

The coalition, led by 40-year-old Alexis Tsipras, was expected to dispatch its new finance minister to Brussels in the next few days to seek a fundamental renegotiation of Greece’s economic bailout package, vowing that “the end of humiliation has come”. Tsipras and his Syriza party have promised to replace the austerity programmes imposed by Greece’s international creditors with policies aimed at helping the third of the population now living in poverty. … [Read more...] about Greece’s new anti-austerity government set on collision course with Brussels

One Portuguese party, however, was celebrating the Greek results: the anti-austerity party Left Bloc, which holds eight seats in the Portuguese parliament. “The elections are Greek, they concern the sovereignty of the Greek people, but also that of the Portuguese, Spaniards and Europeans,” the Left Bloc MEP Marisa Matias told a rally in Greece earlier this week. “We were with you yesterday, we are with you today and we will be with you tomorrow. A victory for Syriza is a victory for all of Europe.” … [Read more...] about Syriza’s election victory in Greece – how Europe reacted

The yardstick, say the drafters, should be that if an international tribunal has ruled genocide has taken place, it should be accepted everywhere in Europe as criminal conduct to contest that in public. The Holocaust, the Rwanda genocide, and the mass murder of Muslims by Serbs in Srebrenica, Bosnia, in 1995 would be covered. The Turkish massacre of Armenians in 1915, for example, would not be covered. … [Read more...] about Jewish leaders call for Europe-wide legislation outlawing antisemitism