29/09/2025 | Session
PACE today elected, at the opening of its Autumn 2025 session, Olta Xhaçka as a new Vice-President of the Assembly in respect of Albania. Nineteen Vice-Presidents are elected annually at the beginning of an ordinary session and remain in office until the opening of the next session (but a Vice...
29/09/2025 | Session
The list of candidates for the post of judge at the European Court of Human Rights submitted by Cyprus and Hungary; the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize; the observation of the parliamentary elections in the Republic of Moldova; and the World Forum for Democracy, were among the items in the...
26/09/2025 | Election observation
How can democracies ensure free and fair elections when technology is transforming the way votes are cast, counted and observed? This question will take centre stage at the next meeting of the Parliamentary Alliance for Free and Fair Elections, to be held on Wednesday 1 October 2025, from 13:00...
26/09/2025 | President
PACE will launch an annual “Victory for Viktoria” commemoration to honour war correspondents and journalists who risk, and often lose, their lives defending the right to information and truth in conflict zones. The initiative was proposed by PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos and welcomed by...
25/09/2025 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on “The absolute and urgent need to end the humanitarian crisis for women, children and the hostages in Gaza", Saskia Kluit (Netherlands, SOC), made the following statement today: "I am appalled by last night’s...
22/09/2025 | Election observation
A 21-member delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), headed by Chris Said (Malta, EPP/CD), will travel to the Republic of Moldova from 26 to 29 September to observe the parliamentary elections alongside observers from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the European...
20/09/2025 | President
“The struggle against crime and the need for international cooperation are part of the very fabric of political life and of our common European history,” said PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos on 19 September in Valletta (Malta) at a conference of Ministers of Justice on cross-border...
17/09/2025 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Reacting to Yuliya Navalnaya‘s announcement today revealing that independent laboratory tests confirm Alexei Navalny was poisoned while detained in a remote Russian penal colony, Azadeh Rojhan (Sweden, SOC), PACE General Rapporteur for political prisoners, issued the following statement: “More...
15/09/2025 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
Speakers at a parliamentary conference in Malta have urged changes in law and policy to ensure rainbow families enjoy equal rights across all 46 member states of the Council of Europe – and warned of the need to counter skepticism about their rights.Legal and NGO experts at the conference...
15/09/2025 | Transparency and Integrity
As part of a project, funded by Germany, to strengthen ethical and integrity standards in parliaments across Council of Europe member states, the Committee on Rules, Ethics and Immunities, in co-operation with the OSCE-ODIHR, co-organised a study visit to the Houses of Parliament in London on 9...
15/09/2025 | Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs
The Committee on Rules, Ethics and Immunities has proposed amending Rule 73 of the Assembly's Rules of Procedure (on the waiver of the immunity of representatives and substitutes) and the Guidelines on the scope of parliamentary immunities enjoyed by Assembly members, to better reflect the...
15/09/2025 | Political Affairs and Democracy
PACE’s Political Affairs Committee has proposed the creation of a Platform for Dialogue between the Assembly and Russian democratic forces in exile. Participants in the platform – whose composition would be approved each year based on a set of criteria – would be able to hold a two-way exchange...