From the 21st to the 23rd of April, AEGEE-Budapest hosted the conference “Education for the present, Democracy for the future”, which was the winner of the Franck Biancheri Award 2017. The event was organised together with Europe on Track and the Civic Education Working Group, with the support of the Association des Amis de Franck Biancheri. We talked to Álvaro González Pérez, one of the participants, to get to know more about it. 

The AEGEEan: Why did AEGEE-Budapest decide to organise the conference? Which where the highlights of the event?

Álvaro: AEGEE-Budapest had been dreaming of organising another big thematic event since their popular Agora in 2012, so the opportunity to help bringing to life such an important conference as  “Education for the Present, Democracy for the Future” was something they did not want to miss. Furthermore, and as the participants of the conference had the opportunity to learn in detail, civic education and democracy are two topics very much discussed currently in Hungary.

Regarding the highlights, there are way too many for me to mention all of them, but on a personal level I would underline on one hand the fact that the conference fired the starting gun for the arch-popular Europe on Track 4 (since both teams departed from Budapest), and on the other one the lecture given by a Hungarian university professor and activist, Marie Heller, on the current political and educational situation in Hungary, which gave us the foreign visitors a greatly enriching and enlightening local perspective.

Did they collaborate or had a partnership with other organisations?

The content of the conference has been organised by the Europe on Track Project and the Civic Education Working Group, which did an amazing job. I cannot avoid mentioning the incredible job that María Ballesteros Melero did, who was close to being omnipresent.

Regarding the collaborations, the “Association des Amis de Franck Biancheri” (AAFB) supported the conference with its experienced speakers and trainers during the whole duration of the event, and the Central European University (CEU) provided us with the necessary space and material.

How many organisers were involved in the organisation of the conference? 

There was a content team led by María Ballesteros, and formed by Maria Maris, Nicola Guida, Sofia Lobakina, and Balint Toronyai. The sessions were given by several members of the AAFB, the Comité Directeur and the CEWG, as well as by several guests that are a part of the Hungarian civil society, such as the a forementioned professor or a high school student involved in early activism. The organisational side was handled by AEGEE-Budapest and Petra Buruzs as main organiser, who made an amazing job and could not have made our stay in Budapest more comfortable and enjoyable.

Can you tell us something about the programme?

As shown by the name of the conference, the core of the conference was civic education in Europe, and the whole programme was based on this topic, whereas the first day the sessions were more based on the legacy of Franck Biancheri, regarding his life and his more than relevant role in AEGEE. In this sense, both of these elements were combined in a way that we dealt with the past, present and future of AEGEE and Europe, with interesting workshops dealing with diverse topics such as the current state of civic education in Europe, the role of civil society in the shaping of active and responsible citizens or the possibility of the democratisation of the Eurozone. The dynamism of the conference made it impossible to get bored: we had several parallel sessions that we could choose depending on what we felt like would fit us the most, as well as a World Café.

Is there something that we did not ask that you would like to share?

Especially remarkable is the fact that the place where the conference was held, the CEU, is currently in danger of being closed by the Hungarian government, because of several reasons dealing directly with the topic of civic education. For this reason, not only this university was suitable for us from a practical point of view, but also from a symbolic one.

Finally, I want to underline once again how enriching the lecture by Marie Heller on education and politics in Hungary was, not only for me, but for numerous participants. Even though the results of the evaluation are not out yet, I am convinced it will be close to the top of the best evaluated sessions, and it will come with no surprise:  getting to know the culture, society and politics of a certain place in that very place and by locals with expertise on the topic gives an unmatchable and an extremely educational insight.

Written by Paola Letizia Murru, AEGEE-Cagliari

People have been protesting against the government in Serbia for more than two week now, but there is not much to talk about this in the media, not even in Serbia.

Thousands of young people, students and other citizens of Serbia have been walking on the streets of cities to protest against the government and the recently elected president Aleksandar Vučić. The elections were held on Sunday, the 2nd of April when Vučić has won 55% of the votes. The protesters say the election have been “undemocratic”.

In the night after the elections, a Facebook event called “Protest against the dictatorship” was created. It was not sure how many people would show up, but during the first days, there were hundreds of people, not only in Belgrade but also in the other cities like Novi Sad, Niš, Kraljevo and more. The protests are not led by any political party and they continued to be held every day at 6 pm, with thousands of people joining.

Some of the protestors said “You are not my president”, “We do not want a dictatorship, we want democracy”, “Against the system”, as well as many others criticising the media and the presidential campaign of Aleksandar Vučić.

Nikola Jekić, from AEGEE-Novi Sad, says that he is happy to see so many young people are actively participating in the protests: “They are full of enthusiasm and they want to make things better.  Most importantly – we do not want any kind of violence. Similar public gatherings were also held in the previous years, but this time it became just too massive for the government to ignore us.”.

On Saturday 8th of April, the biggest protest so far was held – with thousands of people on the streets of Belgrade. This time, the protest was supported by the syndicates of the police and the army of Serbia because of, as they say, “unsatisfying condition of the security sector and the conditions in the society”.

Isidora Braljinac, a member of AEGEE-Belgrade, told us about the huge response of people to that protest: “The number of people is reaching several thousand per day, but that one reached more than 60.000, which was reported by very few TV stations and newspaper.”. She also says that the youth of Serbia is not happy because of the fact that their homeland is being destroyed in many ways, which is why they are almost forced to go to other countries to look for a better future: “Government, media and many other institutions are ignoring us more than ever. If they say something, they say that we are hooligans, drug users, alcoholics and that we “probably have too much free time”. It is not about spending free time on the streets, while it is raining, it is about freedom.”.

For years now, one of the problems in Serbia has been the censorship of the media. During the presidential elections, almost every newspaper printed the logo of Aleksandar Vučić on their front page on the last day of the elections.  The problem is culminating since the citizens are protesting because of this. The public service broadcasters  – RTS (Radio-television of Serbia) and RTV (Radio-television of Vojvodina) are not reporting anything about the protests. They are giving partial information or no information at all.

Danilo Đalović from AEGEE-Niš, says that there is the same problem with the media on the local level: A few local media from Niš are reporting about the protests, and the TV-stations only mention it occasionally, but they are all under the control of the ruling party.”. He also adds that he thinks young people in his city find this very important: “They do not want to give up because this is actually a fight for freedom and democracy, a fight for the freedom of opinion, speech and basic human rights. The young people should not have to leave their country to have a better life, they want to change the current state of things and to create a better future for themselves.”.

Some of the requirements of the protestors are: abolition of the dictatorship and resignations of the political elite together with Aleksandar Vučić, resignations of members of REM (Regulatory authority for electronic media), RIK (Republic electoral commission), the head of RTS (Radio-television of Serbia) and the president of National Assembly of Serbia.

