02/10/2006 | News
In his address to the Assembly, Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader today reviewed his country’s efforts towards European integration. “We must bear in mind our European history, characterised by confrontation; if we wish to avoid the same kind of future, there is no alternative but European integration, he said. According to the Prime Minister, Croatia has an important part to play in this process. It must endeavour to stimulate co-operation not only within Europe but also at the regional level. “As a neighbour, we have interests of our own in forging stability in the region … the Council of Europe must keep up its input of expertise in this regard, and Croatia can also make its contribution in a tangible way.”
02/10/2006 | News
The PACE today adopted a recommendation calling for an improved institutional balance in the organisation. In particular, the Assembly invites the Committee of Ministers to reach an agreement with it in order to strengthen PACE’s role regarding the elaboration and adoption of legal instruments, the negotiations with other international organisations as well as the adoption of the budget. The transparency of the COE both internally and externally should be strengthened and the status of the Human Rights Court in the institutional framework reconsidered. "If one wants to prevent the COE from institutional backwardness and from turning, to a certain extent, into a 'fossil', far-reaching institutional reforms will be required", the adopted text said.
29/09/2006 | News
''Football brings together millions and millions of people in a show of brotherhood, tolerance, diversity, justice, equality, human rights. Values which are at the very heart of the Council of Europe. These common values provide the link between our two institutions and bring us together in this Chamber today'', PACE President René van der Linden said today in Strasbourg at the opening of the conference "Play fair with sport", jointly organised by PACE and UEFA. "I very much hope the Conference will provide you with the opportunity to build alliances and partnerships between the world of sport and political decision makers", he said.
26/09/2006 | News
A debate on the situation in the Balkans is a highlight of the PACE Autumn session, to be held in Strasbourg from 2 to 6 October 2006. The Croatian Prime Minister will address the Assembly on Monday 2 October. The following day sees a general policy debate on the situation in the Balkans, with the participation of the Prime Ministers of Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina. On Thursday the Assembly will hold urgent debates on recent developments in Lebanon in the context of the situation in the Middle East, and on the mass arrival of irregular migrants on Europe's southern shores.
18/09/2006 | News
PACE's Committee on Economic Affairs today adopted, at the end of its meeting in Paris, a statement expressing serious concern that the debate within the Committee of Ministers concerning the Council of Europe's budget for 2007 is at a standstill. The committee said it will request un urgent debate on the issue during PACE's forthcoming plenary session (2-6 October 2006).
18/09/2006 | News
PACE's Committee on Economic Affairs today unanimously adopted, at the end of its meeting in Paris, a draft resolution that reviews Russia’s economic progress in recent years and highlights problem areas which call for priority action by the authorities. The text reviews the major short- to medium-term development objectives and underlines that the additional revenues accumulated through trade in natural resources should serve to underpin structural reforms and provide the basis for future quality growth. PACE will examine the text at its next plenary session (2-6 October 2006).
08/09/2006 | News
“Europe and the world cannot afford a clash of civilisations,” Council of Europe Parliamentary (PACE) President René van der Linden said today in his concluding remarks at an international conference on inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue in Nizhniy Novgorod (7 and 8 September). Fundamental human values and mutual understanding being the cornerstones of the Council of Europe, it was important for the 46-nation organisation to engage in a dialogue with religions on specific issues of common interest, he said.
07/09/2006 | News
Sports ministers of Council of Europe member states, parliamentarians and representatives of UEFA, FIFA and professional federations, leagues and clubs from all over Greater Europe will take part in a “Play Fair with Sport” conference organised by the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) and UEFA on 29 September in Strasbourg.
06/09/2006 | News
The Bureau of PACE has said a flagrant denial of defence rights in the re-trial of Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor in Libya casts "serious doubts" on its outcome. In a statement adopted during a meeting in Paris today, the Bureau also said it was dismayed by the Libyan prosecutor’s call for the death penalty in the case and called for international expertise to be admitted to the re-trial. The medics are accused of deliberately infecting Libyan children with the AIDS virus.
05/09/2006 | News
At a hearing to be held in Paris on 13 September, Council of Europe parliamentarians and experts will discuss a comparative study on the legal situation of prostitutes in the organisation’s 46 member states. Legal in some countries, illegal and outlawed in most of them, prostitution divides Europeans. According to a motion for a resolution of members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the differing attitudes negatively impact on cooperation in the fight against forced prostitution, the one and only form of prostitution unanimously condemned in Europe.
29/08/2006 | News
“Europeans need to form a united front in the battle against terrorism,” PACE President René van der Linden said today in response to the series of bombings that has killed three people and injured some fifty in Antalya, Istanbul and Marmaris. On this occasion, he re-iterated his call for further signatures and ratifications of the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism (*). “Our message to terrorists is plain and simple – there is no place for them in our societies,” he added.
25/08/2006 | News
In a letter sent today to the Chairperson of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, Dick Marty, PACE President René van der Linden asks the Committee as a matter of urgency, to closely examine efforts in Poland to reintroduce the death penalty. “It is essential that the Assembly takes a firm lead in responding to the current situation. The abolition of the death penalty is a central policy of the Council of Europe and the Parliamentary Assembly has always been at the forefront of this campaign,” he recalls.