Tue, 02 Feb 2010

German government commissions GLS Bank to manage microlending – Bank wins sustainability awards

BOCHUM (NNA) – The GLS Bank in Bochum has been commissioned by the German Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs to develop microlending across Germany.

The microlending fund has been set up with a starting volume of 100m euros, the bank said in a press release. Most of the money, which is to be used to secure loans for small and micro entrepreneurs as well as for startups, comes from the Ministry’s budge as well as from the European Social Fund.

Small and micro enterprises often do not have access to capital due to a lack of collateral.

“Our objective is to support the commitment of people and to open up new vistas. This is all the more important at a time when economic circumstances are generally difficult,” GLS board spokesman Thomas Jorberg said.

“Small enterprises in particular create jobs and are closely guided by demand,” Jorberg added.

The GLS Bank has been involved in the field of microfinance for ten years and has built up a large network of cooperation partners. It will grant loans of up to 20,000 euros in collaboration with regional microfinance institutes.

The GLS Bank has been undertaking practical research in the field of microfinance in the form of model projects since 2000. In 2004 it established the German Microfinance Institute with its partners and launched a microfinance fund.

In a separate development, Thomas Jorberg has been awarded the Future Award 2009 by the Future initiative. Future, established by environmentally aware small and medium-sized businesses in Germany proactively to promote the idea of environmental protection within companies, praised Jorberg’s “responsible company leadership and consistently sustainable management,” the organisation said in a statement.

The bank also won the Portfolio Institutionell Award as “Best sustainable investor”.

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Link: www.gls.de, www.future-ev.de

Item: 100202-02EN Date: 2 February 2010

Copyright 2010 News Network Anthroposophy Limited. All rights reserved. See: www.nna-news.org/copyright/

More NNA reports at: www.nna-news.org/en/

Court clears Berlin Waldorf students accused of attempted murder

BERLIN (NNA) – A Berlin court has acquitted two Waldorf students accused of attempted murder, Yunus K. (20) and Rigo B. (17), of all charges.

Prosecutors had charged the two students with attempted murder, bodily injury due to negligence and a breach of the firearms law in connection with violent May Day demonstrations in Berlin last year because they had allegedly thrown a Molotov cocktail which had seriously injured a female passer-by.

The two spent more than seven months in custody on remand before the court released them in December due to the weakness of the evidence. Then, last Thursday, the court delivered its final not guilty verdict as the prosecution had failed to link the two students to the crime.

The acquittal was greeted with cheers by the public in court.

Prosecutors have been severely criticised for their poor handling of the case. The Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) newspaper commented that the prosecution had failed “all down the line”. Investigators had “made such a spectacle of themselves that it cannot be explained by sloppiness alone,” the paper said.

The prosecution had fixed too quickly on the accused as the guilty parties, had been unaware of important evidence and had blindly relied on police statements, the SZ added. The police in turn had failed properly to secure evidence. It was unlikely now that the actual culprits would be apprehended, the paper concluded.

From the beginning, the students, who took their school leaving exams in custody, vehemently denied having anything to do with the crime. The defence had argued a case of mistaken identity.

There was repeated criticism in the media of the lack of any solid evidence. The authorities were accused of bowing to demands in the tabloid press to send a strong deterrent signal following the violent May Day demonstrations, a charge denied by the authorities.

Parents, teachers and fellow students from the two Berlin Waldorf schools Mitte and Zehlendorf organised well-attended solidarity events under the motto “Freedom for Rigo and Yunus”. The Berlin churches also called for the release of the two young men. (See previous NNA report, 22 December 2009)

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Item: 100202-01EN Date: 2 February 2010

Copyright 2010 News Network Anthroposophy Limited. All rights reserved. See: www.nna-news.org/copyright/

More NNA reports at: www.nna-news.org/en/