Quelques éléments concernant la situation de Jean-Christophe Angelini, qui vous permettront vos actions de solidarités (communiqués, explications médiatiques, motions d'institution, courriers aux autorités, etc) :

Jean-Christophe Angelini, conseiller territorial, conseiller municipal de Portivechju et candidat tête de liste à l'élection municipale des 9 et 16 mars prochain, homme de dialogue et démocrate convaincu, dont tout le parcours témoigne de cet engagement démocratique et de la recherche constante de l'apaisement et d'une solution politique négociée, est incarcéré à la prison de Luynes. Cela nous est insupportable !
Le sérieux et la renommée de sa famille - comme d'ailleurs de sa famille politique, avec ses moyens, ses valeurs et ses objectifs - la réputation qu'il a acquise, sa finesse d'analyse, la constance de ses positionnements, son charisme, ont fait de lui une personnalité incontournable de l'espace politique corse.

Sur les faits qui lui sont reprochés

- Lundi 21 janvier, il a été inculpé pour "complicité de faux et association de malfaiteurs". On lui reprocherait d'avoir participé à l'élaboration d'un faux passeport à destination de Antoine Nivaggioni, gérant de la SMS (société de gardiennage) en fuite depuis plus d'un mois. Dans le cadre de cette affaire aussi le président de la Chambre de Commerce Raymond Ceccaldi est incarcéré depuis un mois.
- les liens entre Jean Christophe Angelini et Antoine Nivaggioni sont des seuls liens d'amitié. Jean-Christophe Angelini n'a aucun lien (a fortiori aucun lien financier) avec la SMS, et aucun lien avec la Chambre de Commerce de Corse du Sud.
- Il n'y a rien, absolument rien au dossier, qui peut incriminer Jean-Christophe Angelini. Il n'était absolument pas porteur du passeport en question (contrairement aux informations qui ont été données à la presse qui les a abondamment relayées).
- Une personne a été interpellée porteuse de ce passeport, son nom n'a pas été révélé par la police, elle a été mise sous contrôle judiciaire et laissée en liberté.
- Jean Christophe Angelini qui lui est totalement étranger à toute cette affaire, non seulement est mis en examen, ce qui est incompréhensible, mais il est incarcéré, ce qui est intolérable.

Sur le contexte générale

- La Corse vit un contexte répressif renforcé depuis plusieurs mois : fichage ADN illégale, y compris sur des mineurs, interpellations systématiques toujours brutales (portes enfoncées, menaces sur la famille...) alors qu'il aurait suffi d'une simple convocation dans la plupart des cas puisque les personnes sont relâchées au terme de la garde à vue sans charge retenue contre elle (par contre on leur demande leur ADN !!), quadrillage policier avec des moyens disproportionnés, sur les contrôles routiers, mais aussi de quartiers entiers (venue du Conseil des ministres, manifestation du 12 janvier, rassemblement de Portivechju pour Jean-Christophe Angelini etc...). Bref une mise en condition générale qui attise les tensions.
- Lundi 14 janvier : François Fillon, premier ministre, arrive en Corse et promet - encore - une répression accrue
- Mardi 15 janvier : Jean-Christophe Angelini lance à Portivechju sa campagne électorale avec un grand succès (rassemblement de presque toute l'opposition à la municipalité en place, celle de Camille de Rocca Serra, président de l'assemblée de Corse et ami de Nicolas Sarkozy)
- Jeudi 17 janvier : Jean-Christophe Angelini est arrêté à grand renfort de moyens policiers par les inspecteurs de l'Office centrale de la grande délinquance financière : sirènes hurlantes sur les Champs Elysées, malmené, menotté derrière le dos et emmené sous le regard des badauds comme un vulgaire malfrat.

