05/03/2012 Standing Committee
Strasbourg, 05.03.2012 – A parliamentary debate on the need for independent and credible expert assessments will be among the highlights of the meeting of the Standing Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to be held in Paris on Friday 9 March 2012. Other issues will be debated, such as the Council of Europe and the Eastern Partnership of the European Union, the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance, and the situation of the inhabitants of Rhodes and Kos with a Turkish cultural background.
The meeting will be opened by Jean-Claude Mignon, recently-elected President of the PACE.
The parliamentarians will also hold an exchange of views with Etienne Apaire, President of the Pompidou Group (Council of Europe Co-operation Group to Combat Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in Drugs).
The committee will also examine reports on an additional protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights on national minorities, on the environmental impact of sunken shipwrecks, as well as on self-evaluation by Europe’s national parliaments: procedural guidelines to improve the quality of parliamentary work.
Two debates have also been requested: a debate under urgent procedure on “The intended suspension of the constitutional amendment procedure in Belgium”, and a current affairs debate on “The deterioration of the situation of political prisoners in Ukraine”.
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The meeting is open to the press and will be held on Friday 9 March 2012 from 9 am to 1.30 pm at the Assemblée nationale (Salle Lamartine), 101 rue de l’Université, Paris 7ème (Metro station: Invalides/Assemblée nationale).
(*) The Standing Committee, which acts on behalf of the Parliamentary Assembly between plenary sessions, brings together some 62 parliamentarians from the Council of Europe's 47 member states.
Contact: Micaela Catalano, Head of the PACE Communication Division, mobile +33 6 08 56 40 65