26/01/2021 | Session
In a speech to the Assembly today, the Chair of the Committee of Ministers, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, paid tribute to the Council of Europe, referring to it as an “institutional pillar of our united continent” setting “human rights protection standards worldwide with the European...
26/01/2021 | Session
The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) today elected Andreas Zünd as judge to the European Court of Human Rights in respect of Switzerland. Mr Zünd, having obtained an absolute majority of votes cast, is elected a judge of the European Court of Human Rights for a term of office of...
26/01/2021 | Session
The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) today elected Ioannis Ktistakis as judge to the European Court of Human Rights in respect of Greece. Mr Ktistakis, having obtained an absolute majority of votes cast, is elected judge of the European Court of Human Rights for a term of office of...
26/01/2021 | Session
“The rule of law is of fundamental importance, as it guarantees the protection of all other values, including democracy and respect for fundamental rights. Unfortunately, respect for the rule of law cannot be taken for granted, even within the Union,” declared the European Commissioner for...
26/01/2021 | Session
By adopting a resolution today, on the basis of the report by Sir Edward Leigh (United Kingdom, EC/AD), PACE has decided to amend its Rules of Procedure to enable the implementation of a complementary joint procedure between the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly in response to...
25/01/2021 | Session
At the opening of its Winter plenary Session today, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) elected its Vice-Presidents: Laima Liucija Andrikienė (Lithuania)José Badia (Monaco)Theodora Bakoyannis (Greece)Gusty Graas (Luxembourg)John Howell (United Kingdom)Kimmo Kiljunen...
25/01/2021 | Session
Adopting its final agenda at the opening of the 2021 winter plenary session, the Assembly decided to hold current affairs debates on "The arrest and detention of Alexei Navalny in January 2021" and on "Freedom of expression (Article 10 of the ECHR) under threat by ‘Big Tech’ Companies". Following...
25/01/2021 | Session
Strasbourg, 25.01.2021 – Rik Daems, re-elected today for a second one-year term as President of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), thanked members for their confidence and welcomed the holding of PACE’s first hybrid plenary session. In his re-investiture speech, he stressed that...
25/01/2021 | Session
The credentials of the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) have been challenged on substantive grounds (Rule 8 of the Rules of Procedure) on the opening day of the 2021 “hybrid” winter plenary session. The challenge – made by the head of the Ukrainian...
25/01/2021 | Session
The organisation of the Assembly’s work in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic with supplementary working methods and arrangements for the conduct of remote meetings; election observations; the 2020 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize; budgetary matters; and gender equality in the functioning of the...
25/01/2021 | Session
PACE today adopted its annual report taking stock of its monitoring activities in 2020 and making a series of assessments of the progress of the countries subject to the monitoring procedure or engaged in post-monitoring dialogue. There are eleven countries subject to the full monitoring...
25/01/2021 | Session
Secretary General Marija Pejčinović Burić has underlined the importance of the Organisation’s two key conventions: the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the European Social Charter. Addressing a hybrid session of the Parliamentary Assembly, she described them as comprising the “soul...