Sur le contexte de l'affaire

- Jean-Christophe Angelini effectuait un déplacement "surprise", invité par une "personne proche du pouvoir" qui souhaitait s'entretenir avec lui sur les événements d'Aiacciu.
Depuis des semaines, le PNC appelle à l'apaisement dans toutes ses communications, à la responsabilité et au dialogue. Jean-Christophe Angelini a donc accepté ce rendez-vous. Il a joué son rôle d'élu et de responsable politique.
- Après ce rendez-vous (traquenard ??), Jean-Christophe Angelini est a allé déjeuner dans une cafeteria des Champs Elysées. Il a saisi l'occasion de ce déplacement pour rencontrer M.Schnoebelen, cadre d'une entreprise de sécurité, actionnaire de la SMS, qui envisage de la reprendre pour sauver les 300 emplois concernés. Là aussi il a joué son rôle d'élu.
- Enfin, autre élément étrange, par des intermédiaires, on nous a fait comprendre que si Antoine Nivaggioni se livrait ou des indications étaient données, Jean-Christophe Angelini serait libéré... Comme si c'était dans nos domaines d'influence ! Personne ne sait où est Antoine Nivaggioni. Ce sont des manières de voyous, des procédés dignes des républiques bananières !

Irrespect de la procédure et conditions de la garde-à-vue

- la garde à vue normalement de 48h a été prolongée artificiellement par la délivrance d'un mandat d'amener qui l'a prolongé de 48h : au total 4 jours de garde à vue sans voir son avocat !
- en effet, celui-ci l'a vu en première heure comme c'est la règle, mais n'a pu le voir à la 24è heure car le juge a ordonné une perquisition à son domicile à ce moment-là
- l'avocat, Maître Jean-François Casalta, a consigné ce fait dans des "observations écrites" déposées par un collègue à Paris, Maître Paul Mathieu de la Foata, car il peut être une cause de "nullité de la procédure".
- or, les observations écrites ne figurent pas au dossier. On les a donc supprimé. Pire, une annotation figure pour dire que : il n'y a pas eu d'observations écrites de l'avocat !!!
Maître Casalta juge très graves toutes ces atteintes à la procédure.
- toujours sur la procédure, lorsqu'au terme du 4è jour, Me Casalta a pu rencontrer son client on lui a refusé la confidentialité de l'entretien. Il a fallu qu'il insiste et fasse scandale pour autoriser cette confidentialité qui est un droit.
- Tout ceci fait dire à Maître Casalta que "la procédure n'a pas été équitable".
- Maître Casalta nous informe aussi que les conditions de la garde à vue ont été très dures psychologiquement : fortes pressions, mensonges, menaces (sur son avenir politique, "tu es grillé" etc..)
- heureusement, Jean-Christophe Angelini ne s'est pas laissé influencé, n'ayant rien à se reprocher, mais il reste complètement éberlué par cet acharnement qu'on lui a témoigné depuis le 17 janvier.

Sur la procédure engagée par son avocat

- Une demande de remise en liberté a été déposée en urgence. Elle sera examinée demain jeudi (par un magistrat). Tous les soutiens qui s'expriment d'ici là, quel que soit la forme, pourront servir à appuyer cette demande de remise en liberté. Nous avons donc lancé une pétition.
- Si cette demande est infructueuse, une "seconde chance" est accordée, la demande étant réexaminée devant la Chambre de l'instruction (3 magistrats) quelques jours après, probablement lundi. D'où le lancement, pour notre part, d'une marche pacifique, samedi 26 janvier à Portivechju.
- Si ce nouvel examen échoue, il ne sera pas possible de poser une nouvelle demande avant un mois. D'où l'urgente nécessité de réagir dans ce laps de temps d'ici à lundi.
- Nous avons engagé également une démarche auprès des élus de l'île, en organisant vendredi 25 janvier à l'assemblée de Corse (si on nous l'accorde) une réunion entre les élus qui le souhaitent, les médias et l'avocat de Jean Christophe Angelini pour les éclairer sur les réalités du dossier.

