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“…. Canada, once a symbol of the modern world, has become a symbol of civil rights violations under your quasi-liberal boot in recent months. We watched how you trample women with horses, how you block the bank accounts of single parents so that they can’t even pay their children’s education and medicine, that they can’t pay utilities, mortgages for their homes.”“To you,” he continues, speaking to Trudeau, “these may be liberal methods; for many citizens of the world, it is a dictatorship of the worst kind. Rest assured that the citizens of the world, united, can stop any regime that...

Far-right parties' hopes of forging a powerful new eurosceptic bloc in the European Parliament suffered a double blow on Wednesday when Poland's ruling nationalists and Britain's Brexit Party both said they would not join such a grouping. Italy's far-right League was one of the biggest winners in last month's EU elections and its leader, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, has sought to persuade Europe's nationalist parties to set aside their differences and form a 10-party European Alliance for People and Nations in the new assembly.Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of Poland's conservative ruling party Law and Justice (PiS), ruled out joining on...

A new poll released by Germany’s Bild newspaper on Saturday, conducted in six countries in late February and early March, showed the far-right Europe of Nations and Freedom Group (ENF) was likely to win 67 seats in the European Parliament election in May. Europeans go to the polls on May 23-26 to elect representatives to the 705-seat European Parliament. Currently, the ENF group holds 37 seats. According to the Bild report, which surveyed more than 9,000 people, right-wing euroskeptic parties are in the lead in three of the six countries surveyed. In France, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party is...

A new platform composed of left-wing politicians, police officers and psychiatrists is pushing for Switzerland to follow the European Union in tightening controls on guns. Representatives of the Social Democratic Party (SP), the Swiss police officers association VSPB/FSFP and the Swiss federation of psychiatrists and psychotherapists FMPP joined forces on Thursday ahead of a debate on the issue in parliament, the Tribune de Genève reported. The EU parliament approved a revised gun law last year designed to close security loopholes and introduce tighter controls on blank-firing and inadequately deactivated weapons like those used in the Paris terror attacks. On March...

On Friday, leaders European Union member states will meet for their next informal meeting in Bratislava, Slovakia — the second one without Britain. Also in attendance will be Martin Schulz, the German president of the European Parliament. Schulz is very concerned about the current state of the EU. […] Schulz also expressed his fears of a possible US President Donald Trump. “Then you will have an obviously irresponsible man sitting in a position that requires the utmost sense of responsibility,” he says. “Trump is not just a problem for the EU, but for the whole world.” […] … “When a...

Speaking at a meeting discussing religious persecution held by the Open Doors organization in Brussels on December 2, European Parliament President Martin Schulz said that "Christians are not safe" on the European continent. During his talk, Schulz said that the persecution of Christians is "undervalued" and does not receive enough attention and, consequentially, it "hasn't been properly addressed." Schulz continued, 'It should shake us up that on our continent, Christians are not safe."

A coalition of far-right, anti-immigrant parties in the European Parliament announced Tuesday they are uniting to form a political group under the leadership of France's National Front chief Marine Le Pen. Tuesday's move of the National Front, the Dutch PVV of Geert Wilders, Austria's Freedom Party, Italy's Northern League and the Belgian Flemish Interest Party will give them more clout in the European Union legislature and add more of an anti-EU flavor to its proceedings. The group will also push its strong the anti-immigrant agenda. "I am happy to announce the beginning of the group Europe of Nations and Freedoms,"...

Belgian police evacuated hundreds of people Monday from the European Parliament to search a car for explosives, then arrested the owner—a man clad in camouflage gear who had a gun and a chainsaw stashed in his vehicle. Four European Parliament administrative buildings and its visitors’ center in central Brussels were cleared as a precautionary measure while the car was searched, the assembly said in a statement. Police found the firearm and chainsaw but no explosives, according to the public prosecutor’s office. The suspect, identified as a Slovak national born in 1982, was charged with “threatening an attack, possession of an...

On Thursday, January 15, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on Ukraine. The document has been very tough and uncompromising with regard to Russia, even with the traditional support of Ukraine by the European Parliament. It refers to the European Parliament the EU Council with a proposal to not only maintain but also to strengthen the sanctions, and the member states - to provide Ukraine with lethal weapons. The document also contains a number of other very important point. Although this decision is not legally binding, it will be a significant element of pressure on other governments of the European...

The European Parliament will next Thursday (27 November) add its voice to the debate on whether EU states should recognize Palestine. The motion was initiated at the 11th hour by the left-wing GUE and S&D groups in the EU assembly. It is too early to say what the final text of the resolution will propose. The GUE group’s draft text “urges all EU member states … to recognize the State of Palestine on the basis of the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as the capital”. …

ONE of Labour's most senior figures has written an open letter to Ukip supporters today, apologising for the party's previous views on immigration concerns and urging them to "keep an open mind". Shadow Justice Minister Sadiq Khan concedes Labour has been "too quick to dismiss concerns about immigration, or even worse - accused people of prejudice" in the letter, which was sent exclusively to Express.co.uk. Mr Khan lists a range of policies designed to entice former Labour voters thinking of voting for Ukip back to his party. The letter comes just days after Ukip saw its number of councillors across...

