16/09/2021 | President
Rik Daems, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), will make a visit to Finland on 16-17 September, during which he will hold a series of high-level meetings, in particular with the Speaker of Parliament, the Foreign Minister, parliamentarians, the Chairperson and...
14/09/2021 | Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs
PACE's Rules Committee has proposed a set of clear and objective criteria enabling the privileges and immunities granted to Assembly members to “serve their institutional purpose, while preventing the possible misuse of privileges by parliamentarians for personal purposes”. The 70-year-old system...
13/09/2021 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
Following the tragic recent conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the PACE Migration Committee has set out a series of recommendations to both countries to address the humanitarian consequences in the short and long term, and move towards a process of peace and reconciliation. Approving a...
09/09/2021 | Election observation
The legislative elections held in Morocco on 8 September alongside the local and regional elections were successfully run, defying many challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. These elections coincided with marking a decade of fruitful co-operation between the Moroccan Parliament and the...
09/09/2021 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
PACE’s Social Affairs Committee is urging an ambitious new legal framework, both at national and European level, to “anchor the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment” – and has presented a draft of an additional protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights which would...
09/09/2021 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Europe’s prosperity has been seemingly growing for decades but disparities have kept widening between and within countries. These inequalities not only negatively affect individuals and communities, but “also restrain overall economic development, undermine social justice, and hurt the...
08/09/2021 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
The PACE Migration Committee wants the member States of the Council of Europe and the European Union (EU) to strengthen and increase the voluntary transfer of migrants in need of humanitarian protection or asylum seekers to third countries for the purposes of determining their migration status...
08/09/2021 | Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs
At its meeting held in Strasbourg today in hybrid mode, the Committee on Rules of Procedure made a set of proposals to promote gender balance in the Assembly by amending its Rules of Procedure. With regard to the composition of national delegations, the report by Nicole Trisse (France, ALDE...
06/09/2021 | President
“I am shocked to learn that Belarusian opposition leaders Maria Kalesnikava and Maksim Znak have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms on so-called conspiracy charges,” PACE President Rik Daems said today. “These sentences are entirely without merit, and both of these courageous individuals...
06/09/2021 | Bureau
An Election Assessment Mission of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) will take place in Moscow on the occasion of the parliamentary elections in the Russian Federation (17-19 September 2021). Following a decision taken today by the Bureau of the Assembly, a five-member delegation...
31/08/2021 | Prizes
Meeting today in Prague, the Selection Panel of the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize paid tribute to its member Marie-Louise Bemelmans-Videc who passed away a few days ago: "It is with great sadness and emotion that the Selection Panel learned, the day before the meeting, of the sudden passing of...
31/08/2021 | Political Affairs and Democracy
PACE rapporteur Kimmo Kiljunen (Finland, SOC) will be in Vilnius and Warsaw from 1 to 3 September to meet Belarusian political stakeholders and civil society representatives living abroad, in the context of the preparation of his report on “Call for an inclusive national political process in...