06/09/2012 | Monitoring
Pointing to “ongoing political bickering” in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the upcoming local elections, Karin S. Woldseth (Norway, EDG) and Egidijus Vareikis (Lithuania, EPP/CD), PACE co-rapporteurs monitoring the country, have said they are frankly doubtful that progress will be made on implementation of the Sejdić and Finci judgment, and the roadmap to a credible EU membership application.
06/09/2012 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
“The difficulty of striking a European consensus on the issue of ‘sects’ does not mean that we should drop the idea of establishing rules and policies at European level to protect minors against sectarian excesses,” said Rudy Salles (France, EPP/CD), rapporteur on the protection of minors against sectarian influence, speaking today at the opening of a hearing on this subject organised in Paris by PACE’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights.
05/09/2012 | Monitoring
The engagement and the mobilisation of more than 100,000 citizens following the December 2011 elections, the awakening of a very engaged civil society and the willingness of the authorities to hear the call for reforms have created in the Russian Federation “a momentum for change” and to realise this unique political potential, “Russian society needs concrete reforms”, PACE Monitoring Committee said at the end of its meeting in Paris.
05/09/2012 | President
"I join the international condemnation of the ‘glorification’ of the terrible crime which Mr Safarov has committed, and for which he has been condemned by a court in a Council of Europe member state," PACE President Jean-Claude Mignon said today. "His liberation is unacceptable, and I am extremely disappointed by the abusive use of a Council of Europe legal instrument in this affair."
03/09/2012 | Monitoring
PACE Monitoring Committee will be meeting in camera in Paris on 4 September 2012 to examine the report on honouring of obligations and commitments by the Russian Federation and adopt a draft resolution. In the document the co-rapporteurs, György Frunda (Romania, EPP/CD) and Andreas Gross (Switzerland, SOC), assess the political situation, the economic and social situation, external relations, the functioning of pluralist democracy, the rule of law, and human rights and fundamental freedoms.
31/08/2012 | Bureau
PACE Bureau will update the agenda for the next session and discuss the observation of the parliamentary elections in Georgia, Montenegro and Ukraine. Christian Estrosi, Mayor of Nice, will address members at the meeting.
29/08/2012 | President
PACE President Jean-Claude Mignon, and the co-rapporteurs for Ukraine, Mailis Reps (Estonia, ALDE) and Marietta de Pourbaix-Lundin (Sweden, EPP/CD), expressed their deep disappointment with the Court of Cassation rejection of the appeal by Yulia Tymoshenko against her conviction to seven years in prison in the so-called gas case. “The Assembly has stated on several occasions that her conviction in the gas case amounts to the criminalisation of normal political decision-making...” they said.
28/08/2012 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Renate Wohlwend (Liechtenstein, EPP/CD), the Parliamentary Assembly's General Rapporteur on the death penalty, is dismayed by recent reports of a wave of executions in The Gambia. "The Gambia had already successfully abolished the death penalty. Even after current President Jammeh brought back capital punishment in 1995, he respected a de facto moratorium..."
21/08/2012 | Prizes
A delegation of parliamentarians, led by the Chairman of the PACE Sub-Committee on the Europe Prize, Sir Alan Meale (United Kingdom, SOC), presented today the 2012 Europe prize to Sighişoara’s Mayor, Ioan Dorin Dăneşan, during a ceremony. The 2012 Europe Prize has been awarded jointly to the town of Sighişoara and the Italian town of Corciano, for which the award ceremony will be held on 12 August.
21/08/2012 | Monitoring
PACE co-rapporteurs for Georgia, Michael Aastrup Jensen (Denmark, ALDE) and Boriss Cilevičs (Latvia, SOC) today expressed their concern about the reports that the Georgian authorities have seized the bank accounts of the Georgian Dream opposition coalition, thereby undermining its participation in the election campaign for the parliamentary elections that will take place on 1 October 2012. “The excessive and disproportionate fines levied by the State Audit Service effectively undermine normal political activity by an opposition party," said the co-rapporteurs.
21/08/2012 | President
“I take note of the decision of the Constitutional Court regarding the referendum on the dismissal of the Romanian President. All institutions and political players in Romania must abide by this decision,” today said PACE President Jean-Claude Mignon. “Once again, I call on all politicians to exercise wisdom and overcome their differences to ensure that cohabitation takes place under the best possible conditions,” he added.
17/08/2012 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“In the text of Article 27 of the draft constitution as approved by the Rights and Freedoms Committee of the Tunisian Constituent Assembly, it is affirmed that women are ‘complementary’ to men. Dropping the concept of equality in favour of the concept of complementarity means challenging it, taking a step backwards from the situation enshrined in the 1956 Constitution and sending out a negative signal to Tunisian society and to other countries in the region,” today said Fatiha Saïdi, PACE rapporteur on 'Equality between women and men: a condition for the success of the Arab Spring'.