Karl Erjavec

Vice president

Slovénie

● Vice president of EDP since 2019

● President of Demokratična stranka upokojencev Slovenije 2005-2020 and 2020-2021

● Deputy Prime Minister 2012-2020

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An EDP vice president since 2019, Karl Viktor Erjavec is a Slovenian lawyer and politician who served in the Slovenian government as deputy prime minister 2012-2020 as well as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2012 to 2018. He was president of Demokratična stranka upokojencev Slovenije (DeSUS), or Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia, from 2005 to January 2020 and again from December 2020 until March 2021. Before then, Erjavec was minister of defense on two occasions, from 2004 to 2008 and 2018 until 2020. He also served as Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning from 2008 to 2010. Before that, he was State Secretary for the Ministry of Justice from 2001 until 2004. Before that, he was director of the Expert Service and head of the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman from 1995 to 2000. He entered public service at local level as town administrator in the town of Kranj after Slovenian democratisation in 1990. Born in 1960 in Aiseau, Belgium, into a family of Slovene immigrants, he moved in 1972 with his family back to Slovenia, then part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He graduated in 1985 from the Faculty of Law at the University of Ljubljana.

 

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Sandro Gozi to Vučić: “Serbia cannot join Europe with repression and lies”

The Secretary General of the European Democratic Party and Member of the European Parliament with Renew Europe, Sandro Gozi, has published an open letter to the President of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, with a copy to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The initiative follows Vučić’s letter sent to Brussels on 21 August, in which he accused Serbian students and demonstrators of violence, reversing the truth and blaming the victims of repression.
In his statement, Gozi denounces the hundreds of arrests of students and peaceful citizens, the use of a sonic cannon (LRAD) during the March protest in Novi Sad, the shocking video of students forced to their knees and filmed by police, the violent arrests of women and even minors, and the attack on press freedom with intimidation against N1, documented by OCCRP/KRIK.
Gozi stresses that it is not citizens who endanger Serbia’s European path, but President Vučić and his government. By resorting to repression, false narratives and attacks on fundamental freedoms, they are undermining the credibility and the European future of the country.

Open Letter

To the President of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić
with a copy to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen

President Vučić,
Your letter of 21 August addressed to President von der Leyen is a masterpiece of hypocrisy. But facts, numbers and images tell another story.
In recent months, hundreds of people have been arrested in Serbia, including students and peaceful citizens. Many of them remain in prison today, facing charges that are essentially political. In practice, this undermines their freedom of expression and discourages democratic participation. It is not the citizens who are destabilising the country: it is your government, repressing the right to protest.
In March, during a commemoration in Novi Sad, a sonic cannon (LRAD) was used against demonstrators, A weapon, capable of provoking harsh pain, panic and permanent hearing damage. A practice that has nothing to do with the european standards you claim to embrace.
On 15 August, a video showed fifteen young people forced to their knees against a wall, filmed by police officers. An act of public humiliation, in total contempt for human dignity and contrary to every democratic standard.
And this was not an isolated case: in those same days, other footage and testimonies clearly showed worrying heavy-handed arrests, with students dragged to the ground, women and even minors treated without regard for their rights.
While students are beaten and arrested, citizens have witnessed violent groups apparently close to your party moving about undisturbed.
This selective tolerance raises serious concerns of rule of law.
Equally serious is the attack on freedom of information. N1, a news channel belonging to United Media (United Group), has been the target of a campaign of intimidation and pressure documented in recordings published by OCCRP/KRIK. You know perfectly well that silencing the last independent broadcaster means suffocating truth and pluralism.
President Vučić, it is not the youth, it is not the citizens, it is not the demonstrators who are jeopardising the European path of Serbia: Serbia belongs to Europe. But it is you — with your policies, your denyal your statements — which are undermining the credibility and the european path of your country.
Your accusations against Nikolina Sindjelić are embarrassing . The evidence shows that threats, unlawful arrests and violence have indeed taken place: personal attacks do not erase reality.
Your letter must therefore be sent back to the sender.
Serbian citizens deserve much better and Europe is something else: freedom, dignity, democracy.

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Website of the European Democrats - https://democrats.eu

Joint statement on the 30th Anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide

Thirty years ago, in Srebrenica, more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were murdered by the Bosnian Serb army. In 2007, the International Court of Justice ruled that the atrocities constituted genocide. The wider Bosnian War saw over 100,000 killed, thousands of women raped, and more than two million people forced from their homes between 1992 and 1995. On this solemn occasion remembering one of the darkest chapters in Europe’s recent history, the ALDE Party, LIBSEEN members in the region, ALDE in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, European Democratic Party, Liberal International, LYMEC, Renew Europe in the Committee of the Regions, Renew Europe in the European Parliament, and the Young Democrats for Europe are united in honouring their memory and issue the following statement:

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