Belgium
Two bills addressing the public financing of political parties were adopted by the federal parliament; they were passed on 12 February 2004 by the federal House of Representatives and on 20 January 2005 by the Senate (the bills have not yet been published in the Moniteur Belge). The first bill changes the coordinated laws of 12 January 1973 on the Council of State and the law of 4 July 1989 on the limitation and monitoring of spending on elections to the federal chambers, as well as addressing the financing and open accounting of political parties. The bill stipulates that it is now possible to eliminate the financing of a political party that has shown “its hostility to the rights and liberties ensured by the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms”. The second bill eases the conditions for the granting of funding to political parties. Parties represented in just one chamber may benefit from public financing, as long as they have a directly elected parliamentarian in the chamber.

France
On 26 September 2004, the first Senate elections were held since the adoption of the Act of 30 July 2003, which changed the mandate of Senators from nine years to six (except for those covered by transitional provisions). As of 2010, half the Senate will be elected every three years.

At the same time, the number of Senators will gradually rise from the current level of 331 to 346 in 2010, so as to “better respect the representation of the demographic balance and of territorial units”. The distribution of seats in the Senate will be as follows: 326 Senators elected from the departments in metropolitan France and the overseas departments; three from French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna, two from New Caledonia, two from Mayotte, one rom Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, and 12 representatives of French citizens overseas. The minimum age for eligibility as a member of the Senate has been lowered from 35 to 30.

Liberia
The Transitional Legislative Assembly finally adopted an electoral reform bill on 14 December 2004 in preparation for the election scheduled in October 2005. The parliament had already passed the bill in November 2004, adding a controversial amendment to conduct a national census before the polls. The head of the interim Government, Gyude Bryant, refused to sign the bill, and sent it back to the National Assembly, as the census would have postponed the election by up to three years.

An electoral system requiring an absolute majority will be used for presidential, senatorial and mayoral elections. For the 64-member House of Representatives, population size will be partially taken into account in the distribution of seats. Thirty seats will be assigned to the 15 counties, while 34 will be allocated among the counties on the basis of the number of registered voters in each.

Mozambique
On 17 November 2004, the Mozambican parliament passed the first constitutional amendments since the introduction of multiparty politics in 1992. The amendments had originally been proposed in 1999, but the parliament did not reach agreement due to a lack of support of the opposition party, the Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo). Although the changes were modest compared to the original proposal, the revised Constitution aims at reducing the powers of the Head of State by increasing those of the parliament and the Prime Minister. The Head of State will no longer be immune from prosecution. Moreover, with a two-thirds majority vote the parliament will now be able to impeach the president for crimes committed in the exercise of his duties. The amendments also include the establishment of a Council of State, which should serve as an advisory body to the President. Many analysts welcomed the constitutional amendments, but some were skeptical about their positive impact on democracy in this country.

Russian Federation
On 12 December 2004, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill that eliminates direct gubernatorial elections in the country. This law gives the President the exclusive right to name candidates for the posts of the 89 regional leaders in the Russian Federation. The President may name one or two candidates, who are subsequently to be elected by the regional legislatures. If a regional legislature fails to elect one of the President's candidates three times, he may dissolve the legislature in question and appoint his own candidate as acting governor. Some experts have challenged the legality of the new law, which goes against efforts to ensure decentralisation and undermines the country's federal character. For the time being, the Constitutional Court has not ruled on this matter.

Slovakia
Anumber of constitutional and election acts have been introduced in Slovakia. One of them is Constitutional Act No. 357/2004 Col. regarding holders of public office. This law, adopted in October 2004, prohibits those who exercise public functions from performing other functions or being engaged in other employment or activities. It also provides for sanctions (including the withdrawal of the mandates of deputies) in cases where public officers fail to perform their duties. Another constitutional act, Act No. 140/2004 Col., provides deputies with absolute and unconditional immunity when voting at the sessions of the National Council. Concerning election acts, Act No. 333/2004 Col. was adopted in October 2004, with the aim of introducing the possibility of voting by postal mail. The law establishes a special list for electors residing outside Slovakia and for those utside the territory at the moment of the election. Another major provision includes the registration of candidates by political parties. Each political party will have to produce confirmation that it has paid an election deposit of SKK 500,000 (about US$ 17,000). This deposit will be reimbursed if the party obtains more than 3 per cent of the votes cast; otherwise it will be absorbed into the state budget.

The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Areferendum held on 7 November 2004 on the repeal of a law protecting minority rights failed owing to a low turnout of 26.5 per cent, well below the required 50 per cent. The law, which came into effect on 12 August 2004, redraws local authority boundaries to increase the representation of ethnic Albanians, who make up about a quarter of the population. It also makes Albanian the second official language in areas where Albanians constitute more than 20 per cent of the population, including the capital, Skopje. The adoption of a aw to improve minority rights was one of the last hurdles to be passed in the implementation of the 2001 Ohrid peace agreement. Full implementation of the peace accord remains a condition for the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia's membership to the European Union.

However, many Macedonians fear that if ethnic Albanians in neighbouring Kosovo gain independence, those in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia will follow the same path. Opponents of the law collected a total of 180,000 signatures to organise a referendum against it. Both the Government and foreign States urged voters to boycott the poll. Consequently, only 500,000 of the 1.7 million eligible voters cast their ballots. The law to protect minority rights was thus sustained.

	“Volunteerism is an enormous resource for development” During the 111th Assembly in Geneva, the IPU and the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) launched a Handbook for parliamentarians entitled Volunteerism and Legislation: a Guidance Note. The Executive Coordinator of UNV, Mr. Ad de Raad, was present. Interview. Q: What do you expect from parliamentarians? Ad de Raad: If we look at the contributions that volunteerism can make to social development, there is a role to be played by parliaments, in particular in supporting legislation to creat an enabling environment for volunteerism to take place. Very often, that is taken for granted. Looking at the spontaneous reaction to joint IPU-UNV publication, I am very glad to see that parliamentarians realise how important voluntary contributions are; this is perhaps the case because political campaigns also rely heavily on volunteers. None of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals are going to be achieved without the efforts of the millions of ordinary people who are engaged in voluntary actions. That is why we pay so much attention to cooperation with the IPU, to bring in parliaments as partners. Q: How would you describe your movement? A.d.R.: We have close to 6,000 volunteers in the field. They come from 160 countries, work in 140 countries, and 70 per cent of them are from developing countries. It is a unique expression of South-South cooperation, and it is a double faceted action. The average age of our volunteers is 39 years -they are not necessarily very young people - and what they represent for global solidarity and engagement is important. In the countries where we work, we also train domestic volunteers. Every country has its very unique forms of volunteerism, and we can say that volunteerism is an enormous resource for development.