Jerzy BUZEK, EP President, opens the plenary session of the European Parliament in Brussels, speaking about toxic spill in Hungary and the 4th anniversary of Anna Politkovskaya's assassination.

Brussels

plenary session

EU - Russia (T)

respect for human rights in the world (T)

speech

BUZEK, Jerzy (EPP, PL)

natural disasters (T)

freedom of press and media (T)

EU - Hungary (T)

Toxic spill in Hungary and 4th anniversary of Anna Politkovskaya's assassination: extracts from the opening remarks by Jerzy BUZEK, EP President

SOUNDBITE (Polish), Jerzy Karol BUZEK, EP President, On Monday Hungary had been affected by the most serious catastrophe in its history. That's the spill of a highly toxic mud from a reservoir, there are at least 23 people dead and a large number of injured and I like to pass on words of solidarity to those who have been affected.

SOUNDBITE (Polish), Jerzy Karol BUZEK, EP President, I should like to draw your attention that tomorrow we are going to celebrate the 4th anniversary Anna Politovskaya, the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya. You may be aware that she spends her life trying to draw attention to the events in the Northern Caucasus. Independent journalism is very important to any community and we would like to render homage to her work to struggle for freedom of the press, we have decided that we will give her name to building of the Natalia Estemirova and Anastasia Barburova are also to be remembered, they are lawyers who fought for Human Rights, as well as Stanislav Markelov and Sergei Magnitsky and others. The circumstances of their death have never been cleared up propperly so we call upon the Russian authorities to work hard to try and to ensure the rule of law and to end this situation.