22/05/2008 President
At the opening of the 19th European Conference of Presidents of Parliament, the host, PACE President Lluís Maria de Puig warmly welcomed the extremely successful co-operation which has developed in recent years between PACE and national parliaments as regards national-level investigation of suspected violations of human rights in member states' territories. He also recalled the key role of parliaments to ensure ratification and implementation of Council of Europe conventions and in giving full effect to European Court of Human Rights judgments in member countries' legal systems. On 22 and 23 May, the parliamentary summit will bring together some 250 participants, including 40 Speakers and 21 Deputy Speakers.
With a view to the topics on the parliamentary summit’s agenda, the President insisted on the vital role of “those who hold political responsibilities to ensure that the rights of civil society – in particular freedom of assembly and freedom of expression – are fully respected; and it is for civil society to make responsible use of them in order to participate fully in the democratic process. The questions to which we shall be endeavouring to provide answers at this conference are, firstly, what kind of relations should there be between parliaments and civil society and, secondly, what role can parliaments play in promoting the fundamental values which our 47 member countries share: democracy, human rights, the rule of law?
Finally, the President proposed to associate the Presidents of Parliament of the Maghreb countries (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) and the Central Asian republics (Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan, Tadzhikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) in the next European Conference of Presidents of Parliament. Cyprus has already proposed to host the 20th edition of this conference in 2010.