18/11/2008 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Global safety and security depend on co-operation between world leaders, according to PACE Political Affairs Committee, meeting in Paris today. The G20 meeting is a start for co-operation the committee declared. It welcomed the positive attitude adopted by the leaders who participated in the meeting in Washington DC last weekend.
17/10/2008 | Political Affairs and Democracy
At the end of the Council of Europe Forum on the Future of Democracy, participants today welcomed the current work of the Parliamentary Assembly on e-democracy and called on it to “take further initiatives”, in particular with regard to e-parliament as a way to “help parliaments at all levels, as well as elected representatives, to better fulfil their role as representatives of the people”. E-democracy, they said, “can help to restore the declining interest in politics and the democratic process”.
16/10/2008 | Political Affairs and Democracy
"New technologies and e-voting must serve democracy. The standards evolved by the Council of Europe, particularly as regards the preservation of democracy, human rights and the rule of law, have become internationally accepted norms which must be applied to e-democracy," Luc van den Brande (Belgium, EPP/CD) pointed out today in Madrid at the Forum for the Future of Democracy. He added: "Likewise, it is our responsibility to keep up European standards for the organisation of democratic elections.
16/10/2008 | Political Affairs and Democracy
“We have a duty to be active and interactive. Electronic democracy is already all around us and, like it or not, we have to live with it,” said Göran Lindblad (Sweden, EPP/CD), Chair of PACE Political Affairs Committee, this morning in Madrid at the Council of Europe’s Forum for the Future of Democracy. As he went on to say, we still need to know how we propose to live with it and above all how to use it for the greater advancement of participatory democracy, human rights and rule of law in our societies, and how we are to reverse the electorate’s disinterest in the democratic process.
15/10/2008 | Political Affairs and Democracy
"As with all technological tools, e-democracy in itself is neither good nor bad," said PACE President Lluís Maria de Puig today, opening the 2008 Forum for the Future of Democracy in Madrid dedicated to this theme. "The debate on the connection between direct democracy and representative democracy is open, but we don’t necessarily need to choose one over the other: both these forms of participation are desirable and both can coexist," the President said.
15/10/2008 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Commenting today on the suspension of the visa ban against some high-ranking Belarusian officials, decided earlier this week by the EU Council for External Relations, PACE’s rapporteur on the situation in Belarus Andrea Rigoni said: “The European Union has made the right decision. Breaking the isolation of the Belarusian authorities will help Europe reach out to ordinary Belarusians and will eventually contribute to the spreading of European values both in society and in the political system.”
13/10/2008 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Representatives of the 47 member states of the Council of Europe will meet in Madrid on 15-17 October in the 2008 Forum for the Future of Democracy to discuss the potential of the new information technologies to strengthen democracy and increase participation. The Forum will be opened at 16.00 p.m. on Wednesday 15 October by Lluis Maria de Puig, President of the Assembly, Terry Davis, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Yavuz Mildon, President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, and Christer Hallerbyr, State Secretary of the Ministry of Integration and Gender Equality of Sweden, representing the Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers.
01/10/2008 | Political Affairs and Democracy
‘The conduct of the recent elections in Belarus have been yet another reason for concern’ commented today PACE rapporteur on the Situation in Belarus Andrea Rigoni (Italy, ALDE). Although PACE did not send an election observation mission, Mr Rigoni was able to form his own first-hand opinion over the conduct of the elections, having observed them in his national capacity as Italian parliamentarian. ‘Unfortunately, another opportunity for democracy has been missed in Belarus. It is quite unbelievable that, out of 110 constituencies, not one single opposition candidate was able to get elected.’
16/09/2008 | Political Affairs and Democracy
The current talks on Cyprus represent “the best opportunity in many years” to reach a settlement of the conflict, according to PACE Political Affairs Committee.
09/09/2008 | Political Affairs and Democracy
PACE Political Affairs Committee is organising a hearing on “Private military and security firms and the erosion of the state monopoly on the use of force” in Paris on 10 September 2008 with the participation of parliamentarians from its 47 member states, experts and a representative of a private security firm. According to German parliamentarian Wolfgang Wodarg (SOC), who is due to prepare a report for PACE on this issue, over one million mercenaries are currently operating around the globe, for more than a thousand companies, creating an annual turnover of approximately 200 billion US dollars.
03/09/2008 | Political Affairs and Democracy
“The talks which have opened today represent the best opportunity in many years to end the division of Cyprus,” said Joachim Hörster (Germany, EPP/CD), the rapporteur of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) on the Cyprus question. “The opportunity must not be wasted.”
21/08/2008 | Political Affairs and Democracy
“I express my great satisfaction at the release of two more political prisoners in Belarus,” said PACE rapporteur Andrea Rigoni commenting on the release of Andrei Kim and Syarhei Parsyukevich, soon after the liberation of opposition leader Alexander Kozulin. “This second wave of releases builds on that which took place earlier this year. But I call on the Belarusian authorities this time to avoid any steps backwards: there must be no more political prisoners."