28/06/2006 | News
A year on from the Third Summit, the Assembly today welcomed action on ensuring the Court’s effectiveness, looking at the future of democracy, restructuring monitoring, setting up a taskforce for social cohesion and – in the form of the Juncker Report – improving EU-Council of Europe relations, but said it remained concerned at the low use of the Council’s potential to set standards and shape international law. The parliamentarians also urged further “courageous action” to enable the Court to handle its workload, strengthening of the Convention system, pushing forward in discussions with the EU and more reflection on future challenges.
28/06/2006 | News
The Assembly gave its backing today to the Council of Europe's Campaign to combat violence against women, to be launched on 24 November 2006, by pledging a series of initiatives at parliamentary level. The 46 national parliaments were invited to symbolically join forces at midday on 24 November to condemn domestic violence against women and call for its eradication to be made a political priority at the highest level. The parliamentarians urged countries to adopt legislative measures, making marital rape a criminal offence, for example, and allowing the banning of a violent husband from the marital home.
28/06/2006 | News
In a resolution adopted today, PACE pointed out the political relevance of cultural values and inter-cultural dialogue in facing situations of conflict and terrorism. It also stressed the importance of education for democratic citizenship and of cultural diversity in sustainable development. Accordingly, cultural issues should be central to the long-term mission of the Council of Europe, the parliamentarians said. They emphasised the possibilities of joint programmes in the cultural field with other organisations such as the EU, OSCE and UNESCO.
28/06/2006 | News
The Assembly today called on Russia to show "the same determination and persuasiveness" as other Council of Europe member states and abolish the death penalty in law, despite the potential unpopularity of such a measure. It also said that if there was no progress on a dialogue with Japan and the US over ending executions, the Committee of Ministers should discuss, before the end of 2006, the question of suspending their observer status.
28/06/2006 | News
PACE has decided to reinforce its commitment to protecting the rights of immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers and displaced persons. In a resolution, the Assembly pledged to focus its future action on the promotion of common basic values, the integration of migrants and the management of migration.
27/06/2006 | News
Speaking to the Assembly in the debate on alleged secret detentions in Council of Europe member states, Franco Frattini, Vice President of the European Commission, today underlined that on both sides of the Atlantic “we are determined to fight terrorism while at the same time fully upholding fundamental rights. The two go together, because the more effectively we can guarantee that these rights will be upheld, the greater will be our advances in combating terrorism.” He added, “You can count, now and in the future, on the co-operation of both the European Commission and myself.”
27/06/2006 | News
Presenting to the Assembly his report on alleged secret detention centres involving Council of Europe member states, Dick Marty (Switzerland, ADLE) today advocated setting up a new world legal order to deal with the terrorist threat. “The idea now is not to voice criticism, and the resolution does not do so. What is mainly needed now is to say that we are determined to combat terrorism, but we want to do so by appropriate means. We must set up a world legal order to deal with the terrorist threat, and we must do so with our friends and our allies the United States, but we must do it on the basis of the values which have been built up over the years, particularly in this Organisation”, he said.
27/06/2006 | News
"I believe we have now reached a turning point in our response to the allegations of rendition flights and illegal detentions in Europe. It is time to turn to the future. We cannot undo what has already happened, but we must make sure that it does not happen again," Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis said during the PACE debate on allegations of rendition flights and illegal detentions in Europe.
27/06/2006 | News
PACE today called for clear regulations to govern the activities of foreign intelligence services operating in Europe, and demanded “human rights clauses” in military base agreements with the US. Strongly backing the report by Dick Marty (Switzerland, ALDE) on alleged secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers of detainees, the Assembly – which brings together 315 parliamentarians from the Council of Europe’s 46 member states – said its central objective was to prevent future human rights violations of the sort established by Mr Marty’s report, which “played into the hands of terrorists”.
27/06/2006 | News
As their reforms have produced spectacular results in central European countries that have recently joined the EU, the European Bank for Reconstruction will, as from now gradually phase out its funding there in favour of moore needy countries to the east and south of the EU. The report calls for a stronger co-ordination between the EBRD and the EU in order to support ongoing reforms and foster investor confidence against a background of high perceived risk. It also points to a huge energy efficiency challenge and the need to improve the business environment in a global race for growth and development.
26/06/2006 | News
“Co-operation between the Council of Europe and Azerbaijan remains essential for the development of democracy, rule of law and respect for human rights in this country,” said the Assembly today. PACE therefore decided not to reconsider the credentials of the Azeri parliamentary delegation and requested the Monitoring Committee “to follow closely developments in the country”. A progress report on the honouring of obligations and commitments by Azerbaijan will be presented at the spring 2007 part-session.
26/06/2006 | News
The Council of Europe and the EU should “develop a common vision of a pan-European confederative body where the two partners would integrate on the bases of shared values”, PACE said today. Debating a report on the Council’s external relations, the parliamentarians also said the Council of Europe should create a new status for non-member states that wish to co-operate with the organisation "on the basis of respect for universal values" in order to benefit from its experience but are not yet in a position to guarantee full compliance with its principles. They suggested China could be considered for this new status.