UK party leaders have defended their Brexit policies ahead of the UK election in December. The first televised debates between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn took place. Brexit dominated the first half of the debate and the two leaders each had important messages to get across on the vexed topic. David Shiels, of the leading UK based…
Newly elected President of the EPP Donald Tusk gave a wide ranging speech las week to mark the start of the new academic year at the College of Europe in Bruges – and a farewell to his role as President of the European Council On Brexit, he said he “did everything in my power to avoid…
The world is facing climate crisis and needs all the help it can get. But amazingly some countries are still playing political football with the environment – not because they are climate change deniers, but because they want to exclude willing volunteers for their own selfish political reasons and prevent certain countries from joining the…
A sensitive report into Russian interference in the Brexit referendum campaign in 2016 is being sat on by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.The report is the work of the Intelligence and Security Committee of the UK parliament, chaired by Dominic Grieve. Before it can be published, the Prime Minister must give his approval for publication,…
Gordon Sondland, US President Donald Trump’s ambassador to the European Union, reversed himself in new testimony to House impeachment investigators, saying he does believe Ukraine military aid was contingent upon the launch of politically motivated probes. In his revised statement, Sondland said he now remembers telling a top Ukrainian official on Sept. 1 that hundreds…
A major new polling report, published today by the Open Society Foundations, examines attitudes towards politics and civil society in Central and Eastern Europe, 30 years on from the fall of the Berlin Wall and the 1989 revolutions. The new report, entitled “States of Change”, draws on YouGov polling in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany,…
The new public movement in Georgia, known as ‘Lelo’, has been gaining momentum in recent weeks, with 12 December 2019 being named as the date at which the movement will be launched as a political party. The movement was founded by Georgian businessman Mamuka Khazaradze, the founder of TBC Bank and Anaklia Development Consortium. The…
Last night (16th October) a reception was held at the European Parliament to celebrate the inauguration of the Formosa Club – an international body to co-ordinate and strengthen the many parliamentary friendship organisations that promote relations with Taiwan. The name of the Club comes from the name given by Portuguese traders to the island of…
This July, President Tsai Ing-wen of the Republic of China (Taiwan) transited through New York, an icon of diversity and freedom and home to the United Nations, as a prelude to her state visit to Taiwan’s diplomatic allies in the Caribbean, writes Dr. Jaushieh Joseph Wu. While meeting with the Permanent Representatives to the UN…
Tensions between Iran and the US, which can ignite the entire region, are rising with the alleged sabotage of oil tankers, the US drone shot down by the Revolutionary Guards and heated rhetoric on both sides, writes Majid Golpour. This has fuelled the US to impose new sanctions directly on the Supreme Leader, Mr Khamenei, and his…
