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Did the agreements that came out of the December 2015 COP 21 in Paris really hold any meaningful weight?

With bans on social media and recent arrests of journalists, press freedom seems to be under more pressure than ever in Turkey. The recent case of Frederike Geerdnik illustrates the precarious situation of those working in the media.

The recent elections in Poland show some startling trends. A narrowing of the political landscape has all but eliminated progressive voices from the Left, and the principles of solidarity and social justice, which once defined political struggle in Poland, seem to have been discarded in favour of strict individualism.

MEP Sven Giegold looks back at 2015 and some of the key Green political fights on the European scene. He sheds light on what he thinks will be the 2016 key battlefields for the Greens and for Europe to survive nationalisms and populisms.

So, what are the implications for the EU of a new socialist-led, but communist-green and leftist-supported, and ostensibly anti-austerity government in Portugal? I keep hearing this question; less frequently, the interrogation is sometimes accompanied by ‘is Portugal a new Greece’? Will there be a new conflict within the European Council, a new battle with the ECB, a new Varoufakis, and renewed talk of a Eurozone exit?

The consumption of meat and animal by-products is something we take largely for granted. Up until two years ago, I was a blind omnivore, consuming more than my fair share of factory farmed meat and dairy and never once thinking about where the food I ate came from, or the resounding impact it had upon so many levels of society and industry. In the aftermath of COP21, it is time to examine the shady nature of one of the most environmentally degrading industries in the game.

And so, the COP 21, the Paris talks on climate change which have been on everyone’s mind for the past 15 days are over but already registered in limbo for some. Will these talks really go down in history, as Hollande has repeatedly claimed?

The state of the French Greens, Europe Écologie Les Verts, is in disarray, and the paradoxical gap between a shrinking Green electorate and ecologically conscious citizens and movements grows. However, the grass is always greener on the other side, especially in the case of Italy, where Green prospects in comparison are bleak. A book review of “Manifeste des écologistes atterrés”.

In November 2015, Romanians protested to take down a corrupt national system, and the Prime Minister with it. The tragedy of the fire at a concert in Bucharest that killed 62 and seriously injured many more has been largely blamed as the fault of the system of corruption that rots the country. In turn, it triggered massive protests, signalling that Romanian society has had enough.

Applause had already broken forth when the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Laurent Fabius, brought his gavel down. On Saturday, after two weeks of arduous climate negotiations in an old airport hangar at Le Bourget outside of Paris, the world had come to an agreement, thus concluding a process spanning decades and adopting the first truly global climate deal.