Posts Tagged ‘european parliament’
MEP who joined Magnitsky group hopes EU draws Russian “black list”
MEP Leonidas Donskis has joined an interparliamentary group, members of which maintain they seek justice for lawyer Sergey Magnitsky who died in a Russian prison in 2009 after revealing a financial fraud scheme of Russian authorities.
Donskis, the first Lithuanian representative in the group, told BNS he expected the European Union (EU) to have enough courage to respond to the case to follow the example set by the United States’ to draw a “black list” of Russian officials.
“The Magnitsky case has bared a sensitive problem one cannot remain indifferent to. We’re talking about a lawyer who chose to stand up to corruption, unveiled horrific facts of corruption and sacrificed his life, which is already obvious,” Donskis told BNS on Wednesday.
He said his joining the group was a demonstration of the position of the European Parliament (EP) and Lithuania.
Set up in Canada in December, the group now includes 16 politicians from 12 countries: Canada, Estonia, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden.
Magnitsky died in a Moscow prison in November of 2009. Russian authorities had charged him with tax evasion, however, his colleagues maintain that the case was developed in revenge for his testimony, which said that employees of law-enforcement institutions could be connected with the embezzlement scheme he had exposed.
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Tough Talks Expected At EU-Russia Summit
President Vladimir Putin will meet with European Union leaders in Brussels on Friday for a pre-Christmas summit, but the mood will hardly be festive.
Disputes involving visas, trade and energy have cast a shadow over EU-Russia relations in recent months, giving both sides tough issues to discuss. More broadly, the Europeans are expected to voice concern about the Kremlin’s crackdown on dissent, while Moscow’s stance toward Europe is cooling following its recent foreign-policy emphasis on Eurasia.
“I have no high expectations of this summit,” said George SchЪpflin, a member of the European Parliament from Hungary’s conservative Fidesz party.
Schopflin said feelings among Brussels officials toward Moscow had definitely cooled over the past months.
“There is considerable unease about human rights,” he said by telephone.
In a highly critical motion passed last week, the European Parliament demanded that Russia end “politically motivated persecutions, arrests and detentions” among opposition members.
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EU should impose entry ban on those incriminated in Magnitsky case
The Greens / European Free Alliance
Commenting on the report on Russia adopted today in plenary, Green MEP Werner Schulz, Vice-Chair of the EU-Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, said:
“The adoption of this report shows that the European Parliament is as clear as ever that any cooperation with the Russian Federation must be conditional on the respect by Russia of democratic standards and compliance with fundamental human rights and the rule of law.
In his recent state of the nation speech, Vladimir Putin lamented the country’s so-called moral decline. At the same time a flood of restrictive and immoral laws maintain a stranglehold on civil society. Any hopes that the controversial president could loosen the reins of the “managed democracy” have faded.
The Members of the European Parliament supported my proposal by a large majority and called for immediate release of the detained members of the punk band Pussy Riot. I expect Commission President Barroso and Council President van Rompuy to repeat this demand to President Putin at the upcoming EU-Russia summit.
For years now Russia has been viewed and discussed as an indispensable strategic partner of the EU. But vast natural resources and exports of western technology and consumer goods have not led to any strategic cooperation. Corruption and arbitrary behaviour by the authorities are not consistently opposed, as in the case of the lawyer Magnitsky who dared to uncover a hugely complex network of corruption. Unlike the officials guilty of his death, he is still being persecuted, even posthumously. Visa liberalisation without binding human rights criteria is not acceptable. The European Union should impose an entry ban for all people incriminated in the Magnitsky-Case and should simultaneously facilitate visas for Russian citizens.” buy over the counter medicines срочный займ на карту онлайн https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-in-america.php https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-in-america.php hairy woman
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Parliament expected to back demands for crackdown on human rights violations in Russia
MEPs are this week expected to back a resolution which calls on the Russian authorities to “put an end to impunity” in the country.
Parliament’s non-binding resolution on the next EU-Russia agreement will be voted upon by members in Strasbourg on Thursday.
It contains several references to human rights and the rule of law, and “stresses the need for the Russian authorities to put an end to impunity in the country, as well as to politically motivated persecutions, arrests and detentions”.
The paper also “emphasises the need to cease using repressive measures against the political opposition”.
It seeks to ensure that “full light is shed on the many violations of human rights that have occurred” in Russia.
These, it says, include the imprisonment of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and the deaths of Sergei Magnitsky, Alexander Litvinenko, Anna Politkovskaya, Natalya Estemirova and others.
