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The order portfolio of Russian companies exceeds $50 billion. Arms sellers are living their best times now, when the US and its NATO allies, without any second thoughts, use weapons against anyone who even dares not to obey them. Russia's exports of armored vehicles, military aircraft and air defense systems have been developing steadily

An der Frage, ob das deutsche Strafgesetzbuch einen neuen Mordparagraphen braucht, scheiden sich die Geister auf allen Ebenen, von der Politik über die Wissenschaft bis hin zur Praxis. Ein Thema also, das die Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung in ihrem Strafrechtssymposium vom 3. November 2015 gerne aufgegriffen hat, um den rechtspolitischen Diskurs zu begleiten.

Die Medien sind das Spiegelbild unserer Gesellschaften: Sind sie frei und kritisch, so sind wir frei und sicher.

Während wir den Internationalen Tag zur Beendigung der Straflosigkeit für Verbrechen gegen Journalisten begehen, sehen sich jedoch Journalisten in vielen Ländern rund um die Welt mit zunehmender Einschüchterung und Gewalt konfrontiert.

Angriffe auf Journalisten sind auch Angriffe auf die Freiheit der Meinungsäußerung und die Freiheit der Medien. Die EU erwartet von den staatlichen Stellen, dass sie ihren internationalen Verpflichtungen in Bezug auf die wirksame, unverzügliche und unabhängige Untersuchung solcher Gewalttaten nachkommen und dafür sorgen, dass die Täter und Anstifter – ob staatlich oder nichtstaatlich – vor Gericht gestellt werden.

Deutschland unternahm während seiner letzten Mitgliedschaft im Sicherheitsrat der Vereinten Nationen (VNSR) entscheidende Schritte, um die VNSR-Agenda zum Schutz von Kindern in bewaffneten Konflikten zu stärken und auszuweiten. Mit einer Fortsetzung dieses Engagements könnte Deutschland dazu beitragen, dass dieser Schutz weiter verbessert wird, und sich gleichzeitig erneut als Kandidat für den Sicherheitsrat 2019/20 empfehlen. Innovative Projekte könnten dabei eine Wirkung entfalten, die über die Agenda hinaus einen maßgeblichen Beitrag zur Verbesserung der Arbeitsmethoden des VNSR leisten, die für viele Mitgliedstaaten im Zentrum der VNSR-Reformdebatte stehen.

Le 22 octobre 2015, le Patrouilleur de haute mer (PHM) Premier-maître (PM) L’Her a participé dans le cadre de la mission Corymbe 131, à un Navy’s Exercice for Maritime Operations (NEMO). Le principal objectif de cet exercice multinational est d’entraîner les marines riveraines à la sécurisation du golfe de Guinée. Pour cette édition, les marines mauritanienne et sénégalaise ont travaillé de concert avec le patrouilleur de haute-mer. Co-organisé et codirigé par les Éléments français au Sénégal (EFS) et par le PM L’Her, cet exercice a permis aux marines sénégalaise et mauritanienne d’appliquer pour la première fois l’accord de « droit de poursuite dans la zone économique exclusive voisine» signé par les deux États.

Depuis l'éclatement de la Guerre civile syrienne en 2011, les dirigeants européens se sont entendus pour mettre en oeuvre une série de sanctions vis-à-vis du régime de Bachar Al-Assad. En revanche, aucun objectif commun n'a été défini concernant l'avenir du pays. L'intervention armée de la Russie peut-elle changer la donne ? Réponse de Joachim Bitterlich, ancien conseiller du chancelier allemand Helmut Kohl.

Allgemeines : Die Europäische Bürgerinitiative wurde mit dem Vertrag von Lissabon eingeführt. EU-Bürger können sich unmittelbar an der EU-Politik beteiligen und mithilfe einer Million Unterschriften die EU-Kommission auffordern, einen Rechtsakt vorzuschlagen. Bisher führte keine Initiative zu einem Gesetzesvorschlag. Das Konzept soll nun überarbeitet werden. Das EU-Parlament hat bereits am 28.10. seine Vorschläge verabschiedet. Wir haben den Berichterstatter György Schöpflin (EVP) aus Ungarn interviewt.

Quelle : © Europäische Union, 2015 - EP

Deuxième saison pour L'Europe en saucisses de notre illustratrice, CLAC !La série de dessins de presse aux couleurs européennes revient désormais un lundi sur deux pour donner un regard décalé sur l'actualité européenne.De Merkel à Hollande, en passant par Juncker, Varoufakis ou encore la reine d'Angleterre : ils reprennent leurs habits de saucisse, le temps d'un dessin.

Die Türken haben nach dem starken Mann gerufen – und er sei gekommen, sagt Türkei-Experte Günter...

Général : L'initiative citoyenne européenne, introduite par le traité de Lisbonne, permet aux citoyens d'exiger une action politique sur un certain thème à condition d'avoir réuni un million de signataires. Mais après trois ans d'existence, aucune initiative n'a conduit à une nouvelle proposition législative. Le Parlement souhaite améliorer le processus et a adopté un rapport à ce sujet le 28 octobre dernier. Nous avons rencontré le rapporteur György Schöpflin, membre hongrois du Parti Populaire européen.

Source : © Union européenne, 2015 - PE

Du 19 au 23 octobre 2015 à Dayr Kifa au Sud-Liban, les militaires français et ceux des Forces armées libanaises (FAL) ont effectué un entraînement conjoint de sauvetage au combat.

