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A delegation of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET), led by MEP Matjaž Nemec (S&D, SI) traveled to Bosnia and Herzegovina from 16 to 18 September 2025. This was the first official visit of the AFET Committee to the Western Balkans in the 10th legislative term.
The visit aimed to underline the Committee's commitment to Bosnia and Herzegovina's European integration, grounded in unity, sovereignty, territorial integrity. Members discussed Bosnia and Herzegovina's progress, and the further reforms needed to advance in its accession path towards the EU.
Press release
Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

A delegation of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET), led by Chair David McAllister, traveled to Bern, Switzerland from 11 to 12 September 2025. During the visit, Members discussed notably the new broad package of agreements that aim to consolidate, deepen and expand the bilateral relations between the EU and Switzerland.
Political agreement on this broad package has been reached in December 2024. In Bern, Members had the opportunity to exchange with representatives of the government and parliament on the upcoming ratification processes on both sides.
Location : Switzerland
Press release
Mission report : [EN]
Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

Les manifestations contre la corruption ont renversé les gouvernements : conduiront-elles à un changement durable ?

Les manifestations contre la corruption ont renversé les gouvernements : conduiront-elles à un changement durable ?

Nearly 42,000 people in Gaza are living with life-changing injuries from the ongoing conflict – including more than 10,000 children – as the health system collapses under relentless strain, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned October 2025. Credit: UN News
 
Concrete Action by Governments Is Urgently Needed, Human Rights Watch

By Louis Charbonneau and Bénédicte Jeannerod
NEW YORK, Oct 3 2025 (IPS)

The calamitous situation in Gaza, with Palestinian civilians facing extermination and ethnic cleansing by Israeli forces, was a major focus of the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) high-level week. Along with recognition of the state of Palestine by France, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, among others, states made key commitments on human rights and accountability that were overwhelmingly adopted by the UNGA and now need to be fulfilled.

On September 29, US President Donald Trump released his 20-point “Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict,” which makes no mention of either human rights or justice. But states should not wait for the adoption of a peace plan to fulfill their commitments on rights. They should take immediate action, using their leverage as required as parties to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to stop Israel’s escalating atrocities against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

Governments should suspend arms transfers to Israel and their preferential trade deals, ban trade with illegal settlements, and impose targeted sanctions on Israeli officials responsible for ongoing crimes against Palestinian civilians.

All governments should support accountability for Israeli authorities’ war crimes, crimes against humanity, including extermination, apartheid, and persecution, and acts of genocide. They should also pursue accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder and unlawful imprisonment, committed by Palestinian armed groups against Israelis during the October 7, 2023, attacks and the holding of hostages.

They should rally behind the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is combating impunity for atrocity crimes globally, and condemn and act to counter US sanctions against ICC judges and officials, prominent Palestinian rights organizations, and a UN expert.

States approved the UNGA resolution ahead of a high-level conference that marked the passing of the September 2025 deadline for states to comply with a landmark July 2024 advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences of Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

The vote this year should not be an empty gesture as Israeli authorities expand illegal settlements and further displace and exterminate Palestinians. Respect for Palestinians’ basic rights is not dependent on reaching agreement on a peace plan. Countries should move ahead quickly with steps that advance justice and accountability.

Louis Charbonneau is UN director, Human Rights Watch and Bénédicte Jeannerod is Director, HRW, France.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Szlovákiában idén több mint 80 medvét ejtettek el vadászok, s az Állami Természetvédelmi Hivatal (SOP) barnamedve akciócsoportja szintén több mint 80 egyedet lőtt agyon. A véres hírrel Filip Kuffa (SNS-jelölt) környezetvédelmi államtitkár dicsekedett el kedden (9. 30.) a Facebook-oldalán.

MISSION REPORT following the mission to Switzerland from 11 to 12 September 2025
Committee on Foreign Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

A young boy walks through the rubble of his home in Al Nusirat, Gaza, September 2025. Credit: UNICEF/Eyad El Baba
 
The effectiveness and credibility of the international rules-based order depend on whether leading states hold rule-breakers accountable, be they friends or foes.

