Federation of Young European Greens

Albanian Young Greens, with the support of Cooperation and Development Network of Eastern Europe (CDNEE) and the Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG) are organizing the street action “Youth energy boost: cross-Europe cooperation”. The action will take place in Tirana, close to the Pyramid, on January 23rd at 4:00 p.m.

During the action participants of the seminar “Sustainable Youth Energy” and members of Albanian Young Greens will creatively enact scenarios about energy efficiency. Information about renewable energy and its benefits for Albania and the region will also be distributed.

Along with many prominent websites, the Federation of Young European Greens resolved to black out its homepage for 24 hours on wednesday, 18th of January, in protest at the SOPA bill which was to be put before the US House of Representatives.

Although the vote on SOPA, and on a similar bill PIPA, have now been postponed, it remains a strong threat to our current access to, and our freedoms to make use of information. The momentum guiding this attempted crackdown on the way we use the internet remains present and potent.

The Green Party of Kazakhstan (Rukhaniyat) has been disqualified from the country's parliamentary elections, which are taking place today.

Pavel Koktyshev, Vice-president of the party said, "The reason for the disqualification of our party from the election is purely political. It is motivated by our strong convictions on issues such as opposition to political integration with Russia, and our involvement in the recent acts of civil disobedience in Zhanaozen."

Recently, the party has gained confidence and used its voice to raise criticisms of the current regime on important issues such as the plan to build a nuclear power plant in the Nazarbayev area. This attempt to propose an alternative view, and a genuine opposition, has not gone down well with the government. Other parties have not been so forthright in their dissent, as evidenced by the fact that the Greens are the only party disqualified from the forthcoming elections.

On 16th of December 2011, the Council of the European Union adopted a decision authorising the signing of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) between the EU and Australia, Canada, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States. This act gives the European Parliament the power to decide whether to give its consent to ACTA, or to give it a final STOP.

Negotiators at the UN Climate Change Conference have come away from the table with something to show for their stay in Durban. Yet it is far from the ambitious and binding targets that Young Green activists have so strongly hoped and campaigned for, over the last months.

The agreement, which was only reached at the eleventh hour by negotiators, falls seriously short of the expectations and demands of Greens - old and young, as formulated in a document agreed upon at the Congress of European Greens last month in Paris.