30/09/2021 | Session
A high-level panel and interactive debate on “The environment and human rights: the right to a safe, healthy and sustainable environment”, as well as a full day of debates on this topic, formed the centrepiece of the 2021 Autumn Session, which took place in Strasbourg from 27 to 30 September 2021...
30/09/2021 | Session
The Parliamentary Assembly, during its “hybrid” autumn session, held a current affairs debate on 'The Western Balkans between democratic challenges and European aspirations: what role for the Council of Europe?'. George Papandreou (Greece, SOC) opened the debate and five other members took the...
30/09/2021 | Session
Tackling the immediate and future momentous challenges posed by the situation in Afghanistan requires a “coherent, co-ordinated and concerted” response by the international community and Council of Europe member States should “spare no effort” to achieve this objective, the Assembly said today...
30/09/2021 | Session
Addressing the Assembly today, the Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs of North Macedonia remained silent in the hemicycle for sixteen seconds. “This is to illustrate the 16 years my country has been a candidate country to the EU, since 2005, and we are still not able to start the journey...
30/09/2021 | Session
While welcoming the success that the Convention on Cybercrime is enjoying world-wide, with 66 ratifications, the Assembly stressed that since the adoption of the Convention in 2001, the exploitation of information technology for criminal purposes had strongly increased. Adopting an opinion today...
30/09/2021 | Session
PACE has called on the authorities of Belarus to “stop the instrumentalisation of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers”, in particular those in a vulnerable situation, and to “stop facilitating travel to Belarus of third country nationals under false pretences of tourism”. In a resolution based...
29/09/2021 | Session
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) today called for an ambitious new legal framework, both at national and European level, to anchor “the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment” and presented a draft of an additional protocol to the European Convention...
29/09/2021 | Session
A high-level panel representing all sectors of society held an interactive debate today on the theme of the environment and human rights – with agreement among all the participants that “the time to act is now”. The event was opened PACE President Rik Daems and Council of Europe Secretary General...
29/09/2021 | Session
Adopting a resolution today in Strasbourg, based on a report by Edite Estrela (Portugal, SOC), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) said that access to the fundamental right to a safe, clean and healthy environment was unequally shared between regions, countries and...
28/09/2021 | Session
Following the recent conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan / Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, PACE 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...
28/09/2021 | Session
European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides, speaking to PACE today, outlined an EU programme to make Europe “healthier, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable”, stressing that collaboration and solidarity were the keys to overcoming future challenges. The...
28/09/2021 | Session
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...