2. Calls on the Egyptian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all persons detained solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, including human rights defenders Yara Salam and Sanaa Ahmed Seif; calls on the Egyptian authorities to annul the ban on the April 6 Youth Movement and the sentences against the organisation´s activists and to drop the designation of the principal opposition organisation Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group; reiterates that only building a truly plura ...[+++]listic society, respectful of the diversity of views and lifestyles, can ensure long-term stability and security in Egypt;

– (IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, the principle of equality between women and men is part of the central current of the great river that has already freed foreigners, slaves, black people, and that is the principle of human dignity, the same for everyone.

B. whereas on 17 October a group of ten opposition parties joined forces in the so-called National Council of the General Public Movement and published a Manifesto outlining their goals that was partly supported by other opposition parliamentary groups, which goals included: democratic elections preceded by real competition between political parties and without the involvement of state institutions; reorganisation of the way in which the elections are administered, involving representatives of all political parties; establishment of a 'European-style' parliamentary system reducing the power of the executive branch; an independent jud ...[+++]iciary and non-interference by government structures in the courts; restoration of territorial integrity and withdrawal of Russian peacekeeping forces/military contingents from Georgia; local self-governance; eradication of political violence, release of 'political prisoners' and investigation of unsolved deaths that occurred during the Shevardnadze and Saakashvili presidencies; rapprochement with NATO and the EU, and abolition of CIS membership; a call for Parliamentary elections according to schedule in spring instead of autumn 2008 and changes to the winner-takes-all electoral system,

Louis Michel, the member of the European Commission responsible for development and humanitarian aid, was in Nairobi today for a meeting with John Garang, the leader of southern Sudan’s principal movement, the SPLA/M (Sudan People’s Liberation Movement). This meeting followed last week’s visit to Khartoum, where Mr Michel met Sudan’s President Omar Al-Bashir to discuss a possible peace agreement between the north and south of the country.