23/05/2013 Standing Committee
Strasbourg, 23.05.2013 – The meeting of the Standing Committee (*) of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will be held in Yerevan on Friday 31 May 2013 under the Armenian Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers. On this occasion, PACE President Jean-Claude Mignon will hold high-level meetings with the President of the Republic Serzh Sargsyan, the Speaker of the National Assembly Hovik Abrahamyan, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs Edward Nalbandian.
After the opening of the Smeeting by PACE President, the Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly will address participants. The parliamentarians will then hold an exchange of views with the Armenian Minister for Foreign Affairs, chairing the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe for a six-month period beginning on 16 May. The discussions will focus on Armenia’s priorities during its Chairmanship and other issues in the framework of the Assembly’s ongoing political dialogue with the Committee of Ministers.
The themes on the agenda include promoting alternatives to imprisonment, parental leave as a way to foster gender equality, and budgets and priorities of the Council of Europe for the biennium 2014-2015.
Furthermore, a current affairs debate on “The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, 25 years later: the Council of Europe’s possibilities to promote reconciliation between Armenia and Azerbaijan” has been requested by the PACE United European Left (UEL) Group. The holding of this debate – or any other debate requested within the requisite deadline – will only be confirmed at the opening of the meeting, during the adoption of the agenda.
Draft agenda of the meeting (PDF)
Working documents
Website of the Armenian chairmanship
* * *
The meeting of the Standing Committee, which is open to the press, will take place on Friday 31 May 2013 from 9 am to 3 pm in the Armenia Marriot Hotel (1 Amiryan street, Yerevan), in the ‘Tigran Mets’ room.
Contacts:
Nathalie Bargellini, PACE Communication Division,
mobile +33 6 65 40 32 82, e-mail: [email protected]
Bureau du Conseil de l’Europe Office in Yerevan : tél. +374 10 54 63 22
E-mail : [email protected]
______________________
(*) The Standing Committee, which acts on the Assembly’s behalf between plenary sessions, is made up of the President and Vice-Presidents of the Assembly, the chairpersons of political groups, the chairpersons of national delegations and the committee chairpersons, totalling some 60.