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Russian Riled By Parliament
Members of the European Parliament may struggle sometimes to get their voice heard inside the European Union, but they’re doing a good job of riling their Russian counterparts.
Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the state Duma, contrasted the “realistic pragmatic approach” from the European Commission to the relationship with Russia to that it has with “the ideological institutions like the European Parliament.”
“There are quite a few people in the European Parliament who think the more they take decisions that irritate Russia the best it is for Europe. I’m not of this opinion. There is some kind of ideological wave which is unfurling over Europe, and it’s a very negative wave,” Mr. Pushkov told a group of academics and journalists in Moscow.
On Tuesday, the parliament adopted a recommendation calling on EU governments to implement sanctions on a list of officials responsible for the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a subsequent judicial cover-up and for the ongoing harassment of his mother and wife. The parliament recommended banning those people from entry into the EU, freezing their assets in the EU, and called on Russia to launch an independent investigation into his death.
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EU travel ban on Russian officials over Magnitsky case
The European Parliament has endorsed sanctions against around 60 Russian officials over the death of the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. He died in custody in 2009 after being arrested on tax evasion charges. The 37-year-old had implicated top officials in a corruption case he was investigating.
The parliament has recommended an EU-wide travel ban. Kristiina Ojuland, the Estonian MEP who was the appointed by the parliament to investigate the case said: “We don’t want to see these individuals on EU territory.”
In addition to the visa ban, the resolution suggests Russian officials involved in the case should have their assets in the European Union frozen.
The move drew an angry response from Moscow. The Russian ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov said: “Unfortunately this is not improving the climate of our relations with the European Union. This is an attempt to politicise a human tragedy and to make political capital out of the death of Mr Magnitsky.”
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European Parliament’s Vote on Magnitsky Jars Russians
Senior lawmakers on Wednesday criticized a resolution by the European Parliament to establish a list of banned Russians similar to one under discussion in the U.S. Congress.
“This is yet another gross attempt to interfere in Russia’s internal affairs and [constitutes] bold pressure on our judicial system,” said Leonid Slutsky, deputy head of Russia’s delegation to the European Parliament and a Liberal Democratic Party member in the State Duma.
“Russia will not leave these attempts unanswered,” he told reporters.
Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the Duma’s International Affairs Committee and a United Russia member, said the proposal “aims to divide Europe and Russia” and might create a “negative political climate,” Ekho Moskvy radio reported.
On Tuesday, the European Parliament overwhelmingly approved the nonbinding resolution, which recommends entry bans and asset freezes for officials implicated in the 2009 prison death of anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
The lawmakers, who rejected a similar proposal two years ago, this time included a statement urging the Russian government “to conduct a credible and independent investigation encompassing all aspects of the case” and “to put an end to the widespread corruption and to reform the judicial system.”
The resolution also asks EU leaders, during their talks with Russian officials, to bring up Magnitsky and “the issue of intimidation and impunity in cases involving human rights defenders, journalists and lawyers in a more determined, resolute and result-oriented manner.”
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Kristiina Ojuland on the Sergei Magnitsky case
Speech by Kristiina Ojuland MEP (ALDE party) on imposing EU-wide common visa restrictions for Russian officials involved in the Sergei Magnitsky case.
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EU Lawmakers Call For Sanctions On Russians Involved In Magnitsky Case
The European Parliament has overwhelmingly approved a proposal recommending common visa-restriction regimes and asset freezes to target Russian officials involved in the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
It’s the second time such a resolution has come from Europarliamentarians, with EU members balking at a similar effort two years ago.
In addition to the measures by EU member states, the latest proposal calls on Russia “to conduct a credible and independent investigation encompassing all aspects of the case” and to stop widespread corruption by reforming the judicial system.
The text urges the EU to raise those issues in bilateral meetings with Russia authorities “in a more determined, resolute and result-oriented manner.”
Sergei Magnitsky, a Moscow attorney, was allegedly tortured and beaten to death following nearly a year of pretrial custody in 2009 after uncovering alleged massive fraud by Russian authorities.
The European Parliament passed a similar resolution in 2010, but EU member states have stopped short of endorsing an EU-wide sanctions regime.
Magnitsky’s mother, Natalia Magnitskaya, testified on October 2 at the trial of the sole defendant in the case — Dmitry Kratov, a former deputy warden at Moscow’s Butyrka detention center who is charged with negligence leading to the lawyer’s death. She has urged a further investigation and said other individuals must be held accountable for her son’s killing.
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