24/06/2005 | News
A three-member, cross-party delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will visit Bulgaria from 24 to 26 June to make an assessment of the 25 June parliamentary election, but will not carry out a full-scale election observation mission. The parliamentarians – Gülsün Bilgehan (Turkey, SOC), Igor Chernyshenko (Russia, EDG) and Alexander Fomenko (Russia, UEL) – will meet representatives of the different political parties represented in parliament as well as election officials and NGOs before visiting polling stations on the day of the vote. They will report back to PACE with their conclusions. The visit takes place in the framework of “post-monitoring dialogue” with Bulgaria, which began in 2000.
23/06/2005 | News
PACE's Political Affairs Committee today adopted the following statement: "At its meeting on 21 June 2005, PACE's Political Affairs Committee had the honour of receiving a visit and having an exchange of views with members of the Senior Advisory Council of the Association of Asian Parliaments for Peace (AAPP). On this occasion, the Committee was informed of the decision to transform the AAPP into the Asian Parliamentary Assembly, modelled on the PACE. The Committee warmly welcomes this important step and is hopeful that the setting-up of a new Parliamentary Assembly will help strengthen parliamentarianism in Asia and promote co-operation between elected representatives of Asian nations in building a united, peaceful and prosperous continent. The Committee encourages PACE's President to continue offering the Assembly's full support to the establishment of this new parliamentary body. It looks forward to co-operating with its future members on the issues of mutual interest, and to sharing with them its experience."
23/06/2005 | News
"The Heads of State and Government urged us to relate all our activities to the task of translating Democracy, Human Rights and the Rule of Law into reality throughout Europe" declared the Secretary General today before the Assembly. "We have reviewed all our activities since the Summit," he added, citing new projects such as the Group of Wise Persons on the effectiveness of the Human Rights Court or a Forum for the Future of Democracy. The Council of Europe should also be a campaigning organisation in particular against torture and racism, said Terry Davis, who underlined: "We will not be working alone", since the Summit Action Plan puts great emphasis on relations with the OSCE, the European Union and the United Nations.
23/06/2005 | News
The Assembly is “deeply concerned” by the fact that the delay in the adoption of the constitutional amendments is “holding back Armenia's progress towards European democratic norms and standards in key areas of political life”. According to the Assembly, the revision of the Constitution is a pre-condition for the fulfilment of some of the most important commitments that Armenia undertook upon its accession to the Council of Europe. These include the separation and balance of powers, the reform of the judicial system and local self-government reform. At the end of an urgent debate, PACE followed the proposals by the rapporteurs Georges Colombier (France, EPP/CD) and Jerzy Jaskiernia (Poland, SOC) and called on the Armenian authorities and the parliamentary majority to fully implement the recommendations of the Venice Commission, to undertake clear and meaningful steps in order to resume an immediate dialogue with the opposition and to adopt the text at second reading “no later than August 2005”, in view of the referendum that should be held “no later than November 2005”.
23/06/2005 | News
The activities of the security sector – intelligence services, police, border guards and defence forces – must always be based in law and subject to democratic supervision, the essence of which should be carried out by parliaments, the Assembly declared today. Following a debate on a report by Lluís Maria de Puig (Spain, SOC), PACE said the Council of Europe should draw up guidelines for governments to ensure that the principle of democratic oversight of the security sector is adhered to.
23/06/2005 | News
"NATO and the Council of Europe have no elaborate formal relationship, but these two organisations aspire to consolidate Europe as a common space that is both free and secure," declared Jaap de Hoop Scheffer before the Parliamentary Assembly this afternoon. The NATO Secretary General then talked about the situation in the Balkans, and pointed out that force had been necessary to restore peace and lead these countries towards an integrated Europe. Thanks to its presence in the Balkans, he said, NATO had now created the conditions of security that enabled other institutions to work towards reconstruction and reconciliation.
22/06/2005 | News
Speaking about the strengthening of the partnership between the Council of Europe and the EU and the OSCE, decided on the occasion of the last CoE Summit, the Chairperson of the Committee of Ministers, Diogo Freitas do Amaral, today announced to the PACE that "the drafting of the memorandum of understanding to be proposed for signature by the CoE and the EU will be one of our main priorities". According to the Minister, the Assembly will have "a leading role to play in establishing closer ties between Strasbourg and Brussels, in particular through its contacts with the European Parliament, but also through its own discussions such as its work on the implications of the EU’s neighbourhood policy for the Council of Europe".
22/06/2005 | News
"Continue to build bridges between the peoples of Europe. Continue to promote the European idea, because Europe is much more than money and the economy. Continue to build a citizens' Europe", said PACE President René van der Linden at this afternoon's ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Europe Prize. Participants included the mayors of the prize-winning towns of Tübingen (Germany) and Santiago de Compostela (Spain). The Europe Prize, created by the Assembly in 1955, is the highest distinction awarded to local authorities for their European action.
22/06/2005 | News
The Assembly today called on the Azerbaijani authorities and opposition to recognise the importance of the November 2005 parliamentary elections for the democratic future of the country and publicly and officially commit themselves to non-violence and respect for basic human rights. Following a debate on the functioning of democratic institutions in Azerbaijan, the parliamentarians urged the authorities to pursue in practice some positive recent steps such as the Presidential decree on the guarantees for democratic elections, the creation of public service broadcasting and the first modest attempts at political dialogue between the ruling parties and the opposition. Regarding the follow-up to Assembly Resolution 1359 on political prisoners in Azerbaijan, the parliamentarians called on the authorities to continue a constructive dialogue with the Assembly in order to find a speedy and permanent solution to the issue of political prisoners and presumed political prisoners.
21/06/2005 | News
The Assembly today welcomed the "record number of investment projects" carried out by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in its 27 countries of operation, including Russia, and pointed out that economic growth in the transition countries covered by the Bank is consistently higher than the world average, albeit with important regional differences. The Assembly acts as a parliamentary forum for the Bank, holding annual debates on its activities.
21/06/2005 | News
RVDL Chaudry Amir Hussain José de Venecia AAPP Asia
21/06/2005 | News
PACE President René van der Linden today welcomed an important delegation representing the Association of Asian Parliaments for Peace stressing that the decision of the AAPP to create an Asian Parliamentary Assembly within the next 5 years, modelled on the Parliamentary Assembly, was an impressive tribute to the PACE's work. "As I said in April when addressing the Senior Advisory Council of the AAPP in Manila, of course an Asian mechanism should reflect Asia’s own historic experience and political, social and economic realities. But the values at the heart of any such initiative are universal and they apply to our European, as well as to Asian, societies," he said.