27/06/2012 Session
Strasbourg, 27.06.2012 – While a sound State is not usually possible without a lively and strong democracy, a strong democracy also needs a sound State in order to be able to meet the expectations of the citizens, especially by providing social justice, says PACE in a resolution adopted today, during its biennial debate on the state of democracy in Europe.
Drawing on the conclusions of the rapporteur Andreas Gross (Switzerland, SOC), the adopted text provides pointers for developing democracy at the transnational level, for making States more accountable and for restoring the primary role of political institutions. Such institutions were not able to anticipate, prevent and adequately react to the crisis without causing hardship to the people whom they were meant to protect, noted the parliamentarians. Intervention by national governments to prevent the disintegration of the financial markets has increased sovereign debts, placing an additional tax burden on citizens and further eroding their trust.
The text points out that building sound States means developing close links with civil society, encouraging a fearless press diverse in its ownership, promoting citizenship and reducing sovereign debt while at the same time preserving economic growth and social integration, and making existing representative democratic structures more representative.
The Assembly also invited Council of Europe member States to consider, in the framework of the World Forum on Democracy to be held in Strasbourg in October 2012, ways in which “democracy can be strengthened by deepening it at all levels of the nation State and also by constituting it at the transnational level”.