This conference was organised jointly by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Austrian Parliament. I took the floor at the opening of the conference, with several prominent speakers:
I had bilateral meetings with:
At the end of the conference, the participants adopted the “Vienna declaration”: “Parliaments: act now to stop domestic violence!”.
In the margin of the ministerial conference, I had several bilateral meetings with:
I also attended the working breakfast hosted by H.E. Mr Ján Kubiś, outgoing Chairman of the Committee of Ministers, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic, and H.E. Mr Carl Bildt, incoming Chairman of the Committee of Ministers, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden, on the occasion of the 118th Session of the Committee of Ministers.
I presided at this conference, together with Ms Ene Ergma, President of the Estonian Parliament. This conference brought together 40 speakers and 17 vice-speakers of parliaments to discuss the following topics:
I gave the opening speech at this conference and presented the final conclusions, which can be consulted on the Parliamentary Assembly website.
In the margin of the conference, I had bilateral meetings with the speakers of parliaments of the following countries: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Monaco, Montenegro, Moldova, Romania, Spain and Mexico.
This conference, organised by the European Movement, marked the 60th anniversary of the The Hague Congress.
I participated in the plenary session on 24 May and was one of the speakers on the official panel, which included the Slovenian Prime Minister and President of the European Council, Mr Janez Janša, the President of the European Commission, Mr José Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Parliament, Mr Hans-Gert Pöttering, the President of the EESC (European Economic and Social Committee), Mr Dimitris Dimitriadis and the President of the Committee of the Regions, Mr Luc Van den Brande.
On the occasion of these meetings, I had bilateral meetings with Mr Per Westerberg, Speaker of the Swedish Parliament.
At the invitation of the Secretary General of the Latin American Parliament, Senator Sonia M. Escudero, I took part in the interparliamentary conference on the Parliamentary View of International Humanitarian Law, held at the National Congress of the Republic of Argentina in Buenos Aires from 4 to 6 June 2008.
Ms Escudero invited me to give a speech at the opening session of the conference on 5 June, along with the Speakers of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies of Argentina and the President and Secretary General of the Latin American Parliament.
I also took part in two of the conference’s discussion panels, which dealt with the following subjects:
During the first discussion, I described the Parliamentary Assembly’s work and, in particular, the work of its Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population on measures to protect the rights of refugees in Europe. I also expressed my appreciation, in the presence of representatives of the ICRC, of the outstanding co-operation between the ICRC and the Council of Europe, the most obvious example being the debate on the activities of the ICRC that the Assembly would be holding at its next plenary session.
During the second discussion, I described the activities of the Assembly’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights and the texts adopted by the Assembly on the subject under consideration, including the resolutions and recommendations on the lawfulness of detentions by the United States in Guantánamo and on democratic oversight of security services.
On the same occasion, I attended a meeting of the Bureau of the Latin American Parliament, at which I invited the Chilean Chair, Mr Jorge Pizarro Soto, to visit Strasbourg in the near future to address the Parliamentary Assembly and discuss possible co-operation arrangements. Mr Soto highlighted the shared objectives of the Latin American Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly and said that he intended to accept my invitation: he would probably attend the next part-session, in October 2008, and would seek to promote further exchanges.
For a full text of these press releases and speeches, please follow the link http://assembly.coe.int.