By Daryl G. Kimball
WASHINGTON DC, Oct 3 2025 (IPS)

As a world leader and beneficiary of the international system, the United States should be at the forefront of efforts to enforce rules and laws to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, protect civilians in conflict, and block weapons transfers to states that engage in war crimes or genocide.

Since the heinous October 7, 2023, terrorist attack by Hamas, the Israeli military has killed more than 66,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 168,000 in its two-year bombing campaign in Gaza. Many thousands more are dying from starvation and disease. The campaign is disproportionate and illegal by many measures.

There is overwhelming evidence that U.S. weapons, and weapons from other states, have been used by the Netanyahu government in its war on Gaza in violation of humanitarian law and that Israel has blocked humanitarian assistance from the U.S. government, other nations, and nongovernmental aid groups.

In the name of defeating Hamas, the Israeli government—using U.S.-supplied weaponry and ammunition—has systematically bombed population centers, including schools, hospitals, water and sanitation infrastructure, and aid workers and has forcibly displaced of hundreds of thousands of civilians.

Yet President Donald Trump, his predecessor Joe Biden, and the majority of Congress have failed to uphold U.S. and international law. They have refused to use their considerable leverage to withhold military aid from Israel to protect innocent lives, facilitate a ceasefire, and secure the release of surviving Israeli hostages.

As a result, the United States is complicit in one of the most horrific chapters in human history. Its reputation as a defender of the international rules-based system is in tatters.

In July, B’Tselem—the independent Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories—released a detailed report that finds that “for nearly two years, Israel has been committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.” In July, UN world hunger experts declared that the besieged civilian population in Gaza was at risk of famine.

A September report from Democratic U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, based on their regional fact-finding trip, concluded that: “The Netanyahu government has used a two-pronged strategy—the systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure and the use of food and humanitarian assistance—as a weapon of war. The goal is, in effect, to ethnically cleanse Gaza of its Palestinian population.”

The U.S. Foreign Assistance Act—and basic human decency—require withholding military aid when U.S. weapons are used by any government that engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of human rights or that restricts the delivery of U. S. humanitarian assistance.

Despite the war’s devastating toll on civilians, the Trump administration has accelerated military aid to Israel and reversed earlier Biden restrictions on the delivery of 2,000-pound bombs, which have indiscriminate effects when dropped in populated areas.

In February, the Trump administration notified Congress of seven major arms sales to Israel amounting to over $11 billion of lethal weapons. Immediately afterward, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unilaterally broke the phased ceasefire that had been negotiated between Israel and Hamas before the last two phases could be negotiated.

Since then, Israeli violence against civilians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank has escalated, and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has only worsened.

Following another notice of arms transfers to Israel in July, some members of Congress put forward joint resolutions of disapproval that could have blocked the Trump administration’s proposed $675 million weapons transfer to Israel.

Although more than 60 percent of the American people oppose further U.S. military aid to Israel, the measure won the support of just 24 senators, all Democrats.

In the face of U.S. inaction, Netanyahu defied international calls to end the war, ordered a new military offensive against Gaza City, and rejected Palestinian statehood.

Not only is it past time for Congress to enforce U.S. laws designed to protect civilians; the desperate situation also demands that other international actors step up to enforce the most basic international rules to protect civilians.

As a distinguished group of UN experts proposed Sept. 5, the General Assembly should adopt a “Uniting for Peace” resolution, demanding and enforcing a cessation of Israel’s bombardment and displacement of civilians in Gaza, the release of remaining Israeli hostages by Hamas, an immediate arms embargo on Israel and Hamas, and the unfettered delivery of humanitarian aid by UN and independent nongovernmental aid groups.

A robust Uniting for Peace initiative would pressure U.S. and Israeli leaders to act within the international rules and help enforce any plan to end the war, including the U.S.-Israeli brokered plan they demand that Hamas accept or else Israel’s assault will continue.