Philippe Sour, chargé de communication pour Régions & Peuples Solidaires

Régions et peuples solidaires
www.r-p-s.info

The National Youth Speaker of Süd-Tiroler Freiheit, Sven Knoll, said in reference to the chaos in Italian policy following the fall of Prodi’s Government this week:
“This is kicking up a fuss with serious consequences for South Tyrol"

“In view of the scenes, which took place yesterday in the Roman senate, where senators mutually insulted, spat and got drunk with champagne, we can't help wondering if we really want to live in this state.”

The expression "Banana Republic" comes to mind when seeing the way that the Italian Government is conducting its affairs at the moment and it is obvious that the state will not be able to gain control of the situation.

South Tyrol will, once again, have to cope with the negative consequences that result from this fiasco, which can also be blamed on the South Tyrolan right wing in their loyalty to Rome, who manoeuvre us towards an Italian abyss.

What has to happen is that the SVP finally sees the truth that its affiliation to the Italian state creates nothing but problems for our country. Italy has finally come to the end and it is time for us to turn our backs on this corrupt state.

We urge the right wing to admit their responsibility and to enforce Article 1. of the UN Pact on human rights in order to advance the right of self-determination, by the fastest possible route, with the intention of detaching South Tyrol from the Italian state.

Here are some impressive attachments... no comments needed!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMTbw_Ml6_E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBEHZcwy_R4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBzKnQwTfGk

Reinhild Campidell

The European Committee of Ministers adopted a Recommendation in November 2007 on gender equality standards and mechanisms. The Recommendation was very comprehensive and took into account how to eliminate all forms of gender discrimination against women and also what criteria needs to be met in order to achieve this goal.

The Recommendation focused on both general and specific standards and asked that several points be considered when undertaking lobbying and advocacy work at a state and/or national level in campaigning for gender equality. It is my intention in this brief article to raise several issues regarding the lack of female elected representatives in the political institutions of Europe, with a particular emphasis on the UK.

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In the Spanish edition of the newspaper International Herald Tribune on January 12th - 13th there was an article with the headline ‘American Women are never front runners’ by Gloria Steinem. The article discussed gender issues in the US election race between Hilary Clinton and Barak Obama and Steinem argued that: "Obama is seen as unifying by his race while Clinton is seen as divisive by her sex."

According to a survey by Eurobarometer, published in January 2007, titled Discrimination in the European Union, it was recorded that the EU public perceive discrimination based on ethnic origins to be more widespread than that based on gender (64% as opposed to 40%). There may be a difference of perception between people’s views of discrimination in the US compared to Europe, but in European politics women are still significantly under represented.

Take the genders of political state leaders in the EU for example. How many female European heads of state, past or present, can you name? The ones that spring to mind of course are Margaret Thatcher (UK), Mary Patricia McAleese (Republic of Ireland) and Angela Merkel (Germany), but aside from these three exceptions there are very few others to speak of. With female leaders of political parties the list is even more restricted.

When female leaders do emerge it is almost within a Shakespearean role of a woman dressed up to play a man’s role. How many times was Margaret Thatcher portrayed as a woman in a man’s trousers or the ‘Iron lady’? Even when women become successful politicians, it seems they are not permitted to retain any of their femininity.

It seems that the word ‘American’ in the Tribune headline article could easily be replaced with Maltese, Polish, Italian, Spanish, Czech or the vast majority of other European states. Women front runners in any election race in the world are the exception to the rule and not the norm. The French Presidential elections in 2007, where Royal ran against Sarkozy, brought both issues of gender and ethnic origin to the fore for the first time, at such a public level, in the history of the French democratic process. However, of the two issues it was undoubtedly Royal’s gender and the possibility of a first female French President that was the most talked about point.

In the EU, 72% of people think that there should be more female members of parliament, but female representation in European state and national Parliaments make for a depressing read. Top of the EU league table, as of March 2007 for percentage of women representatives in their state Parliaments is Sweden with 47.3%, followed closely by Finland (42%) and Denmark (36.9). At the bottom of the table is Malta with 9.2%, Romania with (11.2%) and Bulgaria (22.1%). The UK is ranked 14th in the EU (out of 27 member states) with women making up 19.6% of members in the state parliament in Westminster.

