Leo van Doesburg

On November 2nd I was invited to participate in the Latvian National Prayer Breakfast. This year's topic was “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God”. It was an impressive and powerful event, in which politicians and Members of Parliament shared their thoughts about the importance of peace and reconciliation.  Following the Prayer Breakfast, an international discussion was organized on “Peace as a virtue and the process of forming peace in contemporary society”. Speakers included: Inese Libina-Egner, Deputy of the Saeima and Legal advisor to the President, Ilmars Latkovskis and Inga Bite, both Deputies of the Saeima, Pavil Brvers, Bishop of Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia, Miervaldis Krotovs: Chairman of Talsi Regional Municipality, Inga Berzina, Chairman of Kuldiga City Council and Joseph Dustin, founder of organization “Streams of Life” in Latvia and Lithuania. The discussion was moderated by Inese Libina, Deputy of the Saeima. I felt privi...

The world court ruled Monday that Greece was wrong to block Macedonia's bid to join NATO in 2008 because of a long-running dispute over the fledgling country's use of the name Macedonia. you can download the judgement and the summary of the judgement here . You can f ind more information below , 

From 25 to 2 7 February the Boris Trajkovski International Foundation held its 6th You th L ea dership Forum and the 7th Fellowship Prayer Dinner. The theme this year was “World of Differences – Identity and Peace”, something Macedonian s have been confronted with for nearly 20 years. During this time, Macedonia has always tried to overcome conflicts, obstacles and trials, creating peace and stability in an often unstable world based on their identity. Therefore during plenary sessions different aspects of identity were discussed, like the question ‘What is my personal identity?’, about forms of identity and the relationship between identity and peace. All these plenary discussions were based on the principles of Jesus. Wilfried Nausner , Superintendent (United Methodist Church) spoke about three core values that form your identity: family, education and memory (history). He illustrated with texts from the Bible. He was followed by Robert Liddell - Head of the Political Section in...

This morning we had a breakfast with some friends from the Economic Diplomacy Seminar/ROM and the Boris Trajkovski Foundation. We made the conclusions of our visit and we talked about the Youth Leadership Forum next week. Auke and me hope to be present there (what will be a kind of Balkan trip epilogue). After this we went to pack our stuff and to have our last stop in Belgrade (Serbia) before we would leave back home in Timişoara. The 17 days trip to the Balkans is almost finished but went smooth. Interesting thing in Macedonia is that there are a lot of toll roads where you have to pay amounts between the €0,50 and €1,-. It is quite cheap but you have to stop many times. I was tired so I slept through the border with Serbia and easily we reached Belgrade. The circle of our round trip was now closed. In Belgrade we had to search a bit but we found the hotel quite easily. Tomorrow will be the last day of our trip with the drive back to Timişoara.

In the late morning we were picked up by our friends from the Boris Trajkovski International Foundation. We were brought to the center where we would discuss a bit about the developments and the program during a brunch. When we walked through the center, I was surprised by all the new construction works since I have been here for the last time during the summer.According to one of our friends, they are constructing a kind of triumph arc, an enormous fountain where a big statue of Alexander the Great would be placed. Also a big museum is constructed in the form of a church on the remains of an ancient church found on that place. The construction of the museum caused some tensions because it is taken place within the walls of the old fortress. A group of activists came in the night to destroy the metal framework. Now the fortress is guarded by police to keep the protesters away. After the brunch we had a great meeting with the local and regional representative of the Bible Society. We di...

Today it was a special day for many, because three years ago, Kosovo declared itself independent with a 'declaration for independence'. Therefore the city was full with different flags: even with American and German flags and also concerts were organized in the cities. This morning I had together with Jetmir an appointment with a representative of the UNDP in Mitrovica to discuss about a project that we want to develop in Kosovo. The representative of the UNDP was interested in our project and gave a good feedback and ideas concerning the project proposal and was willing to be involved and to help to put this project on it's feet. Jetmir gave good and professional information. For him it was also a good experience on how you discuss and negotiate with representatives of international institutions. When th e meeting was finished we were picked up again and I found out that Auke and Annechien also spend their time well with a friend of Ruzhdi (who drove us around) who got a f...

From Monday July 12 till Friday July 16, 2010, the European Christian Political Youth Network (ECPYN) will hold its 7th International Summer School in Ohrid, Macedonia. The summer school is the core event of ECPYN. This year's theme will be 'Reconciliation'. Besides the ECPYN member congress, the conference will include lectures and workshops from senior politicians and other professionals from several countries and an excursion. You can follow the progress of the summer school semi-live on http://ecpyn.blogspot.com , because I will regularly publish short reports after sessions.

I was surprised to learn about the strong pressure on the Macedonian government following the adoption of the new anti-discrimination law that does not mention sexual orientation. It is interesting that these emotional discussions mainly base themselves on vague terms like “European values” and “European standards”. Even the European Commission reminded Macedonia that its anti-discrimination legislation should be in line with the “Charter of Fundamental Rights”, part of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty. What was interesting was that the Charter was only used for Article 21 (where “Sexual orientation” is protected). The consequences for other rights like “the freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Art. 10 of the Charter) or for the “Freedom of Expression and information” (Art. 11 of the Charter) were mainly forgotten in these discussions. Furthermore I found it strange that the pressure did not start from Macedonian society, but mainly from abroad: from ambassadors, certain European Parliam...