08/07/2019 President
“National parliaments are important relays for ensuring the inclusiveness of the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030,” said PACE President Liliane Maury Pasquier, underlining that implementation of the UN goals was a multi-stakeholder process, and that parliamentarians, as elected representatives, had a direct link to civil society, professional organisations, and local and regional authorities.
Speaking at the 28th Annual Session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly on the theme “Advancing sustainable development to promote security: the role of parliaments”, the President also underlined the importance of “promoting the standards that Europe has developed in the field of human rights, democratic institutions and the rule of law” as a model for comprehensive regulation.
“Many Council of Europe conventions are innovative and unique tools which, as international instruments open to non-member states, can serve as a reference framework for all OSCE member states. The monitoring mechanisms established by our conventions provide measurement indicators that, in many cases, also apply to the Sustainable Development Goals, making it possible to identify areas where progress has been made and to identify challenges,” she added.
Finally, the President suggested focusing on transversal issues such as gender equality – an objective which cuts across all parts of the 2030 Programme – recalling that this theme was one of the priorities of her Presidency and referring to the #NotInMyParliament initiative launched by PACE in November 2018.
On the margins of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly session, Ms Maury Pasquier met with OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President George Tsereteli and OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger.
The President also met Luxembourg authorities, including the President of the Chamber of Deputies Fernand Etgen, and members of the parliamentary delegation to PACE. She also held an exchange of views with members of the Bureau and Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies.
“It was a great pleasure and honour for me to be able to take advantage of my participation in the OSCE PA plenary session to hold bilateral meetings with the Luxembourg authorities. I would like to thank the Chamber of Deputies of Luxembourg for the excellent organisation of my visit. In my discussions, I welcomed the important contribution made by Luxembourg – which is known as a great defender of multilateralism – to the work of the Council of Europe,” the President said.
The future of the Council of Europe, as well as the strengthening of the parliamentary dimension in the implementation of the 2030 Programme and the objectives of sustainable development – in particular the promotion of gender equality, environmental protection and the elimination of violence against children – were also at the heart of discussions with Luxembourg parliamentarians.