25/01/2007 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Parliamentary delegations from Armenia and Azerbaijan, meeting on the fringe of PACE's plenary session, have decided to begin a regular face-to-face dialogue on issues surrounding the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, with the support of the Assembly’s rapporteurs on these issues. They also agreed in principle to make a joint visit to the region in the near future, during which they would also meet with the displaced population, and agreed on the need to prepare their societies for any possible solution to the conflict.
12/12/2006 | Political Affairs and Democracy
The rapporteur of the PACE’s Political Affairs Committee on the accession of the Republic of Montenegro to the Council of Europe, Jean-Charles Gardetto (Monaco, EPP/CD), said at the last meeting of the committee on 11 December that he could not give an opinion until more headway had been made in Montenegro on the constitution. The rapporteurs for opinion of the Legal Affairs Committee, Erik Jurgens (Netherlands, SOC), and the Monitoring Committee, Serhiy Holovaty (Ukraine, ALDE), share this view. The report will not be examined therefore at the next plenary session of the PACE (22-26 January 2007).
13/11/2006 | Political Affairs and Democracy
PACE's Political Affairs Committte will meet on 14 November in Paris. On the agenda: Montenegro’s request to join the Council of Europe, the peril of using energy supply as an instrument of political pressure, the concept of preventive war and its consequences for international relations, possibilities for co-operation between the Council of Europe and Lebanon and compliance by observer countries with the values of the organisation.
08/09/2006 | Political Affairs and Democracy
The crisis in Lebanon, the ongoing violence in Iraq and the situation in Gaza are among issues to be discussed at a hearing on the situation in the Middle East organised by the Political Affairs Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) in Gaziantep, Turkey, on Tuesday 12 September 2006. Parliamentarians from Iraq, Israel and the Palestinian Legislative Council are expected to attend, and legislators from Lebanon and Syria have also been invited.
31/05/2006 | Political Affairs and Democracy
PACE Political Affairs Committee is organising in Paris on Friday 2 June a Parliamentary hearing on European Muslim communities confronted with extremism, in the framework of the preparation of a report on the subject by Daniel Goulet (France, ALDE). The hearing will look at case studies from France, the Netherlands, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
30/05/2006 | Political Affairs and Democracy
The ad hoc sub-committee set up by PACE to organise a Round Table on the political situation in the Chechen Republic holds an exchange of views on Thursday 1st June in Paris with Chechen President Alu Alkhanov, the Chairman of the Council of the Chechen Republic Akhmarkhadzhi Gazikhanov and the Chair of the Chechen People’s Assembly Dukuvakha Abdurakhmanov. The sub-committee will decide at the opening of the hearing if it is open the press. Date: Thursday 1st June 2006 from 3 pm. to 6 pm. Place: Council of Europe Office, 55 avenue Kléber, Paris 16ème (Metro: Boissière)
16/03/2006 | Political Affairs and Democracy
PACE's Sub-Committee on the Middle East has unanimously agreed to invite a delegation of the Palestinian Legislative Council, including a member of Hamas, to its next meeting which will be held during the April part-session (10-13 April 2006). "We cannot ignore the legitimate outcome of the parliamentary elections which took place on 25 January 2006," said the Sub-Committee’s Chairperson Stef Goris (Belgium, ADLE). "We all agree that the elections were fair and free. Therefore, we have to accept the democratically expressed will of the Palestinian people and do our best to involve those who won the elections in the political dialogue which could contribute to the peaceful settlement of the conflict."
16/02/2006 | Political Affairs and Democracy
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs are organising a conference on Belarus in Prague on Thursday 23 February, in the run-up to the presidential election, which will be taking place in that country on 19 March. The conference will be opened by the President of the PACE, René van der Linden, and the Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cyril Svoboda, on 23 February at 9am. in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Czernin Palace, Grand Hall, Loretanske namesti 5, Prague). It will be open to the press.
26/01/2006 | Political Affairs and Democracy
In the run-up to the presidential election in Belarus on March 2006, the PACE today called on the Lukashenko regime to refrain from “obstructing the free and fair running of the electoral campaign”, and take “positive action to ensure that pluralist information can be provided”. At the end of an urgent debate, the Assembly deplored that freedom of expression is blatantly flouted, and noted that in the last two years “the situation has not improved but worsened”. It called on member states to give “immediate financial and if necessary logistical support to independent broadcasting to Belarus from abroad”.
16/01/2006 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Mikhail Margelov (Russian Federation, EDG), Rapporteur on the Middle East of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Political Affairs Committee, has welcomed the recent Israeli decision to allow 200 000 Palestinians living in East Jerusalem to vote in the forthcoming parliamentary elections due to take place on 25 January 2006.
21/12/2005 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Desecration of cemeteries and memorials, the use of nazi symbols and growing support for xenophobic parties are signs that public opinion now seems more receptive to racist, xenophobic and extremist ideas, according to a draft resolution on “Combating the resurrection of nazi ideology” approved yesterday by PACE’s Political Affairs Committee. The Council of Europe should play the leading role in action to resist the resurrection of nazi ideology, according to the draft resolution, including by organising an international conference on the phenomenon. The report is due for debate during the Assembly’s winter session (23-27 January 2006).
14/12/2005 | Political Affairs and Democracy
PACE's Political Affairs Committee, meeting in Paris today, adopted a draft resolution and a draft recommendation on the "Need for international condemnation of the crimes of totalitarian communist regimes". The text, prepared par Göran Lindblad (Sweden, EPP/CD), strongly condemns the massive human rights violations committed by these regimes and expresses "sympathy, understanding and recognition to the victims of crimes". According to the committee, "this clear position of the international community will pave the way to further reconciliation".