European Union

Just over two years after Flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine international investigators published their latest findings on Wednesday, according to which the plane was hit by a Buk missile fired by a rocket launcher brought from Russia into the rebel area. Moscow should admit its partial responsibility for the tragedy, commentators urge, arguing that sooner or later the culprits will be brought to justice anyway.

In a referendum on October 2 the citizens of Hungary will vote on whether to accept mandatory quotas for the distribution of refugees among EU member states. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán rejects the quota system already approved by Brussels. For some commentators the result is already clear. Others believe that a lack of voter participation may put Orbán in a tight spot.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shimon Peres died on Wednesday aged 93 after suffering a stroke. Twice Israeli prime minister, he also served as the country's president from 2007 to 2014. Some commentators lament that the peace process initiated by Peres still hasn't borne fruit. Others criticise him as a politician of unfulfilled hopes and expectations.

Plenary session, Strasbourg

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

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EU Ministers for Environment meet in Brussels on 30 September 2016 to discuss the ratification of the Paris Agreement. Ministers are expected to agree on the EU conclusion of the Paris Agreement. The Council is also expected to adopt conclusions on the preparations for the upcoming UN climate change conference (COP 22) set to take place in Marrakech.

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The increasing woes of Deutsche Bank demonstrate that Europe’s banking crisis is still not settled. But the troubles at Germany’s biggest lender have not deterred Brussels from pushing back forcefully against stringent new banking rules.

How things change. Back in October 2010 Michel Barnier, the then EU financial services commissioner pledged to be “vigilant” in making sure that nations around the world – especially the US – implemented international bank rules.

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DRAFT REPORT on addressing refugee and migrant movements: the role of EU External Action
Committee on Foreign Affairs, Committee on Development
Elena Valenciano, Agustín Díaz de Mera García Consuegra

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

AMENDMENTS 1 - 3 - Draft opinion on the draft Council decision on the conclusion of a Protocol to the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement establishing a partnership between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Republic of Uzbekistan, of the other part, amending the Agreement in order to extend the provisions of the Agreement to bilateral trade in textiles, taking account of the expiry of the bilateral textiles Agreement
Committee on Foreign Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

AMENDMENTS 1 - 30 - Draft opinion on the draft Council decision on the conclusion of a Protocol to the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement establishing a partnership between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Republic of Uzbekistan, of the other part, amending the Agreement in order to extend the provisions of the Agreement to bilateral trade in textiles, taking account of the expiry of the bilateral textiles Agreement
Committee on Foreign Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

When we gather in places like Babi Yar, Auschwitz or Ponary, to honour the memory of the murdered victims, we helplessly search for the right words and phrases. Some, like Pope Francis, who recently visited Auschwitz-Birkenau, choose silence, which, in his case, was broken only for a short while, for the recitation of Psalm 130.

"Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!
O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleas for mercy!"

It is understandable that in the face of the Holocaust, the living seek consolation in prayer. It is also understandable that we most often choose silence, because silence can be louder than a scream. We look for ways to honour the victims in the most dignified and suitable manner, to move into the shadow, in order to see better and to better understand what happened here, and in other places of Shoah. To better understand what happened with us, with the people and with the world, in the abyss we have found ourselves together with the victims, the perpetrators, and the witnesses. Yes, common silence and common prayer are indeed appropriate in such a place and time. But silence and prayers by themselves will not be enough if we want to avoid the great moral danger, which was, and still is, present in our collective experience. According to Timothy Snyder, a historian of the Holocaust, (and his reflection is still relevant today), "The moral danger after all, is never that one might become a victim but that one might be a perpetrator or a bystander."

This is why, when we stand in silence at this mass grave, we need to remember that it is our daily duty to cry out at the top of our voice, and to act - always - when innocent people are killed, when the strong attack the weak, when children become the target of warplanes and rockets.

Confronted with evil and violence, humankind cannot be divided only into victims, perpetrators and bystanders. We must try to emulate those, who are called the Righteous Among the Nations. If we do not, why should the Lord hear our voice? Why should his ears be attentive to our pleas for mercy?

Tomorrow, we will say our last goodbye to one of those who believed that violence need not dominate in today's world, to Shimon Peres. I know that he is here with us now.  Let his belief, and that of  others, that evil can be overcome only by good, be guidance to us all. Thank you.