Did you ever consider the environmental impact of a portion of spaghetti Bolognese? Did you ever wonder if Einstein had a love life? Did you ever dream of exploring the heart of a volcano? You did? Then you might be one of the thousands of self-ignored science fans! And the European Science TV and New Media Festival are made for you.
To discover more about the event and the place of science in today's media, we talked to Andrew Millington, the Festival Director and founder of PAWS, a science communication agency based in London, and co-organizer of the event (http://www.pawsdrama.com/index.htm).
On the occasion of the 2009 Sakharov Prize Award Ceremony on Wednesday 16 December, the Association of European Paliamentary Journalists (AJPE) is organising a European Encounter bringing together Representatives of the Russian prize-winning association, MEMORIAL, and Members of the European Parliament,
The Council of Europe that has not been on speaking terms with Belarus this past twelve years turns once again towards it. Following the opening of the Information Point in the Belarusian capital at the beginning of June, the Parliamentary Assembly decided, on 23 June, to restore the special guest status of Belarus in the plenary sessions in Strasbourg – yet upon conditions.
It is soon 18h30 as some 40 people are demonstrating in front of the European Court for Human Rights as a sign of support to the Iran people. Whether they have been in exile for a long time, or are young Iranians who came to France to study in peace, or French citizens showing solidarity, they are all shocked by the brutality of the government which strengthens its repression every day. They have come round a rectangular table decorated with candles and covered with the Iranian flag in order to wear the colour green. As colour of Mir Hossein Moussavi’s campaign – the candidate of the opposition – the colour green has now become a symbol for the struggle of the Iranian people against the political system. Rashne was 20 years old when he left Iran. He is now 29 and has not seen his family since. He did not attend his sister’s weddings. Yet going back to Iran is out of the question for him as long as the Mullah government remains in power. “You have no liberty in Iran, it is like being in prison,” told Rashne. He was expelled from his football club because he did not how to pray. “Everything there is linked to religion,” he explained. You do not even have the right to walk with your girlfriend in the street. The police officers demand to see your identity papers and if you are not married, you end up being arrested.” The Iranians feel stifled under this cultural dictatorship, in Rashne’s opinion, a lot of them are more and more “disgusted” with religion.
The EU migration policy belongs to the so-called third pillar, so it refers to the competence of each Member State. However, the global cross-country human influx overtakes the national boundaries level and adds up to stronger arguments in favour of a common migration policy. European countries have different migration traditions and history but one common reality. While the debates on the common migration policy in Europe gained a larger dimension and overspread the Europe of 27, the Council of Europe launched its further initiatives in this direction involving the civil society of 47.
It is 7pm. In the Offenburg Riding School the final preparations are taking place. In the former exercise hall of the French armed forces you can hear both French and German instructions. Everything is perfect. The chairs are out, the lights are working and the sound is promising. We meet with Jean-Etienne Moldo from Arcane 17, Organiser of the 13th Nuits Européenes in Strasbourg and Offenburg. He seems slightly nervous but very confident.
What would it be like if our value system were reclaimed from the European space by the citizens of Europe? Five students have recently set an example by signing up to a campaign to ride their push-bikes from the north-eastern French city of Lille to Olympia in Greece. They are trying to raise European awareness about the ‘Tree for Greece’ campaign, which aims to reforest areas devastated by the fires in summer 2007. Upon their arrival on 30 June 2008 an appeal was made to the ‘European brotherhood’.
Without a doubt the city of Strasbourg is where Europe’s heart beats and where the spirit of Europe took it roots. 
Strasbourg, through the mouthpiece of Roland Ries, has quickly fought back following a written statement by the anti Strasbourg camp in the European Parliament which adocated the removal of the European Parliament from Strasbourg.
The mayor of Strasbourg, Roland Ries, spoke in the European Parliament on 8th July about the Strasbourg agenda for the French EU presidency.
Ossetia is located in a mountainous region and is inhabited by Georgians. As the Soviet Union collapsed in 1992 Georgia broke away from Russia, whereas the South Ossetian separatists declared their independence from Georgia and in doing so expressed their desire to be affiliated with the Russian Federation. From then on there has always been tension and conflict. The situation escalated on the 7th of August when two Georgian soldiers were supposedly killed and three were badly injured in the Ossetia region. So far there have been no independent reports on the incident. The Georgians reacted promptly with extensive air and ground assaults as they sought to “protect the sovereignty of the country.”
The EU is urged to put pressure on the French-owned satellite operator Eutelsat who dropped the uncensored, US-based, 
On Wednesday 21st May the final of the Champions League took place in Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium. For the majority of European football fans this was a particularly fascinating due to this being the first time two English teams – Chelsea and Manchester United – have met at such a high level. However, the historical importance of the game lay somewhere totally different. For the first time the final of the most important competition in European football took place in an Eastern European country. With the exception of Belgrade in 1978, a final of the European Cup or Champions League has never been held further east than Vienna. (1)
Jorge Sampaio, UN High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations, addressed the European Parliament on Wednesday 22nd October. The Alliance of Civilizations was launched by the governments of Spain and Turkey under the auspices of the United Nations with the support of the then incumbent UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan in 2005. It states its aims as “to improve understanding and cooperative relations among nations and peoples across cultures and religions and, in the process, to help counter the forces that fuel polarization and extremism.” Sampaio, former President of Portugal, was appointed in 2007 by Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary General, as the High Level Representative with the mandate to fulfil the Implementation Plan of the Alliance of Civilizations.
Pakistani Human Rights Lawyer and founder of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Asma Jahangir, was a guest at the European Parliament on the 19th June 2008, where she gave a talk on the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. The UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief is not unknown within the European Parliament; The parliament voted last year to demand her immediate release when she was imprisoned in Pakistan.
2.4 Euros per year, per capita, in total 1 billion Euros annually or 1% of the EU budget. That is the budget that the EU has granted the European Commissioner for Multilingualism, who, since the expansions of 2004 and 2007, is responsible for the management of 23 national languages.
Claude Truchot is a specialist of language issues in the European expansion, renowned professor at Marc Bloch University, Strasbourg, France. For Babel Strasbourg, he analyses the recent evolutions of the interactions between languages in Europe.