Pictures: Point of view by Lilit

Written by Gordana Tosic, AEGEE-Novi Sad

In early July, AEGEE-Madrid organised an event about two important pillars in many, if not all, countries in Europe; these being ‘democracy’ and ‘equality’. The event got a special dimension by also including LGBT rights in the discussion. This further underlined the idea that there should be equality between both majority and minority groups. To know more, please continue our interview with Maria Ballesteros Melero from AEGEE-Madrid.

The AEGEEan: Who, within AEGEE-Madrid, organised this event?

Maria: Vicent Torres (secretary of the antenna) and María de la Torre (vice president) were the main organisers and the ones who decided to organise this event. We also had other board and active members of the antenna involved in the organisation of the event and the logistics during the event.

What was the event about?

Democracy: Where Are You Going was an event focused on debate about topics related to democracy and equality. We addressed subjects like how democracy works or the fight for equal LGBT rights in Spain.

Where and for whom did you organise it?

It was open for all AEGEE members and it took place at a youth hostel in the south of Madrid.

When did you organise it?

It took place during the first weekend of July (1-3 July), during the big weekend of the Gay Pride in Madrid. On Saturday, we had sessions on how democracy works in society, with practical games and with the collaboration of Óliver Soto, president of JEF Spain. We also had a very interesting debate with Miguel Ángel Sánchez, honorary president of Fundación Triángulo, who told us a lot about the fight for equal LGBT rights in Spain and how it evolved to become what it is today. On Sunday, we had a workshop about the history of democracy and e-democracy with Antonis Triantafyllakis, who is involved in the Euroland Agora project.

The evening program was focused on the Gay Pride activities in the city. We attended the Gay Pride Parade on Saturday evening, the major highlight of the whole celebration.

Why did you organise the event?

We wanted our participants to get a better grasp on how democracy works in Europe. We have noticed that we barely have events with content in AEGEE anymore and we wanted to change that. We also wanted to encourage the collaboration with experts and bodies that are not AEGEE in our events.

How did the event go?

I think it went great! We were a bit disappointed that the number of participants wasn’t higher, but after all we prefer quality over quantity. The contribution of members from other associations was very enriching for both participants and organisers and the debates were really interesting.

Written by Willem Laurentzen, AEGEE-Nijmegen

AEGEE-Patra proposed a magnificent TSU showing the best of Peloponnese on the initiative of Flo Fotini Karagrigori, Stavroula Kostakopolou, Secretary of this Greek Antenna, Vasiliki Petrakou, President, and the extraordinary help of an amazing team. Journalist Matteo Lai reports on this international event that was in collaboration with the Democracy in Practice project.

The Summer University of AEGEE-Patra began on the eleventh of July 2016. In Athens, I had already met some participants, Ana and Alvaro, and one organiser, Spyros, who hosted me during the previous weekend, and gave us a small city tour of the Greek capital. With other guys, who were joining the event, we reached Patra very late by bus; about nine p.m. The Greek organisers, however, could not let us miss out on some ice breaking games, so that we at least got to know the name of the other participants.

They came from every corner of Europe: Dario Renna (Italy), Natalya Turun (Ukraine),  Ihor Raynovskyy (Ukraine), David Ferre (Spain), Olga Revilla (Spain), Ana González García (Spain), Robert Bullesfeld (Germany), Joyce Schulte (the Netherlands), Álvaro Alonso Larré (Spain), Anna Zaiats (Ukraine), Strahinja Kocijasevic (Serbia), Enrica Griggio (Italy), Diego Laino Rebollido (Spain), Alessandro Boffa Fasset (Italy), Irene Ballester (Spain), Matteo Delfino (Italy), Adela Hurtikova (Czech Republic), Anna Temerko (Ukraine), Matteo Sberna (Italy), Merli Martin (Estonia), Sophia Talvoysh (Russia), Maria Calin (Austria), Alicia Jiménez Nosti (Spain), Julia Sohu (Spain), Mikel Larra Arca (Spain), Ella Katkova (Russia), Fernando Berniola Cassorán (Spain), Lili Dozsa (Hungary), Arbenita Hasani (Austria), Kagan Kemal Tuna (Turkey) and a girl simply known to us as Burcu (Turkey).

The organisers were: Noemi Lowy (Democracy in Practice Trainer, AEGEE-Debrecen), Vasiliki Petrakou (Main Organiser and President), Petros Spyratos, Spyros Ntouroukis, Fotini Flo Karagrigori (Main Organiser and Secretary), Stavroula Kostakopoulou (Main Organizer and Incoming Responsible), Raphael Angelis, Stavros Vlatakis, Giota Grintzou, Petros Vezos, Katerina Anastasopolou (AEGEE-Athina), Akis Tampachaniotis (AEGEE-Peiraias), Costas Frem, Costantinos Fasourakis, Yiota Mitropoulou, Anastasia Karantza.

After a quick dinner outside the hotel, we all went together to a lounge in a pub, ten minutes away from the hotel that was our accommodation for the first four days. I was really tired after the long trip from Athens to Patra, but I could not wait for the interesting programme that the organisers had crafted for us. Patra is famous for the Rio-Antirrio Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in Europe. In Patra, I also visited the Apollon Theatre, which was designed by the famous German architect Ernst Ziller and completed in 1872. The Apollon is located east of Georgiou I Square, one of Patra’s most popular squares. The theatre is a micrograph of “La Scala” in Milan, and is the oldest existing enclosed theatre of the same era. The Apollon Theatre has been the main stage of the Patras Municipal and Regional Theatre since 1988, and can hold up to three hundred people.

The TSU was in collaboration with the ‘Democracy in Practice’ project. For the newbies in AEGEE, the aim of the project is to raise awareness among young people about the importance of human rights as the basis of a healthy democracy, in order to promote social and political participation of young people at local, national, and European level. This can be achieved in two ways: by means of training, and by means of advocacy. Therefore, the members of Democracy in Practice set some learning objectives and some advocacy objectives. The former required the participants to explain what the interconnections between human rights and democracy are, to develop a campaign for Human Rights, to direct their own learning through the process, and to develop a concrete action plan in order to start a follow-up process. Advocacy objectives are various as well: the participants can identify the local stakeholders for human rights education; the participants are able to advocate for human rights education in their local communities, specially targeting universities and other educational centres.

There have been many sessions that allowed us to know each other better and to discuss about Europe. For example, at the Gythio campsite, Noemi asked us to write down some words that we associate with Europe: peace, freedom, security, human rights, prosperity, language, mobility. She also proposed us to watch a movie titled: “The Untouchables”, which topics were discussed during our stay in Patra.

