29/10/2004 | Monitoring
David Atkinson (United Kingdom, EDG) and Rudolf Bindig (Germany, SOC), co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Russia, hold a final series of meetings in Moscow from 1 to 6 November, before drawing up their progress report, due for plenary debate in mid-2005.
14/10/2004 | Monitoring
David Atkinson (United Kingdom, EDG) and Rudolf Bindig (Germany, SOC), who are preparing a report on Russia’s honouring of its obligations and commitments, today ended a six-day visit to Yekaterinburg in the Sverdlovsk Oblast and Kazan in Tatarstan. In both cities they met the heads of government, local parliamentarians, judges, prosecutors and lawyers as well as representatives of political parties, national minorities, religious organisations and the media. Their report is due for debate by the Assembly in mid-2005.
16/09/2004 | Monitoring
The Monitoring Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), meeting in Paris on 15 September 2004, adopted the following statement: "The October 31 presidential elections are an opportunity for Ukraine to ensure full respect for the principles of pluralist democracy, human rights and the rule of law. A credible democratic election could give the country a chance to anchor itself more firmly in the family of European democracies."
15/09/2004 | Monitoring
Four years after the fall of Slobodan Milosevic, Serbia and Montenegro is a country that has changed enormously, but not yet enough, Milos Budin (Italy, SOC) and Jonas Cekuolis (Lithuania, LDR) conclude in their report on the functioning of democratic institutions in Serbia and Montenegro, due for debate in the Assembly’s October session. A draft resolution, submitted by the two Assembly rapporteurs and adopted by the Monitoring Committee in Paris today, therefore concludes that the Assembly should continue to monitor the honouring of commitments and obligations by Serbia and Montenegro.
27/08/2004 | Monitoring
Hanne Severinsen (Denmark, LDR) and Renate Wohlwend (Liechtenstein, EPP/CD), co-rapporteurs for the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly monitoring of Ukraine, will make their next fact-finding visit to the country from 29 August to 1st September. The co-rapporteurs will focus on the preparations for the forthcoming Presidential election on 31 October 2004, in particular on the functioning of local self-government and state authorities within the election process and the independence of the media.
12/08/2004 | Monitoring
“Society in Azerbaijan is increasingly polarised, resulting in a political impasse; social divisions are widening, with a very small minority growing disproportionately rich while the vast majority struggle to get by.” This is how Andreas Gross (Switzerland, SOC) assessed the situation in the country after a fact-finding visit from 4 to 9 August.
29/07/2004 | Monitoring
The Chairperson of the Assembly’s Monitoring Committee, Josette Durrieu, has condemned in the strongest terms recent attempts by the “authorities” in the Moldovan region of Transnistria to close schools and an orphanage. In a letter to the President of the Moldovan Parliament Eugenia Ostapciuc, Mrs Durrieu said she hoped this question could be resolved as soon as possible through dialogue and asked to be kept informed of latest developments.
08/07/2004 | Monitoring
Following this morning’s incidents in South Ossetia, the Assembly's co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Georgia have called on Russia to use its political and diplomatic influence to enable the region to enter into dialogue with the Georgian authorities. Speaking at a press conference at the end of a four-day visit to Tbilisi and Batumi, Matyas Eörsi (Hungary, LDR) and Evgeni Kirilov (Bulgaria, SOC) also said they firmly supported the Georgian government’s efforts to regain the country’s territorial integrity through peaceful means.
05/07/2004 | Monitoring
Andreas Gross (Switzerland, SOC) and Andres Herkel (Estonia, EPP/CD), co-rapporteurs for the Assembly’s monitoring of Azerbaijan, made a fact-finding visit to the country from 4 to 9 August, focussing in particular on the issues listed by the Assembly in its most recent monitoring resolution, from January 2004, on the functioning of democratic institutions in Azerbaijan.
05/07/2004 | Monitoring
Hanne Severinsen (Denmark, LDR) and Renate Wohlwend (Liechtenstein, EPP/CD), co-rapporteurs for the Assembly’s monitoring of Ukraine, will make their next fact-finding visit to the country from 29 August to 1st September, focussing on the preparations for the forthcoming Presidential election on 31 October 2004, in particular the functioning of local and regional self-government within the election process and the independence of the media. They hope to visit the eastern regions of the country, notably Dniepropetrovsk and Donetsk.
05/07/2004 | Monitoring
Miloš Budin (Italy, SOC) and Jonas Čekuolis (Lithuania, LDR), co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Serbia and Montenegro, will visit the country from 31 August to 2 September to prepare their report on the functioning of democratic institutions, possibly for debate during the Assembly’s October session (4-8 October 2004). This will be the Assembly’s first assessment of Serbia and Montenegro’s progress since it joined the Council of Europe in April 2003.
23/06/2004 | Monitoring
In its first two years as a member of the Council of Europe, Bosnia and Herzegovina has made “slow but steady” progress towards becoming a functioning pluralist democracy governed by the rule of law and a state where human rights are respected, the Assembly said today. However, the country’s leadership needed to demonstrate a higher degree of political maturity, the parliamentarians said. In a separate vote, they called for a debate among Bosnians on post-Dayton constitutional reform.