Leo van Doesburg

After the last elections in Serbia, Tomislav Nikolic was elected as new President for Serbia. Serbia's President-Elect, and Boris Tadic, the country's former president, have agreed that a new government must be formed as soon as possible. Tadic and Nikolic met on Monday at the presidential building in Belgrade to "discuss the transfer of duties". The pair talked about the goals that Serbia should achieve including better living standard, solving economic problems, European integration, fight against crime and corruption. Tadic, who briefly addressed media with Nikolic, said they have agreed that it was necessary to establish all the institutions as soon as possible.  (Source  Balkan Insight )

Tomorrow, 4 December, parliamentarian elections will take place in Croatia. I have been several times in Croatia. The country faced quite a turbulence in their political situation. The corruption, difficult economic situation and also the accession to the European Union caused a lot of uncertainties for the people of Croatia (also shown by many demonstrations this year). This resulted in a decrease of trust in their leaders and parliament. However. I was very impressed by the new political party HRAST. This party is focused on basic Christian Democratic values and finds basic values like human dignity (protection for life from conception until natural death) and family values of main importance. However, this does not mean that they neglect other important areas. In October they organized an important conference about "Croatian economic perspectives" where the situation of the Croatian economy and the economic program of HRAST was discussed. Together with Dutch Christian U...

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – EU ambassadors have agreed to the "political goal" of moving towards a visa-free regime with Moldova in a boost for the pro-EU coalition in Chisinau ahead of November elections. The ambassadors' decision on Thursday (21 October) could see foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg on Monday task the European Commission with drawing up an Action Plan for visa-free travel for Moldova, on the model of a plan already drafted for Ukraine. The ambassadors could not agree on the final wording of the ministers' communique because France insisted on language underlining that EU countries will have to approve the Moldova plan if the commission prepares one. "All the discussions were about the visa issue. The European Ccommission is rushing to start things, but we have to make sure all the necessary guarantees are there," one EU diplomat told that website. Moldova - a post-Soviet country of 4 million people sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine o...

The elections in Latvia resulted in a clear majority for the ruling coalition of Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis. The main themes of the elections were the economic situation in Latvia and the relations with Russia and the position of the Russian-speaking minority. The ECPM is glad that the people of Riga re-elected MP Inese Šlesere who is a clear defender of Christian values and works hard to promote a pro-life agenda. We congratulate her and wish her and her colleagues all wisdom in these challenging times.