26/01/2010 | Session
PACE has again urged all domestic stakeholders in Bosnia and Herzegovina to engage fully in a meaningful and constructive dialogue about amendments to the Constitution, in line with the recommendations of the Venice Commission, before the 2010 parliamentary elections. Based on the report by Mevlüt Çavusoglu (Turkey, EDG) and Kimmo Sasi (Finland, EPP/DC), the Assembly also suggested launching a wide discussion, with the participation of key local and international stakeholders, about the challenges the country has to face.
26/01/2010 | Session
As part of a parliamentary debate on action against trafficking in human beings and the need to promote the Council of Europe convention on trafficking, PACE's Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men organised a press conference with Nikolay Mikhaylovich Rantsev, the father of a victim of trafficking. Mr Rantsev took his case to the European Court of Human Rights and on 7 January 2010, the Court found against Cyprus and Russia. The applicant’s lawyer, Ludmila Churkina, was also present, together with Gisela Wurm (Austria, SOC), PACE rapporteur on action against trafficking, and José Mendes-Bota, Chairperson of the Committee.
26/01/2010 | Session
Strasbourg, 26.01.2010 - The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), meeting this week in plenary session in Strasbourg, today elected Guido Raimondi as judge to the European Court of Human Rights with respect to Italy. Judges are elected by PACE from a list of three candidates nominated by each State which has ratified the European Convention on Human Rights.
26/01/2010 | Session
"Close co-operation between Council of Europe, European Union and OSCE is absolutely necessary towards the globalisation of human rights", the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs highlighted the relevance of international organisations’ co-ordination, in order to strengthen fundamental rights’ protection in Europe, and especially a common governance on migrations’ policies. Franco Frattini stressed the importance of the European identity, and confirmed the country’s engagement in working for women’s rights. In the framework of the Council of Europe core-business, a final mention has been for the Italian input on the 20th anniversary of the Venice Commission and the recent Presidency of the North-South Centre in Lisbon.
26/01/2010 | Session
While emphasising the uniqueness of our common institutions and practices, the Prime Minister of Greece said that they neither could nor should be taken for granted. Media concentration, the need for greater global awareness of environmental issues and the use of diversity to create new bonds of solidarity: these are all challenges facing democracy. Greater protection of the rights of minorities and an end to conflicts are also vital to achieving a more integrated Europe. 'The world needs more Europe today, not less', he concluded.
25/01/2010 | Session
Presenting his political reform plan to the Parliamentary Assembly on 25 January, the Secretary General said the Council of Europe should be "a lighthouse for Europe" by anticipating social and political crises, and by providing solutions. He said that the reform aims to revitalise the organisation as a political and innovative body, to make it more flexible and visible, and to concentrate on high added value projects.
25/01/2010 | Session
While underlining that the entry into force of Protocol 14 represented a big breath of air for the European Court of Human Rights, the Committee of Ministers' Chairperson insisted on the need to look beyond. She also welcomed the Secretary General's draft reform of the Organisation and of the full support of the Ministers' Deputies.
25/01/2010 | Session
At the opening of its plenary Winter Session, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) today elected its Vice-Presidents. The seat of Vice-President in respect of Ukraine remains vacant.
25/01/2010 | Session
PACE 318-member today elected Mevlüt Çavusoglu (Turkey, EDG) as its new President at the opening of its plenary session in Strasbourg (25-29 January). Mr Çavusoglu succeeds Lluís Maria de Puig (Spain, SOC) as the Assembly’s 25th President. He is the first Turk to hold the office since Turkey’s accession to the Council of Europe in August 1949. “I come from a country which has prided itself for two millennia on being a bridge between continents,” Mevlüt Çavusoglu said in his first speech as PACE President.
25/01/2010 | Session
At the opening of its Winter plenary session (25-29 January 2010) in Strasbourg this morning, the Assembly decided to hold a current affairs debate on what Europe can do for Haiti, an item that will be debated on Thursday morning, and to debate the challenge of the credentials of the parliamentary delegations of Albania and Armenia, a question which will be discussed the same day. Other highlights of the session include debates on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, the situation in the Middle East (with statements by Daniel Ayalon, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, and Mohammad Shtayyeh, Minister of Public Works and Housing of the Palestinian National Authority) and action against trafficking in human beings. Prominent personalities due to address the Assembly include George A. Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece.
12/01/2010 | Session
“Faked pandemics: a threat to health” will be one of the major themes of the next plenary session of PACE, to be held in Strasbourg from 25 to 29 January. The PACE Social Affairs Committee has proposed the holding of an urgent debate on this subject. If the Assembly agrees when it adopts its agenda on the opening day, the debate is likely to be held on the morning of Thursday 28 January. The committee will be holding a public hearing on the same subject on Tuesday 26 January at 8.30 am, attended by representatives of the World Health Organisation (WHO), the European pharmaceutical industry and experts on the subject.
17/12/2009 | Session
A call for legal recognition of same-sex couples across Europe and a debate on the situation in the Middle East, as well as addresses by Greek Prime Minister George A. Papandreou and Italian Foreign Affairs Minister Franco Frattini, are among highlights of PACE’s winter session on 25-29 January 2010. The Assembly is also due to elect a new President. Other subjects due to be debated include respect for media freedom, judicial corruption and the detention of asylum seekers and irregular migrants. The Assembly will only decide its final agenda on the first day of the session.