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24. September 2012 Press Release

Belarus elections: No choice, no credibility

Commenting on yesterday's parliamentary elections in Belarus, Green foreign affairs spokesperson Werner Schulz (MEP Germany) stated: "It is impossible to describe yesterday's sham as an election. There was no risk of Belarusian citizens having an actual choice and as such it lacks any credibility. Unattended ballot boxes, voting under surveillance, vote counts without supervision and the exclusion of nearly 99% of all the opposition candidates from election committees assured calm and smooth procedures.

11. September 2012

Russia and the rule of law: Shocking Pussy Riot sentence the tip of the iceberg

Green MEP Werner Schulz spoke out this evening in the European Parliament against the political use of justice in Russia and a series of laws adopted by an illegitimate Duma that allow such abuses. Shocking as it is, the recent sentencing of three members of the Punk band "Pussy Riot" to two years in a penal colony is the just the latest in a string of politically motivated verdicts aimed at clamping down on political dissent and opposition forces. They force the EU to take a long hard look at the relationship and call into question attempts at forming a strategic partnership with Russia at all.

09. September 2012

Proposal of Pussy Riot for the Sakharov-Prize

Russian punk band Pussy Riot, whose three female musicians were sentenced to prison for insulting the country's president, are among the candidates for the European Parliament's annual Sakharov Prize. Pussy Riot was nominated by German MEP Werner Schulz (Greens/EFA) and gathered the signatures of 45 other MEPs.

31. August 2012

Civil society in Russia: Meeting of Parliamentary Working Group in St. Petersburg

120831_St._Petersburg_Schulz_Pulch The omens were not good for the second meeting of the Working Group of the EU-Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee (PCC), held at St. Petersburg's Legislative Assembly on 30-31 August. The August skies above the city were grey, heavy with clouds, and temperatures were distinctly chilly for late summer. Even more discouraging, though, were the new laws and amendments the Duma had approved in the final weeks before its summer break, severely curtailing the rights of civil society and the extra-parliamentary opposition. So, the choice of the topic for the meeting of EU parliamentarians and their colleagues from the Duma and the Federation Council was an apt one: civil society in the EU and in Russia. (Image: W. Schulz and M. Pulch, EEAS Moscow)

10. August 2012

Ukraine: The West must not remain a spectator of political show trials

In view of the now official new allegations against Julia Tymoshenko and the declaration of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office, the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights can under no circumstances lead to release for the former Interior Minister Yuri Lutsenko, currently in prison and suffering from life-threatening illness. Rebecca Harms, Co-President of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, and Werner Schulz, Green member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, call on the European Commission to issue an immediate reaction and come to a rapid decision on sanctions against the government of Ukraine.

27. August 2012

"Germany damages credibility of European policies"

That the Belarusian security forces have received training and equipment with the assistance of the German Police is a deplorable state of affairs. Although it is not yet clear how extensive this assistance actually was, we can be certain that the German government has done serious damage to the credibility of EU policies through its piecemeal approach in releasing the information that has been wrung from it. With elections in Belarus only a few weeks away, there should be no doubt that Europe stands staunchly and unequivocally in support of the political opposition and the civil society of Belarus, and not with the Lukashenko regime.

13. Juli 2012

We don't sponsor special agents or spies

Logos_CSF_EU_Russia Interview of the EU-Russia Civil Society Forum (Polina Baigerova) with Werner Schulz about the bill obliging all NGOs who receive foreign funds to declare themselves "foreign agents".