"In the light of the announcement made by the European Commission yesterday, the European Parliament has decided to put off its vote on its Resolution on the Hungarian media law. This was inevitable since this issue has now been overtaken by events", said Simon Busuttil MEP, EPP Group Coordinator in the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committee of the European Parliament.

CPME welcomes the measures adopted by the European Parliament in combating falsified medicines. In the past years, numerous packages of falsified medicines reached patients not only via the illegal but also via the legal supply chain. These products usually contain sub-standard or falsified ingredients, no ingredients or ingredients in the wrong dosage, thus posing an imminent danger and serious risks to patients. In the future, the infiltration of falsified medicines in the legal supply chain will be prevented by an authentication system introduced by the proposal for a

"A crucial indicator of the situation of the Rule of Law in Russia is the fact that tens of independent journalists and civil activists have been murdered - to name just a few Anna Politkovskaya, Natalya Estemirova, Sergei Magnitsky - and yet not one crime has been solved and not one murderer has been brought to justice", said Tunne Kelam MEP.

"By its unwillingness to bring about justice and transparency, the Kremlin can be seen as complicit in these crimes."

Speaking ahead of a counter-protest against Europe's biggest neo-Nazi rally this Saturday in Dresden, GUE/NGL President Lothar Bisky said his group strongly supports the counter-protest and called on the people of Dresden to take part.

"This weekend we will show our opposition to historical revisionism and far-right ideology," he said, and "we are especially happy to welcome international guests to support the blockade of the annual march" where Neo-Nazis will publicly deny Germany's liability for World War II and the holocaust.

Russian democratic opposition leader and former deputy prime-minister Boris Nemtsov today met with members of the European Parliament and spoke at a press conference organised by the Greens/EFA group. The meeting took place ahead of an official visit by Russian prime-minister Vladimir Putin to Brussels next week (24 February). The press conference focused on the need for the EU to do more to promote democracy, pluralism and fair elections in Russia, with elections coming up in 2011 and 2012.