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e-zine nEUws, 40th edition
26 October 2004
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Dates to keep in mind
November, 20th - 25th – 8th session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, The Hague (Netherlands)
For further information, visit:
http://www.europarl.eu.int/intcoop/acp/10_01/default_en.htm
November, 22nd - 23rd – Public Council Debates during the Dutch Presidency of the European Union, General Affairs and External Relations, debate on the Millennium Development Goals
For further information, visit:
http://ue.eu.int/showPage.asp?lang=HU&id=313&mode=g&name
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EU Row over New EU Commission
The European Parliament (EP), holding its plenary in Strasbourg, has begun the debate on approving or rejecting the new European Commission, a debate which will result in tomorrows vote. It remains unclear whether Jose Manuel Barroso will succeed in taking up office together with his team on November 1st.
So far, four of the Parliament's five biggest groups have warned that they would vote against the new Commission team unless Italy's Rocco Buttiglione, designated commissioner for justice, freedom and security is either moved to another post or stripped of his anti-discrimination role. At his hearing in front of the Parliament's Liberties Committee he had manoeuvred himself into the line of fire after describing homosexuality a “sin” and announcing that “the family exists in order to allow women to have children and to have the protection of a male who takes care of them.”
The European Union seems to be in a crisis mode. Romano Prodi last week has announced that he and his colleagues were preparing to remain in office, even after their term expires at the end of October, should his successor face a negative vote by the EP, which might provoke a constitutional crisis in the EU.
Tomorrow, on October 27th it will become apparent whether or not a new College of European Commissioners will take up offices in their newly refurbished 240.000m2 large and € 552,879,207 costly fully refurbished Headquarters at the Berlaymont Building in Brussels.
For further information on the vote's outcome, visit:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/mediatheque/photo/barroso/commission_en.htm
For information on Commissioner-designate Buttiglione, visit:
http://www.catholicsforchoice.org/lowbandwidth/whatsnewbottomhigh.asp
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In short
At the 57th Annual DPI/ NGO Conference in New York, Jacques Attali, founder and first President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, as well as founder and president of PlanetFinance delivered the keynote closing address, which could well be seen as a song of praise for Non-Governmental Organisations, the work they do and the importance they have for today's world.
“(…) Today, our organizations, called NGOs, have more influence on the destiny of humanity than many nations that have a seat in this hall”
To read the entirety of Mr Attali's speech, visit:
http://www.ngodpiexecom.org/conference04/sections2/files/speeches |
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