06/01/2009 | Bureau
The President of the Parliament of Catalonia, Ernest Benach, will be delivering a welcome address at the opening of the Bureau meeting, to be held at the said Parliament in Barcelona. The Bureau will be updating the draft agenda for the PACE Winter Session (26-30 January 2009) and taking stock of the current work of the Presidential Committee and various other committees on the implementation of Resolution 1633 (2008) on the consequences of the war between Georgia and Russia. The agenda also includes the preparations for the 2009 debate on the state of human rights in Europe and the events connected with the 60th anniversary of the Council of Europe.
05/09/2008 | Bureau
At its meeting today in Paris, PACE Bureau proposed the holding of an urgent debate during the Assembly’s autumn session (Strasbourg, 29 September–3 October) on "the consequences of the war between Georgia and Russia". The Bureau also decided to set up an ad hoc committee to visit the two countries during the week before the session to gather information on the spot on the current situation and make proposals for possible future action.
03/06/2008 | Bureau
PACE is due to hold an urgent debate on “the functioning of democratic institutions in Turkey” on Thursday 26 June 2008 during the Assembly’s forthcoming plenary session (23-27 June 2008).
17/12/2007 | Bureau
While the 2007 Duma elections were to a great extent free in terms of a variety of voting options, they were definitely not fair, according to the report on the parliamentary elections in the Russian Federation prepared by Luc Van den Brande, Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee, that was today approved by the Bureau of the Assembly. According to the text, the authorities should investigate all allegations of fraud and irregularities and, if those allegations are confirmed, bring those responsible to justice.
23/11/2007 | Bureau
The Bureau of PACE, meeting yesterday in Bratislava, confirmed that the Assembly will send a cross-party delegation of up to 55 parliamentarians, headed by Luc van den Brande (Belgium, EPP/CD), to observe the Duma elections in Russia on 2 December 2007. “Our aim is to make a fair and impartial assessment of these elections, as for all member states subject to our monitoring procedure, and we look forward to working closely with fellow parliamentarians from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly,” said PACE President René van der Linden. Referring to ODIHR, he added: “I sincerely hope that it will reconsider its decision not to observe these elections.”
23/11/2007 | Bureau
Speaking to the press in Bratislava today, Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) President René van der Linden announced that following a PACE Bureau decision, the Assembly was going to observe the elections in Russia on 2 December 2007, in Georgia on 5 January 2008, in Monaco on 3 February and in Armenia on 19 February.
22/11/2007 | Bureau
The Bureau of PACE today decided that Italy should not face the Assembly’s monitoring procedure over its media situation – as demanded by some parliamentarians – but that the Assembly should closely follow the progress of new laws outlawing conflicts of interest, promoting media pluralism and guaranteeing the independence of Italy’s public service broadcaster RAI.
22/11/2007 | Bureau
The plane crash which killed former President Boris Trajkovski and eight others in February 2004 was “most likely accidental”, but there are “worrying” inconsistencies which need further enquiry, according to PACE Legal Affairs Committee. In an information note made public today, rapporteur Andreas Gross (Switzerland, SOC) said there were possible indications of negligence on the side of the NATO-led stabilization force SFOR, which could have prompted a cover-up, and pointed to “quite worrying” questions such as the long time needed to find the wreckage and the dysfunctional black box flight-recorder.
01/10/2007 | Bureau
The Bureau of PACE, meeting in Strasbourg at the beginning of the Autumn plenary session, has called on the military Junta in Myanmar (Burma) to put an immediate end to the brutal crackdown on the peaceful protests, led by Buddhist monks, which have swept across the country. "To repress the peaceful expression of dissent with such violence and on such a disproportionate scale is a flagrant and massive violation of human rights," the Bureau said in a statement.
15/03/2007 | Bureau
PACE's Bureau, meeting today in Paris, adopted the following statement at the initiative of the head of the Italian delegation to PACE Andrea Rigoni: “The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, in line with the essential principles upheld by the Organisation, recalls that every time journalists are deprived of their freedom, this amounts to an attack on the very concept of freedom of expression and information – freedoms which are essential pillars of any democracy upholding the rule of law. For this reason, the Assembly wishes to add its voice to those from all quarters, governments and international organisations alike, demanding the release of La Repubblica’s Afghanistan correspondent Daniele Mastrogiacomo, and appeals for a speedy resolution.”
26/01/2007 | Bureau
PACE Bureau, meeting in Strasbourg, has approved the following statement: “The Bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe shares the deep shock expressed by its President, René van der Linden, when the death sentence was once again served on the Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor by a Libyan Court on 19 December 2006. This sentence is all the more outrageous because it results from a re-trial of the nurses and doctor – accused of deliberately infecting some 426 children with HIV – which was just as flawed as the original trial, struck down in December 2005 by the Supreme Court."
17/11/2006 | Bureau
PACE Bureau meeting in San Marino on 16 November 2006, deplored the fact that the re-trial of the five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor accused of deliberately contaminating some 426 children with the AIDS virus, which ended last week, failed to address the fundamental flaws which marked the investigations and the first trial struck down in December 2005.