In the UK’s devolved administrations of Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and London elected female representation in the respective institutions, as of May 2007, is significantly better than in Westminster, with the Welsh National Assembly topping the list with 46.7%, followed by the London Assembly with 36% and Scotland with 33.3%. The Northern Ireland Assembly though comes in last with a disappointing 16.7% female representation. Nevertheless it is fair to assume that the devolved administrations are generally more representative of our societies than the UK central Government is.

The importance of elected female representatives in our societies can be seen when taking the examples of Wales and Scotland. Women have played more of a role in shaping the policies and agendas within these countries in childcare, equal pay and the social economy than anywhere else in the UK. Also, research published by the Electoral Commission in the UK suggests that a greater gender balance in our political institutions increases voter participation in the electoral process. With widespread lack of interest among the general public towards politics and the political process in much of Europe, especially in western regions, this is one conclusion that cannot afford to be ignored.

As the European Committee of Ministers state in their Recommendation, gender equality needs to be promoted at a state and national level in civil society, political bodies and organisations. If more women are to be elected it is the responsibility of the political party itself to increase its number of female candidates, but how can this be done?

Between 1993 and 1996 the Labour Party in the UK introduced women only shortlists, but had to later drop this policy after a case was successfully brought in under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975. This resulted in a decrease of the number of women elected in the 2001 General Election to the Westminster Government for the first time in 20 years.

It is still nevertheless possible to legally use positive measures to achieve a higher proportion of women candidates and this was part of the reason why the Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act 2002 was introduced. Measures such as training and mentoring, techniques such as ‘ twinning’ and ‘ zipping’, and quotas (i.e. all-women short-lists) can now all be used. But it remains to be seen how many political parties in the UK are taking advantage of this.

In her article, Steinem argues that the US is still a "race-conscious country", but "gender is probably the most restricting force in American life". There is no doubt that throughout our national and state parliaments in Europe there are on average statistically more elected female representatives than representatives from ethnic minorities (although probably not in terms of national minorities e.g. Breton and Corsicans in France or Galician’s and Catalans in Spain). Discrimination based on ethnic origin may be perceived as more widespread than that based on gender, but the fact of the matter is that women make up half the population of the EU and this figure is not reflected at all in their equal representation in the democratic political process or our political institutions.

Rhisiart Tal-e-bot is the President of the European Free Alliance Youth (EFAy), a youth organisation that aims to safeguard and promote the cultural, linguistic and national diversity of Europe. He is also General Secretary of the Celtic League.

First published on http://www.e-ir.info

It is nine months since the EFAy launched its Women’s Day petition with the aim of presenting it in 2008 to the Petitions Committee of the European Parliament.

Unfortunately, the number of people who have signed the petition to date falls far short of the target figure of one thousand signatures. People are nevertheless supportive of this issue, as could be seen recently when the EFAy Women’s Day petition was launched as a group on the Facebook website (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6285384411) and within a week over a hundred people had joined the group. However, despite several calls for the Facebook group members to sign the EFAy petition, only a handful of people have.

Below are some facts relating to employment discrepancies between men and women that will hopefully motivate you to sign the petition, or if you have already done so, to persuade all your friends to do so.

• Women earn 15% less than men in the EU and have continued to do so for the past decade, despite of the eight million jobs created in the EU since 2000, six million have been taken by women.

• 59% of university graduates in the EU are female, but take up fewer graduate positions than men

• 77% of EU society believe that there should be more female managers, but male managers vastly outnumber female managers

• 40% of people in the EU believe that if you are a woman you are more likely to be discriminated against (43% of women believe this compared to 36% of men)

• 72% of people in the EU believe that we need more female Members of Parliament

• 68% of people in the EU agree that family responsibilities are an obsticle to accessing managerial positions

• 22% of people in the EU believe that a job applicats gender would put them at a disadvantage when a company can choose betwen two people with equal skills and qualifications.