On the third day, we spent the evening in Plaz, a beach close to Patra’s city centre, where we enjoyed the European Night, a traditional activity in every Summer University. The organisers decided to surprise us by showing their European friends the basics of some popular Greek dances. Then, Stavroula would not be amiss to show us the famous ‘Ouzo’, an alcoholic drink very similar to Sambuca with the flavor of anisette.

On the morning of the day after, we followed a Democracy in Practice session about the structure and organisation of AEGEE. Noemi also talked about several AEGEE projects you can join, such as The AEGEEan. Later, the protagonists of this amazing Greek adventure visited the Achaia Clauss winery where they relaxed, chatted and made some group photos. In the Youth Mobility Workshop, David explained to us the incredible advantages of living on a new planet with his “Apollo Mobility Program”.

The participants were involved in D.i.P. activities almost every day, but we also went to Ancient Olympia, known for having been the site of the Olympic Games in classical times. In the 10th century B.C., Olympia became a centre for the worship of Zeus. The Altis – the sanctuary to the gods – used to contain one of the greatest collections of masterpieces from the ancient Greek world. In addition to temples, we saw the remains of all the sports structures, which had been erected for the Olympic Games that were held in Olympia every four years. The first ever Olympic Games were held in honour of Zeus. After some hours at Kaiafas beach, we visited Kalamata. The city tour was guided by Dimitri Eliopoulos, former director of Alpha Bank, who spoke more Italian than Greek or English. On Sunday, we went to Polylimnio for river trekking. The course ended at a lake and some Spanish guys inaugurated a dive competition from very high rocks. In Methoni, we managed to make some group photos over the rocks near a castle without falling into the water.

The day at Kalamata’s city hall was the best for me. After we were welcomed by the mayor, we made an analysis and comparison of the situation of human and fundamental rights in several European countries. We were divided into small groups on the basis of our country. I still cannot believe it, but I talked in front of forty people in a foreign language about the Italian Constitution, while expressing my opinion about some current problems of Italy without getting nervous. I would have liked to answer some questions, but it was also important to talk about countries where the problem of human rights is probably much more felt, countries such as Ukraine, Russia and Turkey.

In Kardamyli, thirty-five kilometers southeast of Kalamata, in the region of Messenia on the Mani Peninsula, we admired the Mourtzinos Tower and the Church of Ayios Spyridon. After enjoying the sun at Stoupa beach, we reached the third Greek town of this vacation, Gythio, where we celebrated at the Hippie Hippie Shake Party.

One of the places that fascinated me the most was Monemvasia Island. Monemvasia is a town and a municipality in Laconia. The town is located on a small island off the Eastern coast of the Peloponnese. The town’s name derives from two Greek words, “mone” and “emvasia”, collectively meaning “single entrance”. Many of the streets are narrow and can only accommodate pedestrians and donkeys. A small hamlet of about ten houses lies on the northwest. The most interesting aspects of the island were for sure: Christos Elkomenos Square, the church of Agia Sophia, and the fortress. There was a very strong wind around the island, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying a wonderful excursion. Another interesting archeological site was Mystras, a fortified town and a former municipality in Laconia, always in the Peloponnese, situated on the Taygetos mountain, near the ancient Sparta.

In the next chapter of our journey, we arrived in Mycenae (or Mikines). In the second millennium BC, Mycenae was one of the major centres of Greek civilisation. I got petrified when I saw the Lion Gate, because I had only seen it in my history of art text book. On the last two days of the TSU, the accommodation was in a campsite in Napflio. During those couple of days, we went on a cruise discovering the Hydra and Spetses islands. In Hydra there were no cars, but a lot of mules instead. On both islands the water was crystal-clear. At the end of the SU, the organisers brought us to the ancient theatre at Epidauros: among all the ancient theatres, this one was the most beautiful and best preserved. And although it was very hot, I could not resist the temptation to climb up the steps to the top of the theatre.

The organisers of AEGEE-Patra did a really good job; some of them have been very affable with the most shy participants, and they have created and nurtured a group that wanted to have a lot of fun. Sometimes they had to modify the timetable for the evening programme by the request of most of the participants; such as when we asked to include one more party on Gythio beach. In the discos, someone among the organisers could not bare to see you sit on a chair, so they immediately grabbed you by your arms and made you fly on the dance floor. They showed to be very experienced after their Agora in 2014. Not everything  was perfect and there were some aspects that need to be improved for next year, but the organisers were also warm-hearted. When I got sick, guys like Raphael, Vasiliki and Stavros took care of me without hesitation.

Written by Matteo Lai, AEGEE-Cagliari.

The Democracy in Practice (DiP) Team composed of Andrea, Danae, Elena, Eleonora, Evrim, Johanna, Lia, May, Noemi, Sora, and Zeynep, is part of an AEGEE-Europe Project that has one of AEGEE’s experienced Project Managers, and candidate for the Comité Directeur at the Spring Agora Bergamo, Lia Tuska from AEGEE-Kastoria. In this article, the founder of the aforementioned Greek antenna tells us something about her campaign against terrorism ‘Make Room for Peace’.

‘Democracy in Practice’ is an AEGEE-Europe Project that aims to raise awareness among young people about the importance of human rights as the basis of a healthy democracy. They do this by promoting social and political participation of young people in their local, national, and European environment.

The project includes three types of activities: workshops, thematic events and full DiP events. The members hold workshops at different kinds of events like Network Meetings (NWMs), pre-events, Agorae and European Planning Meetings (EPMs). They also promote the idea of celebrating international days such as the Human Rights Day and Democracy Day. That is why they created the Guidelines for Human Rights and Democracy Activities. “Many locals want to organise European events. They can take care of the logistics and we can take care of the content”, says Lia. For example, currently, DiP is collaborating with AEGEE-Eskişehir and AEGEE-Patra on Summer Universities. In addition to those abovementioned activities, DiP members have their own events which aim at informing the participants about human rights, explaining to them the link between democracy and human rights and making them more aware of the importance of democracy. Last but not least, they encourage them to be active citizens.

“The Project is going to close at the Spring Agora Bergamo and reopen for a new cycle with new people, so if you are passionate about active citizenship, democracy or human rights, don’t hesitate to contact us” , adds Lia. The founder of AEGEE-Kastoria focuses on why the campaign ‘Make Room for Peace’ has been launched. In fact, after the terrorist attacks that took place in the last six months, the members of DiP were deeply saddened just as many other members of our Network. Therefore, they thought that they should do something in order to take action against terrorism by launching a campaign, and thus they created the campaign called ‘Make Room for Peace’. With this campaign, they are calling on young people, AEGEEans, who strive for mutual understanding and terror-free societies. “Our weapons are the words, actions, mind and love. We do not need arms, our arms are for hugging the world!”, says Lia. Every AEGEE member can become an ambassador. The tasks of an ambassador are: to promote the activities of the campaign, to answer the questions from locals and other members regarding the campaign, to follow the activities of the campaign and to communicate with the Project team in case of questions. Also, all members are more than welcome to share their ideas to improve the campaign by adding more activities. The peace ambassadors are also expected to help them collect the materials, like photos and summaries of what locals did regarding the campaign, at the end of the campaign.

