EUs

Oct. 22 (UPI) — The European Parliament announced Wednesday it granted imprisoned journalists Andrzej Poczobut and Mzia Amaglobeli with its 2025 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought as the two political prisoners sit in isolation for speaking up.

The France-based European Parliament awarded Andrzej Poczobut of Belarus and Mzia Amaglobeli from Georgia with the prize to honor “exceptional” people or organizations that defend human rights, fundamental freedoms and safeguard minority rights.

On Wednesday, EP President Roberta Metsola revealed the decision by parliament’s political group leaders in the plenary chamber.

“The courage of these journalists in speaking out against injustice, even behind bars, stands as a powerful symbol of freedom and democracy,” Metsola posted on X.

The Sakharov Prize named after Soviet physicist and political dissident Andrei Sakharov, since 1988, honors those who fight for “respect of international law, democracy and rule of law.”

Its 2024 laureates were Venezuelan political opposition leaders, including María Corina Machado who in 2025 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Nominations must be issued by at least 40 European Parliament members or by its political groups.

Poczobut and Amaglobeli were jointly nominated by the European People’s Party group, the European Conservatives and Reformists group, Lithuanian EP member Rasa Juknevičienė and 60 other colleagues.

Prize nominations were presented on Sept. 23 at a joint meeting of the EP’s foreign affairs and development committees in addition to its human rights subcommittee.

In August, scores of international human rights and journalism advocates joined to condemn the conviction and two-year prison sentence of independent Georgian journalist Mzia Amaghlobeli.

Amaghlobeli, notably, is Georgia’s first female political prisoner since its 1991 independence from the former Russian Soviet Union.

Andrzej Poczobut, a journalist and blogger from the Polish minority in Belarus, has been known for criticism of longtime Belarussian leader Alexander Lukashenko and his regime.

Poczobut, detained in 2021 and sentenced to eight years in a penal colony, has become a symbolic figure in the struggle for freedom and democracy in the country. His current condition is unknown and his family is denied any visits as the EP has called his his immediate and unconditional release.

The parliament granted its 2022 award to the people of Ukraine amid Russia’s full-scale arbitrary invasion of its neighboring country, and in 2024 to the late Jina Mahsa Amini and Iran’s Women, Life, Freedom Movement.

Other finalists included Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, the 2025 Budapest Pride events in Hungary, and the late American conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Meanwhile, the award ceremony with its cash prize will take place December 16 in Strasbourg, France.

Published on 25/09/2025 – 14:39 GMT+2
•Updated
15:05

ADVERTISEMENT

Negotiations over the sustainability chapter of the trade agreement with India are proving “challenging” the Commission’s chief negotiator Christophe Kiener told a meeting of the European Parliament’s trade committee on Thursday.

“We will need to adjust the approach we usually take on trade and sustainable development to make sure this is something India can live with,” said Kiener, adding: “Not having a chapter on trade and sustainability is not an option, but we must also make sure that this chapter cannot be an empty shell.”

The EU and India aim to conclude negotiations on a trade agreement by the end of the year. On 12 September, EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič and Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen travelled to New Delhi for a new round of talks. However, no breakthrough was achieved.

One of the main sticking points is the dispute settlement mechanism the EU seeks to include in the deal to ensure India complies with environmental standards.

“The notion that there would be a dispute settlement, let alone sanctions applying to those commitments, the idea that the commitments would be legally binding, that civil society would be involved in the management of the agreement from that perspective, but also that those commitments would apply at the sub-federal level — these are elements that are very difficult for India,” Kiener told MEPs.

India ‘not like New Zealand’

Since its last mandate, the Commission pushes for inclusion of environmental provisions in its trade agreements, including mechanisms to oversee their implementation and enforce compliance.

This same chapter proved contentious during the EU’s talks with the Mercosur countries — Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay — until a deal was finally reached in December 2024.

The Mercosur agreement includes a dispute settlement mechanism involving an external review by independent experts and participation from civil society. It also identifies adherence to the Paris Agreement — the legally binding international climate treaty adopted in 2015 — as an “essential element” of the deal. This means the agreement can be suspended if one party seriously breaches or withdraws from the climate accord.

“We should not fall into the delusion that India is a country like New Zealand,” Kiener said, referring to the EU-New Zealand deal that entered into force in May 2024 and is considered a benchmark for integrating green standards into trade agreements.

EU green legislation, in particular the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) adopted in 2023, has raised concerns among Indian negotiators, Kiener told MEPs. CBAM introduces a levy on imports into the EU of certain carbon-intensive goods, a measure India perceives as potentially protectionist.

A European Union (EU) summit in Brussels called for a ceasefire in Gaza, but not for sanctions against Israel.

Germany has led member states in blocking action throughout the war, as others express anger.

So what’s behind the EU’s position on Israel and Gaza?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests: 

Claudio Francavilla – Associate EU director at Human Rights Watch in Brussels

Lynn Boylan – Sinn Fein member of the European Parliament and chair of the European Parliament’s Delegation for relations with Palestine

Giorgia Gusciglio – Europe coordinator of campaigns for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement promoting economic pressure against Israel

Syrians are hoping sanctions relief will help boost investment, reconstruction after more than a decade of civil war.

Business owners in Syria have welcomed the European Union’s decision this week to lift sanctions on the country, in what observers say is the most significant easing of Western pressure on Damascus in more than a decade.

The EU’s move, which followed a similar announcement by the United States in mid-May, was praised by Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani as one that would bolster Syria’s security and stability.

For many Syrian entrepreneurs, it also brings the hope of rebuilding their livelihoods after years of economic isolation.

“Companies that were ousted from Syria and stopped dealing with us because of the sanctions are now in contact with us,” Hassan Bandakji, a local business owner, told Al Jazeera.

“Many companies and producers are telling us they are coming back and that they want to reserve a spot in our market.”

The EU and US sanctions had levied wide-ranging sanctions against the government of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who was removed from power in a rebel offensive in December of last year.

The economic curbs had severely limited trade, investment, and financial transactions in Syria, cutting businesses off from supplies and international banking.

“The main obstacle we faced was getting raw materials and automated lines,” said Ali Sheikh Kweider, who manages a factory in the countryside of the Syrian capital, Damascus.

“As for bank accounts, we weren’t able to send or receive any transactions,” Kweider told Al Jazeera.

Syria’s new government, led by ex-rebel leader and interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, had called for the sanctions to be lifted as it seeks to rebuild the country.

US President Donald Trump said after a meeting with al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia last week that he planned to order the lifting of American sanctions on Syria.

Reporting from Damascus, Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Abdelwahed said the government is hoping the sanctions relief will help Syria reintegrate into the international community.

It also views the EU’s announcement as additional “recognition of the new political leadership” in the country, Abdelwahed added.