27/05/2011 | Standing Committee
PACE today welcomed the EU’s Eastern Partnership initiative, describing it as a “major opportunity” for the six countries involved (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) to achieve reform and greater prosperity through enhanced links with the European Union.
27/05/2011 | Standing Committee
Microcredit, used to encourage the formation and development of microenterprises, often aids the transition from unemployment to self-employment, and plays an important part in promoting social inclusion, the PACE believes. In a resolution adopted today in Kyiv, on the basis of the report by Márton Braun (Hungary, EPP/CD), the PACE accordingly invited member states to adapt their institutional, legal and commercial frameworks in order to promote microcredit.
27/05/2011 | Standing Committee
The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) currently discriminates against new EU member states and needs a “radical shift” to make it fairer and more sustainable, according to PACE. In a resolution adopted today, based on a report by Juha Korkeaoja (Finland, ALDE), the Assembly said it “deplores that 85 per cent of CAP direct payments go to just 18 per cent of farmers, with the largest farms in the old EU member states benefiting the most.”
27/05/2011 | Standing Committee
In a resolution adopted today in Kyiv, PACE called on member states to eliminate as many heavy metals and other metals as possible from the human environment and to prevent their bioaccumulation in nature, the food chain and the human body. In respect of the most toxic heavy metals, such as mercury, member states should prohibit or limit the use of these substances by industry, agriculture and the medical sector – particularly the use of mercury in dental amalgams.
27/05/2011 | Standing Committee
“The priorities of Ukraine’s Chairmanship – protection of children’s rights, promotion of human rights and the rule of law in the context of democracy and stability in Europe, as well as the strengthening and development of local democracy – fully correspond to the 'core business' and values of our Assembly,” today stressed PACE President at the opening of the PACE Standing Committee in Kyiv.
27/05/2011 | Standing Committee
The Parliamentary Assembly, meeting in Kyiv at Standing Committee level, today called on European governments to “take all reasonable measures” to reduce exposure to electromagnetic fields, especially to radio frequencies from mobile phones, “and particularly the exposure to children and young people who seem to be most at risk from head tumours”.
19/05/2011 | Standing Committee
The potential dangers of electromagnetic fields and their effect on the environment will be a central focus of the meeting of PACE Standing Committee to be held in Kyiv on Friday 27 May 2011 following the transfer of the Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers to Ukraine. Assembly members will hold a debate on the basis of the report by Jean Huss (Luxembourg, SOC) and will adopt a resolution on this issue. The draft text calls for a series of measures to reduce exposure – especially of children and young people – to electromagnetic fields, and in particular radio frequencies emitted by mobile phones.
11/03/2011 | Standing Committee
Council of Europe member states and Mediterranean countries must do more to improve, apply and enforce national and international laws on the environment, and apply an integrated ecosystem-based approach in their policies, according to PACE’s Standing Committee.
11/03/2011 | Standing Committee
There are “numerous and serious” risks linked to the use of genetically modified organisms in agriculture, including many uncertainties about the transfer of genetic material, but they could also, to a certain extent, provide a means of combating famine and the food crisis, PACE’s Standing Committee has said.
11/03/2011 | Standing Committee
Retribution and punishment should take second place to social measures for the education and rehabilitation of young offenders, PACE Standing Committee said today. In a resolution based on a report by Marietta Karamanli (France, SOC), PACE said depriving children and young people of liberty should be a last resort.
11/03/2011 | Standing Committee
European states should enhance and modernise the legal framework surrounding biometric data used to identify individuals – such as DNA samples, fingerprinting, retina images or voice recordings – so that their use does not infringe human rights, according to PACE’s Standing Committee.
11/03/2011 | Standing Committee
"For the Council of Europe the current events in the Arab world are of major importance - not only because they affect peace and security in the region and beyond; but also because of our deep historic and cultural links and our close inter-dependence," PACE President Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said during a current affairs debate of the Standing Committee in Paris.