Then, a video will be created two weeks before the Agora in order to be first presented on Saturday, 21st of May, on the International Anti-terrorism Day. But until now, there are not many locals that have taken part in the campaign: only some members of our Project, AEGEE-Brescia, AEGEE-Eskişehir, the participants of ‘European Problems, Humanitarian Solutions’, and the participants of the Local Training Course (LTC) organised by AEGEE-Budapest and AEGEE-Debrecen have participated in the campaign so far.

As part of the campaign, DiP members prepared a set of workshops that have been and will be held at four events. They have already had the chance to provide workshops at the ‘European Problems, Humanitarian Solutions’ event organised by AEGEE-Athina and at the LTC organised by AEGEE-Budapest and AEGEE-Debrecen. In Athens, the participants were introduced to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with a game of charades, then they learned how people’s lives are influenced by the refugee crisis. In addition, a discussion on how those aspects are all linked to the rise of terrorism in the last few months took place. At the LTC, the participants received an introductory session on how European bodies work and then they had a role-play activity which aimed at raising awareness about the inequality of opportunities, developing their imagination and critical thinking and fostering empathy with less fortunate people. This activity closed with a discussion on how the participants felt about the roles they got. DiP members are going to have a workshop at the ‘Borderless Europe: Blessing or Burden?’ event organised by AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca and Your Vision for EUrope. The last of the workshops will be held at the Spring Agora Bergamo 2016 and it will be carried out in collaboration between DiP and Your Vision for EUrope Project. There is going to be an article about the results of the whole campaign where we will explain everything.

At EPM Leiden, DiP held the workshop ‘The stories they confess’, where participants were introduced to stories of people influenced by the refugee crisis. Every AEGEE member can check some videos of their workshop on their Facebook page. DiP was also present at the EPM Fair where it promoted the Summer Universities, context in which DiP members collaborated along with AEGEE-Eskişehir and AEGEE-Patra. Lia’s group also introduced its ‘Fact Cards’ to the people who attended the Fair. These cards had information about the Refugee Crisis and Human Rights on them.

Written by Matteo Lai, AEGEE-Cagliari

Do you think democracy in Europe is important? Do you want to know everything there is to know about democratic decision-making, while having a fun time with other AEGEEans? Good news, because from the 25^th of February until the 1^st of March, AEGEE-Groningen is giving you the chance to learn all about democracy and at the same time discover the city with the largest student population in the Netherlands during their European event called ‘Democracy: How Should our Society be?’ .The AEGEEan spoke to one of the organizers, Eelke Bakker, to find out more about this upcoming event.

After having organized an European event last year (Energy of Tomorrow), the local wanted to repeat the experience. “We want to give other AEGEEans the opportunity to visit our city as cheap as possible and at the same time learn more about democracy”, Eelke explains. “It is our aim to give a complete overview of the idea of democracy. Therefore, we have planned a lot of different lectures, discussions, and workshops on different aspects.” The event will include topics like democracy in the Netherlands, (dis)advantages of the multi-party system, promotion of democracy and human rights, democracy at the European level, and democracy and social media. “We are still very busy working on the program so there might be slight changes in the upcoming weeks but we can guarantee that all lectures will be very interesting and given by motivated speakers!”

Asked why they think it is important to talk and learn about the topic of democracy, Eelke explains: “Democracy might sometimes be taken for granted, especially in western European countries, or people tend to focus only on the quality of elections in determining the quality of democracy. We however think that democracy is not as self-explanatory as sometimes assumed. There are many different aspects to it, some of which are barely discussed. During our event, we will therefore try to highlight these aspects as well, so that participants can develop a more well-informed view on democracy, regardless of whether that’s a positive or negative one.”

The organizers! From left to right: Maarten, Marijn, Martine, Eelke and Anton

A project of AEGEE strongly linked to this topic is of course Democracy in Practice, which was ratified during the Autumn Agora in Cagliari and is now cooperating with AEGEE-Groningen on their event. “We are very happy that they wanted to come to our event!”, Eelke says. “Normally, they give one week training courses on how to promote democracy as an individual. For our event, they will give a shorter, two-hour workshop on the same topic. We think that the practical aspect during our event is very important. We don’t want to organize plain every-day lectures, but interactive, interesting activities during which active participation is required. The workshop given by Democracy in Practice has all of these characteristics!” Next to that, the local is also cooperating with the JOVD (Youth Organisation for Freedom and Democracy) to organize a lecture where – hopefully – two members of the European Parliament will have a debate.

When setting up the program, the organizers have worked hard to find a balance between interesting lectures and a fun social program.  “The participants will visit the province house of Groningen to learn more about the regional level in the Netherlands and have a lecture on the multi-party system in the Netherlands and the (dis)advantages of a multi-party system. Next to that, the Democracy in Practice project will give us a workshop on how it is possible to improve democracy as an individual. Furthermore, we will have a city tour and we will climb the Martinitower. The participants will also learn more about democracy at the European level and the democratic deficit of which the EU is so often accused. Besides all these interesting lectures, we are also organizing awesome theme parties in some of the nicest bars in Groningen! There will be a Culture European Night, for example, but we will also organize an orange party, to give participants the opportunity to feel like a real Dutch person!”

Reasons enough to join AEGEE-Groningen for their event. Still not convinced yet? As Eelke summarizes: “Not only will it be an interesting week about a topic that is very important for Europe at the moment, it will also be a lot of fun and a great way to get to know Dutch culture.” The topic of democracy doesn’t stop at this event though, because AEGEE-Groningen has made it the topic of their year. “In March we are organizing a trip to an AEGEE-local that is facing problems with democracy”, Eelke tells us. During this trip, the members of AEGEE-Groningen and the other local will discuss how democracy differs in the two countries. “Furthermore, in May we are going to organize many activities revolving around the theme democracy, like lectures, workshop and role-playing games. Finally, we will also visit the European Parliament in Brussels and hopefully have the opportunity to discuss democracy in Europe there.”

Interested? You can apply until January 31st on Intranet.

Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen

On the 1st of December, Moldova woke up with the results of the parliamentary elections that would decide the direction that this small landlocked country would have taken. Bordering a European Union member state (Romania) and Ukraine, Moldova faces a similar challenge as their Eastern Partnership neighbours: keeping their ties with Russia, or pushing towards Europe?