The election results for the European Parliament will start coming in at 5pm Eastern Time (22:00 British Summer Time). Many voters all over Europe are making their choices today, in the UK the voting was on Thursday. Polling shows the United Kingdom Independence Party at about 30 percent popular support in spite of an intense campaign to discredit it by the major parties and the media. Everything from the race card to the employment of UKIP leader Nigel Farage's wife as his secretary has been thrown on the wall in hopes of something sticking. The immigration police just happened to...

A speech in Knesset Wednesday given by the head of the European Union Parliament caused outrage, and ultimately sparked a walk-out. Several MKs expressed upset as EU parliament president Martin Schulz, who spoke in German, repeated as fact Palestinian Authority claims of Israeli discrimination regarding allocation of water in Judea and Samaria, and of a “blockade” on Gaza. Schulz condemned Israeli “settlements” east of the 1949 armistice line as “an obstacle to peace,” and claimed, “The blockade of Gaza creates despair and extremism.” …

Germany’s finance minister said on Monday he was open to the creation of a separate European parliament for countries using the euro, a step that could deepen divisions within the European Union. Wolfgang Schäuble’s comments, made during a visit to Brussels, challenge the very foundations of the European Union, where lawmaking for all 28 nations is by the bloc’s current parliament. Splitting that body, critics believe, would represent a dismantling of one of Europe’s biggest symbols of unity. But Schäuble said a separate parliament for the 18 countries in the eurozone would allow the smaller group to integrate more closely....

Ukip's European leader Nigel Farage has been fined £2,700 after refusing to say sorry for a colourful outburst against the new European president. Mr Farage used Herman Van Rompuy's maiden speech to the European Parliament last week to describe him as having the "charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a low grade bank clerk". He was summoned in by EU officials to explain his comments but said his only apology would be to bank clerks. Yves Leterme, Belgium's Prime Minister, has demanded a public apology for the "slander" and Mr Farage's added "insult" that Mr Van Rompuy...

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The selection of Jos?anuel Dur?Barroso as Commission President has had mixed reviews among the parliament groups which will have to approve him for the post. After his nomination by EU leaders last Tuesday, Mr Barroso still needs a majority of the 732 deputies in the European Parliament to back his candidature at a meeting in Strasbourg later this month. Although the Portuguese can count on the support of the centre-right EPP group, with 279 seats, the next two largest groups, the Socialists (199 members) and the Liberals - likely to reach 80 MEPs, have not yet...

BUSY WITH FOOTBALL: LOW TURNOUT FOR EU SUPERVOTE Sun Jun 13 2004 03:23:39 ET Voting started Sunday on the fourth and final day of European Union-wide ballots to elect a new EU Parliament, in an election clouded by both widespread apathy and signs of a surge in support for eurosceptic parties. Nineteen of the European Union's 25 member states were going to the polls in the biggest transnational elections ever held anywhere, and the first for the EU since the bloc's expansion into the former communust east of Europe on May 1 this year. EU leaders have pulled out...

A MAN linked to Al-Qaeda and believed to have helped to mastermind the Madrid train bombings was overheard last month describing a plot for a woman to carry out a chemical or germ attack in America that he said would “wipe out an entire neighbourhood”. The Italian warrant for the arrest of Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, 32, an Egyptian seized in a suburb of Milan last week, details transcripts of bugged conversations and telephone calls in which he not only boasted of his involvement in the Spanish attack of March 11 but also spoke of future plans. The Spanish government...

BRUSSELS: The European Parliament criticized the human rights record of the United States on Thursday, demanding it drop the death penalty and live up to international human rights standards in dealing with prisoners held on terrorism charges. The European Union assembly voiced its concern on a slew of human rights issues in several nations and wants it to figure prominently at the UN session of the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, which starts March 17. In a resolution, the 626-member parliament called for the United States, Iran, China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Congo and others to introduce moratoriums on executions...

STRASBOURG, France, MARCH 13, 2002 (Zenit.org).- The European Parliament narrowly approved a report that purports to underline the violations suffered by women because of religious extremism. The report "Women and Fundamentalism," presented by Spanish Socialist deputy María Izquierdo, was approved by a vote of 242-240. There were 42 abstentions. Europarliamentarians either modified or eliminated some of the more controversial points of the report, such as the request to religious leaders, including John Paul II and Eastern patriarchs, to change their views on lesbianism. The "right to control one´s own body," regarded by some groups as a justification of abortion, was...