08/03/2016 Political Affairs and Democracy
PACE’s Political Affairs Committee has today asked the Palestinian National Council (PNC) to speed up the reform process in accordance with the political commitments it made when it was granted “Partner for democracy” status by PACE in 2011.
"Achieving progress on the path of reform is the first goal of the partnership and this progress should serve as a reference for evaluating the effectiveness of this partnership," said the committee.
The committee said it welcomed the “active participation” of the Palestinian parliamentary delegation in the work of the Assembly and its committees, which provides opportunities to keep it informed about the political developments in their country in the light of the values upheld by the Council of Europe.
Adopting a draft resolution on the basis of report by Jordi Xuclà (Spain, ALDE), the parliamentarians said they regretted that, more than four years after the granting of the status, the situation on the ground has hardly improved. “Rather, the agreements between the Palestinian Authority and the de facto rulers of Gaza have been announced but have not been implemented in practice and negotiations between the Governments of Palestine and Israel are at a standstill. There is no indication that the situation can be unblocked in the near future.”
According to the committee, PACE had also been hopeful that this status would help to strengthen co-operation between Palestine and the Council of Europe. Different areas of co-operation such as judicial reform, the promotion of good governance and the prevention of human trafficking had been identified, "but unfortunately there has still been no follow-up".
The adopted text encourages members of the Palestinian delegation to intensify efforts to accelerate the implementation of the reform process and address the concerns that remain with respect to the rule of law and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, "according to the political commitments made in the framework of partnership".
The committee proposes that the Assembly should continue to review the implementation of political reforms in Palestine and provide assistance to the PNC, as well as to make a new assessment of the partnership at the appropriate time.
The Assembly is expected to discuss this issue at its next plenary session in Strasbourg (18-22 April 2016).