Arrived in Chișinău, one could easily guess that there was something very relevant going on in the city. Giant panels with propaganda for the Moldovan parliamentary elections were spread all over the Stephen the Great’s boulevard, the main alley in the city. Some of them proudly showed the European Union (EU) flag and highlighted the European values and aspirations that Moldova aims to reach. Others, instead, voiced a strong anti-EU message – or, better said, a rather ‘pro-Russian’ message: “It’s better to be rich with Russia than to be poor in an indebted Europe!”, one could read on the panels from the Communist Party. Even Vladimir Putin’s face appeared in one of the panels: the Socialist Party showcased a picture of its leaders having a friendly talk with the Russian president.

It was clear from the start that Moldovan citizens had to make an important decision on November 30th. Since 2009, when the pro-European coalition entered in the government, the small country has been taking progressive steps to strive for a bigger commitment towards the EU and to meet the European standards. The country entered the Eastern Partnership and became what many consider its “star pupil”, as the magazine New Eastern Europe quoted. Its ties with Russia, though, are still strong and some feared that the contagion of the Ukrainian crisis could hit Moldova hard – in fact, its main exports, especially Moldovan wine, have been strongly affected by Russian bans for long.

In this context, it is relevant to highlight one of the main happenings before the Moldovan elections. Just 72 hours before the kick-off of the election day, the pro-Russian party Patria  (‘Homeland’) was banned from taking part in the elections after being accused of receiving funds from Russia. The party was expected to get around 13% of the total votes, so this wasn’t minor news – partly, because of the secrecy in which the Moldovan Justice Court had acted, as several experts acknowledged. Some feared that this would provoke a civil unrest similar to the Ukrainian EuroMaidan but from the Russian side, and  five people were even arrested the day before the elections, suspected of planning violent protests after the elections.

AEGEE-Europe observes on the spot

Twenty-two AEGEEans were deployed throughout the Moldovan capital, Chișinău, on the election day. From the early morning, when the polls were opened, until the end of the counting session, around 55 polling stations were visited. There was the general consensus among the observers that there had not been any major irregularities throughout the day, and that polling stations were generally well-equipped and organised.

However, the breakdown of the electronic voter registration system early in the morning was one of the highlights of the day. Long queues and overcrowding of the polling stations made it difficult at times to observe the procedure, and sometimes voters themselves were disoriented on which was the exact procedure in order to vote.

The long day was culminated by the counting process. One of the most striking things was the presence of several observers in the polling stations. From domestic observers, many of them representing several of the Moldovan political parties, but also civil society organisations, to international observers whom some of us could talk to.

Nonetheless, these national observers from political parties played an influential role during the counting process, sometimes obstructing it, arguing with the members of the polling station, and giving their opinion on the validity of votes (when, according to the election observers code of conduct, observers cannot have an active role, neither obstruct the overall election process) and acting rather coercively at times. As a matter of fact, many of the voters of the banned party ‘Patria’ did anyway cast their vote for them, so the number of invalid votes in several polling stations was remarkably high.

And now, which direction will Moldova take?

After the counting at the polling stations finished, some observers headed to the Moldovan Central Election Commission, where the first results were announced – and they were quite unexpected. “The Socialists have won”, one of the Moldovan journalists told us right when we got inside. Indeed, the Liberal Democrat Party of Moldova, the leader of the pro-European coalition in power, paid the price of being in the government for the past five years, and lost nine seats in Parliament.

Despite that, the final results showed that the three parties that formed the Alliance for European Integration kept the majority, winning 53 seats out of 101. The opposition got a close result of 48 seats – 26 for the Socialists, and 22 for the Communists, even though they refuse to cooperate and make a strong opposition together.

While the negotiations to form a new government are ongoing, these results might give wings to those who hope for stronger ties between Moldova and the European Union. However, one cannot elude the fact that a party which claimed it would be “better being with Russia” and which proudly showcased Putin’s face in their posters has actually won the elections. Throughout the past five years, the pro-EU coalition government in Moldova has been rather fragile and feared a breakdown several times, even though the aspirations of Moldova in Europe are pretty clear.

After the elections, the question is still unanswered – which direction is Moldova taking?

Written by Anna Gumbau, AEGEE-Barcelona & Election Observation Project

On October 12th 2014, the Election Observation Project of AEGEE organized an Election Observation Mission (EOM) to the General Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was the second mission of this project after the EOM to the parliamentary and presidential elections in Ukraine on the 25th of May 2014 . Around 45 polling and voting stations in and around Sarajevo were visited during election day. 

The observers team, at 6 AM on election day, ready to start

Learning moments and eye-openers
As members of AEGEE, we realize democracy is fragile and should never be taken for granted. Therefore we aim to strengthen democratic processes and activate political participation of young people. With this in mind we took off for Bosnia and Herzegovina, hoping to contribute to the aim of fair and honest elections and to investigate the involvement of youths in the various election processes.

Being aware of the fact that our background influences our judgments and opinions, we left for Bosnia with a certain image of this country in our minds. The media in our home countries describes Bosnia as a corrupt, bankrupt country, torn apart by nationalist tensions and deprived of any hope for a brighter future. We are happy to report that our experiences during the elections do not reflect this image completely. In almost all polling stations we have visited, we met officials that were genuinely concerned about the fairness of the election procedure, especially during the vote counting. We saw vote counters working until early in the morning to ensure all ballots were checked and cross-checked. We saw almost all polling station officials handling the elections with a high level of professionalism. In addition, we were positively surprised by the transparency of the accreditation procedure for international observers. All relevant documents, even the Bosnian election law, can be found in English online in pdf format, which is exceptional compared to other countries.

One of the most complicated political systems in the world
The Bosnian political system has been named one of the most complicated in the world. The country is divided in two entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), mostly populated by ethnic Croats and Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims), and the Republika Srpska (RS), mostly populated by ethnic Serbs. The country knows a three-headed Presidency, consisting of a Serb, a Croat and a Bosniak, controversially elected exclusively by their respective ethnic groups and controlled by the Parliament. Apart from that, each entity has its own president. The RS President has been chosen directly during the elections on the 14th of October, whereas the prime minister of FBiH is indirectly appointed by the Parliamentary Assembly. The FBiH is divided in Cantons (regional municipalities), and RS knows a National Assembly. Consequently, the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina had to fill in four different voting ballots. All inhabitants of the country voted for the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly, and next to that the inhabitants of FBiH voted for their House of Representatives of the BiH Federation Parliament and the Cantonal Assemblies, and the inhabitants of Republika Srpska voted for the National Assembly of RS and the Presidency of RS.

Map of all voting and counting stations visited in and around Sarajevo

Most people will agree that this is an extremely complicated system. We clearly saw that voters and even vote counters were having a lot of difficulties understanding the procedures. We are highly concerned that this situation detracts the legitimacy of the vote and the trust of the voters, which is harmful for the credibility of the political system. One woman said, shrugging her shoulders, while explaining the voting ballot of the FBiH parliament: “No one here has a job, so everyone tries to be a politician”.

