Category Archives: Europe / International

Anything to do with European / international issues

A Postcard from………Bucharest

By Cristian Ghita | Published 8th February 2012 - 11:55 am

The wall on the Liberal Democrat Voice office has another postcard, this time from Dr Cristian Ghita, a visiting scholar at Edinburgh University who hails from Bucharest. Here he takes us behind the current headlines. 

On Monday, February  6th, The Romanian Prime Minister resigned, following nation-wide protests. The BBC reported that “In a statement, Mr Boc, 45, said that in a time of crisis, his centrist government had not taken part in a popularity contest but had acted to save the country.”

Wonderful statement, and one that would have befitted a Prime Minister leaving his office! A pity, therefore, that it …

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Opinion: Lib Dems should promote Somaliland’s case for international recognition

By Willis Pickard | Published 1st February 2012 - 12:56 pm

While Scottish Liberal Democrats are playing a full part in the debates about the country’s constitutional future, they should not forget problems facing other less fortunate small lands.  The plight of Somaliland is a case in point and is exercising the Scottish branch of Liberal International.

The first problem Somaliland confronts on the world stage is that people confuse it with lawless Somalia.  It is an immediate neighbour and shares Somali culture but is largely peaceful and enjoys a recent record of solid democratic progress.  So are its achievements in the troubled Horn of Africa lauded?  Not a bit of it, …

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LibLink: Jeremy Browne MP on the Government’s actions to prevent torture

By Caron Lindsay | Published 1st February 2012 - 10:58 am

Liberal Democrat Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne  in the Guardian about the Coalition’s strategy to prevent torture throughout the World and about the independent enquiry which will investigate whether Britain was implicated in torture after 9/11:

We know that we face a long and difficult road ahead. But our vision is for people to be treated fairly and able to speak freely in every country. We should never be comfortable with a world where journalists, lawyers and activists endure ill treatment for criticising their governments. This is a core part of what this coalition stands for, and we will continue to

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Cam’s Euro U-turn – this is what happens when you fail to negotiate

By Stephen Tall | Published 28th January 2012 - 5:50 pm

Much wailing and gnashing of teeth today on the right as evidence emerges that David Cameron is backsliding on his ‘veto’ preventing the European Union from enforcing fiscal integration among the Eurozone countries. Here’s how The Guardian reports it:

Ahead of Monday’s summit of EU leaders, which is due to finalise “political agreement” on the fiscal compact treaty, the government signalled that it would not challenge a role for the European commission and, more sensitively, would also allow resort to the European court of justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg to enforce new debt ceilings and fines for fiscal miscreants in

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Diana Wallis MEP’s husband will not take over her seat

By Helen Duffett | Published 27th January 2012 - 9:42 am

The Yorkshire Post reports:

The husband of a Euro MP at the centre of a furious “nepotism” row has bowed to pressure and decided not to take over her Yorkshire seat when she quits next week.

Stewart Arnold, husband of Hull-based Liberal Democrat MEP Diana Wallis, has informed officials he will not be taking over his wife’s post at the EU Parliament, despite being eligible to do so as the party’s second-choice candidate at the last Euro elections.

His announcement follows a week of mounting criticism at the possibility of a husband automatically taking over his wife’s seat. Fellow Lib Dem MEP

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Martin Schulz elected as new President of the European Parliament

By Mark Valladares | Published 18th January 2012 - 4:55 pm

As reported here on Liberal Democrat Voice on Sunday, the election of a new President of the European Parliament took place yesterday and, as expected, Martin Schulz, from the German Social Democrats, was elected with a plurality of votes in the first round of voting. The result was as follows:

Martin Schulz                 387 votes

Nirj Deva                         142 votes

Diana Wallis                    141 votes

Giving his acceptance speech to MEPs, Mr Schulz told MEPs: ”Those who have voted for me can take pride in having done so. Those who didn’t vote for me will be pleasantly surprised.”. However, …

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Opinion: the dangers of a new Middle East conflagration

By Lord Smith of Clifton | Published 17th January 2012 - 3:50 pm

Storm clouds are gathering over whether Iran should be invaded as a pre-emptive strike to prevent its manufacture of nuclear weapons. Already, Israel seems to be moving pro-actively, while the subject would have been discussed by Cameron during his trip to Saudi Arabia. The US has initiated the tightening of economic sanctions against Iran and has raised its naval profile in the Persian Gulf, though it would clearly prefer to postpone any military action until after the US Presidential election in November. Meanwhile, are the various diplomatic manoeuvres around Syria a rehearsal for future action against Iran?

