29/01/2004 | News
The Assembly today warned that many promises of help to developing countries remained unfulfilled, adding that conditions in the poorest regions of the world were getting worse. Adopting a report by Klaus Werner Jonas (Germany, SOC), the parliamentarians proposed promoting good governance, stimulating employment, and reducing excessive urbanisation. They called on the international community to reduce trade barriers, introduce debt relief for the least developed countries and increase development funding.
28/01/2004 | News
"The Greek Cypriot side, and myself, are ready to respond positively to any invitation of the UN Secretary-General to a new round of talks, on the basis of his plan (...) We shall be there, without any conditions," Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos said during his address to the Assembly today.
28/01/2004 | News
The Assembly called on the leaders of the two communities ''to resume negotiations without delay on the basis of the Annan plan, in good faith, with a view to reaching a political settlement of the Cyprus problem by 1 May 2004". The adopted text deplores the failure, in March 2003, of negotiations on the Cyprus settlement on the basis of the plan presented by Kofi Annan when Mr Denktash, the Turkish Cypriot leader, rejected the plan while Mr Papadopoulos, President of the Republic of Cyprus, appeared willing to sign it. "It is for the leaders of the two communities to overcome the pattern of confrontation based on past fears and on efforts to secure unilateral advantages and to turn to the future of their communities, which share the same island and will hopefully have a common future within the European Union", the resolution underlines. The rapporteur, Mátyás Eörsi (Hungary, LDR), hoped that "the political leaders of the two Cypriot communities be fully aware of their responsibilities to their people and act in the interests of their future. They must make new and substantial efforts to reach a compromise acceptable to both sides.''
28/01/2004 | News
The 3rd Summit should provide new impetus to the functional performance of the Council's institutions, according to Bernard Bot, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and Chairman of the Committee of Ministers, who adressed the Assembly.
28/01/2004 | News
"The Rose Revolution served as a message to the world that all Georgians aspire to build and live in a democratic, independent and stable state, where human rights are respected," said Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, addressing the Assembly today. He said there was "a window of opportunity for the region", adding: "I don't want to be pro-American or pro-Russian, I am pro-Georgian - and I am European by being Georgian."
28/01/2004 | News
The Assembly today offered Georgia the Council of Europe’s help in reforming its institutions and laws, but called for an end to excesses of autocratic power, cronyism and corruption, and said the country must speed up its fulfillment of the commitments it made on joining the Council of Europe in 1999. Approving a report by Mátyás Eörsi (Hungary, LDR) and Evgueni Kirilov (Bulgaria, SOC), the parliamentarians singled out the need for a free and fair parliamentary election in March.
27/01/2004 | News
The Assembly President today honoured the memory of the late Aleksander Malachowski, member of the Polish parliamentary delegation to the Council of Europe and of the Socialist Group, who died yesterday in Warsaw.
27/01/2004 | News
27/01/2004 | News
The progress Azerbaijan has made towards honouring obligations and commitments is far from satisfactory. According to the Assembly, the presidential elections in October 2003 again failed to meet international standards, the constitutional arrangements regarding the separation of powers are inadequate and are favouring the executive power and freedom of expression and freedom of association have not improved. The parliamentarians called on the Azerbaijan authorities to set up - with the assistance of the Council of Europe – an enquiry commission to investigate and, where justified, prosecute all alleged human rights violations. The monitoring procedure should not be closed until the Azerbaijani authorities make further substantial progress on the outstanding obligations and, notably, demonstrate their ability to organise free and fair elections.
27/01/2004 | News
Senior Belarus officials may have been involved in the disappearances of four men, including a former minister, in Belarus during 1999 and 2000, and steps were taken “at the highest level of the State” to cover up the true background of the disappearances, according to a report of the Assembly's Legal Affairs Committee unanimously approved today. The report, by Cypriot parliamentarian Christos Pourgourides, calls for "a maximum of political pressure" on the current leadership of Belarus.
27/01/2004 | News
The Assembly today decided to bar the all-male Irish and Maltese parliamentary delegations from voting in the Assembly or any of its bodies until at least one woman is appointed. The credentials of both delegations were challenged on the first day of the session following new rules which require national delegations to have at least one representative of each sex.
27/01/2004 | News
This afternoon, the Parliamentary Assembly rose for a few moments in commemoration of the “Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust and for the prevention of crimes against humanity” on the day of the Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. “The Holocaust did not start in 1940 - it took years to happen”, President Peter Schieder warned. “It did not only take place in Auschwitz, Treblinka, Bergen-Belsen, Dachau and other places of horror. It happened in the streets, in schools, through acts, and failures to act, of ordinary citizens, Germans, but not only them. Anti-semitism was not exclusive to the Third Reich, and we should never forget that tens of thousands who fled the persecution could have been saved – if they had been treated as victims, and not as illegal immigrants,” he said.