EU-Flags
European flags © Xavier Häpe

EP backs Minimum standards for minorities in the EU

Press release from EFA MEP Miroslavs Mitrofanovs

MEPs have strongly supported a report calling for minimum standards for minorities in the EU (rapporteur József NAGY). The report represents a complete overview of the European Parliament’s position on the rights of national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities in the EU. ...

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Catalonia Europe

MEPs concerns at harsh sentences sought for Catalan leaders

Press release from the EFA Group in the European Parliament

MEPs from various political groups in the European Parliament, including the European Free Alliance, have signed a joint statement expressing their concern at the harsh sentences for Catalan political prisoners demanded by the Spanish prosecutor this week. Several Catalan pro-independence leaders...

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Catalan prisoners action

MEPs call for the freedom of their former Catalan colleagues

Press release from EFA MEPs J-M Terricabras and Jordi Solé

Around 40 MEPs in Strasbourg symbolically wore yellow t-shirts in the European Parliament plenary on Wednesday 3 October. The action was designed to highlight the plight of their former colleagues as MEPs in the Greens / EFA Group, Raül Romeva and Oriol Junqueras, and to call for their relea...

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European Free Alliance delegation in Lebanon

Press release from EFA MEPs visiting Lebanon

EFA Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), Josep-Maria Terricabras (ERC), Jill Evans (Plaid Cymru) and Jordi Solé (ERC) are in Lebanon leading a delegation aiming to find out more about the reality of the country, where one in every four inhabitants is a refugee. Since the beginning of...

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Budapest - Hungary © Jaap Hart
© Jaap Hart

EFA President welcomes EP vote on Hungary

Press release by EFA MEP J-M Terricabras (Catalonia)

Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya MEP and President of the EFA Group in the European Parliament, Josep-Maria Terricabras, has strongly welcomed the European Parliament's decision to recommend to the Member States to apply article 7 of the Treaty on European Union, because it believes that there ...

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EU copyright reform needs more work

Press release from EFA MEPs Ian Hudghton & Alyn Smith (Scotland)

The European parliament today, by 438 votes to 226 against with 39 abstentions, voted to approve the negotiating mandate for the next stage of complex negotiations over the reform of Copyright in the digital Single Market.  MEPs Ian Hudghton and Alyn Smith, supported a workable compromise betwe...

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Catalonia Protest
Sasha Popovic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

#SOTEU – Catalonia – 'Europe needs to be part of the solution'

Press release from EFA MEP Jordi Solé (Catalonia)

EFA MEP Jordi Solé (Catalonia) has invited European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to visit the nine political prisoners currently being held in Catalan jails, including two former MEPs. Solé was speaking in the keynote debate on the State of the Union in the European Parl...

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Victory for language equality in the European Parliament

Press release from EFA MEP Jill Evans (Wales)

The European Parliament has overwhelmingly endorsed a report by Plaid Cymru MEP Jill Evans which calls for action at the EU level to bridge the digital language divide. The report looks at the use of languages in digital technology and makes a number of recommendations for action by the European ...

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Brexit

Scotland legislates to include EU nationals post-Brexit

Press release from EFA MEP Alyn Smith (Scotland)

Scotland's government has announced that it will bring forward legislation to ensure that all EU nationals resident in Scotland maintain their Scottish voting rights in the event that Brexit takes place. The measure, announced as part of the Programme for Government, builds on the existing po...

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Voting box
© Colonel

EFA MEPs criticize changes to European electoral law

Statement from EFA MEPs J-M Terricabras & Jordi Solé (Catalonia)

MEPs from the European Free Alliance (EFA) Group in the European Parliament, which represents Europe's stateless nations, regions and minorities, have expressed dissatisfaction with the outcome of today's vote to reform European electoral law. They are concerned that the changes run contr...

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© Trista Weibell

We need a Europe of solidarity and humanity

Press release from EFA MEP Jordi Solé

Commenting after the address to the European Parliament of Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on the future of Europe, Catalan MEP Jordi Solé (Greens/EFA) was critical of the Polish PM's narrow vision of a Europe of nation states. Instead Solé called for a 'Europe of s...

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Open Arms – 'Saving Life is not a Crime' – MEP Ana Miranda

Press release from EFA MEP Ana Miranda (Galicia)

Greens/EFA MEP Ana Miranda, who is on board the ship Astral operated by NGO Open Arms, has called for action at EU level to prevent the criminalisation of NGOs engaged in search and rescue work in the Mediterranean. The ship which assisted in the rescue of 59 people from the Mediterranean sea ove...

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Digital-world-©-Nicholas-Monu
Digital-world-©-Nicholas-Monu

Bridging the digital language divide

Press release from EFA MEP Jill Evans (Plaid Cymru)

Greens/EFA MEP Jill Evans (Plaid Cymru) hopes her new report 'Language Equality in the Digital Age' will make an important contribution to bridging the digital language divide. This could lead to Siri speaking Welsh, or Alexa speaking Lithuanian, whilst making it easier for sign language ...

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Migrants
Migrants © Samuel Aranda

Refugees in the Mediterranean – MEPs call for solidarity

Press release from EFA MEPs Jordi Solé & J-M Terricabras (Catalonia)

MEPs today held an emergency debate on humanitarian emergencies in the Mediterranean and the need for solidarity. This follows the Italian and Maltese governments' refusal to allow the refugee rescue ship MV Aquarius access to their ports in order to land the 629 people on board. Speaking ...

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Democracy©-Tobias-Keckel
©-Tobias-Keckel

No double standards on EU's human rights commitment

Press release from EFA MEP Jordi Solé (Catalonia)

Catalan MEP Jordi Solé has called upon the EU to avoid double standards in its commitment to human rights and democracy around the world. The EFA MEP spoke in the European Parliament's debate today about the EU's annual report on human rights and democracy in the world, in the pres...

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