European Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs Kristalina Georgieva endorsed today a ground-breaking Charter, launched by leading agencies to make deadly food crises like the one gripping East Africa a thing of the past. The first leader to sign this charter was Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, and later other leaders including UK Development Minister Andrew Mitchell endorsed it.

Yesterday's EU-Russia summit took place in the aftermath of highly contentious elections for the State Duma which have brought people out onto the streets of Moscow complaining of vote rigging and ballot stuffing. The European Parliament yesterday called for the elections to be re-run respecting the principles of freedom and fairness.

Guy Verhofstadt made the following statement:

(16 December 2011) FoodDrinkEurope welcomes the Council Conclusions on the Green Paper on the promotion of EU agricultural products, adopted today, which acknowledge that promotion is an important tool in ensuring the competitiveness of the food processing industry.

RICS Research report – Water Scarcity and Land Use Planning

One person out of three cannot access the water they need for everyday life and in fewer than 15 years, one quarter of countries in the world will face water stress or scarcity. Water insecurity is one of the greatest challenges facing societies in the 21st century. In a new report published today, Friday 16 December, RICS recommends a series of solutions to tackle the issue at regional, city and building level.