The European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, is preparing to undergo a grilling by MEPs in a first question and answer session in Strasbourg.

The hour-long Q&A session will be based on Prime Minister's Questions in the British House of Commons.

Representatives of the parliament's main groupings will each have the chance to ask any question they want.

MEPs are hoping it will liven up the parliament's proceedings and add a touch of spontaneity.

Poland is keen for the EU's new diplomatic corps to be a unique type of institution, to take half its staff from national capitals and to gobble up parts of the European Commission's development department.

The proposals - obtained by EUobserver - were put forward in a two page-long paper dated 5 October and are currently doing the rounds in Brussels together with competing ideas from other member states.

The Polish paper calls for the European External Action Service (EEAS) to be "a sui generis institution similar to an executive agency" instead of a normal EU institution such as the EU parliament or the commission itself.

Say you are a frequent flier and you check in faster than most people. A network of advanced cameras at the airport can measure your speed and alert the control room. The system knows terrorists tend to be nervous and almost never stop for coffee. This makes a speedy traveller a suspicious traveller.

You may also want to think twice about using the airport bathroom more than once. There is a good chance you will be picked out for an extensive security check.

These are some of the things being studied by an EU-funded project for detecting suspicious behaviour, Adabts (Automatic Detection of Abnormal Behaviour and Threats in Crowded Spaces.)

Putting security cameras to use

"We monitor all deviant behaviour," says Maarten Hogervorst of TNO Defence and Security, an independent Dutch research institute. The Adabts project, in which TNO is a partner, is only one among hundreds of security projects under the umbrella of the EU research programme Security. The programme has a budget of 1.4 billion euros until 2013.

Nick Griffin has claimed the British National Party is widely supported by rank-and-file soldiers after a group of former generals warned that the Armed Forces were in danger of being hijacked by the far right.

The BNP leader rejected their criticism of his party - suggesting they were "in the pockets" of the Tories - and insisted his views were being misrepresented.

Ex-military leaders wrote to The Times voicing anger at the BNP's tactic of using images of Winston Churchill and wartime insignia during recent European election campaigns.

The letter, signed by former heads of the Army General Sir Mike Jackson and General Sir Richard Richard Dannatt among others, said far-right groups were "fundamentally at odds" with the values of the British military.

"We call on all those who seek to hijack the good name of Britain's military for their own advantage to cease and desist," they said. "The values of these extremists -- many of whom are essentially racist -- are fundamentally at odds with the values of the modern British military, such as tolerance and fairness."

General Jackson specifically attacked the BNP for using the Army's image. He said: "The BNP is claiming that it has a better relationship with the Armed Forces than other political parties. How dare they use the image of the Army, in particular, to promote their policies. These people are beyond the pale."

BELGRADE, October 20 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev reiterated on Tuesday that Moscow was looking to reset relations with the U.S. and other Western partners, including NATO.

Medvedev arrived in Serbia on Tuesday for the first visit to the country by a Russian head of state since Vladimir Putin's trip in 2001.

"Russia is ready to harmonize relations with the United States and other Western partners, including constructive cooperation with NATO in resolving common tasks," Medvedev, the first foreign leader to address Serbia's parliament, said.

Commenting on Belgrade's European Union ambitions, Medvedev said Moscow had never been against EU expansion.

"We have already established a strategic partnership with the European Union. It is designed to be a pillar of the new Europe. We are not and cannot be against the accession to the EU of new members, including southeast European countries," the Russian leader said.

French prosecutors have demanded an 18-month suspended sentence for former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin in his smear trial, but no jail time.

Mr de Villepin stands accused of plotting to hurt President Nicolas Sarkozy's chances of winning the 2007 presidential election, which he denies.

He had faced a maximum of five years in jail if convicted of the most serious charges in the high-profile trial.

The Swedish presidency claimed today to have secured a "broad political agreement" on the structure and powers of a high-level body to monitor risks to EU financial stability.

Anders Borg, the Swedish finance minister, said that "substantial progress" had been made in finalising the details of the new body, to be called the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB). He said that ministers had taken "a very important step" and that the presidency hoped full agreement could be reached in December, as part of a broader package of financial reforms.

Borg said that the presidency had been mandated to begin negotiations with the European Parliament on the ESRB. MEPs have co-legislative powers over most the legislation to create the new body.

The text includes an amendment demanded by the UK that makes it clear that final agreement on the board has not been reached. Sweden had wanted to describe the agreement on the ESRB as a "general approach", a legislative term implying discussions between member states have been finalised. This was successfully opposed by the UK.

Diplomats said this was because the UK believes that being able to re-open discussions on elements of the ESRB will give it greater leverage in negotiations on the supervisory authorities.

Austria and Luxembourg accused of blocking agreements as a way to avoid having to share tax information.

