07/03/2008 | President
PACE President, Lluís Maria de Puig, today firmly condemned the assassination of a former municipal councillor from Mondragon, and offered his condolences to the victim’s family. “Anyone seeking to destabilise democratic institutions in Spain, in an attempt to influence the general election result, is making a mistake. When the Spanish people vote on Sunday, they will be demonstrating their faith in the democratic process”, the PACE President said.
07/03/2008 | President
Ján Kubiš, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic and Chairman of the Committee of Ministers, Lluís Maria de Puig, President of the Parliamentary Assembly, Terry Davis, Secretary General, and Halvdan Skard, President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, declared: “We are determined to end the silence and indifference which keeps so many women across Europe imprisoned in the horror of daily violence, isolation and despair. Our two-year campaign is succeeding in changing some laws and regulations, but this is not enough.
03/03/2008 | President
“I appeal for calm in Yerevan, and I call on all sides to do everything in their power to prevent further violence,” said PACE President Lluís Maria de Puig, reacting to events in the Armenian capital. “I deeply regret the deaths and injuries that have already occurred, and repeat that the authorities must show the utmost restraint and respect the principle of proportionality. The state of emergency that has been declared is an extreme measure and should be lifted as soon as possible: round-ups of peaceful demonstrators and gagging the media is not the response of real democrats to differing views."
20/02/2008 | President
PACE President Lluís Maria de Puig has said that Fidel Castro’s retirement from politics in Cuba opened a window of hope, which might mark the beginning of a new era of peaceful transition to democracy and respect for human rights.
20/02/2008 | President
“Bicameral systems still have a bright future ahead of them”, said Lluís Maria de Puig, President of the PACE, today when addressing the participants in the Conference on “The role of second chambers in Europe”, being held in Paris by the French Senate and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. “We could consider doing more to open up the Parliamentary Assembly to regional parliaments” he said, pointing out that a draft agreement on strengthening co-operation between the PACE and the Conference of European Regional Legislative Assemblies was currently under preparation.
19/02/2008 | President
PACE President Lluís Maria de Puig will travel to Paris on 20 and 21 February 2008 on his first official visit since his election in January. Mr de Puig will meet Christian Poncelet, President of the French Senate, and Jean-Pierre Jouyet, French Secretary of State for European Affairs. Among subjects to be discussed are the partnership between the Council of Europe and France in promoting shared values, co-operation in the Mediterranean Basin, the promotion of intercultural and inter-faith dialogue and the forthcoming European Conference of Presidents of Parliaments, to be held by PACE in Strasbourg on 22 and 23 May 2008.
17/02/2008 | President
Reacting to Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence today, Lluís Maria de Puig, President of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), called on all parties to keep their pledge to preserve peace and dialogue in all circumstances and to refrain from any incitement to violence as well as to fully comply with Council of Europe standards with respect to human rights, the rule of law, the rights of national minorities and the treatment of refugees, displaced and stateless persons.
12/02/2008 | President
PACE President Lluís Maria de Puig has warmly welcomed the proposal by a cross-party group of Japanese MPs for a four-year moratorium on executions. "Death is not justice, but the sudden, secretive hangings carried out in Japan are particularly chilling, and a suspension of this grisly procedure is long overdue," said the President. "I urge the Japanese Diet to adopt this proposal."
06/02/2008 | President
PACE President Lluís Maria de Puig today expressed his profound dismay at the executions of Syarhey Marozaw, Ihar Danchanka and Valerii Gorbatii in Belarus. “The Belarusian authorities have once again chosen the course of barbarism and injustice. President Lukachenko could have commuted these sentences and thus shown a clear determination to bring Belarus closer to the Council of Europe. Instead he decided to distance his country even further from the values shared by 800 million Europeans,” the PACE President said. He added that “this atrocity has unfortunately overshadowed the good news of yesterday’s release of the political prisoner Artur Finkevich”.
31/01/2008 | President
“Trafficking in human beings constitutes a form of inhuman and degrading treatment as well as a blatant violation of human rights. However, together with the arms trade and drug trafficking, it is one of the few sectors which has never seen an economic slowdown. With the coming into force of our convention, we hope at last to wage a more effective fight against this intolerable modern-day barbarity, which can only be countered if a collective effort is made on a Europe-wide basis. The greater the number of countries that ratify this convention, the better the protection that will be afforded to the victims”, said Lluis Maria de Puig, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
17/01/2008 | President
At the end of a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) President René van der Linden today welcomed the Russian Federation’s European orientation and its commitment to the values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. “I once again wish to welcome the moratorium on the death penalty and Mr Putin's public position against capital punishment. However this commitment should be formally confirmed by the Russian Federation by ratifying Protocol No 6, he said.
16/01/2008 | President
PACE President René van der Linden will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday 17 January 2008 in Moscow. Their talks are expected to focus on the Russian presidential election in March 2008 and the ratification by Russia of Protocols Nos. 6 and 14 to the European Convention on Human Rights.