16/12/2025 | Political Affairs and Democracy
In October 2025 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) decided to establish the Platform for Dialogue with Russian Democratic Forces, as a forum for two-way engagement between the Assembly and Russian democratic forces on issues of common concern. Following a meeting on 12...
15/12/2025 | Artificial Intelligence
Parliamentarians, policymakers, experts, AI professionals, academics and NGO representatives gathered in London for a major conference on artificial intelligence have urged a stronger role for parliaments in shaping the development, application and regulation of AI to ensure that it complies with...
10/12/2025 | European Convention on Human Rights
PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos, addressing an informal meeting of Council of Europe ministers in Strasbourg, has welcomed the beginning of a discussion about the European Convention on Human Rights and migration – but called for it to be rooted “not in fear, but in our commitment to the...
21/11/2025 | Standing Committee
At the opening of a meeting of the Assembly’s Standing Committee in Chisinau PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos pledged the Assembly’s support for the priorities of the new Republic of Moldova Presidency, which began earlier this month, declaring they were “perfectly consistent” with the...
12/11/2025 | President
PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos has affirmed the Assembly’s commitment to advancing the “New Democratic Pact for Europe” – a Council of Europe initiative which aims to stop the unravelling of democracy and boost the resilience of democratic institutions against backsliding, disinformation...
06/11/2025 | President
The President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Theodoros Rousopoulos, made the following statement today: “The Latvian parliament has finally listened to the people it represents, allowing the country to continue applying the Istanbul Convention, at least until a new...
05/11/2025 | President
Opening the World Forum for Democracy in Strasbourg, PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos compared democracy to a mine that depends on its pillars of trust, solidarity and accountability to remain stable. “Miners once used a small bird, a canary, because it was the first to sense the poison in...
04/11/2025 | President
PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos has hailed the remarkable progress made by North Macedonia in an address to its parliament in Skopje. “Your country, dear friends, has always stood where histories meet — where languages coexist, and faiths intertwine. You know that coexistence is not theory...
04/11/2025 | President
In an address at a solemn ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the signature of the European Convention on Human Rights, PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos hailed the Convention as “the most powerful act of imagination in our continent’s history”. Speaking at the European Court of Human...
30/10/2025 | President
Speaking at the plenary session of the Nordic Council today, PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos emphasised that although we have lived for almost eight decades in peace in Europe, this period “was only a parenthesis in history, which was rather made of long eras of tension, of wars, of...
23/10/2025 | President
Theodoros Rousopoulos, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), made the following statement today: “I am extremely concerned by the fast-tracking of parliamentary votes to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention, scheduled in the Saeima today and next week...
21/10/2025 | President
Theodoros Rousopoulos, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), made the following statement today: “I strongly condemn the decision of the Russian authorities to open criminal proceedings against leading figures of the Russian democratic forces, including...