11/04/2006 | News
PACE President René van der Linden has warmly welcomed the series of proposals made today by Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker for strengthening the partnership between the two European organisations – including a proposal that the European Union could become a member of the Council of Europe by 2010. The President said the Assembly would do “everything in its power” to put Mr Juncker’s recommendations into effect, stressing in particular that the Memorandum of Understanding currently being negotiated between the two bodies should take it fully into account.
11/04/2006 | News
PACE Monitoring Committee at its meeting today approved the public statement made by the co-rapporteurs on 7 April 2006 underlining that stability and democracy in Russia must go hand in hand, without any compromise of the fundamental values and principles that unite the 46 members of the organisation.
11/04/2006 | News
"Based on the same principles and values, we have the same goals," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said today, addressing the Assembly during a debate on the relations between the Council of Europe and the European Union. Referring to the next Russian chairmanship of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers, Mr Barroso said he hoped that Russia will use its considerable influence to persuade Belarus to take measures which allow that country to re-enter the European family of democracies.
11/04/2006 | News
The PACE today called on Hamas, the winner of the 25 January 2006 parliamentary elections, to renounce to violence, to disarm and to recognise Israel’s right to exist. According to the parliamentarians, the newly appointed Palestinian Government also has to take a clear stand on the peace negotiations and respect previous agreements. At the same time, the result of the parliamentary elections held in Israel on 28 March 2006 creates a new chance to resume a political dialogue and this opportunity must not be wasted. According to the PACE, Kadima, the party which won the elections, and its partners in a future government have a great responsibility to seek a solution based on a bilateral agreement.
11/04/2006 | News
A new judge of the European Court of Human Rights in respect of Liechtenstein has been elected today. Mark Villiger, a Swiss national, has been elected by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from a list of three candidates put forward by the State of Liechtenstein. His term of office begins on 1 September of this year. He will replace Lucius Caflisch, who is retiring on reaching 70, the age-limit for the Court’s judges.
11/04/2006 | News
The Assembly is horrified and appalled by the situation of servicemen in some member states’ armies, who are subjected to abuse, brutality, institutionalised bullying, violence, ill-treatment and torture in, for example, the “initiation ordeals” (dedovshchina) which remain common practice in some member States. Following the proposals by the rapporteur (Alexander Arabadjiev, Bulgaria, SOC) the parliamentarians called for urgent measures to put an end to this scandalous situation, including a "zero tolerance" approach from member states.
11/04/2006 | News
The Assembly today urged states to do more to help prisoners lead socially responsible lives both in prison and when they are released, including giving them opportunities to learn new skills or study, receive visits from their families, keep up with events in the outside world and take part in sport. Approving a report by Ali Riza Gülcicek (Turkey, SOC), the Assembly also called for conditional releases, prison leave and day-releases to help long-term prisoners readjust to freedom.
10/04/2006 | News
The Assembly is to hold two urgent debates during its Spring session – one on the “Belarus: in the aftermath of the Presidential election of 19 March 2006”, on Thursday morning, and the other entitled “stop trafficking in women before the FIFA World Cup”, to be discussed on Wednesday morning. The parliamentarians were approving the final order of business on the opening day of the session.
10/04/2006 | News
PACE today encouraged young Europeans to learn their mother tongue when this is not an official language of their country, while underlining that every young European has “the duty to learn an official language of the country of which he or she is a citizen”. The adopted text, based on the report prepared by Jacques Legendre (France, EPP/CD), states that types of education based on the mother tongue significantly increase the chances of educational success and give better results. “Bilingual education based on the mother tongue is the basis for long-term success”, the Assembly said.
10/04/2006 | News
The draft memorandum of understanding between the Council of Europe and the EU, prepared by the EU and discussed in March, “is without real, concrete proposals and does not respond to the political requirements of the Assembly or the Warsaw Summit”, PACE President René van der Linden said today. Addressing parliamentarians on the first day of the session, he regretted that the Assembly had not been involved in discussions on the draft, and stressed that no decisions on Council-EU relations should be taken until the report by Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, due tomorrow, had been fully taken into account. The Assembly will debate the memorandum on Thursday.
10/04/2006 | News
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) today elected Giorgi Bokeria (Georgia, ALDE) as Vice-President with respect to Georgia.
10/04/2006 | News
Thomas Hammarberg, the new Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights who took up his duties on 1 April, said in his speech before the PACE that “the time has come to move on from rhetoric to reform, genuine reforms”. He added, “we will act as a watchdog to ensure that human rights are indeed respected”. He also said that he was looking forward to working with parliamentarians from member states in order to secure a higher level of human rights protection in all countries.