Kako glasovati? How to vote? These posters with explanations of the voting systems were hanging in every polling station.

The position of youth
During election day, we had the chance to speak to a lot of observers and other officials. It struck us that despite the fact that a surprisingly high number of polling station officials were of younger age, young voters were underrepresented. A higher voting turnout among youths would be warmly welcomed, however it was very positive to see this amount of young people involved in the elections in another way. “At least in this way, youths learn how to do democracy”, as one observer put it.

The ethnic divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina are frozen into place by the country’s constitution, which was not more than an annex to the 1995 Dayton peace agreements that put an end to the Bosnian war. According to this constitution, Bosnians are obliged by law to proclaim themselves as one of the three identities Bosniak, Croat or Serb, or “other”. Controversially, the “Bosnian and Herzegovinan” identity is not recognized. An observer told us the story of a friend of hers at the university. This woman did not particularly identify herself with either the Bosniak, Serb or Croat identity, but she was not allowed to register herself as “Bosnian-Herzegovinan”, because this identity does not exist according to law. She went to the principal and asked him: “What if I register myself as Eskimo?” This was allowed, because it falls under “other” identities. This woman is still registered as an Eskimo, an official recognized identity.

A busy polling station in Pale

Is there hope for Bosnia?
This anecdote is an example of what happens when the rules or the system of a country are being overtaken by reality. Whereas the older generation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is still stuck in its ethnically divided past, as the preliminary election results clearly show, the younger generation is slowly getting ready to move on.

A lot needs to happen for this country to leave its past behind. The election results unfortunately do not show much progress, but the people we spoke to, the dedication and integrity we have seen in the polling stations, the power and the drive of Bosnian youth that we have witnessed all give us hope for a brighter future for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This article aims to give a short background overview, there are way too many impressions to fit in one article. Visit us during the AEGEE-Fair at Agora Cagliari for the full report of our Mission.

Find here the press release we wrote for Blogactiv the day after the elections. 

Pictures from Roel de Natris, Boudewijn Steenhof,  Thomas Leszke and Marije Arentze

Written by Marije Arentze, AEGEE-Leiden 

Unemployment insurance fund – indispensable for social states. Turkey’s blue collar and white collar workers struggling with unemployment and precarious conditions for years have gladly welcomed this fund (which actually was already established by mid-2000) that was successfully promoted by AKP government. Through the fund around 50 billion Euros were raised, which is enough for marketing purposes to increase credibility of the party in power. It worked out quite well in this regard.  While on the other hand, questions about how the funds have been managed were never allowed. The reality was, among 2.5 million unemployed only 271 thousand were able to use the fund. The punch line of this story is that the remaining amount, through different tools of the state apparatus, were transferred to the construction sector on whose shoulder AKP was raised. I will detail the role of the construction sector later. To sum up the management of unemployment insurance fund successfully polished the image of AKP government and raised great funding opportunities.

The idea of such a fund whether one has the chance to benefit or not creates the (illusory) feeling of security, which is the second indispensable need in the hierarchy of needs. It would be unfair to expect an average citizen, who tries to survive with a minimum wage – lower than the hunger limit – to question how the fund is managed by the government. Somebody, in this case the opposition, has had to deal with the allegations and reveal misuse if there is any.  And apparently they failed to raise enough awareness and discussions on the issue.

The second story: urban transformation policies as the second most visible public policy. Especially after the devastating effect of 1999 Marmara earthquake, the urban transformation policy entered Turkey’s literature. The idea of urban transformation is commercialized as an inevitable necessity by the government, and the urban space became wide open for immense modification. Reproduction of the urban space as a way out from the crisis of the financial sector has been justified with discourses of decriminalization of the cities, ensuring security and recreation of deformed centers, used by the statesmen and promoted through the hand of the media. The economic policy of 2000s has been managed not through planning in accordance with supply and demand, but through urban projects developed for increasing the unearned income of a certain class. In this regard, TOKI – Mass Housing Administration – has become the most prominent administrative body. The urban transformation policies promoted as ‘getting rid of the old for building new’ were of course applauded by the consumption society. The interesting point here is that, when cheering up, they were completely unaware of the fact that soon they would be exiled from their neighborhoods and forced to move to the ‘new’ city consciously disconnected from the social life. When what was going on was realized, and the victims (unfortunately only a small group) got organized against urban transformation, they were either threaten by government officials or too afraid to raise up. In the end, the majority agreed to move out and by paying some ‘extra’, they managed to buy new houses from TOKI. The houses built by TOKI were too costly which resulted in millions of citizens incurring costly debts that last from 10 to 40 years to pay together with the debit interests. It wouldn’t be wrong to sum this policy up as financial slavery.  In short, as we see in the management of the unemployment fund, another basic need, shelter, was successfully abused for the sake of the political agenda.

Consequently, the more poverty and unemployment increases, the more citizens get addicted to social aids and illusory policies. And the more the citizens get addicted, the more grow the chances of the party in power for winning the elections through illusory policies. With this in mind, my intention with a policy oriented evaluation is to provide you with some insight that enable us to find out  the underlying reasons why there are over 20 million people that voted for Erdoğan.

In addition to illusory policies, the reason why 20 million have voted for Erdoğan is the lack of a promising alternative in the political arena. Although the marginalised groups: LGBTI community, Alevis, Armenians, Kurdish, young people (the protagonists of the Gezi Protests), single women and other minorities, (at this point I define a group as minority not numerically but in accordance with the power they hold), the local victims (who were not politicized beforehand) of ecocide through hydroelectric power plants (HES), all have once more indicated the need for a fair alternative is rapidly growing. The fact that the parties that position themselves as left orientated have rough edges and they failed to convince around 15 million people to vote, played an important role in the victory of AKP. At this point, taking the increase of votes of HDP, Peoples’ Democratic Party, and the coalition led by CHP, the rights and wrongs of the political parties should be evaluated independently from each other.

Discussing the voters’ incentives is of high value for reaching a verdict about any elections. This is why I try to present you an alternative perspective through illusory public polices and lack of promising alternatives to help you with your verdict.  According to the hierarchy of needs, one has to cover its survival needs such as security and shelter to be able to question politics.

Nevertheless, whichever perspective we choose, it requires high intelligence to refuse that Turkey is turning into a hegemonic despotic regime.  If we insist on in this route, to expect a similar scenario we have seen in Egypt would be a fair guess.

Let’s hope Turkey will have a different ending, which will give birth to systematic, social and progressive thinking.

Written by Gizem Karsli, AEGEE-Ankara

«Imagine the situation: you are at the Agora, where many significant proposals should be discussed and voted upon. The opposition (a group of people not supporting such changes) is blocking the Chairperson from leading the plenary/discussion of the proposal. The solution:  the Vice-chair is leading the discussion from the middle of the plenary room, not giving any time for the discussion and adding some voting proposals which had never even been in the agenda. And by the way, the Chair and Vice-chair are from the group of people who are pushing changes to be approved.

