22/01/2013 | Session
"The European Court of Human Rights is not only a cornerstone in the defense of fundamental rights, but also a reference point for national judges", declared the Italian Justice Minister Paola Severino, while addressing PACE on Tuesday, January 22nd.
22/01/2013 | Session
The committees of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) today elected or re-elected their Chairpersons: Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy Pietro Marcenaro (Italy, SOC), re-elected; Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights Christopher Chope (United Kingdom, EDG), re-elected...
22/01/2013 | Session
PACE has urged Council of Europe member states to come up with comprehensive strategies to end the “major structural problems” which are overloading the European Court of Human Rights with thousands of repetitive cases...
22/01/2013 | Session
Hans Peter Lankes, Vice-President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), today underlined the importance of the Bank’s relationship with the Council of Europe, and in particular with the PACE Monitoring Committee, as a forum for political scrutiny.
22/01/2013 | Session
At the end of a parliamentary debate, held on the basis of the report by Luca Volontè (Italy, EPP/CD), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) today decided “to continue the post-monitoring dialogue with the Bulgarian authorities in respect of reform of the judiciary, media freedom and transparency of ownership, as well as the revision of the Electoral Code."
21/01/2013 | Session
When adopting its final agenda at the opening of the Winter Session 2013, PACE decided to hold two urgent debates: on “Recent developments in Mali and Algeria and the threat to security and human rights in the Mediterranean region” and on “Migration and asylum: mounting tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean”...
21/01/2013 | Session
At the opening of its Winter Session, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) today re-elected Jean-Claude Mignon as its President. PACE also elected its Vice-Presidents (in alphabetical order): Francis Agius - Malta; José Maria Beneyto – Spain; Fernand Boden - Luxembourg...
21/01/2013 | Session
At the opening of its Winter Session 2013, members of the Assembly stood for a minute of silence in memory of former PACE President Lluís Maria de Puig, who died last month. “A fine companion and great friend has left us. Lluís Maria de Puig was one of the most enthusiastic agents in building the European dream embodied by our Council of Europe”, PACE President Jean-Claude Mignon said.
21/01/2013 | Session
In his opening address at the PACE Winter Session, Assembly President Jean-Claude Mignon took stock of his action over the past twelve months. Having been re-elected for a new one-year term, he also presented the priorities for his presidency. "I shall naturally endeavour to continue into 2013 the action we initiated in 2012...
21/01/2013 | Session
The credentials of a member of the Greek delegation to the PACE, Eleni Zaroulia, and a member of the Hungarian delegation, Tamás Gaudi Nagy, were challenged on procedural grounds at the opening of the PACE session today in Strasbourg. Making the challenges, Fiamma Nirenstein (Italy, EPP/CD) said that both members belonged to political parties which were “racist and anti-semitic”...
21/01/2013 | Session
Speaking today at the Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) Gilbert Saboya, Foreign Affairs Minister of Andorra, announced that the Andorran Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers will soon launch a campaign to promote the European Convention of Human Rights.
21/01/2013 | Session
“Georgia has been threatened, embargoed, bombed, invaded and occupied. Two of our regions have been ethnically cleansed” declared President Saakashvili on Monday.