International

At the international terrorism conference in St Petersburg this week, which SP Senator Tiny Kox attended in his capacity as president of the United Left Group of members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), he warned those present not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. "In far too many countries," Kox argued, "antiterrorism legislation comes at the cost of human rights, the constitutional state, and democratic institutions. That goes for a great many former Soviet Republics but also for a country such as France, where the state of emergency has been repeatedly renewed, in contravention of a PACE resolution proposed by myself and approved by the assembly a year ago." 

Early this month European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker presented five scenarios for the future of the EU. Supposedly, on Saturday 25 March he would begin an open discussion with member state government leaders, but in reality Juncker placed tight restrictions on this. Each of the scenarios recommended by him would lead to an increase in power for Brussels, and the only one which would limit Brussels’ power, Juncker disqualified.