Általános : Az európai polgári kezdeményezést a Lisszaboni Szerződés vezette be azzal a céllal, hogy az EU lakosai közvetlenül kérhessék jogszabályalkotásra az EU-t, ha a kezdeményezéshez összegyűjtöttek egymillió aláírást. Az azóta eltelt három évben azonban még egyetlen kezdeményezés alapján sem készült jogszabályjavaslat. A Parlament október 28-án elfogadott jelentésében számos javaslatot tesz, hogyan lehetne javítani a folyamaton. Schöpflin György néppárti javaslattevővel beszélgettünk.

Forrás : © Európai Unió, 2015 - EP

General : The European citizens’ initiative was an innovation in the Lisbon Treaty that gave people the right to demand EU action on a particular subject provided they collect a million signatures. However, after three years no initiative has yet led to a new legislative proposal. The European Commission is preparing a review but MEPs already adopted on 28 October several ideas on how to improve the process. We spoke with report author György Schöpflin, a Hungarian member of the EPP group.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

General : The European citizens’ initiative was an innovation in the Lisbon Treaty that gave people the right to demand EU action on a particular subject provided they collect a million signatures. However, after three years no initiative has yet led to a new legislative proposal. The European Commission is preparing a review but MEPs already adopted on 28 October several ideas on how to improve the process. We spoke with report author György Schöpflin, a Hungarian member of the EPP group.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

General : King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands met EP President Martin Schulz during a visit to Brussels on Tuesday 3 October. The Monarch was also due to visit the European Commission and the Council on the same day as part of his country taking over the presidency of the European Council on 1 January 2016.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

La date a changé plusieurs fois, dpeuis que l'on sait que le groupe aéronaval (GAN) va repartir en
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A Kreatív Európa program román nemzeti irodája 2015 novemberében tájékoztató napot tart Közönségfejlesztés a középpontban – európai szintű elméleti és gyakorlati perspektívák címmel.

Selon Jacques Feytis, DRH-MD, le nombre de dossiers de pensions militaires d'invalidité (PMI)
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Pas toujours bien comprise par les militaires déployés en opex, la présence de prévôts permet aussi à
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A guest contribution by Başak Alpan,
from the Middle East Technical University, Ankara.

Here’s one of the few good things about being a political science professor in Turkey: elections are never only boring econometrical calculations that no one is interested in, but each election gives you an ample amount of shock, perplexity, and challenge to cope with.

The parliamentary elections of 1st November are no exception to this rule. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), as a surprise to even its own cadres, increased its vote from 40 % to 49% compared to the previous elections on 7 June, which had been repeated due to the stalemate in coalition negotiations. For the opponents of the government, it was one more occasion of shock, perplexity and challenge.

Some 70 000 of them – mainly middle-class, educated, urban political activists – had decided to be more than just voters and bystanders. They had volunteered for the civic oversight of elections under the umbrella of the civic movement named ‘Vote and Beyond’.

‘Vote and beyond’ – the civic movement’s emblem.

‘Vote and Beyond’, which started as a movement in Istanbul in December 2013 (in the aftermath of Gezi Protests) became an association in April 2014. They have since become organised in half of the 81 provinces and were active in observing ballot boxes in the March 2014 local elections, August 2014 presidential elections and June 2015 parliamentary elections, aiming to make sure that the elections are realised impartially and without any rig.

The variety of volunteers that make up this movement gives evidence to the ‘shock-perplexity-challenge’ theorem mentioned above: there are social democrats, unwavering seculars sick of the conservative regime, anti-capitalist Muslims, liberals who have more recently been disenchanted with the AKP, socialists who struggle for peace and democracy, and more. According to a widely shared, self-ironical tweet, the political context in Turkey has become so surreal that it even turned previously poststructuralist anarchists into staunch guardians of elections.

As a member of this movement, I was an election observer in Ulubey yesterday, one of the relatively poor districts in Ankara. As I was travelling there along the misty hills of Ankara, I was aware of the fact that I would be meeting with a pre-dominantly conservative AKP electorate. The polling commission welcomed me, and during the nine hours I spent in the primary school classroom used as a polling station, we chatted, laughed, argued and exchanged views.

The inhabitants of Ulubey, however, had a different life agenda: they were concerned with the recent urban regeneration projects that would have a direct impact on their dwellings, and very upset about the influx of Syrian refugees to the district due to affordable rents and living conditions. ‘We were not even locking our doors here before the migrants arrived’, one of the voters said. Note that all these highly political issues were however extremely personalised and bore no immediate connection to any political party or governmental policy. It simply was about their lives and their neighbourhood.

Still, at the end of the day, it became apparent that 68 per cent of the electorate of our classroom had voted for the AKP. The Guardian was right when it claimed after the Ankara bombings and their 102 victims on 10 October that even pain cannot bridge the current polarisation in Turkish society between conservatives and progressives. But that does not change the fact that any political dissident living in Turkey today has to pass that bridge every single day. Before wrapping yourself up into your daily self-induced, anti-government, dissident utopia, you buy your bread from a pro-AKP bakery, you take a cab with a pro-Erdoğan radio channel blasting; you live your life surrounded by them. They are normal people with normal lives, dreams, desires, feelings and experiences. It is just that they have different priorities and abstraction levels.

This is what we need to theorise and address if we really want to claim that another world is possible for Turkey.

Başak Alpan is Assistant Professor
in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration
at the Middle East Technical University, Ankara.

The French version of this post can be found in the ‘Mails from Europe’ series,
on the homepage of the EU-Asia Institute at ESSCA School of Management.

The post The Vote and Beyond : Lessons from the Turkish Repeat Elections appeared first on Ideas on Europe.