The European Commission has criticised Austria and Luxembourg for blocking adoption of an anti-fraud agreement with Liechtenstein, as well as the start of negotiations on similar agreements with Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and Switzerland. It said they were blocking the agreements as a way to avoid having to share tax information themselves.

László Kovács, the European commissioner for taxation, said that the Liechtenstein agreement should not be "held hostage to other issues". He said the actions of Austria and Luxembourg were hampering progress in cracking down on global tax fraud, an issue he said was "high on the political agenda of the EU".

Mircea Geoana: he has no majority, I ended his suffering / Lucian Croitoru: I am a solution not a puppet - Politics - HotNews.ro

Social Democrats, Liberals and Hungarian Democrats informed the nominated PM Lucian Croitoru that he does not have Parliamentary majority to form the government and added that he should not dive into the political game. Croitoru declared that the talk was interactive and he transmitted that he is a solution, not a puppet.

PSD leader Mircea Geoana declared after the meeting that he made it very clear to Croitoru that he does not have a Parliamentary majority. He underlined that his coalition continue to sustain Klaus Johannis. Geoana warned Croitoru that if he does not give up his position, his professional career and credibility is at risk.

The three parties urge the President to withdraw the initial proposal because Croitoru will not have a majority and asked Croitoru to stay away from the political game.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Press freedom in several European countries has eroded dramatically in the past year, particularly in Slovakia, Italy and Bulgaria, according to an annual index released on Tuesday (20 October) by NGO Reporters Without Borders.

Slovakia registered the biggest fall among EU member states, dropping by 37 places compared to 2008, as a result of "government meddling in media activities" and the adoption of a law imposing an automatic right of response in the press.

The index ranks 175 countries in the world on a scale from 0 to 115.50, with 0 being the best grade - shared by Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Ireland, Estonia and Norway - and 115.50 being the worst, as registered in Eritrea.

It is based on questionnaires with 40 criteria, including violence against journalists, imprisonment, physical attacks, censorship, confiscation of newspaper print runs, searches and harassment. The index also takes into account the degree of impunity enjoyed by those responsible for press freedom violations.

Paris' chief prosecutor demanded the court hand down an 18-month suspended sentence plus a 45,000-euro fine to former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin for his alleged role in the Clearstream affair.

Former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin was a chief accomplice in the Clearstream affair "through his silence, and therefore in condoning the actions of [former EADS chief] Jean-Louis Gregorin", prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin said in summing up the Paris trial on Tuesday.
  Marin went on to demand the Paris court to hand down an 18-month suspended sentence plus a 45,000 euro fine to former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin for his alleged role in the Clearstream affair.

He also recommended sentences for former head of EADS Jean-Louis Gergorin and IT expert Imad Lahoud in the case. He called for two years in prison including 6 months suspended for Lahoud, and 3 years including 18 months suspended for Gergorin.

George Papandreou, the new Greek Prime Minister, has visited Cyprus looking to address the intransigent problem of the Mediterranean island directly. But all he had to offer Turkey was guarded support for EU membership. 

Barely a fortnight into his tenure as prime minister, Papandreou has made clear his willingness to engage in his country's perennial conflict with Turkey over Cyprus. Having visited Istanbul earlier this month, he held talks with President Demetris Christofias, the Greek Cypriot leader, in Nicosia on Monday, hoping to forge a common front on the island's reunification and Turkey's EU bid.

In a marked departure from his predecessor's passivity on the issue, Papandreou, who is also his country's foreign minister, declared that Cyprus would be Greece's foreign policy priority under his leadership.

The EU is funding ambitious programmes to monitor human behaviour in the fight against crime and terrorism. Some people are afraid this will turn us all into suspects.

Say you are a frequent flier and you check in faster than most people. A network of advanced cameras at the airport can measure your speed and alert the control room. The system knows terrorists tend to be nervous and almost never stop for coffee. This makes a speedy traveller a suspicious traveller.

You may also want to think twice about using the airport bathroom more than once. There is a good chance you will be picked out for an extensive security check.

These are some of the things being studied by an EU-funded project for detecting suspicious behaviour, Adabts (Automatic Detection of Abnormal Behaviour and Threats in Crowded Spaces.)

BERLIN -- Poland, smarting after President Obama announced last month that he would scrap Bush-era plans to deploy an antiballistic missile system in Eastern Europe, will accept an offer to host parts of a new, more mobile missile defense system, Polish officials said Tuesday.

The plan for so-called SM-3 missiles, first proposed in Washington last month, will be spelled out in more detail on Wednesday when Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. holds talks with leaders in Warsaw.

"The elements of this new missile defense system will be based in Poland," said Mariusz Handzlik, the chief foreign policy adviser to the Polish president, Lech Kaczynski, whom Mr. Biden is to meet Wednesday.

"This is very important for Poland, for NATO and the U.S. Above all, this is about the long-term strategic cooperation between the U.S. and Poland," Mr. Handzlik said in a telephone interview.