The National Coalition party of Finland and the Social Democrats agreed yesterday on the conditions for Portuguese bailout. This means that the Social Democrats will also support the package.

EFD Vice President, Timo SOINI, led his party yesterday to an historic victory in the Finnish general election on a euro realist manifesto. His party gained 34 new MPs, bringing the True Finns parliamentary representation up to 39. True Finns now equal the Finnish socialist Party in votes (19% for True Finns, and 19,1 for the Socialists) and came third with about 1,4% votes less than the winning party KOK (national coalition/conservatives). All the 'traditional 'parties lost ground in this general election. The Socialist party however managed to reduce their losses by adopting a surprisingly eurosceptic line towards the end of the campaign.Immediately after the results Timo SOINI restated his opposition to the bail out for Portugal.

William Dartmouth MEP, A long-time personal friend of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer who was murdered in January 2011 for his action to stop the persecution of Christian minorities in Pakistan, met the Pakistani ambassador to Brusselstoday. The UKIP MEP for South West England today met H.E. Mr Jalil Abbas Jilani, Ambassador of Pakistan to the EU, Belgium, Luxembourg and NATO and presented him with a special edition of speeches made by all the MEPs who spoke at a debate on Pakistan on January 20th.