So what happens next: the budget of the entire organisation is being approved after two minutes of presentation without ANY discussion allowed. Then, other proposals about limiting freedom of speech and more are put forward to vote  without any proper introduction and, of course, no discussion.  And then, seeing that proposals are not reaching a majority with the electronic system, the Vice-chair decides that the voting will be done by simply raising hands. And, oh what a miracle!, all the proposals are approved with a big majority! Ahh, I also forgot to mention that 250 hands were counted within maximum five seconds. » These words were written by Alla Resheten, former Chairperson and AEGEE-Kyiv member on her Facebook profile on 16th of January, describing the fraudulent actions of Ukrainian politicians. 

But first let’s go back to December 2013, when after three weeks of protests and gathering at Maidan, the main square of Ukraine, every Sunday for a march out of millions, Ukrainians started to lose their hope. (note: you can read the first review of events in Ukraine until the 14th December here).

The tactics of the government was quite clear – to ignore. To ignore the people lying in front of the buildings where they work, of the warnings made by the US and some other countries, of hundreds of people still staying at Maidan. Ignorance of the oaths to protect and work for the Ukrainian people they made. And after ignoring the marches and protests all around Ukraine, President Viktor Yanukovych and Russia’s Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow will invest $15 billion  in Ukrainian government securities while cutting the price that Kiev pays for Russian gas imports by about one-third. The budget of our country was partly saved, but what was the price paid for that? There is also the question of what Russia wants in return for its help. “Russia is unlikely to simply become Ukraine’s benevolent rescuer”, said Lilit Gevorgyan, a CIS and Russia analyst based in London. Putin is likely to seek “tangible gains, such as lucrative Ukrainian assets”, as well as a bigger role in controlling the transit of Russian natural gas through Ukraine to the rest of Europe.

Is it enough to say that we are sold out? The situation in Maidan was critical and the opposition suggested protesters to block the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) to prevent the following agreements from beign passed. Several hundreds of people rushed there in the morning, mostly those who stayed in camps from 21st of November and active Kyivans on cars called AutoMaidan. However, they were ignored back again and had to return to the main square.

During the following days, the activity of the whole protest was much lower. Maidan was still the centre of the events, but there were no other signs in other districts. In many regions, people had no clue what was really happening there, mostly because of the media. Companies and businesses started to prepare for Christmas time, suggesting destinations to go, there were sales in every corner and Christmas movies on TV. From my side, we all had our working deadlines, clients and honestly thought about ourselves – so less people stayed on Maidan. Everyone was ready to rush there as soon as the messages appeared on Facebook, but life continued. The personal life of each Ukrainian, the daily routine.

The Government shows its real face

The Government kept silent but the real face appeared in their actions. They understood that they could not take the protesters from the streets, so they started to chase the leaders and punish them. Three cars owned by Maidan activists in Kharkiv were burned down on December 21st at night. The cars were owned by Maidan volunteers who had been helping out by making tea and sandwiches for Kharkiv Maidan protesters. Dorozhny control activist Volodymyr Moralov was fired by thugs. Dmytro Pylypets from Kharkiv received several knife wounds. Journalists, operators and many people who were famous among protesters and had the power to lead the people, were asked to come for «fa ew questions» meaning they might be invited to the Court and condemned to jail.

The horrible things happened when a well-known opposition journalist and Maidan rally activist, Tetyana Chornovil, was savagely beaten late on  December  24 by thugs on the way home. According to Tetyana, she was on her way home, in a village near Kyiv where her parents lived, from Maidan square late at night. When she left had Kyiv, she saw she was followed and forced to pull up after a jeep hit her car several times.There were two thugs who broke the window of her car. Tetyana tried to escape but the thugs caught her and started beating. Around midnight, she was taken to the hospital and treated for serious injuries in her head. Her nose was broken and doctors had to put stitches on some injuries.

Before and after

They found a video registrer on Tetyana’s car. You can watch it here.

One day before, Tetyana was busy video-shooting the posh houses of the Interior Minister Zakharchenko and the Prosecutor General Pshonka. Among Chornovol’s many investigative publications are those addressing alleged organized crime background of Ukraine’s richest man Rinat Akhmetov and the current President Viktor Yanukovych, as well as lavish countryside property of the latter.

December, 25th. EuroMaidan activists called for a picketing of the Ministry of Internal Affairs at 8 am, attended by hundreds who called for Zakharchenko’s resignation. The OSCE and the U.S. embassy in Ukraine condemned the attack. Opposition parties accused the authorities of being behind the attacks, while a statement from Olena Bondarenko of the Party of Regions (which is the party of the President) categorized the attack as spontaneous violence caused by EuroMaidan and blamed the opposition. 

December, 27th. The Church services and torchlight marches to commemorate the 105th birthday of WWII leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists were held in several cities in Western and Central Ukraine, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Khmelnytsky, Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk. They were all initiated by the nationalist «Svoboda» (Freedom) party, the one of three from the opposition. In Kyiv, a two-thousand people strong column bearing torch lights marched from the Maidan square in the downtown along the capital’s central streets. They looked really aggressive and of course were judged by other people.

One more thing that people started to notice was the aggressive mood of the protesters. They had been standing for our rights for more than month, without proper sleep and neither showers, far away from home and comfort and received many help without any hesitation – they were offered free sleeping places, food, even money by Kyivans who couldn’t stay with them because of the job. Nevertheless, seeing no light in the end, many of them started to behave extremely aggressive. My dad’s friend, member of «BMW ClubUkraine» was taken out of his car and accused of being the one who bought the car for the bribes he got. The fight started from nothing. And situation like this happened sometimes. The mood has changed. Now only by wearing sport clothes you can be accused of being paid to come as provoker and not allowed to enter the protests.

However, protesters had invited everyone to spend New Year on Maidan all together and there were a lot of them during the 31st of December. However, a lot of people left to vacation. But even if Maidan reminded a Christmas Fair rather than a protest, some active people still fought.

January 5th. 45 cars driven by Maidan protesters came to the Zakarpatya residence of Viktor Medvedchuk, the grey eminence of Ukrainian politics and Putin’s stooge in Ukraine. As the gates of the residence were locked, protesters chanted slogans and honked cars. There were six police officers outside the residence. Road police patrols on the way to the residence took the number plates of protesters’ cars.

January, 6th. The authorities responded fast – and repeatedly cut supplies of electricity to the Maidan area, deliberately causing black-out and additional hardships for Maidan protesters staying in tents and two buildings near Maidan square. However, the activists were supported by Kyivans who brought wam clothes and got light by car engines.

