Eastern neighbours - News
Following the recent elections in Russia there has been wide concern expressed about the conduct of the election and the potential vote tampering by the United Russia party. The PES condemns any misappropriation of votes in favour of United Russia.
(26 May 2011, Brussels) The PES strongly condemns the arrests of Andrei Sannikov and Mikalai Statkevich. On 26 May 2011, Mr. Statkevich, who is the leader of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Narodnaya Gramada) and of the "European Coalition Free Belarus", received a 6-year sentence in a hard labour colony based on the same charges. On 14 May 2011, Mr Sannikov, who was the main rival in disputed 2010 re-election of Belarusian President Lukashenka, was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of organizing mass disturbances. Sannikov came in second to Lukashenka in the 19 December 2010 polls, which the opposition and the OECD have described as severely flawed.
Appeal: Freedom for the prisoners in Belarus
"Moved by deep concern we issue this urgent appeal to the President of the Republic of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko.
A delegation of European social democrats bringing together the Party of European Socialists, the European Forum for Democracy and Solidarity and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, is currently visiting Kazakhstan to meet government representatives, OSCE and EU officials, representatives of political parties, civil society, youth groups, academia and international organisations active on the ground.
The Party of European Socialists (PES), at its Presidency meeting held in Brussels on October 14th, unanimously voted to accept the membership application of the Democratic Party of Moldova. The progressive Moldovan partner party had applied for the political affiliation earlier this year.
Today (26 July) the European Council adopted a decision establishing the European External Action Service (EEAS). This service will assist the EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Baroness Catherine Ashton, in developing a more consistent and coherent EU external action.
The Party of European Socialists, together with the European Forum for Democracy and Solidarity, organised a Fact-finding Mission to Chisinau, Moldova, on 27 May 2010. The joint initiative was led by Peter Schieder, Chair of the PES Advisory Group on Eastern European Neighbours and former President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, SPÖ Austria, and by Marianne Mikko, former MEP and Co-Chair of the EU-Moldova Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, SDE, Estonia. They were welcomed by Democratic Party of Moldova leader, Marian Lupu.
PES welcomes the agreement reached between Russia and Norway on 28 April regarding their shared Arctic border in the Barents Sea.
At today’s PES Presidency meeting, former Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Sergei Stanishev, was named chair of the newly created Foreign Policy Network. Mr. Stanishev has been chairman of the Bulgarian Socialist Party since 2001 and led his party to victory in the 2005 elections. He has extensive experience in Foreign and European affairs and oversaw Bulgaria’s successful accession to the EU in 2007.