• 47% of people believe that female applicants are less likely to get a job, be promoted or receive training than male applicants, if all variables are constant

• 79% of people in the EU are in favour of measures being adopted to promote equal opprtunities among men and women

This is just a limited sample of figures taken from sources in the European Commission and represents an EU average. Obviously disparities of pay and treatment between men and women in the work place are far greater in some European states than others, but the figures still beg an answer to the question of why discrimination between men and women in the work place exisit at all.

Some possible answers to this question are:

• that current laws are not applied effectively
• measures against discrimination are not fully integrated into state/national employment policies and the European social fund is not fully taken advantage of
• the promotion of equal pay is not fully part of the social responsibility of employers
• the exchange of good practice across the EU is not supported or promoted adequately enough

The EFAy petition is an attempt to get the EU to address some of these issues more effectively. If you are in support of equal pay and working opportunities between women and men, this is your chance to act in a purposful way to lobby those in power to achieve our goal.

The EFAy look forward to presenting the Women’s Day petion to the European Parliament Petitions Committee this March 8th, but we can only do it with your help. Sign the petition now and/or forward the following link to everyone in your address book.

http://www.petitiononline.com/kernow/petition.html

Together we will make a difference!

Click Affecting the European Agenda to access the document about how Regions and Stateless Nations can promote the European Agenda.
Writen by Andreas Dahlén, EFAY Bureau member.

It has been widely speculated that the European province of Kosovo will declare independence from the Serbian state later this month or early in February. President of the EFAy, Rhisiart Tal-e-bot, argues that it is the responsibility of the EFAy and other like minded European organisations to support the political youth movements in Kosovo in their aim for self determination.

"Despite international pressure, Serbia does not seem likely to allow a smooth transition to independence for Kosovo. On the 26 th December the Serbian Parliament even adopted a Parliamentary resolution condemning an independent Kosovo and stated that Serbia would reconsider diplomatic relations with any state that recognised it. In consideration of the fact that Belgrade is due to sign the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) this month, paving its way to EU membership, the Serbian resolution was either a brave or foolish move.

It is estimated that as many as two thirds of EU member states are ready to recognise Kosovo as an independent country, with the USA also being in favour and the Russian Federation being firmly against. This is an area of Europe where politics has never been very simple and has seen more violence and political unrest in Europe than at any time since the end of WWII. In fact trouble has constantly dogged the population of ethnic Albanians and Serbs (which today stands at around two million) for a long time before that. The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) currently governs the province, along with the local Provisional Institutions of Self-Government (PISG), with security provided by the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) and for many in the international community this is a situation that is far from ideal.

A peaceful transition to independence for Kosovo would be beneficial for the other nations of Europe who are currently seeking greater autonomy and/or independence. A Europe of small states would put those other nations who are seeking self determination in a stronger position to demand their own independence. In addition a more or less peaceful transition to independence will show the world that small nations can become safely independent - even in a hugely volatile nation like Kosovo - and that it is the responsibility of the international community to support this goal in the face of fierce opposition from individual states.

Commenting on the independence of Kosovo early in 2007, President Putin of the Russian Federation commented in an interview published in French newspaper Le Figaro:

"In the West, this solution will set off separatists in Europe. Look at Scotland, Catalonia, the Basque Country…"

Independence for Kosovo is likely to encourage nationalist movements across Europe, but it is highly unlikely that they will pursue a 'separatist' agenda outside of the EU, as Putin and other commentators have suggested. Rather it is highly likely that future independent nations in Europe would choose to remain part of the EU, although it is unknown exactly how this transition would occur. It has even been rumoured that the Scottish Nationalist Party in Scotland has approached some European institutions to find out if it would have to 're-apply' for membership of the EU, if it declared independence, being as it is already part of the EU within the UK state.

It is unlikely that the Serbian Government's attitude will change towards Kosovo even if Serbia's pro European Democratic Party wins the Serbian Presidential elections, the first round of which will be held on 20 th January. The EFAy should lead the way in supporting the progressive and democratic youth movements in Kosovo, and encourage other European youth movements in Europe to do the same, to ensure that a smooth and peaceful transition to independence is achieved.”