Such resolutions, which carry greater legal and political weight and can authorize a UN emergency force, have been used in rare cases when Security Council members fail to maintain international peace and security. If there has been any occasion for bolder action, it is now.

Daryl G. Kimball is Executive Director Arms Control Association, Washington DC.

The Arms Control Association, founded in 1971, is a national nonpartisan membership organization dedicated to promoting public understanding of and support for effective arms control policies.

Source: Arms Control Today

IPS UN Bureau

 

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TASR: Bombariadó van a nagymihályi (Michalovce) kórházban. A rendőrség lezárta a kórház környékét és megtette a szükséges óvintézkedéseket – tájékoztatta a TASR-t Lenka Ivanová, a Kassai Kerületi Rendőrkapitányság szóvivője. „Folyamatban van az épület átkutatása bombakereső kutyával és tűzszerészek bevonásával” – tette hozzá a szóvivő. Részletesebb tájékoztatást egyelőre nem ad a rendőrség.

On 23 September, the Committees on Foreign Affairs and on Development, together with the Subcommittee on Human Rights, presented the candidates for this year's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, one of the most important events of the European Parliament. On 16 October, the AFET and DEVE committees will meet again to narrow down the list of nominees to a three-candidate shortlist, via a secret vote.
Each year the Sakharov Prize reaffirms the European Parliament's unwavering commitment to the protection and promotion of human rights, a founding principle of the European Union. The winning 2025 laureate(s) will be announced on 22 October by the Conference of Presidents (EP President and political group leaders) and an exchange of views with the laureate(s) will take place in a joint Committee meeting on 15 December. The Prize will be presented to the laureate(s) at an award ceremony during the December plenary, on 16 December.
Sakharov Prize website
Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

The nominees for this year’s Prize will be presented by the political groups in a joint meeting of the Committees on Foreign Affairs (AFET) and on Development (DEVE) and the Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI) in Brussels on 23 September, 14:30-15:30. Each year, the Parliament awards the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to honour exceptional individuals and organisations defending human rights and fundamental freedoms.
In 2024, the Prize was awarded to María Corina Machado, leader of the democratic forces in Venezuela, and President-elect Edmundo González Urrutia.The AFET and DEVE Committees will vote on a shortlist of three finalists on 16 October and the Conference of Presidents will take a decision on the final laureate on 22 October.
Sakharov Prize - Presentation of the nominees - Webstreaming link
Sakharov Prize website
Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

A Progresszív Szlovákia (PS) pénteki (10. 3.) sajtótájékoztatója

Selon un projet de conclusions du Conseil consulté par Euractiv, les États membres se disent prêts à soutenir l’initiative présentée par Bruxelles en matière d’accès au logement, tout en avertissant qu’il ne faudra pas dépasser certaines limites.

The post Les Vingt-Sept devraient soutenir le plan de la Commission pour favoriser l’accès au logement — mais avec des réserves appeared first on Euractiv FR.

In today's edition: Sovereign cloud accord, court slaps Meta over dark pattern

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In today's edition: Tuna, Biotech act, Mercosur, EU-UK

Bienvenue dans Rapporteur. Je suis Nicoletta Ionta à Bruxelles. À savoir : République tchèque : le parti ANO d’Andrej Babiš en tête alors que les électeurs se rendent aux urnes pour deux jours d’élections législatives Sanctions : les diplomates de l’UE envisagent des restrictions de voyage Schengen pour les envoyés de Moscou Belgique : Bart […]

The post Andrej Babiš prêt pour un retour appeared first on Euractiv FR.

A postával együttműködve indít újabb programot a nyugdíjasokat ért csalások megelőzésére a belügyi tárca. A nyugdíjjal együtt tájékoztató szórólapot is kézbesít a posta a nyugdíjasoknak, amelyben elmagyarázzák, mire kell figyelniük – közölte csütörtöki (10. 2.) Matúš Šutaj Eštok belügyminiszter.

In today's edition: Green Deal, deregulation, renewable energy, deforestation

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