23/01/2008 | Session
Addressing the Assembly on 22 January on the state of the Council of Europe, Secretary General Terry Davis declared: "The Council of Europe is a place of work, where governments accept legally binding obligations and voluntarily submit themselves to rigorous monitoring of their compliance with those obligations."
23/01/2008 | Session
Albanian President Bamir Topi addressing the Assembly today, said “only a united Europe is capable of eliminating war as a political instrument for solving conflicts and leading the countries of the region towards a more prosperous future”. He said that Kosovo’s independence was dictated by the interest of long-term stability and security and described the Ahtisaari plan as the only possible compromise solution for the unique case of Kosovo.
22/01/2008 | Session
Today, the Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution urging the member states to act together to protect the arctic region. Vladimir Grachev (Russia, EDG), the rapporteur, insisted on the need for a strategy and special programmes to ward off the effects of intensive economic exploitation of the arctic territories and preserve their environment.
22/01/2008 | Session
PACE today called on Council of Europe member states to co-ordinate their efforts to combat global warming at european and world level, and cover this issue in their sectoral policies, with a view to averting risks of flooding and drought.
22/01/2008 | Session
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), meeting this week in plenary session in Strasbourg, today elected five judges to the European Court of Human Rights. They are the following Zdravka Vladimirova Kalaydjieva, in respect of Bulgaria; Ann Power, in respect of Ireland; Ineta Ziemele, in respect of Latvia; Mihail Poalelungi, in respect of Moldova; Ayse Isil Karakas, in respect of Turkey.
22/01/2008 | Session
"It is essential for the Council of Europe to start thinking seriously about what it can do to promote democratic values in Belarus. I am against severing all contact with the Belarus authorities – as we have seen, that has no effect on the situation in the country, and simply makes it harder to get through to the people", declared Andrea Rigoni (Italy, ALDE) today, as he called for the start of step-by-step dialogue, based on a policy of good neighbourly relations.
22/01/2008 | Session
In a resolution adopted today, the PACE deeply regretted that a mutually-acceptable solution to the status of Kosovo has not yet been found, but said alternative ways should be envisaged to continue talks on the basis of UNSC Resolution 1244. It called on the UN Security Council to do everything in its power to overcome differences and reach a compromise in order to prevent Kosovo from becoming “a powder-keg and ultimately a frozen conflict in the Balkans”.
22/01/2008 | Session
In a speech to the Parliamentary assembly on 22 January, Ján Kubiš, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovakia and chairman of the Committee of Ministers, urged member states to "evaluate their commitment to ensuring that the Council of Europe plays its due role in a changing Europe." He was pleased to note the activities conducted and to be organised under the programme of assistance for Belarus and added: "We would be happy to welcome in Bratislava a meeting of the new sub-committee on Belarus instituted by the Assembly."
22/01/2008 | Session
Speaking at the Parliamentary Assembly 's session on 22 January, Ferenc Gyurcsány, Prime Minister of Hungary, stated that the Council of Europe must remain the leading European rights institution and that its "unique conventional system and its Europe-wide membership makes it irreplaceable." He requested European countries to provide not only political but also financial support to the organisation. Mr Gyurcsány added that Hungary has a vital interest in stabilizing the Western Balkans and creating peace, democracy and prosperity in the area.
21/01/2008 | Session
The following PACE committees elected their Chairperson:
21/01/2008 | Session
At the end of a debate on the Progress report of the Assembly's Bureau and Standing Committee, the PACE adopted two reports on the parliamentary elections in the Russian Fderation and on the Presidential election in Georgia. In the first one, Luc Van den Brande (Belgium, EPP/CD) said that "while the 2007 Duma elections were to a great extent free in terms of a variety of voting options, they were definitely not fair". About the second one, the rapporteur Mátyás Eörsi (Hungary, LDR) said the elections were in essence consistent with most Council of Europe commitments, but stressed that "the shortcomings revealed form significant challenges that need to be urgently addressed".
21/01/2008 | Session
In his address to PACE today, the Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico called on the Council of Europe to streamline its activities and focus on where it can be most useful. Recognising that the European Court of Human Rights and its judicial system are a great achievement, he said that for him, "genuine success would be if there was no more reason for any citizen to apply to Strasbourg and then only as an exception to the rule". "The solution rests in prevention of cases of human rights violations and in improved efficiency of national legal remedies. It is vital to put in effect Protocol 14 to the European Convention on Human Rights", Mr Fico added.