01/04/2021 | President
PACE President Rik Daems, ending a working visit to Turkey, has recalled the importance of dialogue, trust, mutual respect and working together as partners to overcome challenges and make progress (ilerleme in Turkish). The President visited the country from 29 to 31 March at the invitation of...
31/03/2021 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Belarus is being urged to comprehensively reform its electoral system to bring it into line with international standards for democratic elections. Approving a resolution based on a report by Lord Blencathra (United Kingdom, EC), the Assembly’s Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy said...
30/03/2021 | Political Affairs and Democracy
The Council of Europe must tackle existing and emerging threats to societies by promoting “a contemporary and comprehensive vision of human rights, including the rights of the new generation”, such as the right to a safe environment or the challenges linked to the emergence of new technologies...
30/03/2021 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Top officials and parliamentarians from the Council of Europe and the European Union have again discussed ways of strengthening co-operation between the two organisations, including greater dialogue between their two parliamentary arms, at a PACE hearing. Participants at the hearing, the latest...
30/03/2021 | Political Affairs and Democracy
In the face of aggressive tax planning, tax avoidance and profit-shifting practices by many multinational corporations, the Political Affairs Committee said that it was necessary for States to be provided with a broader tax base again to cover their public financing needs, pointing in particular...
29/03/2021 | Election observation
An 18-member delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), led by Alfred Heer (Switzerland, ALDE), will observe the conduct of the parliamentary elections in Bulgaria, alongside observers from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the OSCE Office for Democratic...
26/03/2021 | President
Rik Daems, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), will make a working visit to Ankara from 29 to 31 March, during which he will hold a series of high-level meetings, in particular with the President of the Repuplic, the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly, the...
26/03/2021 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Vladimir Vardanyan (Armenia, EPP/CD), General Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the abolition of the death penalty, has welcomed the decision of the US state of Virginia to abolish the death penalty, the first of the former “Confederate” states to do so...
23/03/2021 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Council of Europe member States are being urged to use universal jurisdiction and “Magnitsky laws” to bring to justice the perpetrators of serious human rights violations in Belarus during the recent protests and government crackdown, including torture. Approving a report by Alexandra Louis...
21/03/2021 | President
The German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, Heiko Maas, President of the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers, and the President of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, Rik Daems, joined their voices to that of the Secretary General of the 47-nation Council of Europe, Marija...
19/03/2021 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (21 March), I pay tribute to the integrity and determination of all those who protested against racism over the last year, whether demonstrating in the streets of Europe’s big cities or using creative online...
19/03/2021 | Standing Committee
At the opening of the Standing Committee (*) of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), meeting by videoconference today, the parliamentarians decided to hold two current affairs debates, one on "Democracies facing Covid-19: the way forward" and a second one on "Developments...