24/06/2011 | Session
European sport could end up as “a graveyard” if it goes the way of Asia – which has lost millions in sponsorship and TV rights as a result of corrupt “match-fixing” – a hearing on the phenomenon heard today. Investigative journalist Declan Hill, who spent seven months undercover to expose match-fixing syndicates, told participants at the hearing – including sports officials, parliamentarians and experts – that there were few sports in Asia that had not been affected, and that European sport was now “on a knife-edge”.
24/06/2011 | Session
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has called on member states to investigate the possibility of lowering the voing age to 16 for all kinds of elections. The great majority of the Council of Europe’s 47 member states currently have 18 as the minimum voting age – though in 2007 Austria became the first to lower the age to 16 for all municipal, state and national elections.
24/06/2011 | Session
A Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) report approved today lists actions it expects from fourteen member states in order to meet their Council of Europe obligations and commitments, and provides a comparative analysis of how eleven others are doing according to assessments from different parts of the Organisation made over the last three years.
24/06/2011 | Session
In a recommendation adopted today on the basis of a report by Elvira Kovács (Serbia, EPP/CD), PACE asked the Committee of Ministers to instruct the relevant intergovernmental bodies "to study the possibility of drafting a framework convention on the rights of young people”, which would be based on ten principles.
24/06/2011 | Session
PACE today urged member states to adjust public policies so as to fully implement the labour-related provisions of the revised European Social Charter and give priority to reducing youth unemployment...
24/06/2011 | Session
PACE President Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu will visit Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan from 27 June to 2 July. In Bishkek on 27 and 28 June, he is due to meet the President of the Republic Roza Otunbaeva, the Speaker of Parliament Akhmatbek Keldibekov, the Prime Minister Almazbek Atambaev, the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Turatbek Djunushaliev, and the leaders of parliament’s political groups, as well as representatives of the Meskhetian Turks.
23/06/2011 | Session
PACE today set out in detail what national parliaments of Council of Europe member states can do to ensure compliance with international human rights standards. Approving a report by Christos Pourgourides (Cyprus, EPP/CD), the Assembly said parliaments should set up committees to check draft laws for their “human rights compatibility”, propose new laws where needed and monitor governments’ compliance with international standards – especially judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.
23/06/2011 | Session
“Within our legacy there are lessons to be learnt” said Robert Walter (United KIngdom, EDG) in Strasbourg today, opening a current affairs debate on the political and humanitarian consequences of the situation in Syria and Libya.
23/06/2011 | Session
The European Union's forthcoming accession to the European Convention on Human Rights fills an important gap in Europe's human rights protection system, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, Germany's Minister of Justice, has told the Parliamentary Assembly.
23/06/2011 | Session
UK Attorney General Dominic Grieve today affirmed that the UK government will use its upcoming chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers from November this year to pursue reforms in the Council of Europe and Court of Human Rights.
23/06/2011 | Session
According to PACE, the experience of quotas could be advantageously transposed to the private and socio-economic sectors to improve the representation of women in decision-making bodies. In this connection, the Assembly proposed in a resolution adopted today that member states “introduce the obligation for state-owned and large private companies to guarantee a minimum 40% of representation of women on their governing and management boards”.
22/06/2011 | Session
The PACE Political Affairs Committee appointed on 21 June, Andres Herkel (Estonia, EPP/CD), as rapporteur on the situation in Belarus, replacing Sinikka Hurskainen (Finland, SOC).