General : On Thursday 29 April European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek will formally open the European Parliament's new Liaison Office with the US Congress, designed to help forge closer links between European parliamentarians and lawmakers on Capitol Hill. The Liaison Office is the first office of the European Parliament in a country outside the EU. The office will be opened by President Buzek at midday (US, East Coast time) on Thursday.Source : © European Parliament

At the start of Thursday's plenary sitting, Parliament's President Jerzy Buzek made statements to the House about two recent events. He condemned the killing of French policeman Jean-Serge Nerin by the Basque separatist group ETA on 16 March and expressed support for members of the Cuban opposition group Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco) who have been arrested by the Cuban authorities. Ladies in White was awarded the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for human rights in 2005.

At the opening of this week's Strasbourg plenary session, European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek expressed sorrow for the victims of the earthquakes in Turkey, Chile and Haiti as well as the storms in France. He also congratulated Lithuania and Estonia on the 20th anniversaries of their independence (11 March) and, referring to the 51st anniversary of the Tibetan uprising, called on China to engage in dialogue with the people of Tibet.Source : © European Parliament

"The majority view in the European Parliament is that the correct balance between security, on the one hand, and the protection of civil liberties and fundamental rights, on the other, has not been achieved in the text put to us by the Council," said Jerzy Buzek.Source : © European Parliament

EP President Jerzy Buzek has expressed his consternation at the detention of 2009 Sakharov Prize Winner Oleg Orlov and 100 others in Moscow. He said: "I call on the Russian authorities to cease this heavy-handed treatment of peaceful demonstrators."Source : © European Parliament

The European Parliament will have the last word on the interim agreement on banking data transfers to the United States, signed on 30 November. Parliament will receive the text on Monday 25 January, and the Civil Liberties Committee will discuss it the next day. EP President Jerzy Buzek said he would ask the Council to delay the agreement's entry into force from 1 February until after the EP has taken its plenary vote on it, scheduled for 9 February.Source : © European Parliament

At the start of this week's Strasbourg session of the European Parliament, EP President Jerzy Buzek expressed sorrow at the situation in Haiti and at the execution of a British citizen in China.Source : © European Parliament

European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek has made an televised Christmas and New Year address to European citizens, looking ahead to the challenges of the coming year.rss.item.source.prefix_EN : rss.item.source.value_EN

Ahead of the Spanish presidency of the Council, which begins in January, EP President Jerzy Buzek and leaders of the political groups in the European Parliament will be in Madrid on Thursday and Friday for meetings with Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, other ministers and members of the Spanish Parliament. The delegation will also be received by King Juan Carlos.Source : © European Parliament

European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek has strongly welcomed the decision of the Czech Constitutional Court that the Treaty of Lisbon is in line with the Czech constitutional order.Source : © European Parliament

The European Parliament's annual journalism prize, for work that promotes better understanding of EU institutions or policies, was awarded by EP President Jerzy Buzek on Thursday. The prize (€5,000 in each category), went to Ines Possemeyer (written press, Germany), Szlankó Bálint (internet, Hungary), Zbigniew Plesner (radio, Poland) and Elke Sasser and Kristian Kähler (TV, Germany).Source : © European Parliament

Speaking on the indications of a positive result of the Irish referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon on Saturday 3 October, European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek declared his satisfaction that Europe is back on track.Source : © European Parliament