Very great caution …

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A postcard from… Chennai

By Baroness Ros Scott | Published 17th January 2012 - 1:53 pm

Here in the LDV office, we’ve received another postcard from Baroness Ros Scott. Typically, she’s arrived long before the postcard did…

The failure of the Lokpal Bill in Parliament is a good example of just how difficult Parliamentary business can be in India. The Lok Sabha is directly elected on a constituency basis, but with regional loyalties such a strong determinant of voting, thirty-four political parties are represented, as well as nine independents.

If you think that two party coalition is tough, consider for a moment the job of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose ruling Congress Party governs as part …

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ELDR announces venues for 2012 meetings

By NewsHound | Published 17th January 2012 - 10:23 am

The European Liberal Democrats have announced the venues for their Council meetings and annual Congress for 2012.

The first Council meeting will take place in Yerevan, Armenia and is expected to take place on 11-12 May, just five days after scheduled Parliamentary elections. This might be seen as a bold decision, given that following the 2007 elections, opposition parties alleged widespread fraud and called for mass demonstrations, although European observers felt that the vote largely met international standards. The Liberal Democrat delegation of fifteen, led by Robert Woodthorpe-Browne, will …

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The weekend debate: Should we do business with people who don’t share our values?

By Carl Quilliam | Published 14th January 2012 - 8:50 am

Here’s your starter for ten in our weekend slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…

The weekend debates have been light on foreign policy so far, so for those foreign policy buffs out there here’s one inspired by our former leader.

Over at Ted talks, Paddy Ashdown has been discussing ‘the global power shift’ from the West to the rest and in particular to the nations around the Pacific rim.

He touches on a lot of areas, including what the future of global governance might look like, how long American power might remain dominant and the growth of …

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Opinion: War with Iran? Where’s the scrutiny

By Paul Reynolds | Published 11th January 2012 - 1:58 pm

One of the great benefits of democracy over totalitarianism is its ability to criticize openly and scrutinize the major decisions of government. If weight of public and political opinion is against a particular decision, there are inevitably dissenters within the machinery of government. Whilst this doesn’t prevent damaging and foolhardy decisions from being made, it does strengthen the hand of these dissenters within the government hierarchy. This usually has the effect of limiting the damage, and speeding up both the reversal of the decision as well as the learning of lessons.

This was apparent in the case of the Iraq war. …

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A postcard from… Mumbai

By Baroness Ros Scott | Published 10th January 2012 - 4:47 pm

Baroness Ros Scott has been away visiting family for the past fortnight, and has let us have some thoughts on what she has found there…

As a politician, starting the day with newspapers and coffee is a habit that is hard to break. Indian newspapers are a joy, with their old fashioned use of English – “the altercation ended in fisticuffs”, “the ruffians were apprehended” and a diet of celebrity gossip and above all, politics. All Indian media give detailed blow-by-blow accounts of the machinations of politicians in the national and state governments and, although there’s a lot going on, …

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Introducing ‘A postcard from…’

By Mark Valladares | Published 10th January 2012 - 4:22 pm

Think of this as an experiment.

I’ve always been intrigued by questions such as, “What does the rest of the world think about what we’re up to?”. In a surprisingly parochial political culture, where the debate, if there is any, is about what the big countries are up to, what is the view from other places? And, as those nice young people at Liberal Democrat Voice have left me partly in charge on a day release basis, I thought that I should at least make an effort to find out…

So, …

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Joint Statement: European Liberal Democrat Leaders Meeting

By Mark Valladares | Published 10th January 2012 - 8:23 am

Leading Government Ministers, Party Leaders and European Commissioners from Liberal Democratic parties across Europe, meeting in London at the invitation of Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg, and under the aegis of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform party (ELDR), yesterday made the following declaration.

Jobs, Growth & Reform

Europe is at a dangerous crossroads. Without decisive and concrete action, we risk recession, rising unemployment and falling living standards. There is a real risk of Europe turning inwards, with a return to the protectionist policies of the past. Our ability to prevent this now depends on our …

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European liberal leaders gather in London

By Mark Valladares | Published 8th January 2012 - 11:23 am

Tomorrow sees politicians from across Europe gather for a meeting of Liberal leaders, hosted by Nick Clegg under the auspices of the European Liberal Democrats (ELDR). Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn and German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler are among the senior liberal figures joining him at the mini-summit in London.

Having promised to ‘re-engage with Europe’, Nick sees this meeting as part of that process, using the umbrella organisation of European liberalism to gather potential allies and influence the European Commission more positively than David Cameron did at last month’s …

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