Leonidas Donskis, the rapporteur of the annual report on Human Rights in the World 2011 and EU policies in this field, has finished the draft resolution and last week presented it to the Members of the EU Parliament working in the Subcommittee on Human Rights. The record of the presentation can be found here. (Read more...)

Leonidas Donskis together with the Polish Member of the Parliament Jacek Saryusz-Wolski (EPP) and another 82 members of the European Parliament from different countries and EP political groups have nominated the Belarusian dissident, the Chair of Belarusian Human Rights Centre Viasna and the Vice-President of the International Federation for Human Rights Ales Bialiatski for the 2012 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

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Leonidas Donskis returned to problems in Kazakhstan as he started the fourth year of his term at the EP. Together with colleague MEPs from the other EP political groups he wrote to the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev concerning the persecution of opposition representatives. On Tuesday he also met with the representatives from the opposition and non-governmental organisations. (Read more...)

Last week MEPs gathered in Strasbourg for the first plenary session of their fourth year.  The focus of this plenary was Commission President José Manuel Barroso`s report on the situation in the EU. Other issues on the agenda included energy efficiency, the EU`s budget for next year, a strategy for the EU`s foreign policy and plans for a banking union.  (Read more...)

At the beginning of the fourth year of the term of the European Parliament Members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Subcommittee on Human Rights met with the new EU Special Representative for Human Rights Stavros Lambrinidis. During the hearing the new EU official presented to the MEPs the main principles and methods of his work, answered their questions and promised to communicate constantly with the European Parliament. (Read more...)

During the first half of this year MEP Leonidas Donskis expressed his support by signing a dozen MEPs initiated written declarations on health, education, development, animals` rights and other issues. (Read more...)