Yesterday, the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) together with the EP vice-president for human rights and democracy and the colleague of Leonidas Donskis from the ALDE Group, Edward McMillan-Scott organised a conference "Religious persecution by China: a horror story". The conference aimed to make known internationally the great scale of religious prosecutions and horrible "re-education" methods used by the Chinese communist party. (Read more...)

This week, the Members of the European Parliament from the Baltic countries, among them also Leonidas Donskis, have released a common letter in which the EP President Martin Schulz and all other EP members are reminded of the historical EP resolution on the situation in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania adopted thirty years ago, on 13 January 1983. The resolution condemned the occupation of the Baltic countries and supported their goal to retain independence.  (Read more...)

Lithuanian representative in the European Parliament Leonidas Donskis has joined an international interparliamentary group united parliamentarians from a number of countries seeking justice for the Russian lawyer Sergey Magnitsky who died in prison under unclear circumstance after revealing a financial fraud scheme by high Russian officials. (Read more...)

This week, the members of the European Parliament have for the first time gathered to the plenary session in Strasbourg. This year they will have to return to the capital of the French region Alsace for eleven times following the decision of the European Court of Justice according to which the EP working calendar has to include twelve four-day plenary sessions in Strasbourg. (Read more...)

During the second half of 2012, Member of the European Parliament Leonidas Donskis has signed various written declarations submitted by other EP members on the topics like culture, education, social security and citizen liberties. Among the declarations approved by L. Donskis are calls to join international conventions and to free the world from nuclear weapons, a suggestion to support people with extraordinary talents, to declare 2014 a European year on reconciling work and family life, concerns about threats for freedom of speech. (Read more...)

Yesterday, the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) closed the last plenary session of 2012 in Strasbourg. The capital of Alsace beautifully decorated for Christmas presented a "gift" for the MEPs - yesterday, the European Court of Justice upheld the case brought in by France against the European Parliament which decided once in a year to organise two plenary sessions in one October week in Strasbourg and this way to reduce the cost of 180 million Euros yearly for holding 12 sessions in Strasbourg. (Read more...)