04/04/2008 President
PACE President Lluis Maria de Puig today invited the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of Member Nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States (IPA CIS) to take part in the launch of a “European Day of Integration and Intercultural Tolerance”. “This is a clear and visible sign of our shared commitment to making this goal a top political priority for Europe”, explained the President. He added that “if the IPA CIS joined this PACE/European Parliament initiative, it would become a symbol of the whole Eurasian continent”, providing an “excellent contribution to the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008”.
In his statement before the Inter-Parliamentary Conference on “Globalisation of migration processes and problems of legal regulation” organised in St Petersburg on 4 April by the PACE and IPA CIS, the President also recalled the priorities in the migration field for the “Assembly of the 47”:
- strengthening the fundamental rights of migrants, refugees, asylum-seekers and displaced persons, and ensuring the setting up of a legal framework which fully respects their rights;
- promoting intercultural dialogue, fostering tolerance and ensuring the integration of immigrant communities in the host society;
- managing migration and respecting the different needs of countries of origin, transit and destination.