The leaders of Parliament's political groups today reached consensus on the 2009 winner of the Sakharov prize for human rights and freedom of thought. The 'Memorial' organisation founded in the 1980s in Russia by Andrei Sakharov himself represents the courageous efforts of a number of individuals (Oleg Orlov, Sergei Kovalev and Lyudmila Alexeyeva) in the defence of human rights in the post-Soviet states. Originally conceived as a memorial to the victims of Stalinist repression, it has...

As candidates names for the position of President of the European Council are circulating with increasing frequency in the media ahead of the EU summit meeting in Brussels at the end of the month, Liberals and Democrats are calling for a parliamentary debate to better define the role and responsibilities of the new post before attempting to fill it. This morning, Parliament's Group leaders backed the Liberal and Democrat group proposal to include a debate on the matter at the next Brussels...

Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the ALDE group in the European Parliament was critical of the failure of Europe's finance ministers yesterday to reach agreement, ahead of the all-important Copenhagen summit in December, on financial support to developing countries to meet their share of global emission cuts.

In a cross-party resolution adopted today in the European Parliament, Members from all groups took the view that the European Union needs to work towards a stronger financial supervisory architecture with a single financial supervisory authority as an objective. Guy Verhofstadt welcomes the growing consensus and support for a Single European Financial Supervising Authority.

Guy Verhofstadt, President of the ALDE group addressed the Presidents of both Council and Commission in a European Parliament plenary debate in Brussels today on the new prospects for full ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. Given that the outgoing Commission's term of office expires on 31st October he called on all EU institutions to commit themselves to nominating and approving the new European Commissioners as soon as possible in order to avoid a Commission without authority being unable to...