11/02/2010 | President
During their official visit to Turkey, the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, David Bakradze and his parliamentary delegation met with PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu in Ankara on 9 February. Mutual goodwill and the intention to co-operate were at the heart of their discussions, the PACE President said. Mr Çavusoglu also announced that he was very pleased to accept the official invitation by the Georgian Speaker to visit Georgia.
04/02/2010 | President
Mevlüt Çavusoglu, PACE President today welcomed the creation, by the Belarus parliament, of a working group “on the issue of death penalty as an instrument of punishment” composed by members of both chambers. He encouraged the working group to examine experience of Council of Europe member states in this field as it showed that there were no valid reasons to maintain the death penalty. “This is a positive step in the right direction. PACE stands ready to assist the Belarus parliament in this process,” he said.
29/01/2010 | President
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu today met the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Mevlüt Çavusoglu at the end of the Assembly’s plenary session in Strasbourg. He congratulated the President on his election. Mr Çavusoglu is the 25th President of PACE, and the first Turk to hold this position.
27/01/2010 | President
On the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Mevlüt Çavusoglu (Turkey, EDG), PACE President, stressed that remembering was the best way to prevent a repeat of the tragedy of the Holocaust. “Under Resolution 60/7 of 2005, the United Nations General Assembly declared 27 January as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Exactly 65 years ago, on 27 January 1945, the Soviet military liberated some 7,000 prisoners remaining in the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland.
19/01/2010 | President
Lluís Maria de Puig, visiting the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) yesterday, carried out his last official act as President of the Parliamentary Assembly. He chose this prestigious university to receive a collection of more than 100 Council of Europe publications relating to the organisation's activities in the fields of education, communication and culture. The President of PACE emphasised the “often discreet, but always irreplaceable” role of “the 47” in protecting and promoting culture in Europe. “Although our fellow citizens all too often focus on Brussels, another Europe exists which would feel bereft without our organisation's work on culture; this is a continent which wants education, in the context of European construction, to have its rightful place at the very heart of society.”
15/01/2010 | President
Statement by Micheline Calmy-Rey, Chairperson of the Committee of Ministers and Lluís Maria de Puig, President of the Parliamentary Assembly Strasbourg, 15.01.2010 - “We welcome the approval, for ratification, of Protocol No. 14 to the European Convention on Human Rights by the Russian State...
15/01/2010 | President
PACE President, Lluís Maria de Puig, has called on Council of Europe member states to shoulder their humanitarian responsibilities following the Haiti devastation. “At this moment in time our thoughts lie with the victims, and the families and friends of the victims. The uncertainty and lack of communications just add to the suffering of all those involved. My condolences go to the people of Haiti, as well as to our colleagues in the United Nations and others who are caught up in the earthquake and who may have died, gone missing, been injured or are suffering,” the President added.
11/01/2010 | President
“The legacy of party closures in Turkey remains a source of concern,” PACE President, Lluís Maria de Puig stressed, referring to the recent closure of the Democratic Society Party (DTP) following a decision of the Turkish Constitutional Court. The President expressed the hope that this decision would not undermine the authorities’ positive steps in favour of reconciliation.
20/12/2009 | President
"The political declaration negotiated after the Copenhagen conference lacks ambition and does not provide any answer to climate change, based on solidarity and equity," said PACE President Lluís Maria de Puig. "Despite some progress, the failure to take concrete decisions in Copenhagen is a missed opportunity, given the size of the problem. I regret that the final result is so far from the proposals contained in the resolution adopted by the Assembly ahead of the conference," he added.
04/12/2009 | President
"PACE represents the most representative pan-European political forum to discuss initiatives and proposals by member states regarding European and world affairs," declared Lluís Maria de Puig during his meeting with Sergei Mironov, Chairman of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation held on 3 December 2009 in Saint Petersburg. In this connection, Mr de Puig announced his intention to invite the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitri Medvedev, to present before the parliamentarians of the 47 member states his recent initiatives concerning the new European Security Architecture as well as the creation of an international tribunal on the acts of piracy.
30/11/2009 | President
“Although it expresses the popular will, the decision to ban the construction of new minarets in Switzerland is a source of profound concern to me”, said PACE President, Lluís Maria de Puig, commenting today on the referendum of 28 November. “On the one hand, this position reflects fears within the Swiss population – and the population of Europe as a whole – regarding Islamic fundamentalism; on the other, far from helping to tackle the causes of fundamentalism, it is likely to encourage feelings of exclusion and deepen the rifts in our societies”, he added.
30/11/2009 | President
"My most sincere condolences to the families of those who lost their lives as a result of Friday's bomb attack," said President de Puig, responding to reports of a terrorist attack on the Moscow to St. Petersburg railway line. "The Assembly condemns terrorism as an affront to the civilised values of our Organisation and its member states," he added.