29/01/2009 Session
Strasbourg, 29.01.2009 - At the end of an urgent debate on the consequences of the global financial crisis, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) today reminded the European governments of “their responsibility to protect citizens’ social and human rights”. The disastrous impact of the crisis “could possibly threaten to undermine the very foundations of democracy”. According to the parliamentarians, it is vital that economic solidarity, coordination and co-operation should be exercised not only among the Council of Europe member states and between the industrialised states, but also vis-à-vis the developing countries.
The adopted resolution considers that the financial institutions have failed in their duty to provide information and “the public authorities have not lived up to their responsibilities in regard to supervision of the risks posed by the spread of financial instruments”. They have not “protected citizens and financial players engaging in high-risk transactions”.
Following the proposals by the rapporteur, Kimmo Sasi (Finland, EPP/CD), the parliamentarians listed a dozen principles designed to soften the recession and reform the financial system, notably ensuring the stability of the financial markets by providing liquidity, enabling markets to be made more transparent, fostering a sense of morality among economic players and improving rules governing the financial markets, including rules of accountability, so as “to ensure better coverage of the rule of law”.
In that context, they concluded governments must do” everything possible to restore the public's confidence in the functioning of the economy”.