22/09/2011 President
Strasbourg, 22.09.2011 - PACE President Mevlüt Cavusoglu today called for increased co-ordination between PACE and the European Parliament (EP). At a meeting of the PACE Presidential Committee and the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament, he welcomed “good progress with regard to the accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights, in particular the agreement reached on the modalities of participation of EP representatives in PACE meetings when the Assembly elects judges onto the European Court of Human Rights.”
The format of the meeting having proved its efficiency, he called on participants “to use this model in the future to discuss other current political issues of mutual interest such as the ‘Arab spring’. The revolutionary changes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, as well as ongoing protests in Syria, present us with a great challenge, that is, how Europe can facilitate transition from authoritarian rule to normally functioning democratic societies in our immediate neighbourhood,” he said. He stressed the importance, in this context, of the new PACE “Partner for Democracy” status, which had already been granted to Morocco. A request for this status from the Palestinian National Council, already approved by the Political Affairs Committee, will be debated by PACE at its October session (Strasbourg, 3-7 October).