“Do not throw the Christmas tree away – Maidan needs it!”
 

January, 12th, The activists of the AutoMaidan went into their cars to picket the posh Mezhyhirya residence of Viktor Yanukovych. The purpose of the picket was to hand in summons for Yanukovych to appear in the people’s court on Maidan square.

January, 13th.  During the stand-off when the police was blocked by AutoMaidan cars, Yuri Lutsenko (Ukrainian former Minister of Internal Affairs who was sentenced to four years in jail for embezzlement and abuse of office in 2012, but recently released from prison for health reasons) and his wife boarded one of the buses to try to ask the besieged police to leave the buses and take off their masks.  As Lutsenko failed, the protesters began to roll the bus. The police jumped out of the bus and began to beat up those close to its entrance. Yury Lutsenko was one of them trying to stop the police. Instead, the police beat him ruthlessly. One of the injuries to his head had to be sown up. On his way to hospital Yury Lutsenko lost conscience three times. 

There were a lot of rumors about the attack at night of 15th of December, so many people were ready to go out to support the protest. Everyone was happy in the morning, seeing posts on Facebook saying that nothing happened and the night was calm. If only we knew what would be following…
Back to black

The agenda of the day was only the budget – the painful and the most important document to ratify. However, as no one was allowed to discuss and the typical mess among Ukrainian politicians started, the opposition blocked the Rada electronic voting system and the majority was voting by raising hands.

The Vice-Speaker of the Rada, Ihor Kaletnyk, put the bills to the vote, addressing the legislature from the stalls as the rostrum was blocked by the opposition. The opposition says it was impossible to count the votes exactly. However, the majority just announced the results within seconds after the vote. You can see on this video that they raise their hands, a person asks «How many?» and three seconds later, the answer is ready «235!» (2/3 of the needed votes to ratify the document). Journalists say that the noises in the Rada were so loud, no one could actually hear which bill was put to the vote.

The draft bill “On amendments to the Law on the Judicial System and Status of Judges and procedural laws on additional measures for protecting citizens’ safety” has not been passed through any profile committees or parliamentary hearings. There have been no assessments or legal analysis, and it was voted on straight after the budget law, without any discussion. The bill was registered on January 14th by Party of the Regions’ members Volodymyr Oliynyk and Vadym Kolesnichenko. The latter is well-known for legislative initiatives which ape the worst offensives against democracy in the neighbouring Russia. I’ve downloaded it and it contains more than 50 pages written in Times New Roman, 11.

The bill introduces Article 151 “Libel” to the Criminal Code. This establishes a criminal liability for “deliberately circulating knowingly false information which denigrates the honour and dignity of another person. A libel linked with accusations of committing a serious or particularly serious crime are punishable by corrective work from one to two years or restriction of liberty for up to two years.

While this bill does not, as it stands, propose imprisonment for libels, it is a clear offensive against freedom of speech. Its immediate targets are easily guessed, given the protests over the violent dispersing of peaceful protesters on November 30th, the savage attack on investigative journalist Tetyana Chornovol and others. With the Courts in Ukraine increasingly subservient, all it will take is for a Court ruling to formally absolve those widely suspected of liability for any public allegations against them to become criminally punishable “libel”.

These are the main points:

1. If there are more than 5 cars protesting, their driving license will be taken away for two years. The Article 122 is to be supplemented with a fifth paragraph which states: “a movement by a person driving a vehicle in a procession made up of more than five vehicles without agreeing the conditions and procedure of movement within the relevant division of the Interior Ministry in charge of traffic safety which creates obstructions to the traffic should be punishable by a fine from 40 to 50 times the minimum wage before tax, or the stripping of the person’s licence for a period of between one and two years with the paid confiscation of vehicle from its owner, or without this.” There are some seriously steep increases in fines. This means that any AutoMaidan car procession or similar, containing more than five cars, will automatically be in breach of this appallingly repressive law.
2. For not registered mass media, which is filming what is happening – seizal of their equipment + big fine.
3. Setting tents, scene, and even sound without police’s permission – to jail for 15 days.
4. Disrespect to court – to jail for 15 days.
5. Not executing demands of internet access restriction – fine 6,800 UAH (about 600 euro).
6. Not executing “lawful” demands of Security Service of Ukraine – fine more than 2 000 UAH (176 euro)
7. For violation of civic order rules – 10 days in jail.
8. Now it is not necessary to make a protocol/record for a person who might have violated a rule according to the police, it is enough to have the status of witnesses.
9. Blocking of access to dwelling – 6 years in jail.
10. For spreading of extremist materials – 3 years in jail. The law also suggests serious penalties for what is called “extremist activities”. This includes circulation of something called “extremist material” including at rallies, demonstrations, street processions, etc. Those accused of “extremist activities” will include those who provide information services, donations, property, educational, printing or material basis, telephone, fax or other forms of communications.
“Extremist material should be understood as documents in paper, electronic or other forms, intended for publication, which contain information of an extremist nature. That is, they call for, justify or argue in favour of the need to carry out activities to plan, organize, spur people to prepare or carry out actions aimed at a violent change or overthrow of the constitutional order, encroachment on the territorial integrity, inviolability, sovereignty of the state; the violent seizure or retention of power or authority;unlawful interference in the activities or obstruction of the legitimate activities of the authorities, bodies of local self-government , others in authority…”
11. Group violation of civic order – 2 years in jail.
12. Disorders – 10 and even 15 years in jail. Any Maidan participant can be judged!
13. Collecting information of Berkut (division of Ukrainian military force), judges, and other such people – 3 years in jail.
14. A threat to police – 7 years in jail.
15. NGOs who are receiving money from abroad now are ‘foreign agents’, and they have to pay a profit tax and officially called ‘foreign agents’. Such organizations will be obliged every quarter to post on the Internet or public in an official newspaper a report on their activities. An article will also be added to the Tax Code regarding such “foreign agents”.
16. NGOs and Churches cannot do the extremists actions.
17. The government can deny the Internet access. – Same happened in Egypt, Tunisia and many Arabic countries during the revolution.
18. A person can be judged (including going to jail) even without being present in the court.
19. Berkut and all others, who were guilty against Maidan activists, are free from the punishment and judgement.
20. You have to sign an agreement with telecommunication company to buy and use SIM, USIM cards.

When I started to write this article I had a tiny hope that the President would not sign this. I hoped he would be sly and would not do it to show people that he’s honest and get more votes on the elections in 2015. But now after a half of day news telling that most of «implementations» are signed, I can only hope for Ukrainian’s dignity and willingness to struggle for our freedom.

The president and his supporters are just brilliant in one thing – they gather the nation against them. Hoping for better future, that we have to fight for,
Anna

Written by Annie Smailikova, AEGEE-Kyiv