e-fa: News Round-Up

news bulletin from the European Free Alliance Group in the European Parliament

June/July 2013 Round-Up The European Free Alliance (EFA) draws together political parties fighting for democracy and self-determination for the stateless nations and regions of Europe. European Free Alliance MEPs sit in a European parliamentary group with the Greens, making up the fourth largest gro...

Treaty for the blind and visually impaired

Big success in Marrakesh

Over the last two weeks, World Intellectual Property Organization delegates have been meeting at a diplomatic conference to conclude a treaty to facilitate access to published works by visually impaired people. After years of discussion, an agreement has finally been reached. Commenting on the ag...

Greens/EFA delegation to Lisbon

21.06.2013

Live debates Friday 21 June 2013

The Greens/EFA hold a one-day conference in Lisbon to take stock of 30 years of European integration and discuss the Ulysses project, which aims, from a southern point of view, to show possible ways out of the crisis and sketch the outline of what Europe could look like in the future.

Endangered languages report wins strong support

Press release from François Alfonsi MEP

A report calling for more support for Europe's endangered languages by Corsican MEP François Alfonsi has won unanimous support in the European Parliament's Culture Committee. This is the European Parliament's first major work on language diversity in many years. The report regrets the drastic cuts ...

LGBT Discrimination

EU Survey reveals fear, isolation and discrimination common in Europe’s LGBT community

Today the EU Fundamental Rights Agency published the first-ever comparative study on the experience of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the 27 EU Member States and Croatia. Drawing on over 93,000 responses and more than 20,000 additional individual sources, it finds that many hide ...

e-fa: News Round-Up

news bulletin from the European Free Alliance Group in the European Parliament

April 2013 Round-Up The European Free Alliance (EFA) draws together political parties fighting for democracy and self-determination for the stateless nations and regions of Europe. European Free Alliance MEPs sit in a European parliamentary group with the Greens, making up the fourth largest group i...

Social Housing in the EU

A lever to help the EU out of the economic, social and environmental crisis

La Commission de l'emploi et des affaires sociales du Parlement européen s'est prononcée mardi 23 avril en faveur du rapport de l'eurodéputée verte Karima Delli sur le logement social dans l'Union européenne. Ce rapport cherche à montrer à quel point le secteur du logement social est un levier pour aider l'Union européenne à sortir de la crise économique, sociale et environnementale.

Alfonsi calls for joint effort on language diversity

Press release from François Alfonsi MEP

MEP François Alfonsi has called for a joint effort between the European Commission and Europe's nations and regions to protect Europe's endangered languages and promote language diversity.   Mr Alfonsi spoke as he presented a draft of his report on Europe's endangered languages...

Smash Smart Borders!

Grüner Protest gegen die Aufrüstung Europas zur elektronischen Festung

Die Grünen Europaabgeordneten Ska Keller und Jan Philipp Albrecht haben heute die Protestfotos der Aktion "Smash Smart Borders" an die EU-Innenkommissarin Cecilia Malmström übergeben. Grüne und AktivistInnen aus Deutschland und ganz Europa haben sich mit einem Smash-Foto an der Aktion beteiligt, um gegen die Aufrüstung Europas zur elektronischen Festung zu protestieren. Die Aktion richtet sich vor allem gegen den jüngsten Vorstoß der Europäischen Kommission zur Grenzüberwachung, "Smart Borders".

One language dies every two weeks

Press release from Francois Alfonsi MEP

One language dies on average every two weeks somewhere on earth. That was the shocking statistic revealed in an expert seminar hosted at the European Parliament this week by Corsican MEP François Alfonsi in preparation for his report on "Endangered European languages ​​and linguistic ...

Get Women On Board

Campaign in favour of EU-wide boardroom quotas for women

This Green campaign supports the introduction of mandatory EU-wide quotas for the representation of women on executive boards. The voluntary approach to addressing one of the major remaining barriers to gender equality has failed and the Greens support the introduction of a binding boardroom quota through EU legislation with a view to stimulating the push towards balanced boardrooms.

Hungary

Orban government again back-steps on democracy with new constitutional amendments

The Hungarian parliament today passed a series of constitutional amendments undermining the role of the independent Constitutional Court and the rights of minorities. The Greens hit out at the votes, which come just as the European Parliament is concluding an assessment of previous controversial con...